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Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Statement

The TCNJ Theatre Advisory Committee is committed to, for itself and for the various producing organizations who are its members, meaningful action in the areas of Diversity and Inclusion, in all aspects of our work, including decisions around content material, involvement of students and all other persons in performance and or production capacities, and in audience outreach to all students, and communities beyond TCNJ students. 

In our goal to support TCNJ’s efforts to maintain enriching, signature experiences of theatrical productions on campus, we seek to tell many diverse stories, and to avoid, in the words of writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the danger of a single story.

We will work to foster and champion open, just, and safe communication among the members of the TAC, and within the producing organizations.   

We must choose and celebrate culturally specific material that reflects the full spectrum of experiences of BIPOC, Latinx, LGBTQ+ communities, and more.  

Whenever it is appropriate to the relationship between a specific producing organization and various academic departments, we will also work within the academic program to decolonize and actively teach a broad and rich diverse theatrical canon from across the world, while acknowledging the importance of not only the Greeks but also the African and Asian communities in the history of story-telling and theatre. 

Moreover, we recognize that the rights for people with differing cognitive, developmental, and or physical abilities are inherently connected to a society’s respect for diversity, and the civil and human rights for all of its people.  Therefore, our commitment to Inclusion also rightly extends to all persons of differing cognitive, developmental, and physical abilities.

We will cast roles without the bias of defaulting to white-ness, cisgender, physically- or cognitively- enabled, etc., when there is nothing about the character that specifically requires such a performer.

We want to communicate clearly and actively that theatre at TCNJ, on stage and off, is open to all students.

We wish to curate diverse performance expressions for BIPOC, Latinx, LGBTQ+ students that reach beyond the scope of the reinforcement of racist, etc. tropes.

We will make ethnoculturally responsible (as it relates to a given Work) decisions in the hiring/choosing of guest directors, design staff, etc., for all productions.

 We must ensure that design staff is adequately knowledgeable and or trained in working with BIPOC; this includes providing as needed the necessary resources to allow BIPOC students to successfully execute performance expectations (e.g. proper makeup, costuming, hair, lighting gels, etc.).

 We know that working on all the tasks outlined above will create theatrical experiences of more relevance and interest to the multi-cultural audiences we wish to see and serve.

 We are committed to on-going education internally within each producing organization, so that we have the knowledge and sensitivity to achieve all these stated goals.

Contact

School of the Arts and Communication
Art and Interactive Multimedia Building
The College of New Jersey
P.O. Box 7718
2000 Pennington Rd.
Ewing, NJ 08628

609.771.2278

artscomm@tcnj.edu

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