The Graduate Theatre Syndicate at The Ohio State University

01/29/2021

Join the Performance Studies Working Group, the Graduate Theatre Syndicate, Intersections, and the Ohio State University Library for the Trans AND Digital Performance Festival on February 6-7. The Trans AND Festival brings together seven trans and gender nonconforming artists from across the United States for a weekend of genre-blending, gender-defying acts and dialogues exploring the intersections of art, identity, activism, and community.

Despite the increase in media visibility over the past decade, transgender people rarely see themselves reflected in meaningful ways in the arts or pop culture. Their stories are reduced to coming out, to medical curiosities, to violent tragedies. So trans artists are taking things into their own hands to rewrite the narrative, to reimagine the world in a way that it might hold us in all of our depth, in all of their complexity.

On Saturday, February 6th, the OSU Library will host two Zoom panel discussions, moderated and introduced by Nicolas Shannon Savard of the Theatre, Film, and Media Arts department. On Sunday, February 7th, the Performance Studies Working Group will host a line-up of six performances followed by Q and A sessions with the artists.

Link to register for this FREE event here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/trans-and-digital-performance-festival-tickets-136045187819

07/21/2020

Today is the first open meeting of our Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Theatre (EDIT) book club! Our last meeting was for Syndicate members only as we tried to work out the kinks of what we wanted to accomplish with this group and what audience we thought best fit that mission. We’ve determined these meetings will be used to help decolonize our minds and praxes as scholars, theatre educators, and theatre artists. If you’re a theatre educator (of any kind!) go to https://forms.gle/9PPYkCBVJRSu2jUL9 to be added to our mailing list so you can join our next meeting. And click below to follow our Instagram to get more updates, too!

Today we’ll be meeting from 4pm-6pm EST over Zoom to discuss “Disgraced” written by Ayad Akhtar. Today’s discussion will build on discussions from last time when we discussed Robin DiAngelo’s “White Fragility”. DM us if you have any questions or concerns. We hope to see you there!!

07/09/2020

If you're looking for more concrete ways to help international students, look no further! Here are instructions and scripts to help you call your local representatives. Links to find your local reps also here:
https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative
https://www.senate.gov/senators/index.htm

07/08/2020

🚨 New Reading Group Alert 🚨

tl:dr We are reading Ayad Akhtar's Disgraced and discussing it in conjunction with Robin DiAngelo's White Fragility. The meeting is from 4pm-6pm EST on Tuesday, July 21st. Sign up below for the Zoom link.

In light of the positive response we’ve received to our letter about diversity in our department, we at the Graduate Student Theatre Syndicate have decided to move forward with some of the tangible steps outlined in our list of commitments. As such, we held the first meeting of the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Theatre: Pedagogy reading group. On Thursday, July 2, 2020, eleven current and former graduate students from The Ohio State University Theatre Department convened to discuss White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo and discussed how we could embrace DiAngelo’s work within our own praxes.

With this next and all future meetings, we would like to invite all theatre educators to join our discussion. Our goal is to meet twice a month to discuss a predetermined selection of books, plays, articles, podcasts, movies, or cultural moments that serve the purpose of decolonizing and crafting a more inclusive pedagogy within our department. Should you choose to join us, you will be among a group of supportive learners, looking to improve our communications with undergraduates and each other both in the classroom and rehearsal space.

Our next meeting will take place on July 21, 2020 from 4pm – 6pm (EST). We plan to read the play Disgraced by Ayad Akhtar and practice applying DiAngelo’s concepts to theatrical analysis. We encourage those who can to support the playwright and black owned bookstores by purchasing a copy of the script; however a pdf can be made available upon request by emailing [email protected]. For those who have not had a chance to read White Fragility, consider reading or watching this short interview with DiAngelo on Teaching Tolerance. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCxNjdewAAA

For those who would like updates or zoom links for this next and all future meetings, please join our mailing list: https://forms.gle/drBnLVctBa3m149h6.

07/08/2020

We stand in anger and solidarity with the international students at OSU who will be affected by the new ICE policy that disallows international students to reside in the US if taking classes online. This legislation clearly pits universities against their students. Read the open letter from international students below and add your name here: go.osu.edu/StandWithUs

07/08/2020

We stand with international students at the Ohio State University. Thanks to our friends in Digs for sharing this!!!

Demand that The Ohio State University publicly condemn ICE's changes to SEVP

07/05/2020

As we celebrate , we are reminded that we will never be truly free until we all share the same inalienable rights. Stand on the side of justice. History has its eyes on us. (🎨: /Instagram)

06/30/2020

Stand with us. Help us make OSU Theatre BETTER.

Sign our letter here: https://forms.gle/73hSgmhjiUnEPQmy9

06/29/2020

We stand with the Graduate Student Labor Coalition and we appreciate the work they are doing for graduate students at OSU, especially during the pandemic and the protests. Sign their letter in support today!

06/26/2020

As part of our promise to stand in solidarity and be better allies to the students of color in our department, the Graduate Theatre Syndicate has sponsored two new reading groups connected to the brand new Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Theatre (EDIT) committee.

EDIT Pedagogy is currently for theatre instructors looking to incorporate anti racist pedagogy in their teaching practices. EDIT Engage is dedicated to normalizing honest and vulnerable conversations about race. Both groups will incorporate reading, discussion and community action, with the determination to unlearn racist principles and ideologies.

Currently, EDIT Pedagogy is reserved for Syndicate members, however all are welcome and encouraged to join EDIT Engage!

If you or someone you know would like to be involved, please click the link below to fill out the form!

https://forms.gle/dN3kT5nUda5pnLVp9

Special shout out and thanks to PhD candidate Veevs Neff for the art work. Follow Aviva on Instagram, for personal updates and to see more bomb art work. Support BIPOC in theatre!!

06/19/2020

Check out this article about Juneteenth written by Ph.D. Candidate Aviva Neff:

by Aviva Helena Neff “What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim.” -Frederick Douglass, July 5th, 1852 American independence is celebrated national...