USITT Expands Diversity Sessions for 2016 in Salt Lake City

As part of its initiative to promote diversity and inclusion in entertainment production, USITT is offering new sessions on accessibility and the arts at USITT 2016 in Salt Lake City, March 16 - 19.

The Arts Are For Everyone on Thursday, March 17, is a three-hour panel on making the arts more inviting to all -- including improving accessibility for people with disabilities such as hearing impairment, mental health challenges, physical disabilities, and neurological or intellectual challenges.

Finding an Accessible Path to Technical Theatre on Wednesday, March 16, will discuss working with mobility impairment in technical theatre, including creating accessible workspaces, career paths for students with mobility limitations, and recent revisions to the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Building Diverse and Inclusive Environments into Our Programs on Friday, March 18, explores how theatre educators can encourage diversity in their programs and productions to create a richly diverse academic experience.

These and many other sessions -- including USITT's growing People of Color Network, Women in Theatre Roundtable, and Queer Nation Roundtable -- are part of USITT's Diversity and Inclusion Initiative, tasked with helping USITT serve as a force for social change.

The Initiative is celebrating the third year of its Gateway Program, which will bring 12 students from underrepresented populations to USITT 2016 to be paired with professional mentors from similar backgrounds and fields.

"Besides Gateway, our Diversity Initiative, and our other mentoring efforts, we have been making a solid effort to add to our conference sessions on this front," said USITT executive director David Grindle. "We will continue trying to provide educational sessions that explore issues affecting women, people of color, our LGBTQ community, accessibility and disability rights, and aging workers, among others."

Following is a list of diversity sessions for USITT 2016. The entire Conference program can be found at the URL below.

Wednesday, March 16
Women in Theatre Roundtable -- 11:15am - 12:30pm
People of Color Network -- 2:30 - 4:00pm
Finding an Accessible Path to Technical Theatre -- 4:30 - 5:45pm

Thursday, March 17
The Arts are for Everyone -- 1:00 - 4:00pm
Queer Nation Roundtable -- 5:30 - 6:45pm
Women in Leadership Roles: Training and Mentoring -- 5:30 - 6:45pm
Diversity & Inclusion Committee Meeting -- 4:00 - 5:30pm

Friday, March 18
A Discussion on Diversity in Sound and Audio -- 1:00 - 2:30pm
Human Issues Working Session -- 2:45 - 4:00pm
Gateway Program Roundtable -- 4:00 - 5:30pm
Building Diverse and Inclusive Environments into Our Programs -- 5:30 - 6:45pm

Saturday, March 19
It's Not the Years, It's the Mileage -- 11:00am - 12:30pm