Using Theater-Based Strategies to Challenge Systemic Racism

Taught by Alliance Theatre facilitators, the trainings are designed to be a resource for identifying and rooting out implicit biases based on race, gender, age, sexuality, and more.

STORY BY Kristen Silton

To help address this moment of racial reckoning in our society, the Alliance Theatre is now offering Anti-Bias Training for corporations, nonprofits, educators, and families.

Originally developed in 2018 as part of required training for Alliance Theatre teaching artists to address bias in classes and camps, the training has now been adapted to serve new audiences. Taught by Alliance Theatre facilitators, the trainings are designed to be a resource for identifying and rooting out implicit biases based on race, gender, age, sexuality, and more.

WHY THEATER?

“Theater is a tool of collaboration, innovation, and imagination,” says Maya Lawrence, Alliance Theatre Allyship Program Director and architect of the program. “On stages, we create new, tangible realities that reflect the truth of our humanity in real time. During this moment where society is trying to recognize, reckon, and reimagine a world that’s actively anti-racist and authentically inclusive, equitable, and just, theater gives us an outline to transform the future we’ve envisioned for so long into a reality we can experience now.”

WHO IS IT FOR? Corporations & Nonprofits

Alliance@work, the Alliance’s awardwinning corporate training program, offers a 2.5-hour customizable training that uses theater-based learning strategies to help challenge assumptions, acknowledge biases, and establish a culture of genuine equity, inclusion, and justice in the workplace. Nonprofit rates available

Educators

The Alliance Theatre Institute offers anti-bias professional learning events for groups of educators at the district and school levels. Utilizing components of theater to deconstruct personal bias in our lived experiences, the workshop equips educators with the ability to infuse anti-oppression tools into educational practices.

Families

Fearless Families: A Workshop for Allies and Little-Allies-in-theMaking uses play as tool for learning. Designed for ages 6-12, this 1-hour workshop utilizes our voice, body, and imagination to dig deeper into the difficult conversation of race and injustice in a way that is accessible to youth, the young at heart, and their caregivers.

Learn more about the Alliance Theatre’s Anti-Bias Training at alliancetheatre.org/anti-bias.