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#GettingPlayed

Getting Played
Third Annual Symposium on Equity in the Entertainment Industry and Awards

 

Stanford University

Henry and Monique Brandon Family Community Room

418 Santa Teresa Street

Stanford, CA 94305


noon-3pm, Thursday 23 February 2017

Free and open to the public. First come, first seated.

Join the Conversation!

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.

Opening Performance

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.

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: http://www.rotimionline.com



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 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: https://chroniclevitae.com/people/566458-kathleen-tarr/profile




Past Symposia

2016 Symposium
For more about the 2016 Symposium, please read The Huffington Post's "Getting Played: The Second Annual Symposium on Equity in the Entertainment Industry and Awards" and visit the host site: http://kantonia.wixsite.com/symposium2016

2015 Symposium
For more about the 2015 Symposium, please read The Stanford Daily's "Stanford hosts first annual symposium on equity in entertainment" and visit the host site: http://kantonia.wixsite.com/symposium2015

             Getting Played: Third 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 Project Motivation, VPUE, Novel Approach LLC, and What The ...

             Productions.

             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 campus water stations.

            The venue is wheelchair accessible. Attendees who require a disability accommodation should contact

            the Diversity and Access Office (650) 725-0326. Thank you!




#GettingPlayed

Thursday, February 23, 2017
noon-3pm
Stanford University

Parking information available at https://transportation.stanford.edu/parking. Directions: 511.org

Nearby dining: https://rde.stanford.edu/hospitality/union-square-tresidder-memorial

Lodging: visit.stanford.edu/plan/lodging.html

 

For more information or questions, please contact ktarr[at]stanford[dot]edu

 


Honorees

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, appealing to government agencies to investigate industry discrimination, and investing their attentions and dollars only in those productions that support a more equitable world view. This year's honorees continue the tradition.

 


VELINA BROWN

Velina Brown is an award-winning actress, singer/songwriter, and director whose artistic home for several years has been the Tony and OBIE award-winning (and never silent) San Francisco Mime Troupe. Velina has been a principal actor and guiding force for the world-famous company for over twenty years, touring nationally and internationally, helping create dozens of world premiere political musical dramas and comedies, each examining issues of peace, equality, or economic and social justice. She also performs regularly at several Bay Area Theatre companies including: American Conservatory Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, The Magic, TheatreWorks, Shotgun Players, and SF Playhouse among many others. Velina is a two-time winner of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critic's Circle award: Outstanding Supporting Actress for her work in S.F. Playhouse's ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S BIG GAY DANCE PARTY, and Oustanding Principal Actress in the S.F. Mime Troupe's POSIBILIDAD. In 2012 Velina was honored as part of Theatre Bay Area Magazine 35th Anniversary as one of the "35 Faces" that had made significant contributions to the Bay Area theater community. Film and TV appearances include Chance, Party of Five, Nash Bridges, Trauma, Final Witness, Bee Season, Maladaptive, One Way to Valhalla, and Milk. Velina is also a coach and writes a monthly column for Theatre Bay Area Magazine called “The Business of Show Biz.” Velina graduated Magna Cum Laude from San Francisco State University, and has a Master's Degree in Counseling.



LILY TUNG CRYSTAL

Lily Tung Crystal is an actor/singer who has performed in San Francisco, New York, and Shanghai.  She is the founder of Ferocious Lotus Theatre Company, as well as the Asian American Actors Collective with Asian American Theatre Company (AATC).  She is a 2009 Titan Award winner — one of five Bay Area actors to receive a $2500 grant from Theatre Bay Area to further their career goals.  Her current projects include a solo show about Tye Leung Schulze (the first Chinese-American woman to vote and activist against human trafficking); and MUTT, by Glickman Award winner Christopher Chen, which explores what it means to be Hapa in America (a co-commission between Ferocious Lotus and Impact Theatre directed by Evren Odcikin).


ADAM LEIPZIG

Adam Leipzig has been a producer, distributor or supervising executive on more than 30 films that have disrupted expectations, including A Plastic Ocean (2016), March of the Penguins (2005), Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989), Dead Poets Society (1989) and Titus (1999). His movies have won or been nominated for 10 Academy Awards, 11 BAFTA Awards, 2 Golden Globes, 2 Emmys, 2 Directors Guild Awards, 4 Sundance Awards and 4 Independent Spirit Awards. Collectively, his projects have generated over $2 billion in revenue on $300 million production spending, and twice he has been responsible for the ‘most profitable picture of the year.’

Mr Leipzig is founder and CEO of Entertainment Media Partners; Senior Advisor to CreativeFuture, a non-profit organization that advocates for the rights of creative communities; Publisher and Managing Editor of Cultural Weekly; and a faculty member at the prestigious UC Berkeley Haas School of Business. He is also the former President of National Geographic Films, where he raised $125 million in production financing, and was a Senior VP at Walt Disney Studios.

Mr. Leipzig is author of two books for emerging filmmakers published by Macmillan: Inside Track for Independent Filmmakers and Filmmaking in Action: Your Guide to the Skills and Craft, which has become the standard learning text at universities and colleges. Mr. Leipzig has written for the New York Times, CEO.com, Smart CEO Magazine, and many others.


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MYRTON RUNNING WOLF

Dr. 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.
 

 


TORANGE YEGHIAZARIAN

Founding Artistic Director of Golden Thread Productions, Torange Yeghiazarian writes, directs, and acts for the theatre. She has devoted her professional life to exploring Middle Eastern culture and identity through theatre arts. A native of Iran and of Armenian heritage, Torange holds a Master’s degree in Theatre Arts from San Francisco State University. Her plays (Call Me Mehdi, Waves, Dawn at Midnight, Behind Glass Windows, Abaga) reflect the perspective of the culturally displaced in tackling today’s world of contradictory realities and values. As a teaching artist, Torange has taught playwriting to at-risk youth as part of the Each One Reach One program, incorporated theatre into social studies in Richmond’s Washington Elementary School as part of East Bay Center for Performing Arts’ Learning Without Borders program, and led acting and play development workshops for Golden Thread Productions.


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Panelists

 

 


JENNIFER DeVERE BRODY

Jennifer DeVere Brody is a Professor in Theater & Performance Studies and an Affiliate in the Center for Comparative Studies of Race and Ethnicity (CCSRE).  Her work has appeared in Theatre Journal, Signs, Genders, Callaloo, Text and Performance Quarterly and in several edited volumes.  Her books, Impossible Purities (Duke University Press, 1998) and Punctuation: Art, Politics and Play (Duke University Press, 2008) both discuss relations among and between sexuality, gender, racialization, visual studies and performance.  She has served as the President of the Women and Theatre Program, on the board of Women and Performance and has worked with the Ford and Mellon Foundations. She received that Monette-Horwitz Prize for Independent Research Against Homophobia. She co-produced “The Theme is Blackness” festival of black plays in Durham, NC when she taught in African American Studies at Duke University. Her research and teaching focus on performance, aesthetics, politics and subjectivity as well as feminist theory, queer studies and contemporary cultural studies. Currently, she is working with colleagues the re-publication of James Baldwin’s illustrated book, Little Man, Little Man and a new book about the intersections of sculpture and performance. She held the Weinberg College of Board of Visitors Professorship at Northwestern University.


DEXTER DAVIS

Dexter began his career in entertainment at 23 years old when he formed Dexter Davis Productions, a company that specialized in organizing creative fundraising events for non-profits in San Francisco. In 2000 started the boutique production company StoneCreek Entertainment. Davis expanded the company, changed the name to D Street Media Group and relocated to Europe to learn first-hand the global film business. In 2004 he executive produced his first feature “The Reception,” which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2005. Dexter continued to produce films, including indie hits like “Rivers Wash Over Me” and “Somewhere Slow” with Jesslyn Gilsig (Glee, Vikings) and David Costabile (Breaking Bad, Billions.) He formed D Street Releasings in 2006 to distribute international films in the U.S., and brokered a first of its kind co-marketing deal with Volkswagen AG to support the marketing campaigns for foreign language films in North America.

In 2014 Dexter joined the board of Ghana’s National Museum on Slavery and Freedom where he serves with Nobel Peace Prize recipient Kofi Annan and world renowned architect David Adjaye. Davis has produced four additional films with a number of films going into production in 2017, including the heist film “The Blue  Mauritius” starring Eric Dane (Grey’s Anatomy, The Last Ship) and Brian Cox (X-Men, Bourne Identity) and legendary French actor Gerard Depardieu. Following is ‘Team Joy,’ which he’s executive producing for Joe Newcomb, the Oscar winning  producer of ‘Dallas Buyers Club,’ and ‘Moto Anjos,’ a Brazilian action film set in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Aside from film and television production, Davis is building a state-of-the-art film and TV studio in the beautiful town of Port Shepstone. A municipality in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. Dexter returned to the Bay Area in 2013 and chose Oakland to call home and has since joined the tourism bureau board of “Visit Oakland,” with a mandate to bring more film and television productions to the East Bay.
Panelists

 

MYRTON RUNNING WOLF

Dr. 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.
 

FELIX R. SANCHEZ

Mr. Sanchez is a principal with Terra Strategies LLC, a government affairs and public relations firm in Washington, D.C. Mr. Sanchez is also the co-founder and pro bono Chairman of the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts (NHFA), which he co-founded in 1997 with actors Jimmy Smits, Sonia Braga Esai Morales and Merel Julia. The non-profit foundation has become a leader in promoting Latinos in the media, entertainment and telecommunications industries. For the last several years, Mr. Sanchez, as NHFA Chairman, led the fight to desegregate the Kennedy Center Honors, which resulted in major administrative and personnel changes at the Kennedy Center, which yielded the following Latino honorees in 2013, Carlos Santana and Martina Arroyo and in 2015, Rita Moreno. Mr. Sanchez's efforts, on behalf of NHFA, led to the induction of 22 new Latino members into the Association of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Oscars). In November 2016, Mr. Sanchez launched PitchNY, with Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Office of Motion Pictures and Television and NBCUniversal for undergraduate students in New York State. Mr. Sanchez also developed Quórum Call a content pitch program established for NHFA’s graduate students principally at NYU, Columbia, Harvard, Yale, Northwestern, USC, UCLA and UT Austin. Mr. Sanchez also led the advocacy and strategy to convince Saturday Night Live to hire for the first time in 40 years, their first Latina cast members. In 2013, Mr. Sanchez’s work was honored with the 2013 Advocacy Award by the National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP). In 2016, the Government of Mexico presented Mr. Sanchez with the Ohtlí Award, its highest national honor presented to Mexican American and Latino philanthropy leaders. Mr. Sanchez serves on the Latino Jewish Leadership Council and the Kennedy Center Latino Advisory Board. Mr. Sanchez is a CNN contributor and has two children, Isabella Sanchez, a student at Boston University, and Philippe Sanchez who recently joined West Point’s Class of 2020.

 

PETER SOBY

Peter Soby is a film writer/producer and a C5/C6 quadriplegic due to a spinal cord injury at the age of 19. He is proud to represent the disabled community in many different aspects of the arts and entertainment industries. Peter got his start in the entertainment business working at Largo Entertainment at 20th Century Fox Studios and Shoreline Pictures before striking out on his own to independently produce. One of Peter's proudest accomplishments in the entertainment industry is resurrecting/owning the 1961 cult-classic film entitled, CARNIVAL OF SOULS. He helped oversee the negative restoration of the film by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences, and he then collaborated with the esteemed Criterion Collection Company to release a special edition, digitally-enhanced restoration Blu-ray of the film. Peter has produced feature films, short films, theatrical plays and music videos. Most recently, Peter produced the music video for Paula Cole's 20th anniversary re-recording of "Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?". Behind the camera, Peter recently produced and directed a short film entitled, ANOTHER GRACE & JOHNNY ADVENTURE: ZOMBIE ISLAND which made its world premier as part of the Los Angeles Comedy Film Festival. In front of the camera, Peter is the producer and host of a bi-weekly, live-streaming, sports psychology based show called "Distill It with Richard Listens" on the UBNRadio/TV Network. Peter is also a proud member of the distinguished artist group, the MFPA (Mouth and Foot Painting Artists), as he creates his paintings holding the paintbrush in his teeth. Finally, Peter is working alongside fellow filmmaker and disability advocate, Tracie Laymon, on their venture called Able Talent. They are building a platform to manage, advocate and promote disabled talent to and for the entertainment industry, including compiling the industry's largest database of all ages and ranges of disabled artists, actors, performers, athletes, etc.




Schedule

NOON-12:15pm
Opening Performance


12:15pm-12:30pm
Welcome


12:30pm-12:45 pm
Keynote


12:45pm-12:55pm
PWR 194 students

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---BREAK---

1:00pm-2:25pm
Panel Discussion and Q&A

---BREAK---


2:30pm-2:50pm
Awards


2:50pm-3:00pm
Closing Remarks

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Selected Resources
READINGS

 

Bias and the Business of Show, USF Law Review

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Entertainment EEO Resource List

 

INCLUSION or INVISIBILITY?
Comprehensive Annenberg Report on Diversity in Entertainment

 

ACLU's letter to the EEOC

 

DGA TV Diversity Report

 

2015 Hollywood Diversity Report

 

In the Case of Lyle v. Warner Bros.


Native Americans in Film, Television and Entertainment

 

Casting and Caste-ing: Reconciling Artistic Freedom and Antidiscrimination Norms

 

Filmmaking Resources

 

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ORGANIZATIONS

 

MANAA

 

Racebending

 

GLAAD

 

Geena Davis Institute

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VIDEO

 

Last WeekTonight with John Oliver: Whitewashing

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The Clique: #OscarsSoWhite… again

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Gays: The Last Acceptable Stereotype  in Hollywood

 

Muslim and Arab Images in Hollywood Film

 

Disability in Film: Stereotypes

 

Yellowface Rock!

 

African Men. Hollywood Stereotypes

 

Miss Representation Trailer

 

Stereotypology: Spicy Latinas

 

Actors of Color Get Real About What It's Like to Play a Stereotype

 

The Nightly Show - A Preview of Upcoming Black Oscar Snubs

 

It's #OscarsSoWhite all over again

 

Marlon Brando's Oscar® win for " The Godfather"

 

Danai Gurira PBS News Hour

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