education

Getting Played

Third Annual Symposium on Equity in the Entertainment Industry and Awards

Stanford University

BCSC Community Room

23 February 2017

noon - 3 p.m.

#GettingPlayed

The Symposium

Download the event poster!

Join the Conversation

February 23, 2017

noon-3pm

Getting Played: who's playing you?! 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.

Performance from Type/Caste

About

Rotimi Agbabiaka

performs from his solo show Type/Caste

A queer, black actor dreams of a dazzling career on the American stage but first he'll have to leap over obstacles placed by an industry that isn't always welcoming to applicants who are neither white nor straight.

Opening Performance

Welcome

Rotimi Agbabiaka is an actor, singer, writer, director and teaching artist. He most recently appeared in Type/Caste at Brava Theater, Schooled with the San Francisco Mime Troupe, Sojourners and runboyrun at Magic Theatre, Hair with Bay Area Musicals, Holiday High Jinx with Word for Word, Choir Boy at Marin Theatre Company, The Amen Corner with Alter Theater, We Are Proud To Present ... at Just Theater, and Raisin in The Sun at Cal Shakes. He is a collective member of the San Francisco Mime Troupe, a former cast member at Beach Blanket Babylon, and his solo play, Homeless, won Best Solo Performance at the SF Fringe Festival. His latest solo play, Type/Caste, just completed a critically acclaimed, hit run at Brava Theatre. Mr. Agbabiaka directed the world premier of VS. at TheatreFirst and has directed plays for the SF One Minute Play Festival and the SF Mime Troupe’s Youth Theatre Project. He also teaches youth theatre with SF Shakes, and Each One Reach One. He studied at Moscow Art Theatre and earned his MFA from Northern Illinois University.

Website

Moderator

Symposium founder and organizer 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 2016 Symposium Keynote Amy Pietz. The University of San Francisco Law Review published Kathleen's subsequent article Bias and the Business of Show: Employment Discrimination in the “Entertainment” Industry, an article about which film director, screenwriter, and activist Maria Giese writes, "This new article by Kathleen A. Tarr is the MOST IMPORTANT DOCUMENT published on the issue of discriminatory hiring practices in Hollywood since The New York Times published the ACLU letter to the EEOC in May 2015." 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.

Website