Director Community Conversation: Casting with DEIA Focus

As directors and educators, how do we cast our shows with an eye towards inclusivity and build theater programs in which all students feel safe and supported? Join Spotlight teaching artists Marcela Michelle and Sheena Janson Kelley for a Director Community Conversation about casting with a DEIA focus. We’ll establish a safe, judgement-free space, define shared terms to work from, and discuss how to look at the casting process through the lenses of equity, inclusion and accessibility.

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MARCELA MICHELLE is the Artistic Director of 20% Theatre Company and the Artistic Co-Director of Lightning Rod – a Trans-led arts organism focused on legacy, development, and opportunity for QTGNC Artists and Activists. Her performance work focuses primarily on simultaneity, im/mutability, and the platonic ideal host. She is a mentee of Pangea World Theater and Art2Action’s National Institute for Directing and Ensemble Creation. For more info about past/present/future works visit www.tctwentypercent.org and follow @lightningrodpresents on Instagram.

SHEENA JANSON KELLEY is a former freelance casting director, performer, and producer. Since moving to the Twin Cities in 2007, she has since worked with CLIMB Theater (Administrator, actor), Children’s Theatre Company (Performing Apprentice, Company Manager, Casting Director), Theater Mu (actor), Guthrie Theater (Assistant Director), Ten Thousand Things Theater (actor), The Ordway Center for Performing Arts (Casting Director), and Jungle Theater (Artistic Producer, Assistant Director, facilitator/consultant).