Minotaur Theatre Company is committed to implementing and achieving long-lasting anti-racism policies within the company.

We vitally respect movements that aim to decolonise our University and Theatre Company, and we fully support the efforts that staff and fellow students are making to help make everyone’s experience at UEA more accessible, inclusive and diverse.

 

In changing the way we work with and organise our company, we hope to be one of the many voices working to dismantle institutionalised racist bias at our University. As well as this, we aim to improve representation of black and diverse creators; we are also working with our schools to better share some of the work that has been ignored and disregarded as a result of legacies of colonialism, and reform our curriculum in years to come.

 

To these ends, we plan to listen to our peers, introduce new practices and collaborate with other bodies at UEA to divest more attention to this cause.

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Actions we plan to take are as follows:

 

•  More of Minotaur’s resources will be going toward organising events that celebrate and share BIPOC theatre, film and art. For example, we will be organising regular screenings of work that is about, from or for black and diverse creators every month.

•  Additionally, we will be organising charity socials that contribute to BIPOC causes, as well as groups concerned with decolonising.

•  We intend to make audition and rehearsal environments more accessible and inclusive. We have many visible and invisible aspects of our identity that we believe should be given the opportunity to be shared by every member, should they want to do so. For all future auditions and rehearsal processes, we aim to cultivate environments where teams are offered the open and free chance to share information about themselves (such as their preferred pronouns and potential triggers). We will urge directors and anyone responsible for rehearsals, workshops and auditions to consider and include implementation of the ‘Social G.R.A.C.E.S.’, for example.

• We also plan to help UEA’s Drama and Musical Theatre Society in part-funding many monthly workshops throughout the academic year, concerned with lesser-taught aspects of theatre.

 

Over the past few months especially, many groups of students have been making serious progress in raising awareness and building foundations of communication between us and our teachers. We have been directly working with ‘Decolonise LDC’ to help educate ourselves and be part of a wider effort to liaise with staff.

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Keeping up this communication on our end includes:

 

• Being part of a regular forum with our Drama academics and head of school, where all company members are invited to join,

• The introduction of a weekly-checked open feedback form specifically geared to the student experience within Minotaur, as well as more Welfare, Diversity and Inclusivity Team Drop-ins,

• And finally, we also aim to hand over our successful systems and processes to our next committee with clear and guided plans that will be reviewed and drawn toward the end of the year.

 

We deem it necessary to make this statement as we believe transparency and communication to be a major priority, especially in such times of uncertainty. In sharing our plans, we hope to make you aware of the changes we will make and also provide a platform for discussion and improvement. Additionally, you as a company can keep us accountable and expect these things to take form.

 

    We thank you for all your patience and consideration. As always, do not hesitate to reach out and we look forward to working with as many of you as possible this year!

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                                                                                                                                               - Minotaur Committee 2022