California Shakespeare Theater Announces Initiative To Introduce Transformative Justice Work In The Field

California Shakespeare Theater (Cal Shakes) today announced a set of projects supported by a one-time grant from The James Irvine Foundation, with the aim of empowering Bay Area theater practitioners to address sexual harm and identity-based harm using Transformative Justice processes. The first of these events is an invite-only one-day training intensive which was held last Saturday, December 15. The second is a day-long "Introduction to Transformative Justice" intensive which will take place on January 28, 2019 at 701 Heinz Ave in Berkeley, and be open via registration to the larger Bay Area theater community.

Cal Shakes' new initiative will be driven by Artistic Producer, SK Kerastas, in partnership with Mia Mingus of the Bay Area Transformative Justice Collective (BATJC) and will formalize a paid cohort of 15 local theater workers who have already been organizing work around this issue on a volunteer basis.

Kerastas says, "We need to be proactive about this. There continues to be deep harm happening in and from our theater-making processes and our organizational structures that goes largely unaddressed. In an art form that uses human relationship as its medium, theater communities are primed to build relationships of accountability with one another, so that when harm happens, we have the processes, skills, and relationships to address it meaningfully. Transformative Justice can provide us a trauma-informed, survivor-centered, justice-driven container in which to do so."

Artistic Director Eric Ting adds, "We need support and education on methods of addressing these issues in an impactful, holistic way. I'm proud that SK is spearheading this initiative and, with support from BATJC, helping to lead us through the work-both as an organization and as a community."

In 2017, as the #metoo movement began to gain national momentum, Cal Shakes responded by dedicating staff time and resources to organizing a diverse cohort of Bay Area theater workers with an intentional mix of industry roles, racial identities, genders, abilities, and general power positionality. The goal was to start a community-wide conversation-one which culminated in a public gathering called IT'S TIME: A Bay Area Town Hall on Sexual Harassment; supported in part by Theatre Bay Area and the RHE Foundation, and hosted at Berkeley Rep. The event saw participation by more than 200 participants, including Executive Directors from Actor Equity Associations and Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, as well as a broad cross-section from the community.

Within that space, the first of its kind in the Bay Area, many theater professionals disclosed incidences of experiencing or witnessing harm, and most people grappled with unclear lines of action for how to respond-both from individual and organizational perspectives.

Through in-person feedback and post-event surveys, Cal Shakes learned that a particularly inspiring portion of the Town Hall for attendees was a presentation by Chicago-based Kyra Jones, a sexual violence prevention educator at Northwestern University, and Bay Area native, Adrienne Skye Roberts, a Transformative Justice (TJ) Facilitator. Together, they introduced TJ frameworks and processes as a viable way to address these issues. According to the TJ Handbook provided by Generation FIVE (a non-profit organization whose mission is to end the sexual abuse if children within 5 generations), Transformative Justice offers an approach that centers survivor safety, healing, and agency; supports accountability and transformation of those who cause harm; requires community response and accountability; and aims for the transformation of the social conditions that create and perpetuate violence. While each TJ process is unique to those people and conditions, they often involve a series of facilitated support circles and action plans for all parties involved.

Mia Mingus, a founding and core member of the BATJC, is excited about the potential of this project, saying, "Working with Cal Shakes to build the individual and collective skills and capacities needed to do transformative justice is right in line with our work to build a Bay Area that could effectively respond to violence within our own communities. We want to collaborate and invest in work that is collective, in alignment with a long term vision, and can cultivate the necessary level of depth needed to respond to, prevent and ultimately end sexual violence and abuse."

Launching the Transformative Justice Initiative will allow Cal Shakes to learn how these principles can be modeled for the Bay Area theater community. In the coming year, the cohort will receive training and education from Mia Mingus; host listening circles for survivors of sexual violence and identity-based violence within Bay Area Theater contexts; provide resources to initiate one TJ process to address specific incidences of sexual and/or identity-based violence in the Bay Area theater community; and share out their experiences over the course of the year via a podcast series, so that the learnings are accessible to people in the theater field at large.

"This is an experiment for us in the theater world, we're exploring totally new pathways," Kerastas emphasizes, "And we are very cautious of co-opting this work. But it is essential that we learn new strategies and actively vision beyond what is currently in place. In doing so, we are taking responsibility for creating the world we want to live and make work in."

SK Kerastas* (Artistic Producer) works closely with Artistic Director Eric Ting to plan and produce Cal Shakes' Main Stage season and Engagement programming. A former recipient of a Theater Communications Group Leadership U Award, SK was Visiting Artistic Associate at Berkeley Repertory Theater, where they received national recognition for their arts leadership and commitment to arts activism. As a trans-identified theater artist, educator, organizer, and producer, Kerastas has been at the center of a national thrust towards Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) work. Along with Lisa Evans, they co-founded #BreakingtheBinary, a series of arts programming and EDI Workshops for arts organizations with the goal of creating and supporting sustainable practices for trans inclusion and accessibility. Prior to moving out west, Kerastas served as the Education Director at About Face Theater in Chicago where they directed and managed the queer youth theater program and all outreach programs with an intersectional focus. They are an Executive Co-Chair of the Pride Youth Theater Alliance and a member of the inaugural artEquity cohort.

The Bay Area Transformative Justice Collective (BATJC) is a community collective of individuals working to build and support Transformative Justice responses to child sexual abuse. Based in Oakland?, California, they work toward a world where everyday people? can intervene in incidences of child sexual abuse in ways that not only meet immediate needs such as stopping current violence, securing safety and taking accountability for harm; but that? also ?prevent future violence and harm by actively cultivating things such as healing, accountability and resiliency for all-survivors, bystanders, and those who have abused others. They practice and promote Transformative Justice as a process for addressing sexual violence and other forms of identity-based harm in this way, and support the growing community of TJ practitioners in the Bay Area through trainings, facilitation, and resources.

ABOUT CAL SHAKES

California Shakespeare Theater (Cal Shakes) begins its 45th season in 2019. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Eric Ting, the company is a nationally-recognized leader in drawing on the power of authentic, inclusive storytelling to create more vibrant communities. Serving more than 40,000 people annually, Cal Shakes invites people from all walks of life to make deeply-felt connections with our shared humanity through its work onstage, in schools, and with people in non-traditional settings throughout the Bay Area who have little or no access to theater. For more information, visit www.calshakes.org.

To post a comment, you must register and login.