Elm Shakespeare Company Presents BIPOC Directors Forum Take 2 - The Conversation Continues

BIPOC Directors Forum - Take 2! will be presented via Zoom and Facebook Live Thursday, May 20th at 7 pm as the third event of Elm Shakespeare Company's free, online series, Building a Brave New Theater: Holding Space and Giving Voice. Join this cohort of nationally acclaimed, inspired directors of color for an online panel discussion exploring the challenges, joys, and possibilities of directing Shakespeare in America and how to best serve the diverse audiences of today's and tomorrow's theater.

Moderated by Elm Shakespeare's own Raphael Massie, now Associate Artist at Oregon Shakespeare Festival and including directors Dawn Monique Williams, Carl Cofield, L. Peter Callender, Antonio Ocampo Guzman, and Madeline Sayet, the conversation will center on the challenges of directing Shakespeare as a person of color in today's world.

The conversation tackles both the changes happening in the world and what needs to happen within the industry to address these changes. As with the first conversation, the evening promises to be full of shared humor and camaraderie along with probing questions and an aspirational vision for the future of theatre.

Registration is required at https://www.elmshakespeare.org/bipoc-directors-forum.

This online performance and discussion are presented by Elm Shakespeare Company, and the event is sponsored by Webster Bank, the Elizabethan Club of Yale University, and SCSU Theatre. Elm Shakespeare Company designed and launched the first Building a Brave New Theatre series in 2020 to understand and amplify BIPOC artists' experiences of these plays and to ask critical questions raised after centuries of Bardolatry. The 2021 iteration, Holding Space & Giving Voice, expands the conversation to include a diversity of artists changing the practices and perceptions of Shakespeare for a new world.

Panelist Antonio Ocampo Guzman who is chairperson of the Department of Theatre at Northeastern University and Co-President of the Voice and Speech Teachers Association, called the conversation "exciting as we consider the reopening of the theatre sector across the country. Hopefully, we can contribute to rebuilding the profession in a more just and equitable manner - honoring the past and forging a better future ahead. The best way for humans to solve problems is to talk, in my opinion."

Registration is required for all events. For more information on the whole series: Building a Brave New Theatre: Holding Space and Giving Voice, visit https://www.elmshakespeare.org/bnt2021

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