[Music]
hi I’m Kelsey Selleck I am the head of
education and director student theatre
at Quincy Community Theatre that job
entails a lot but mostly that means
whenever someone in our community wants
to learn more about the theater they can
come to me today I’m going to talk about
how we can use the Performing Arts to
promote accessibility and inclusion in
our community now let’s address the
elephant in the room right away as a
straight white lady I am NOT the ideal
candidate to be giving a talk about
inclusion but fortunately for us Quincy
has a lot of great resources who can
address this topic through training and
open dialogue just the name of few
Quincy has a human rights commission we
have a chapter of PFLAG our Chamber of
Commerce has a diversity and inclusion
Academy please utilize groups like bears
and let my talk today supplement their
work but not replace it I find myself in
a position because of my job where I’m a
gatekeeper I get to make decisions about
what stories are told on our stage and
who tells them choices I make have an
impact on who feels represented on our
stage John who feels welcome in our
theatre and that’s involved a learning
curve for me there are times where I get
it right there are times where I don’t
and I’m very aware that I still have a
lot to learn so today I want to share
some of my experiences so far some
successes some failures and ways that I
hope we as a community can move forward
first a story where I could have done
better earlier this year I picked a show
for our student theatre season called
impressions of yesterday and really I
thought I hit the jackpot when I picked
this show it’s about to contemporary
kids who get the chance to meet artists
and inventors from the early 1900’s the
show had commentary on art and history
and science
I was sure school groups were going to
love it bonus this script goes out of
its way to portray famous women Nellie
Bly
Mary Cosette Anna Pavlova and it shows
that women are capable of anything such
a great message so I start this process
feeling really good about having chosen
this play
but then after auditions one of my
students came to me and she said miss
Kelsey I didn’t think there was going to
be a place for me in that show and it
was only then that I realized all of the
historical figures portrayed in the show
were white it was only then that I
realized my students of color might not
have felt welcome in that play in
hindsight there are a few things I
should have done differently first of
all I should have made it abundantly
clear that I was going to have a really
open approach to casting in the theater
we call that colorblind or sometimes
color conscious casting where the actors
race does not have an impact on which
roles they play and to be clear I did
cast the show without regard to race or
age or gender for that matter I had
preteen girls playing Nikola Tesla but I
never explicitly stated that’s what I
was going to do which means some of my
students might have assumed otherwise
that’s on me the other thing that I
should have done differently is looked
at this script from someone else’s
perspective I had been so excited about
how women were portrayed in the show you
know because I am one but I didn’t
consider who might have felt left out I
did not look far enough beyond my own
experience ultimately the show itself
was great all of the kids who were
involved did wonderful work but I
learned a hard lesson about
representation I learned I need to
communicate better about how I’m going
to make the show happen and I learned
even though I love it what we can do
shows where the race of our actors
doesn’t matter on behalf of my students
of color I need to be looking for shows
where it does where they get to
celebrate that part of themselves I
don’t have an answer for you right now
about what that story is going to be on
our next season but I can tell you that
I’m looking for it largely because I
know I didn’t serve all of my students
in choosing that one next a story where
I learned something new at QCT we have a
pretty good relationship with the Quincy
area autism support group we did a show
about autism a few years ago and we’ve
been offering classes for students with
special needs and this group has been a
fantastic resource to us throughout
those projects some of the feedback I
was getting from the parents in this
was a desire for a sensory friendly
performance if you’re not familiar that
means for a select performance of a show
some slight modifications are made to
accommodate people on the autism
spectrum or anybody with a sensitivity
to light and sound so I decided it was
worth a try
for your this summer’s production of
elephant and piggies we are in play
after some research it turns out that
the changes we needed to make were
relatively small for one performance
only we changed a few lighting cues we
lowered our sound and microphone levels
we had alternative seating and a chill
room for people who needed to move
around on our website we had a
downloadable pre-show guide so people
could review what it’s like to see a
show at our theater and I realized this
sounds like a lot right now but in
reality it didn’t add much to our
workload at all so on the day of the
sensory friendly show all of these
modifications were really well received
but here’s the thing that got the
biggest response before the show I was
giving my little welcome speech I gave a
rundown of the changes that we’ve made
but then I said we’re here to tell you a
good story you’re just here to be you
and there was this visible audible sigh
of relief throughout the room for just
one hour no judgments
this group got to sit back and enjoy a
play and it didn’t really take extra
work for us to facilitate that so gosh
why don’t we do it more often we’re
going to it the answer but that was a
great discovery to make here’s the other
big takeaway from our sensory friendly
show those modifications we made you
know who else loved those parents of
young children who were coming to the
theater for the first time they loved
getting to use those changes as a
resource to introduce their little one
to the theatre so surprised when you
open up options for one group of people
you never know who might also benefit
great discovery to make we’re gonna do
it again next season
yeah lastly a story where with a lot of
help I learned something new in 2017 I
directed QCT production of Tarzan II is
a show that turned out to be a
once-in-a-career experience although I
didn’t know that at the time
and for me it was an informative
experience in terms of learning what is
possible when you prioritize somebody
else’s perspective the central concept
was to include American Sign Language or
ASL into every aspect of the play
there’s a technique called shadow
interpreting where an actor is followed
around by a sign language interpreter
who chairs all of their lines we use
this technique for all the human
characters in Tarzan but for the ape
characters we use shadow interpreting in
Reverse the actor signed their lines and
they had someone follow around voiced em
Tarzan and Jane are the only characters
who did both because throughout the
course of the play they taught each
other their respective languages yeah it
was exactly as cool as it sounds but I
had a lot of help the first person who I
had to bring on board was Jane my Rose
from Quincy University at the time Jane
ran the university’s sign language
interpreter training program
I knew Jane because she had interpreted
some of our shows at qct and I know she
would be a perfect collaborator for this
project
Jane’s big request was that we involve
the local deaf community she wanted us
to make sure that they knew what we were
doing and how we were doing it and how
they could be involved if they chose to
do so she even arranged for me to visit
a meeting of the Quincy deaf Club to
share with them more about the show by
the way that group was a fantastic
resource a lot of them about tickets who
came to see the show plus they gave me
great tips on how I was using sign
language I’m lucky for that time with
them so we started the process for
Tarzan as planned we had some quu
students come on board as interpreters
in the show over 100 local actors
auditioned to be in the show
and lucky for me one of those actors was
Aaron Williams now Aaron wound up
playing Kerchak who is Tarzan’s adoptive
ape father in the show he had never done
a musical before but Aaron was this
really natural engaging performer he was
a wonderful mentor to our student actors
Aaron is also deaf in hindsight I can’t
believe he agreed to do the show he had
no reason to trust me I’m hearing I had
never worked with a deaf actor before
but Aaron chose to dive into a new
experience and we all benefited from his
perspective and the kind of guy who
would stay late to help people learn new
signs he created sign names for anybody
who asked here’s mine by the way thanks
Aaron
he was very patient and kind while I
asked a lot of questions part of the
goal of the show was to create the same
experience for both our deaf and hearing
audience members but it would have been
impossible to accomplish that without
having somebody from the deaf community
in the room while it was being created
Aaron was instrumental in making that
happen and I will always be grateful
when he said yes when we opened Tarzan I
knew that we had created something
special and an opening night we had a
group of students in the audience who
came all the way from the Illinois
School for the Deaf after the show I
went out into the lobby and I saw the
actors greeting these deaf and
hard-of-hearing students and they were
all signing and after a second I
realized I understood them and I thought
how incredible hundreds of people came
together to make that show happen from
our theater from the University from the
deaf community parents students
volunteers by the way these are all
resources our community already had it
was just a matter of getting us all in
the same room we all took on a challenge
we’d never tried before and something
great happened and yeah it was a lot of
work it was the biggest and the most
exhausting thing that I’ve ever done but
I would do it all again in a heartbeat
for another chance to see those kids
signing together in the lobby as I
described it I know that I’m making us
sound like little do-gooder theatre
people but the truth is I had just as
much to gain from this as anybody
because I suddenly had to think about
how deaf audience members were
perceiving the show that made me think
on a more visual level which has
improved my skills as a director after
working with sign language interpreters
that made me be more precise in my
instruction which has made me a better
teacher plus I’m pretty sure the fact
that we sold every ticket to every
performance of Tarzan put me in good
standing with my board of directors
so this nice little project about
accessibility and inclusion wound up
having a hugely positive impact on my
professional life I bring that part up
because while we were making Tarzan
there were plenty of people who told me
I was wasting my time people who thought
I was too caught up in a gimmick or too
worried about being politically correct
and that I wasn’t gonna gain anything
but those people were wrong when we
created access everybody wins
I wish I had come to that conclusion
sooner I wish I was implementing it more
and what I’m doing now at qct and I know
I still need reminders of it sometimes
but when we create access
everybody wins so here’s what I think we
as a community can do to keep on winning
first of all if a local organization
takes on a project to promote inclusion
go buy a ticket support it show that
organization that you’re making a
worthwhile choice second if you get a
chance to work with a new faction of
your community somebody who’s different
from you you’re gonna have to do a
little homework at minimum you’re going
to have to pronounce names correctly use
preferred gender pronouns and whatever
other vocabulary that group wants they
get to pick if that sounds like a lot
you’ll get used to it but that’s an
important step towards being respectful
towards other people and lastly no one
you need to ask for help
I’ve already listed a few great
resources here in Quincy but if a town
of 40,000 people has all those groups
I’m confident you can find something
like it in a community of any size when
you’re ready to turn your good
intentions into actions go see groups
like them as for me I’m going to keep
looking for ways to keep our stage
accessible and inclusive some of that is
going to involve expanding upon the
projects I’ve discussed today I also
know I must start to produce more work
that was written by people of color by
women by members of the LGBTQ community
new stories need to be told I know I
have to figure out a way to make space
for other directors people who don’t
look like me or live like me and have
different ideas to share with my
students these things might be long-term
goals but I can’t lose sight of them and
I’m saying them out loud today as a
commitment to make
them happen mostly I know I’ve just got
to keep listening and learning about the
community around me I get it right
sometimes but I’ve had failures far
beyond the one I’ve described today I
can do better we all can do better and I
think if we work together and keep
listening to each other we can find ways
to move forward thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music] you
hi I’m Kelsey Selleck I am the head of
education and director student theatre
at Quincy Community Theatre that job
entails a lot but mostly that means
whenever someone in our community wants
to learn more about the theater they can
come to me today I’m going to talk about
how we can use the Performing Arts to
promote accessibility and inclusion in
our community now let’s address the
elephant in the room right away as a
straight white lady I am NOT the ideal
candidate to be giving a talk about
inclusion but fortunately for us Quincy
has a lot of great resources who can
address this topic through training and
open dialogue just the name of few
Quincy has a human rights commission we
have a chapter of PFLAG our Chamber of
Commerce has a diversity and inclusion
Academy please utilize groups like bears
and let my talk today supplement their
work but not replace it I find myself in
a position because of my job where I’m a
gatekeeper I get to make decisions about
what stories are told on our stage and
who tells them choices I make have an
impact on who feels represented on our
stage John who feels welcome in our
theatre and that’s involved a learning
curve for me there are times where I get
it right there are times where I don’t
and I’m very aware that I still have a
lot to learn so today I want to share
some of my experiences so far some
successes some failures and ways that I
hope we as a community can move forward
first a story where I could have done
better earlier this year I picked a show
for our student theatre season called
impressions of yesterday and really I
thought I hit the jackpot when I picked
this show it’s about to contemporary
kids who get the chance to meet artists
and inventors from the early 1900’s the
show had commentary on art and history
and science
I was sure school groups were going to
love it bonus this script goes out of
its way to portray famous women Nellie
Bly
Mary Cosette Anna Pavlova and it shows
that women are capable of anything such
a great message so I start this process
feeling really good about having chosen
this play
but then after auditions one of my
students came to me and she said miss
Kelsey I didn’t think there was going to
be a place for me in that show and it
was only then that I realized all of the
historical figures portrayed in the show
were white it was only then that I
realized my students of color might not
have felt welcome in that play in
hindsight there are a few things I
should have done differently first of
all I should have made it abundantly
clear that I was going to have a really
open approach to casting in the theater
we call that colorblind or sometimes
color conscious casting where the actors
race does not have an impact on which
roles they play and to be clear I did
cast the show without regard to race or
age or gender for that matter I had
preteen girls playing Nikola Tesla but I
never explicitly stated that’s what I
was going to do which means some of my
students might have assumed otherwise
that’s on me the other thing that I
should have done differently is looked
at this script from someone else’s
perspective I had been so excited about
how women were portrayed in the show you
know because I am one but I didn’t
consider who might have felt left out I
did not look far enough beyond my own
experience ultimately the show itself
was great all of the kids who were
involved did wonderful work but I
learned a hard lesson about
representation I learned I need to
communicate better about how I’m going
to make the show happen and I learned
even though I love it what we can do
shows where the race of our actors
doesn’t matter on behalf of my students
of color I need to be looking for shows
where it does where they get to
celebrate that part of themselves I
don’t have an answer for you right now
about what that story is going to be on
our next season but I can tell you that
I’m looking for it largely because I
know I didn’t serve all of my students
in choosing that one next a story where
I learned something new at QCT we have a
pretty good relationship with the Quincy
area autism support group we did a show
about autism a few years ago and we’ve
been offering classes for students with
special needs and this group has been a
fantastic resource to us throughout
those projects some of the feedback I
was getting from the parents in this
was a desire for a sensory friendly
performance if you’re not familiar that
means for a select performance of a show
some slight modifications are made to
accommodate people on the autism
spectrum or anybody with a sensitivity
to light and sound so I decided it was
worth a try
for your this summer’s production of
elephant and piggies we are in play
after some research it turns out that
the changes we needed to make were
relatively small for one performance
only we changed a few lighting cues we
lowered our sound and microphone levels
we had alternative seating and a chill
room for people who needed to move
around on our website we had a
downloadable pre-show guide so people
could review what it’s like to see a
show at our theater and I realized this
sounds like a lot right now but in
reality it didn’t add much to our
workload at all so on the day of the
sensory friendly show all of these
modifications were really well received
but here’s the thing that got the
biggest response before the show I was
giving my little welcome speech I gave a
rundown of the changes that we’ve made
but then I said we’re here to tell you a
good story you’re just here to be you
and there was this visible audible sigh
of relief throughout the room for just
one hour no judgments
this group got to sit back and enjoy a
play and it didn’t really take extra
work for us to facilitate that so gosh
why don’t we do it more often we’re
going to it the answer but that was a
great discovery to make here’s the other
big takeaway from our sensory friendly
show those modifications we made you
know who else loved those parents of
young children who were coming to the
theater for the first time they loved
getting to use those changes as a
resource to introduce their little one
to the theatre so surprised when you
open up options for one group of people
you never know who might also benefit
great discovery to make we’re gonna do
it again next season
yeah lastly a story where with a lot of
help I learned something new in 2017 I
directed QCT production of Tarzan II is
a show that turned out to be a
once-in-a-career experience although I
didn’t know that at the time
and for me it was an informative
experience in terms of learning what is
possible when you prioritize somebody
else’s perspective the central concept
was to include American Sign Language or
ASL into every aspect of the play
there’s a technique called shadow
interpreting where an actor is followed
around by a sign language interpreter
who chairs all of their lines we use
this technique for all the human
characters in Tarzan but for the ape
characters we use shadow interpreting in
Reverse the actor signed their lines and
they had someone follow around voiced em
Tarzan and Jane are the only characters
who did both because throughout the
course of the play they taught each
other their respective languages yeah it
was exactly as cool as it sounds but I
had a lot of help the first person who I
had to bring on board was Jane my Rose
from Quincy University at the time Jane
ran the university’s sign language
interpreter training program
I knew Jane because she had interpreted
some of our shows at qct and I know she
would be a perfect collaborator for this
project
Jane’s big request was that we involve
the local deaf community she wanted us
to make sure that they knew what we were
doing and how we were doing it and how
they could be involved if they chose to
do so she even arranged for me to visit
a meeting of the Quincy deaf Club to
share with them more about the show by
the way that group was a fantastic
resource a lot of them about tickets who
came to see the show plus they gave me
great tips on how I was using sign
language I’m lucky for that time with
them so we started the process for
Tarzan as planned we had some quu
students come on board as interpreters
in the show over 100 local actors
auditioned to be in the show
and lucky for me one of those actors was
Aaron Williams now Aaron wound up
playing Kerchak who is Tarzan’s adoptive
ape father in the show he had never done
a musical before but Aaron was this
really natural engaging performer he was
a wonderful mentor to our student actors
Aaron is also deaf in hindsight I can’t
believe he agreed to do the show he had
no reason to trust me I’m hearing I had
never worked with a deaf actor before
but Aaron chose to dive into a new
experience and we all benefited from his
perspective and the kind of guy who
would stay late to help people learn new
signs he created sign names for anybody
who asked here’s mine by the way thanks
Aaron
he was very patient and kind while I
asked a lot of questions part of the
goal of the show was to create the same
experience for both our deaf and hearing
audience members but it would have been
impossible to accomplish that without
having somebody from the deaf community
in the room while it was being created
Aaron was instrumental in making that
happen and I will always be grateful
when he said yes when we opened Tarzan I
knew that we had created something
special and an opening night we had a
group of students in the audience who
came all the way from the Illinois
School for the Deaf after the show I
went out into the lobby and I saw the
actors greeting these deaf and
hard-of-hearing students and they were
all signing and after a second I
realized I understood them and I thought
how incredible hundreds of people came
together to make that show happen from
our theater from the University from the
deaf community parents students
volunteers by the way these are all
resources our community already had it
was just a matter of getting us all in
the same room we all took on a challenge
we’d never tried before and something
great happened and yeah it was a lot of
work it was the biggest and the most
exhausting thing that I’ve ever done but
I would do it all again in a heartbeat
for another chance to see those kids
signing together in the lobby as I
described it I know that I’m making us
sound like little do-gooder theatre
people but the truth is I had just as
much to gain from this as anybody
because I suddenly had to think about
how deaf audience members were
perceiving the show that made me think
on a more visual level which has
improved my skills as a director after
working with sign language interpreters
that made me be more precise in my
instruction which has made me a better
teacher plus I’m pretty sure the fact
that we sold every ticket to every
performance of Tarzan put me in good
standing with my board of directors
so this nice little project about
accessibility and inclusion wound up
having a hugely positive impact on my
professional life I bring that part up
because while we were making Tarzan
there were plenty of people who told me
I was wasting my time people who thought
I was too caught up in a gimmick or too
worried about being politically correct
and that I wasn’t gonna gain anything
but those people were wrong when we
created access everybody wins
I wish I had come to that conclusion
sooner I wish I was implementing it more
and what I’m doing now at qct and I know
I still need reminders of it sometimes
but when we create access
everybody wins so here’s what I think we
as a community can do to keep on winning
first of all if a local organization
takes on a project to promote inclusion
go buy a ticket support it show that
organization that you’re making a
worthwhile choice second if you get a
chance to work with a new faction of
your community somebody who’s different
from you you’re gonna have to do a
little homework at minimum you’re going
to have to pronounce names correctly use
preferred gender pronouns and whatever
other vocabulary that group wants they
get to pick if that sounds like a lot
you’ll get used to it but that’s an
important step towards being respectful
towards other people and lastly no one
you need to ask for help
I’ve already listed a few great
resources here in Quincy but if a town
of 40,000 people has all those groups
I’m confident you can find something
like it in a community of any size when
you’re ready to turn your good
intentions into actions go see groups
like them as for me I’m going to keep
looking for ways to keep our stage
accessible and inclusive some of that is
going to involve expanding upon the
projects I’ve discussed today I also
know I must start to produce more work
that was written by people of color by
women by members of the LGBTQ community
new stories need to be told I know I
have to figure out a way to make space
for other directors people who don’t
look like me or live like me and have
different ideas to share with my
students these things might be long-term
goals but I can’t lose sight of them and
I’m saying them out loud today as a
commitment to make
them happen mostly I know I’ve just got
to keep listening and learning about the
community around me I get it right
sometimes but I’ve had failures far
beyond the one I’ve described today I
can do better we all can do better and I
think if we work together and keep
listening to each other we can find ways
to move forward thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music] you
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