How to Hire Individual Artists (for your Classroom) #HigherEdHireArtists

Dear Educators,

In June 2020, we wrote a Call to Action to Academics, encouraging folks who have the privilege of working at institutions of higher ed—and the capacity to hire individual artists—to fight for and advocate to maintain those budgets. If you endorsed our call, we thank you! If you haven't, you still can!

As the school year begins, we want to create a resource that provides educators with the names and contact information of potential individual artists to hire. We’ve compiled a list of lists that may serve us in our search, particularly for those of us who are seeking BIPOC and other underrepresented artists to diversify curricula.

Please feel free to peruse this list and contact potential guest artists as you see fit for your courses. And spread the word! Every little bit helps.

Adelante!
Juliette, Olga, Armando and Jamie

Independent Theatremakers Resource Websites:

• #TeatroLatinegro A List of Afrolatino Playwrights You Need to Know
• Queer Black Playwrights to Know and Support: Volume II
• Latinx Theater Directors
• A List Of Native Theaters and Theater Makers
• Bay Area Women's Theatre Festival "Looking for Someone?" (variety of lists)
• BIPOC Voiceover Artists
• Design and Technology Specialists (unaffiliated and affiliated) +

• List of BIPOC Theatre Artists in Greater Los Angeles

Of Related Interest:

• ASTR (American Society for Theatre Research). The Empowerment Committee has written a letter and conducted a survey to assess the COVID-impacted universities, especially on BIPOC, adjunct, and women faculty members.
• ASTR Commons—a new initiative to “connect guest lecturers, especially BIPOC scholars, contingent faculty, and graduate students, with instructors seeking in-class guests or speakers for virtual colloquia.”
• Research in Theatre & Performance—Online Projects—An initiative that “consolidates activities based on ongoing conversations about supporting publication and professional development in Theatre and Performance Studies. The initiatives described here pay special attention to those in contingent positions or entering the job market.”