Press Releases

Seattle, WA (June 3, 2021) — Seattle Rep today announced its first-ever Native Artist-in-Residence program through which a Native artist of any discipline will be selected to be paid a $10,000 stipend to create art, to gain professional development, and to build a relationship with Seattle Rep. Submissions are being accepted online now through August 2, 2021 – learn more >> 

Seattle Rep’s work to become a more diverse and inclusive organization dates back to its earliest diversity conversations in the 1990s. As the years progressed, the organization established greater accountability for itself, prioritizing anti-racism policies and developing an Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Plan in 2016. Among its various goals, this plan identified an expansion and diversification of Seattle Rep’s community engagement efforts. 

“It is crucial for Seattle Rep to recognize and examine our history of exclusion of Native communities and take action to listen to and build authentic relationships with Native artists, organizations, leaders, and individuals,” Nabra Nelson, Seattle Rep’s director of arts engagement said. “This program is only one step in that listening and learning journey. With this program, and our 20x30 commissions, we work to share our resources and put a spotlight on Native artists in an intentional way."

Seattle Rep’s Native Artist-In-Residence program is a season-long program informed by the artist themselves, in such a way that the recipient of the Residency will decide and communicate to Seattle Rep what kind of art they want to make, what kind of professional development they would best benefit from, and what they would like their interaction and relationship with the theater to look like. The only fixed requirement of this program is that it must culminate in a public or invited event featuring either a finished product or art in progress, wherein staff and guests can engage in dialogue. The subject of this dialogue and focus of the event is entirely up to the choice and interest of the artist. Applying artists need not have any formal training, but should have some previous experience creating within their preferred medium.  

Seattle Rep’s goals for this program are to:

• produce the Native Artist-in-Residence program annually going forward;
• begin to develop relationships with local Indigenous artists and communities through critical dialogue shaped by the work of Native artists themselves;
• make Seattle Rep available to Native artists in a way that creates a space more explicitly inviting to Native community members. 

Seattle Rep’s Native Artist-in-Residence program is available to any person who identifies as American Indian or Alaska Native and who lives in or around King County – or on any reservation or tribal boundary in western Washington regardless of county – with the ability to have consistent connection with Seattle Rep. The artist will be selected by a committee of Seattle Rep engagement and artistic staff, along with local Native consultants. Seattle Rep plans to announce the Native Artist-in-Residence recipient in early September.

For program details and timelines, or to apply, please visit Seattle Rep online here >> 

LAND ACKNOWLEDGMENT 

Seattle Rep acknowledges that it sits on the traditional land of the Coast Salish people, including the Duwamish People past and present. We honor with gratitude the land itself and the Duwamish Tribe. This acknowledgment does not take the place of authentic relationships with Indigenous communities, but serves as a first step in honoring the land we are on. 

To explore the other ways in which Seattle Rep is working to support and build relationships with Native artists, organizations, and individuals, please visit us here >> 

ABOUT SEATTLE REP 

Seattle Rep puts theater at the heart of public life. Founded in 1963 and winner of the 1990 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre, Seattle Rep is currently led by Artistic Director Braden Abraham and Managing Director Jeffrey Herrmann. Over a season and throughout the year, Seattle Rep collaborates with extraordinary artists to create productions and programs that reflect and elevate the diverse cultures, perspectives, and life experiences of the Pacific Northwest. Seattle Rep’s nationally recognized programs include the New Play Program, Seattle Rep’s Public Works, the August Wilson Monologue Competition, Pay What You Choose ticketing options, and numerous audience enrichment and engagement opportunities including post-play panels, discussions, and community events and presentations.

Seattle Rep has always been committed to supporting new work from playwrights, directors, composers, and more. Through extensive commissioning initiatives and its new play development lab, The Other Season, Seattle Rep offers artists the resources they need to bring the next great play to life. Recent and notable commissions that have been produced on Seattle Rep’s stages include Pullman Porter Blues, Lizard Boy, The Great Society, A Great Wilderness, and an adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles. Seattle Rep’s recently-announced commissioning initiatives 20x30: Reimagining the Anthropocene and New Directions represent the largest, most sustainable, consistent, and robust commissioning programs in the theater’s history.

Seattle Rep staff are actively examining and dismantling the systems of oppression that exist within our organization on a personal and company-wide level. To learn more about this ongoing commitment to racial equity and social justice, and some of our action items, please visit us here >>

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