About the Indigenous Performing Arts Residency
In fall 2023, the Arts Research Center and the Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies (TDPS) collaborated to create a multi-year Indigenous Performing Artist Residency (IPAR) program. The IPAR is a 3-year invitation to a local performing arts company working with Indigenous performers, whether playwrights, dancers, musicians, or performance artists, to:
- host one of their yearly performances by emerging Indigenous performing artists on campus at Berkeley
- support for their chosen artist to visit campus during the performance as an Artist-in-Residence
- a public talk, talk back, or artist lecture to support the work
- an opportunity for the artist to work with students in class visits, etc.
The mission of the IPAR program is to strengthen relationships with Indigenous community partners and to create ongoing financial and material support for upcoming Indigenous performing artists so that Native stories can be told on our campus now and into the future. It utilizes the longstanding collaborative partnership that ARC and TDPS have established with each other over many years, and utilizes both our units’ connections to local California theater and performing arts organizations off campus.
The program stems from the idea that embodied theater and performance practices are a site of historical remembering and knowledge production. The Indigenous Performing Artist Residency builds a relationship with a local performance company for multiple years, to premiere Native or Indigenous creative works in their theater/performance space. ARC and TDPS will then collaborate to reprise those artistic works in one of our campus performance spaces. During the presentation of the performance, the artist(s) will be invited to campus to meet with our community, give talks, engage with our students in a variety of ways that best support the artistic production.
The Bay Area's Alternative Theater Ensemble was chosen as Berkeley’s inaugural partnership company for the 2024-2026 period, and offers them the opportunity to workshop or present a play by an Indigenous playwright each spring on campus.
Alternative Theater Ensemble seeks to create a more just, equitable community by supporting the creative growth of theater artists from historically underrepresented communities, and telling stories that reflect the full complexity and diversity of our community. Their work centers the spiritual and emotional well-being of Black and Indigenous people, casting roles in ways that break stereotypes rather than reinforce them and creating opportunities for both established and emerging artists to learn and support each other in their craft.
– Read more about ATE
