Blog post #1

Theatre is something I've been involved with since I can remember, and I have been an active participant in the theatre program here at Rock Canyon since I was a freshman. Additionally, I have performed in my community in youth theatre programs, cabarets, and non-profit fundraisers, and throughout these experiences I noticed differences in how directors cast their shows-- especially in regards to diversity. Some of my colleagues have had awful experiences with being cast in regards to their race, and the differences in how directors handle diversity in their shows led me to wonder what the education process was like for directors and educators when it comes to inclusive casting practices.

Inclusive casting processes have come to the forefront of media and theatre in the past few years, and there is a constant debate over whether some are more effective than others, whether they all are appropriate, or whether any of them are. The thing that is clear is that they are highly situational. This, coupled with my background in theatre and interest in how theatres foster inclusivity and diversity behind the table (or whether some do at all) led me to formulate my research question-- "Do inclusive practices hold stake in how reflective public high school’s diversity proportions are of that of their communities?" I am focusing on public high schools in the Denver Metro Area because that's the area with the most data I can pull from, and since they are educational they will be the most similarly regulated across the board.

Right now, I am working on curating my data and gathering all the information I can find on schools in the Denver Metro Area so that I can begin reaching out to directors of programs via email. Currently, I am organizing my schools on a spreadsheet with each page designating each district (seen below). For purposes of confidentiality, I've covered up the dates and show names of the schools. While I'm collecting this information, I am not planning on sharing show dates for the sake of research confidentiality.

The most recent step forward I've made in my research was getting approved by the Institutional Review Board to conduct research on human subjects. I've made some revisions on my project at their request and now am moving forward with a fully approved project! My consent forms and questionnaires are attached below.

Beyond that, my mentor Julia Dale has been incredibly helpful with helping me define diversity as it relates to my project. I'll be gathering research on all types of diversity, but as of now am planning to focus primarily on racial diversity as it pertains to educational theatre settings.

Above: This is a demonstration of how I'm orginizing my preliminary data search of musicals in the Denver Metro Area. Lots of my data here is blurred out for confidentiality purposes.