Check out my latest interview in American Theatre Magazine

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You've Got to Be Taught: Cultural Competency in Theatre Training

The convergence of the pandemic of COVID-19 and the resurgent Black Lives Matter movement has theatre training programs expanding their learning methods this semester -and overhauling their curricula. As COVID caseloads rise and presidential election looms, teachers are tasked with the education and care of students, mostly through a screen.

Kaja Dunn is an intimacy professional, Equity arts  consultant and an Associate professor at Carnegie Mellon University and affiliate faculty for Theatrical Intimacy Education, and she is an actor, director, and activist. She has performed nationally and internationally in over 40 productions.
Intimacy work includes The Best Man, Harlem, The Equalizer, Strange Loop (Broadway), St. Louis Rep, Penumbra Theatre, Two River Theatre,  A.C.T (Seattle), Denver Center, The Folger Shakespeare Theatre, Arena Theatre, among others.
She has been invited to consult or present on issues of Equity and Diversity for Folger Shakespeare , Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Arizona State University, The American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Elon College, Association of Theatre in Higher Education, UConn, South Eastern Theatre Conference, San Diego Rep, Blumenthal Performing Arts, Actor’s Equity Association, Key Intimate Scenes (Australia), Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, Spelman College, Emory University, The Women’s Theatre Festival, MICHA, North Carolina Theatre Association (Keynote Panelist), George Mason University (keynote July 2020), Children’s Theatre Charlotte as well as for schools and private corporations. She has published in the us and has two co-authored publications coming out in the UK one for a new Arden Research Companion to Shakespeare and Contemporary Performance on Decolonizing Shakespeare in performance and another for the Theatre, Dance and Performance Training’s Special “Against the Canon”, Training Theatre Students of Color in the USA. Dunn has presented her work on Equity, Diversity and inclusion as well as Anti-Racism and Decolonization at University of London Goldsmiths, SETC and SETC Theatre Symposium, KCATF and The Association of Theatre in Higher Education, among other places. She is on the Board as assistant secretary of the Black Theatre Network.  Her primary research focus is on using theatre to facilitate complex cultural conversation and Reimagining Theatre Training for Actors of Color.
You can follow her on Twitter where she frequently posts about EDI issues under the handle @KajaDunn. 

Testimonials

"Kaja has become an integral facet of my strategy for helping members to understand how race and ethnicity affect them as actors or stage managers and as participants in the society at large. She makes nuanced and difficult concepts digestible all while empowering the learner to take personal responsibility and specific action to right the racial injustices they see around them. Her teaching style is just the right balance of gentle and driving to get people with various levels of knowledge in the area cooperating to counteract the race-based systems of marginalization among them."
-Bliss Griffin, Actor's Equity, BFA, MBA, National Diversity & Inclusion Strategist


​"Ms. Dunn's presentation was expertly researched, prepared and presented. She shared with ease and specificity the importance of serving BIPoC students in the classroom...Her skills as a performer translate effectively in her ability to present her research dynamically and effectively. We look forward to a continued relationship with Ms. Dunn and eagerly await news of future publications and research projects."
- Jessica Cerullo, MICHA, Artistic Director

"Thank you for your spectacular keynote address for George Mason University’s Virtual Emergency Conference on Undergraduate Theatre Education. As I shape my Fall classes I find myself thinking back to your proposal to treat the classroom as a research laboratory and invite the students to be collaborators in that space. This strikes me as an ideal way to keep students interested and engaged in our online work this semester."
-Sherrice Mojgani, GMU

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