The American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco is hosting a Women’s Leadership Conference today that you can watch live.
The conference, as BroadwayWorld reports, “emerged from a partnership with Wellesley Centers for Women (WCW), one of the largest gender-focused research-and-action organizations in the world, and will speak to the practices of the workplace in relation to women employees and leadership.”
Started in 2013, the Women’s Leadership in Residential Theaters research study, commissioned by Artistic Director Carey Perloff and former A.C.T. Executive Director Ellen Richard, and conducted by WCW Senior Scholar Sumru Erkut and WCW Research Associate Ineke Ceder, sought to “identify why there were so few women in leadership roles in the nonprofit American theater. Using the theater field as a starting point, the project explored what can be done to increase the participation of women at the higher reaches of the arts in America. The purpose of the project is to provide real data about female leaders and a clearer understanding of career development.”
“At a time when the political and tech worlds are wrestling with the issues of gender disparity, it is crucial that we in the theater industry try to understand why women are still so underrepresented in leadership positions at major theaters across America,” said Perloff in a statement. “While the Bay Area has been a beacon for female leaders, we have been anxious to undertake some deeper research about gender disparity in theater leadership overall, and to understand what can be done to ameliorate it. Partnering with the amazing researchers at the Wellesley Centers for Women has been an inspiration, and we are extremely excited to share the results of their study at our convening on August 22.”
Scheduled panelists include:
· Shafer Mazow, Senior Grants Manager, Exploratorium
· Carey Perloff, Artistic Director, American Conservatory Theater
· Michele Shay, Independent actress, director, and producer
· Seema Sueko, Deputy Artistic Director, Arena Stage
Scheduled learning-based workshop leaders include:
· Nina Ball, freelance scenic designer
· Susie Falk, Managing Director, California Shakespeare Theater
· Rachel Fink, Managing Director, Theatre Bay Area
· Dr. Omi Osun Joni L. Jones, professor at The University of Texas at Austin, artist
· Rhodessa Jones, Co-Artistic Director, Cultural Odyssey
· Julie Phelps, Artistic Director, CounterPulse
· Martha Richards, Executive Director, WomenArts
The opening session will stream on HowlRoundTV from 10 a.m.-12 p.m. PDT (San Francisco) / 12 p.m.-2 p.m. CDT (Chicago) / 1 p.m.-3 p.m. EDT (New York) / 17:00–19:00 GMT / 6 p.m.-8 p.m. BST (London).
