Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
We believe firmly that improv should be theater for everyone, regardless of race, gender, orientation, disability status, or background. We are working hard and constantly to live up to that ideal.
- Hosting and logistical support for improv festivals and forums elevating marginalized voices, like Black and Funny Improv Festival and Queer and Funny Improv Festival
- Hosting improv “jams” for marginalized groups, including a BIPOC Jam, a Queer Jam for LGBTQ+ improvisers, The Average Joes Jam for improvisers with disabilities, and an age 40+ Jam
- Providing widely available class scholarships with a short application process
- Maintaining open application for paid part-time bar, tech, and house management staff positions
- Tracking of student, staff, and performer demographics, to hold ourselves accountable and keep progressing
- Coaching and discussions with improv groups about improving representation and inclusion
- Information, prep, and support for creating welcoming auditions
- Outreach and support for independent producers and other local improv theaters as they seek to expand
- Periodic workshops on "hard topics," for all improvisers
- Workshops for non-improv institutions on Diversity and Inclusion
- A point of contact and advocacy for performers, students, and other community members who encounter inclusion challenges at HUGE
HUGE Theater believes that improv should be for everyone, regardless of race, gender, orientation, and socio-economic background. We believe in the power of improv as a positive force in creating a more equitable, just, and inclusive world. We are committed to living that ideal and to constantly growing as an example within the improv community of what being diverse, equitable, and anti-racist means. Not just because it is the right thing to do, but because improv as an art form will languish if it does not live up to that potential.
Working toward these ideals is the joyous responsibility of all of us working for HUGE Theater. We are lucky to have those efforts led by John Gebretatose, our Co-Executive Director and Director of Diversity and Inclusion, who joined HUGE leadership in 2016. John is an internationally sought-after improv instructor and inclusion advocate, and the co-founder of the Black and Funny Improv Festival, which now has several franchises across the United States.
John’s approach to the role has been to reshape improv spaces to make them more welcoming to a diversity of people, building trust and validity for improv within minority communities, while at the same time holding HUGE itself to task in living up to its ideals.