The Groundlings presents Inaugural DIVERSITY FESTIVAL, 7/29 & 30

The Groundlings Theatre and School is proud to present its inaugural Diversity Festival on Saturday, July 29th and Sunday, July 30th celebrating and exploring diversity and inclusion. The weekend, co-sponsored by NBC and Nickelodeon, will include a series of panels and performances that will be free and open to the public. The festival will also host several diversity-related workshops exploring such topics as Embracing Your Diversity, Women of Color, Creating Diverse Characters, Queer-Prov and Teen Diversity. These two-hour workshops are $10 and registration will be open to the public.

The Diversity Festival comes just a year and a half after The Groundlings Theatre and School launched its diversity initiatives which includes outreach workshops with local colleges and high schools, as well as a scholarship program that has awarded over $50,000 in Groundlings School credit to 143 students.

The festival also comes one year after The Groundlings partnered with NBC's Talent Infusion Programs (NBC TIPS), the network's long-standing diversity and inclusion initiatives for onscreen and behind-the-scenes talent, to create the NBC/Groundlings Writing Lab Scholarship. NBC provides full-tuition scholarships to The Groundlings Upper Division Writing Lab to students of diverse backgrounds. A selection of the scholarship recipients will perform throughout the weekend.

Nickelodeon will support the youth portion of the program sponsoring the improv training for a select group of kids invited to perform at the festival. Nickelodeon and The Groundlings have partnered for the past seven years to help nurture the development of young talent. For nearly 20 years, Nickelodeon has cultivated a new generation of diverse and creative talent through its unique and innovative outreach programs including, the Animated Short Program, Writing Program, Artist Program and Artist Collective. These hands-on programs were designed to provide innovative, inspiring, and educational opportunities for creative and diverse new talent.

East West Players, The Gale, Groundlings alumni and special guests will also perform and participate in panels.

Attendees will also be invited to join the additional festivities taking place throughout the weekend including Los Angeles' favorite food trucks (Del Solar Tacos, Dogtown Dogs, Marcel's Waffles and Mister Softee), Groundlings giveaways, free swag and more!

The Diversity Festival will run 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. each day at The Groundlings School located at 7280 Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood across the street from The Groundlings Theatre. The entire schedule of events and workshop registration will be available on Thursday, June 29th at www.groundlings.com/diversity.

About The Groundlings Theatre

The Groundlings Theatre is an improvisation and sketch comedy theatre that has been entertaining LA audiences for 43 years. They are a non-profit organization founded by Gary Austin in 1974. A "Groundling" is one of the 30 company members who write and perform in the theatre's shows and teach classes at the Groundling's School. The school has been the foremost comedy training ground in Hollywood and the springboard for countless careers including comic geniuses from film and television such as Jennifer Coolidge, Will Ferrell, Ana Gasteyer, Kathy Griffin, Cheryl Hines, Chris Kattan, Lisa Kudrow, Jon Lovitz, Michael McDonald, Paul Reubens, Maya Rudolph, Mindy Sterling and Kristen Wiig, among others. You can see these Groundlings alumni in the recent film Ghostbusters as well as television shows such as "People of Earth," "The Goldbergs," and "Nobodies." In addition to being comedy performers, Groundlings members and alumni hold writing positions on many of Hollywood's top television and film projects.

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