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Anchor links on this page: ABOUT PANELISTS AWARDS SELECTED RESOURCES

Getting Played

Second Annual Symposium on Equity in the Entertainment Industry and Awards

Sponsored by Stanford University's Program in Writing and Rhetoric

and

Stanford Arts Office of the Associate Dean.

Additional thanks to VPUE, Novel Approach LLC, and What The ... Productions.

The Symposium will be held on Saturday, February 27, 2016 (1pm-5pm) in Oshman Hall, McMurtry Building, 355 Roth Way, between the Cantor Arts Center and Parking Structure 1, Stanford, CA 94305. This event is free and open to the public. Seating is first come, first served after RSVPs. RSVP on Eventbrite by clicking here or copy and paste the following URL into your browser: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/getting-played-symposium-on-equity-in-the-entertainment-industry-awards-tickets-20097153126

Click the following links for Driving Directions, Public Transportation, Parking information, Nearby Dining, Lodging, and Campus Map.

Printed programs will be provided upon request only. We also encourage attendees to travel via public transportation or carpool and consider the environment when selecting options including bringing personal water bottles to fill at water stations within the McMurtry Building.

Oshman Hall is wheelchair accessible. Attendees who require a disability accommodation should contact the Diversity and Access Office (650) 725-0326. If you have additional questions, please contact Kathleen Tarr (KTarr[at]Stanford[dot]edu).

About Getting Played:

Second Annual Symposium on Equity in the Entertainment Industry and Awards

Getting Played: who's playing you?! (https://youtu.be/HuCvHUBECUI) is a 2010 documentary about inequities in the entertainment industry and inspiration for this symposium. Not only are Industry workers subjected to rampant employment discrimination, entertainment media shapes who we are. Whether one compares the increasing support of marriage equality to the number of LGBT characters on television, or the objectification of women in our society to the sexualization of female characters across all media, it is clear that the images we see everyday - including those that are fictional - compel our thoughts and behaviors en masse. Join us as we engage a panel of distinguished leaders from the fields of entertainment, psychology, law, business, social justice, and education in a discussion that includes solutions to the current inequities from casting to directing that shape what we see on the big and small screens. We will conclude our afternoon by honoring a select few courageous heroes who advance Industry equity in their everyday lives.

Keynote Address

Amy Pietz became familiar to TV viewers for her role on Caroline in the City, for which she received a SAG Award Nomination for Best Actress in a Comedy. Amy has appeared in more than 300 episodes of television, including regular roles on The Nine Lives of Chloe King, Aliens in America, The Weber Show, and Rodney and guest starring roles on How to Get Away with Murder, The Office, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and many others. She also has had an extensive stage career after receiving her degree in acting from DePaul University’s Theatre School. Amy plans to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in 2017, and is currently writing a book chronicling her life as an adoptee, birth mother, and birth doula.

Moderator

Kathleen Tarr is a lawyer, filmmaker, writer, performer, and lecturer in Stanford's Program in Writing and Rhetoric. She served in the "legal peace corps" as a Skadden Fellow representing disabled veterans prior to working for Legal Aid and continues to assist veterans with claims before the Department of Veterans Affairs. Kathleen delivered the General Session at the 2015 State Bar of California Annual Meeting, Delights, Diversions, and Discriminations: The Bias and Business of Show, a session joined by Symposium Keynote Amy Pietz. As Kathleen Antonia, she has accumulated numerous television, film, commercial, and stage credits including her own productions, most recently Early Aliens, Official Selection of the ASTRONOMMO film festival. Kathleen's documentary Getting Played: who's playing you?! received Honorable Mention at the 2010 International Black Women's Film Festival and inspired this symposium.

Closing Remarks

Adam Banks serves as Director of Stanford University's Program in Writing and Rhetoric and Faculty in the Graduate School of Education. He is author of Digital Griots: African American Rhetoric in a Multimedia Age and Race, Rhetoric, and Technology: Searching for Higher Ground, a book challenging teachers and scholars in writing and technology fields to explore the depths of Black rhetorical traditions more thoroughly and calling for African Americans, from the academy to the street, to make technology issues a central site of struggle.

Panelists

Adrienne M. Anderson is the founder and programmer of the first film festival devoted exclusively to film by and/or starring Black women, regardless of country of origin, genre, or language: The International Black Women’s Film Festival. Established in 2001 and debuting in 2002 in San Francisco, IBWFF was created after Ms. Anderson observed the dearth and lack of depth in roles for Black women and the invisibility of Black women directors. Ms. Anderson has also curated such unique events as ASTRONOMMO, the first film series devoted to Black women filmmakers and actresses in speculative fiction, and the Black Heritage Film Series for the San Francisco Main Library. Not only have her events highlighted outstanding filmmakers, films and actors, but she has also curated panels of the brightest thinkers in the San Francisco Bay Area to present discussions of equity, diversity, and representation in film, television, and media. This work garnered her an Equity Award at the 2015 “Getting Played” Symposium and for IBWFF, an Oakland Innovators Award from the Hull Family Foundation and OAKLANDISH. In addition, Ms. Anderson is a member of numerous heraldry societies in the U.K. and the United States, an active member of the San Francisco chapter of the Black business women’s sorority Iota Phi Lambda Sorority, Inc. – Gamma Nu chapter, and the owner of American Royal Tea, featured in “The Gentlewoman” magazine.

Guy Aoki (Ah-OH-kee) is the Founding President of Media Action Network for Asian Americans (MAH-nuh), which began in 1992. The all-volunteer, non-profit organization is the only one solely dedicated to monitoring the mass media and advocating balanced, sensitive, and positive depictions and coverage of Asian Americans. As part of the Asian Pacific American Media Coalition, Aoki meets every year with the Presidents and Vice Presidents of the top four networks - ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox - pushing them to hire more Asian American actors, writers, producers, and directors. In 2001, Aoki put comedian Sarah Silverman on the map when he debated her on Bill Maher’s “Politically Incorrect” after she used the slur “Chinks” in a joke on Conan O’Brien’s talk show. Between 1989 and 2005, Aoki wrote syndicated pop music radio shows for Dick Clark. Since 1992, Aoki has written the bi-weekly Rafu Shimpo column, “Into the Next Stage,” which focuses on Asian Americans and the media.

Fontana Butterfield is an actor, activist, director and coach. She founded “Yeah, I said Feminist, a Theater Salon” in August 2012 and is part of the Theater Bay Area Gender Parity Committee. Recent acting roles include the Audience Plant in “One Man, Two Guvnors” at Berkeley Repertory Theatre and South Coast Rep, and Pamela, the Sheriff of Reno, in the independent film “Mr. Invincible”. Fontana is a graduate of SFSU and the Sanford Meisner based actor training program at Laura Henry Studio in Santa Monica. She has worked as a producer, writer and casting director on feature length and short films. She is currently a company member of the critically acclaimed theater company Shotgun Players and the all women improv trio The Right Now. Fontana lives in San Francisco with her wife Mary, a filmmaker, and their amazing 7 year old son Orlando.

Marissa Lee is Coordinator and Site Editor of Racebending.com, a grassroots organization of media consumers who support entertainment equality and advocate for underrepresented groups in entertainment media. Originally founded in 2009 to protest the casting discrimination in The Last Airbender film, we have since continued to advocate for equal opportunity casting, balanced representations, and media literacy. Racebending.com has directly protested and interacted with studios to advocate for diverse casting in tentpole films. In addition, the group has presented on college campuses, at academic conferences, and hosts an annual panel at San Diego Comic-Con to promote representation and meaningful inclusion in the American storytelling landscape.

Michael Mohammed works regularly as a performer, stage director, and choreographer. Stage directing credits include Bob Marley’s Three Little Birds (Bay Area Children’s Theatre), Candide (Douglas Morrisson Theater), and The Full Monty (American Conservatory Theater - MFA Program). He is currently on opera faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and is the Director of the Musical Theatre Ensemble. He also is an Artist-in-Residence at the Ruth Asawa School of the Arts. Equally at home in opera and musical theatre, his roles include the title role of Handel’s Orlando, Spirit/First Witch (Dido & Aeneas), Jake (Porgy & Bess), Amenhotep (Akhnaten), and Mitch (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee). He has sung the ‘Roasting Swan’ in Carmina Burana and has been a soloist with the Early Music groups Ansámbl Luython and the Vinaccesi Ensemble. He holds degrees from Columbia University (BA in Music and History/Sociology) and San Francisco Conservatory of Music (MM in Vocal Performance).

Adam Moore is National Director of EEO & Diversity for SAG-AFTRA. Since joining Screen Actors Guild in 2005 as Associate National Director of Affirmative Action and Diversity, he has been responsible for developing and implementing a national diversity plan of action to achieve accurate representation of those groups historically excluded from the entertainment and news media. Such efforts include the creation of educational programs, conferences, and workshops; development of public relations strategies; and the enforcement of non-discrimination and diversity provisions as outlined in the Union’s contracts. He has facilitated scores of panel discussions for various film festivals and industry organizations, as well as city, state and federal agencies, and guest lectured at colleges and high schools throughout the United States. His insight and perspective has appeared in numerous publications and research papers around the world. He is proud to have served on President Barack Obama’s Disability Policy Committee during the 2008 Presidential Election and as liaison to the New York City Task Force on Diversity in Film, Television and Commercial Production. Born in Ames, Iowa, and raised in California’s Bay Area, Moore has spent the past 14 years in New York and currently lives with his wife and son in the Lower Hudson Valley.

Charlotte Tate, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Psychology at San Francisco State University. Her work is situated at the nexus of social and personality psychology. In particular, she focuses on self and identity processes as well as social perception and attitudes regarding the social identities of gender (trans* inclusive), sexual orientation, and ethnicity in the United States. Her work uses an intersectional lens as a foundation to understanding all of these topics. Her work is largely quantitative, with a focus on multivariate statistical modeling, but is guided by conceptually analytic models that are amenable to qualitative inquiry as well. She is currently on the editorial boards of Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology and Journal of Lesbian Studies.

Adam Tobin is a Senior Lecturer teaching television and screenwriting in the Film & Media Studies Program in the Department of Art & Art History. Before coming to Stanford, he received an MFA in screenwriting from USC School of Cinematic Arts and worked in the entertainment industry in Los Angeles and New York. He created the half-hour comedy series About a Girl and the reality series Best Friends’ Date for Viacom’s The-N network (now TeenNick) and was a finalist on the second season of Project Greenlight, making him likely the only teacher on campus to both create and appear in a reality show. Tobin won an Emmy for writing on Discovery Channel’s Cash Cab, has worked in script development for Jim Henson Pictures, and for the entertainment division of the National Basketball Association. He also teaches script development workshops at animation studios including Fox/Blue Sky, Aardman, and Dreamworks Animation.

About the Awards

The Symposium's awards recognize otherwise unheralded contributions to equity in the entertainment industry. While those honored possess impressive lists of other, more publicly appreciated accomplishments, the lesser known courageous and critical actions for which they are awarded serve as inspiration, modeling for us all what we might also contribute. Past award recipients have been honored for refusing to write alternative character demographics for producers' commercial interests, refusing to audition as a stereotype, and investing their attentions and dollars only in those productions that support a more equitable world view. This year's honorees continue the tradition, and the presentation on February 27, 2016 includes one special award to be announced at the ceremony.

Special Remarks

Dr. Myrton Running Wolf holds masters degrees from Tisch School of the Arts at NYU and the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts. He completed his Ph.D. in Theater and Performance Studies at Stanford University. Behind-the-scenes, Myrton worked in Production Management for Walt Disney Studio’s ABC Television Group on primetime network series LOST, Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice, Brothers & Sisters, and Criminal Minds. He was also a Creative Producer for The CW and NBC network television affiliates. His professional performance experience includes roles in feature films The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The New World, Into the West, several network television shows, and theater productions in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area. As an award-winning writer/director/producer, his film and stage work has played across the nation. As an academic, he has taught at Stanford and Occidental College, lectured at Vassar College and Santa Clara University, and led workshops on theater making, identity politics, and the politics of ethnic minority inclusion/participation in mainstream media at numerous tribal and junior colleges.

Honorees

Maria Giese (www.mariagiese.com) is a feature film director and screenwriter educated at Simon's Rock of Bard College, Wellesley College, and UCLA's Graduate School of Theatre, Film and Television. An active member of the Directors Guild of America and an activist for parity for women directors in Hollywood, Maria lectures and writes about the under-representation of women filmmakers in the United States. Her articles have appeared in Ms. Magazine, Elle, Film Inquiry, IndieWIRE and the activist/agitator web forum she co-founded, Women Directors in Hollywood. Maria herself has recently been profiled in Bloomberg TV, ABC Live, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Forbes and Fortune, among others, and she is currently the subject of several documentaries. In 2012, Maria began seeking legal intervention into Hollywood's hiring practices that keep women directors shut out. She approached the ACLU in 2013 who then called upon the EEOC resulting in the current industrywide Federal investigation on behalf of women directors. Maria is working on a book about her work and is attached to direct several feature films, her previous productions including two she also wrote: When Saturday Comes (starring Sean Bean and Pete Postlethwaite) and Hunger, based on the novel by Nobel Prize-winner, Knut Hamsun.

Natalie Leonard, JD/MBA is an attorney who directs the certified specialist program for attorneys at the State Bar of California. Prior to joining the State Bar, she clerked for the Honorable Harold Albritton III in the Middle District of Alabama and practiced labor and employment law at Morrison & Foerster in San Francisco. She is also a Board Member Emeritus at the BALIF Bar Association. Before beginning her legal career, she worked at The Coca-Cola Company, where she helped to found KOlage, an organization for LGBT employees and allies that served as model for other affinity groups at the company. Natalie is a life member and longtime supporter of the Freight and Salvage Coffeehouse, a non-profit arts organization dedicated to roots music and building community through music.

Roger Tang is a veteran theatre producer of over three decades and has worked with such playwrights as Tony Award winner David Henry Hwang and Philip Kan Gotanda. As a playwright, he’s written The Jade Con, Shadowed Intent, Truth and Lies, Third Generation Heritage and Mac ‘n Dex. He has also penned numerous sketches for the Pork Filled Players and several pieces for SIS Productions’ Revealed series of site-specifc theatre work. As a producer, he has helmed numerous Northwest and world premieres, from Hwang’s Bondage and Yellow Face to Genny Lim’s Paper Angels, Qui Nguyen’s Living Dead in Denmark, Maggie Lee’s The Clockwork Professor and The Tumbleweed Zephyr and Carla Ching’s Fast Company. He has sat on the boards of ReAct Theatre and the Northwest Asian American Theatre (where he helped build the Theatre Off Jackson). Called the “Godfather of Asian American theatre” by A. Magazine, he is a member of the national board for the Consortium of Asian American Theaters and Artists (CAATA), is the Literary Manager for SIS Productions, the Executive Director of Pork Filled Productions and edits the Asian American Theatre Revue, the web’s foremost resource on Asian American theatre (www.aatrevue.com).

Karen Zacarías is reported by the NEA to be the most produced Latina Playwright in the United States. She wrote the celebrated libretto of The Sun Also Rises and Sleepy Hollow for the Washington Ballet and recently adapted Edith Wharton’s The Age Of Innocence at Arena Stage where she is a playwright-in-residence. Karen’s other plays include The Book Club Play, Legacy Of Light, The Sins Of Sor Juana, the adaptation of Helen Thorpe’s immigration policy memoir Just Like Us, the adaptation of Julia Alvarez’s How The Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, and Mariela In The Desert which she recently translated into Spanish (Mariela En El Desierto). Her work has been produced for numerous stages and include five world premieres: Destiny Of Desire, Native Gardens, the musical of Oliverio: A Brazilian Twist, the musical Ella Enchanted, and Into The Beautiful North. Karen has been awarded the 2010 Steinberg Citation-Best New Play (outside of NYC), National Francesca Primus Prize, New Voices Award, National Latino Play Award, Finalist Susan Blackburn, and Helen Hayes for Outstanding New Play. She is a core founder of the Latino Theatre Commons and the founder of Young Playwrights’ Theater, an award winning theater company that teaches playwriting in local public schools in Washington, DC where Karen lives with her husband and three children.