First, in their co-presentation “Teaching Towards a Theatre of Tomorrow,” Kelly Aliano and Dongshin Chang will discuss how theatre education can help shift the way we think of equitable labor practices in the theatre, and society, writ large. They argue that teaching and modeling skills like compassion, active listening, and self-advocacy are crucial for this process. Their presentation will cover the classroom exercises and activities they utilize in Theatre and English courses aimed at better labor practices. Next, David Bisaha’s “Professionalism by Design” looks to the last century of theatrical design to understand the models of labor and working conditions that still impact the theaters of today. He then sets his sights on the design processes in academic institutions today and the multiple new labor initiatives from the professional theatre (We See You White American Theatre, No More 10 Out of 12s, etc.) for methods to upset and shift the calcified remnants of a labor system that needs changing. Finally, Rashida Braggs’s “The Need for More in a Time of Loss: Performing ‘Runnin’ to Grace’” confronts the unexpected and excessive labor that was piled onto this Black woman tenured professor in the time of Covid. As Braggs attempted to hold everyone up who needed her support, she turned to Black women ancestors such as Audre Lorde to look for methods. She documented the resulting process from the race to hold herself and others up during the pandemic in a solo performance that she filmed. The presentation will include clips of this performance and shared lessons of working conditions, labor, and equity. Together, these three presentations ask important questions about what we can do to address all of the unequitable practices surrounding labor in the academic community in particular.
These presentations bring existing conversations about working conditions and labor to bear on the current reckoning of particularly anti-racist techniques that are being implemented in classrooms and theaters across the country. Although these topics have been discussed a great deal over the last two years, there are still not many scholarly pieces that analyze where these labor practices come from and what we hope to do with them.
This session will be a standard panel of paper presentations (with audiovisual components that are crucial to Rashida Braggs’s paper presentation). Each panelist will present a paper for their allotted time, perhaps with slides. At the end of all of the presentations, there will be time for questions from the audience and/or discussion amongst the panelists.