REIMAGINING ANTI-OPPRESSIVE THEATRE EDUCATION
Date: February 20, 2021
Time: 2:00pm-4:00pm MST
Platform: Zoom
PROGRAM OVERVIEW
Students of theatre and the performing arts deserve creative learning environments that are anti-oppressive; that are affirming and celebratory of marginalized stories, identities, and experiences; and that critically and actively resist the colonial status quo.
This webinar will utilize skill-building activities, resource-sharing, and network building. Participants will leave with greater skills and resources in anti-oppressive theatre education to take directly back into their work.
Reimagining Anti-Oppressive Theatre Education was originally planned as part of Theatre Alberta’s Workshops by Request: Rocky Mountain Series at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. When we are again able to offer in-person workshops at Banff Centre, we’re planning to offer another session with the webinar facilitators to explore this topic.
WHAT DOES THIS WEBINAR OFFER?
- Support for teachers, facilitators, and program curators working in educational and artistic institutions in reflecting on their current pedagogical approaches and relationships to theatre curricula
- Tools, practices, and analytical processes that create affirming, anti-oppressive creative learning and training spaces
- Strategies for creating anti-oppressive performing arts education within the context of larger institutions
- Artistic and pedagogical resources by Indigenous, Black, and People of Colour artists and educators
FACILITATORS
NIKKI SHAFFEEULLAH
Nikki Shaffeeullah Photo by Saba Akhtar
Nikki is a theatre-maker, facilitator, equity worker, writer, and community-engaged artist. Her work has included serving as Artistic Director of The AMY Project; Editor-in-Chief of alt.theatre: cultural diversity and the stage; and a founding member of Confluence Arts Collective. Through her collective Undercurrent Creations, Nikki creates and produces new theatrical work, and sector development initiatives for equity-seeking artists. A facilitator and equity trainer working in social movement spaces, Nikki supports groups across the country, and honed her skills in Training for Change’s Judith C Jones Fellowship for Trainers of Colour. She holds an MFA from the University of Alberta, is a Fellow of the Salzburg Global Forum for Young Cultural Innovators, and is currently developing her directing and artistic leadership skills in Why Not Theatre’s ThisGen Fellowship. A queer Indo-Guyanese settler born and living in Tkaronto, Nikki’s work is informed by a family who loves music, puns, justice, and food. She believes art should disrupt the status quo, centre the margins, engage with the ancient, dream of the future, and be for everyone. @nikkishaff
SASHA TATE-HOWARTH
Sasha Tate-Howarth
Sasha is a white Ashkenazi Jewish queer and nonbinary settler living and working in Tkaronto (Toronto). She is a community organizer, theatre artist, and facilitator currently organizing with SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice) Toronto, an organization committed to moving white people and communities into action to support racial justice movements. Sasha also serves as a core member of Confluence Arts Collective, a group of queer women and nonbinary artists working in solidarity with people experiencing incarceration toward a world without prisons. Sasha has worked extensively across Ontario as a facilitator, stage manager, dramaturg, tour manager, and administrator with organizations including Undercurrent Creations, British Council/Tangled Arts + Disability, The AMY Project, Jumblies Theatre, and Political Movement.
THIS WEBINAR IS PRESENTED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE ALBERTA HIGH SCHOOL DRAMA FESTIVAL ASSOCIATION WITH SUPPORT FROM BANFF CENTRE FOR ARTS AND CREATIVITY
