Value Statement and DEI Resources
Please scroll down for an ongoing list of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion resources culled from various sources. We invite you to share resources with us by emailing Eileen Phelan, Communications and Engagement Coordinator.
Mission
Through rigorous learning, skill training, and aesthetic practice, the Brandeis Department of Theater Arts fosters a creativity that connects to scholarship and scholarship that is responsive to the individual and to the community. As artists, practitioners and scholars, we create new work and ideas, challenge our students to enact change, build connections, and value diversity.
Pillars of the Department
- Creativity: The use of imaginative ability and flexible thinking to generate original ideas and surprising connections in all our work. Creativity serves as context for all of our other values.
- Diversity and Inclusion: Distinct experiences and backgrounds (racial, ethnic, gender expression, gender identity, sexuality, economic, disability, religious, and social) enrich and enliven our conversations, scholarship, and creative expression. Through our curriculum, season planning, and the composition of our community, we strive to challenge discrimination, the marginalization of minorities, and the legacy of racism that has been inherent in the American theater tradition.
- Scholarship (Knowledge, Craft): The theoretical and experiential understanding of theater. Our goal is to provide students with the ability to use that understanding in the creation and appreciation of theater within a larger social context. Our students learn by doing.
- Aesthetic: The deeply personal way in which we create and understand art. Our goal is to encourage our students to develop a sense of individuality and identity that guides their artistic endeavors through training, encouragement, and example.
- Risk-Taking: The act of doing something uncertain in order to make new and exciting discoveries; success requires failure. Through coaching and mentorship, we encourage our students to make bold decisions, take chances, and challenge assumptions about themselves and our world. By creating opportunities within a supportive environment for personal risk, we increase opportunities for personal achievement.
- Collaboration: The process of working with others in a shared venture. The collaborative process values individual expertise and perspectives and elevates the work we produce as a community by interweaving our singular voices and abilities. Students, faculty, and staff work together in an inclusive environment that embraces feedback, criticism, and flexibility.
- Rigor: The expectation that students learn and work at a high level. We challenge our students to engage in their scholarly and creative work with commitment, curiosity, and depth.
- Professionalism: The qualities, skills, and conduct that mark a person with training in theater. Through example, instruction, and high expectations, we strive to prepare our students for participation in both academic and professional environments.
RESOURCES
Black Studies Center at Brandeis
The Black Studies Center is a fully cross-searchable gateway to Black Studies covering scholarly essays, periodicals, historical newspaper articles, reference books, and much more. Includes the Schomburg Studies on the Black Experience, the Black Studies Periodicals Database (previously known as International Index to Black Periodicals), and Black Literature Index.
WEBSITES
- LORT - League of Resident Theaters DEI Resources
- North Carolina Theater Conference - Best Practices
- We See You, White American Theatre
- Dialogue and Healing through the Arts
- Black Lives Matter
- Showing Up For Racial Justice
- 21-Day Racial Equity and Social Justice Challenge
- artEquity
- Equal Justice Initiative
- The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond
- The Black Theatre Commons
- Broadway for Black Lives Matter
ARTICLES AND ESSAYS
- A Documentary Milestone: Revisiting Black Theatre: The Making of a Movement by Isaiah M. Wooden
- Brandeis Now: BaselineMed, Inclusive Student Organization Achieves Non-Profit Status
- Performing Whitness by Sarah Bellamy
- “11 Things To Do Besides Say ‘This Has To Stop’ In The Wake Of Police Brutality”
- “How to Tell the Difference Between Real Solidarity and ‘Ally Theater'”
- Helm’s Stages of White Racial Identity Development
- Anti-Racist Pedigogy: from faculty’s self-reflection to organizing within and beyond the classroom by Kyoko Kishimoto
BOOKS
- The 1619 Project Created by Nikole Hannah-Jones
- How The Word Is Passed by Clint Smith
- White Fragility by Robin d’Angelo
- Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds by adrienne maree brown
- Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome by Dr. Joy DeGruy
- Black Acting Methods by By Sharrell Luckett and Tia M. Shaffer
- How to be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
BLACK PLAYWRIGHTS
- Aziza Barnes, playwright
- William Wells Brown, playwright
- Ed Bullins, playwright
- Paul Carter Harrison, director, playwright, scholar
- Ossie Davis, playwright and performer
- Angelina Weld Grimke, playwright
- Lorraine Hansberry, playwright
- Woodie King, Jr, producer, director, playwright
- Tarell Alvin McCraney, playwright
- Dominique Morriseau, playwright
- Ntozake Shange, playwright and performer
- Douglas Turner Ward, playwright
- Loy Webb, playwright
- August Wilson, playwright
- George C. Wolfe, playwright, director, producer
WOMEN PLAYWRIGHTS
The following list was offered in Adrianne Krystansky's Playwrighting Course:
- 2.5 Minute Ride by Lisa Kron
- The Cake by Becca Brunstetter
- Fairview by Jackie Sibblies Drury
- Fefu and Her Friends by Marie Irene Fornes
- Indecent by Paula Vogel
- Hurricane Diane by Madeline George
- The Kilroys List: 99 Monologues by Female & Trans* Playwrights, Vol 1
- Milk Like Sugar by Kirsten Greenridge
- The Niceties by Eleanor Burgess
- Orange by Aditi Kapil
- Orlando adapted from the original by Sarah Ruhl
- Our Dear Dead Drug Lord by Alexis Scheer
- The Thanksgiving Play by Larissa Fasthorse
- The Uses of the Erotic by Audra Lorde
- Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler
- Water by the Spoonful by Quiara Alegria Hudes
- Why I am Breaking Up with Aristotle by Chantal Bilodeau
- You for Me for You by Mia Chung