MINDFULNESS and AWARENESS
Hiring, Diversity, and Safety:
It has always been our policy to hire with a consciousness for geographic diversity. We want to make sure the regions we travel to are represented and included in helping us tell our stories. In recent years it has become even more important that our artists are representative not just of the art we have seen in the past, but the art we want to see in the future. To this end, we actively seek out artists of color and hold auditions in numerous locations. If we are not seeing diversity in the audition rooms, we are quick to ask for help from past collaborators and myriad organizations dedicated to broadening diversity in the arts.
We apply the guidelines of Not In Our House Chicago to our rehearsal practices in order to keep our organization accountable for safe practices with respect to violence, sexual harassment, and other health and wellness policies. We strive to be accountable to one another as we create a safer and more inclusive theater community together. We remain community-based and open-minded in our efforts to tell stories that allow for empathy towards all.
Land Acknowledgments:
In recent years, it has become the norm to include a land acknowledgement before a performance. While we believe in the importance of bringing awareness to the history of indigenous peoples and their territories, we also think a land acknowledgement should be more than that. It should be a call to action, to education, and to retrospection about all of our histories in this place. By performing land acknowledgments, we start to recognize a more truthful history of this country – one that was founded on genocide and violence.
In Carbondale, home of our residency, we are occupying the traditional homelands of the Kickapoo, Myaamia (Miami), Osage, Sioux, Kaskaskia, and O-ga-xpa people. In Chicago, home of our administrative office, we are occupying the traditional homelands of the Odawa, Ojibwe, and Bodéwadmiakiwen (Potawatomi) people.
There are over 75,000 tribal members in Illinois, many living in Chicago, which is currently home to the sixth largest Urban American Indian community, who still practice their heritage, traditions, and care for the land and waterways.
As we tour throughout the Midwest, we consider the legacy of colonization present throughout the tour region, and the many different homelands we pass through. Our own intent as we travel from one town to another, meeting and learning with audiences of great diversity, sharing in the wealth that the land and its communities (past, present, and future) offer to us, is to celebrate stories without negatively impacting our surroundings.
We recognize that land acknowledgments can only do so much. We encourage you to celebrate and support the Native people of this land with your time, money, and intellect. Investigate the Landback movement, donate to Native organizations, and read about the Native peoples from your area.
Diversity statements are only relevant if they are followed up by the hard work of dismantling oppressive systems. Stone Soup Shakespeare continues to learn through study and discussion how we can best dismantle these systems we are a part of. We vow to share what we learn, challenge our own status quo, and expose with empathy, compassion, and storytelling the sometimes painful history of our society.
It has always been our policy to hire with a consciousness for geographic diversity. We want to make sure the regions we travel to are represented and included in helping us tell our stories. In recent years it has become even more important that our artists are representative not just of the art we have seen in the past, but the art we want to see in the future. To this end, we actively seek out artists of color and hold auditions in numerous locations. If we are not seeing diversity in the audition rooms, we are quick to ask for help from past collaborators and myriad organizations dedicated to broadening diversity in the arts.
We apply the guidelines of Not In Our House Chicago to our rehearsal practices in order to keep our organization accountable for safe practices with respect to violence, sexual harassment, and other health and wellness policies. We strive to be accountable to one another as we create a safer and more inclusive theater community together. We remain community-based and open-minded in our efforts to tell stories that allow for empathy towards all.
Land Acknowledgments:
In recent years, it has become the norm to include a land acknowledgement before a performance. While we believe in the importance of bringing awareness to the history of indigenous peoples and their territories, we also think a land acknowledgement should be more than that. It should be a call to action, to education, and to retrospection about all of our histories in this place. By performing land acknowledgments, we start to recognize a more truthful history of this country – one that was founded on genocide and violence.
In Carbondale, home of our residency, we are occupying the traditional homelands of the Kickapoo, Myaamia (Miami), Osage, Sioux, Kaskaskia, and O-ga-xpa people. In Chicago, home of our administrative office, we are occupying the traditional homelands of the Odawa, Ojibwe, and Bodéwadmiakiwen (Potawatomi) people.
There are over 75,000 tribal members in Illinois, many living in Chicago, which is currently home to the sixth largest Urban American Indian community, who still practice their heritage, traditions, and care for the land and waterways.
As we tour throughout the Midwest, we consider the legacy of colonization present throughout the tour region, and the many different homelands we pass through. Our own intent as we travel from one town to another, meeting and learning with audiences of great diversity, sharing in the wealth that the land and its communities (past, present, and future) offer to us, is to celebrate stories without negatively impacting our surroundings.
We recognize that land acknowledgments can only do so much. We encourage you to celebrate and support the Native people of this land with your time, money, and intellect. Investigate the Landback movement, donate to Native organizations, and read about the Native peoples from your area.
Diversity statements are only relevant if they are followed up by the hard work of dismantling oppressive systems. Stone Soup Shakespeare continues to learn through study and discussion how we can best dismantle these systems we are a part of. We vow to share what we learn, challenge our own status quo, and expose with empathy, compassion, and storytelling the sometimes painful history of our society.