Skip to main content
decorative

Values & Diversity

Accountability Statement

Accountability Statement

In June of 2020 the faculty and staff in the Center for Dramatic Art, gathered to examine our practices and programs in an effort to stand in solidarity with our BIPOC colleagues and friends, teachers, students, alumni, artists, audiences, and fellow citizens in Chapel Hill and around the world.

At that time, we outlined goals for our community to foster growth and accountability. We remain committed to interrogating our curriculum, programs, and pedagogies; to dismantling racism, bigotry, and white supremacy in our own department and theaters; and to making the Department of Dramatic Art a safe, inclusive, and equitable place for our faculty, staff, and students of color.

Since 2020 we have 

  • We have expanded our AEDI committee substantially to include more student, staff, and faculty representatives from the Department of Dramatic Art. The committee has been and will continue to meet on a regular basis to determine how it can best be responsive to the needs of the entire Center for Dramatic Art.
  • We will continue to actively curate a widely varied antiracism and AEDI resource page on our websites available to all staff, faculty, students, and audiences.

 

Undergraduate Major/Minor curricular changes:

  • DRAM 120 – Each section of DRAM 120 Play Analysis uses a list of plays that is at least 50% written by women and BIPOC playwrights.
  • DRAM 281-283 – Each section of these courses will find ways of incorporating plays by BIPOC and women playwrights into a portion of the courses as currently taught through various strategies.
  • We have created a new 200-level course required for majors (DRAM 220 Theatre Histories) that will follow in sequence after DRAM 120. This course does not privilege one geographical region, culture, or dramatic art over another, but introduces students to a wide range of theatre histories and cultures which can be studied in greater depth later in the major.
  • The Theatre History/Dramatic Literature sequence of the major will allow students who have taken both DRAM 120 and DRAM 220 to choose two additional required courses from different theatre histories, e.g., African, African American, Asian, Latin American, U.S. Latino/a/x/e, Western European/North American. An expanded course list that includes courses in the Departments of African, African American and Diasporic Studies, and Asian Studies, are courses eligible to count towards the major.
  • Created a new Musical Theater minor in partnership with the Department of Music and the Department of Exercise and Sport Science. This minor will help bring in a more diverse group of students.

 

Kenan Theatre Company:

Being the undergraduate production branch of the Department of Dramatic Art, the Kenan Theatre Company is aligned with the goals and priorities of the Department. We are committed to keeping Access, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion at the forefront of our work.

Season Selection:

  • We seek to recruit a diverse representation of students as a part of the season selection committee.
  • Seek parity across the season in chosen playwrights as well as directors.
  • Assure that there are roles each season that represent the UNC student population

Production Board:

  • Recruited a new Dramaturgy Fellow, Lexi Silva, to help provide context for discussions around plays and season selection.

Costume Production and Costume Department

  • Welcomed new faculty member Pamela Bond in 2023·
  • Created a BIPOC residency for guest designers to work with MFA students. 
  • Introduced remote interviews to expand MFA candidates interest in the program
  • Diversified the images connected to the program, on the website and in the brochure. 
  • Created a SharePoint site gathering BIPOC images for use in all classes. 
  • Added multicultural millinery mannequin head for students to use as a hat model in portfolio photos. 
  • Reworking the Period Patternmaking series of classes (Menswear, 14th-18th Centuries, Victorian and 20th Century) to be less Euro-centric. 

Technical Production Graduate Program and Technical Production:

Sustainability practices: 

  • We have fully transitioned from building with traditional lauan (devastates rainforests) to a replacement “Revolution Ply” which is sustainably produced in Greensboro NC.
  • We have established “paperless scene shop” practices by utilizing digital technologies in our workspace and reducing printing costs and paper usage.

Recruitment: Embracing remote interview procedures to increase accessibility to our program. Participating in memberships and commissions at national conferences to diversify our outreach efforts in order to broaden our candidate pool.