May 23-25, 2025
Silk Moth Stage is thrilled to present the Radical Welcome Symposium in collaboration with Bridgewater College Theatre, the Wayne Theatre, and the American Shakespeare Center. This in-person symposium is a national gathering to bring together thought-leaders dedicated to creating welcoming and inclusive theater workplaces.
This is not just a gathering of advocacy organizations or activists; those attending include leaders who are local-famous for creating great work environments in their high school theater programs and people who represent huge organizations and have made major changes for parent artists across the country. This symposium will gather theater makers from all over the US, in K-12, college, community, and professional theaters, to align efforts, share tools, accelerate the pace of change, and accelerate the change already underway in our industry. The invitation is not just to people who have formal leadership roles in their organizations. We believe that everyone has a responsibility, a role to play, and a contribution to make toward making theater work.
Locations
The symposium will take place in Bridgewater (Bridgewater College Theatre, Silk Moth Stage), Staunton (American Shakespeare Center), and Waynesboro (Historic Wayne Theatre), Virginia.
Due to the nature of these sessions, which will be discussion-driven, we will not be able to offer an online option.
We are encouraging people book hotel rooms at Hotel 24 South, in Staunton, Virginia, using our discounted room rate. The room block we reserved is for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night, but if you are coming on Thursday, let us know before you book and we’ll call the hotel and extend it for you.
If you choose to stay somewhere else, please be aware that we will be gathering at Hotel 24 South to travel to each of the activities.
Costs
Registration is a flat fee of $200.
This cost does not include most meals—coffee and snacks throughout, and dinner on Saturday evening, are covered in the registration fee. We made this decision to create better cost flexibility for attendees.
The registration fee also includes all show tickets.
If you have already registered, you can submit your payment here.
FAQ
What is the goal of this symposium?
The theater industry is in a time of intense and positive change. Across the industry, practitioners are advocating for a variety of reforms, including mental health awareness, gender equity, disability access, pay transparency, and more. However, we have all been working in our own siloed corners. We are making progress, but slowly.
The Radical Welcome Symposium is bringing together activists to generate a shared set of goals, vocabulary, and tools. We will leave the symposium with an action plan to radically renovate our industry, working together, no longer chipping away at our separate corners.
How can I help?
The most important way you can help is by registering early. We haven’t ever done this event before, and it is extremely challenging to plan without knowing how many people are coming!
We also are hoping that some attendees will help us out with transportation and/or leading a session. Your support in these areas will help us keep costs down.
Is this an invitation-only event?
Yes and no. We’re calling it a “network-invitation” event.
Because this is a “share-in,” a way to use the knowledge in the room to build greater knowledge, we are not broadly publicizing this event. We want to keep it exclusively to people who are actively doing the work to create better theater workplaces. This includes people who are working in disability and caregiver access, racial and gender equity, pay equity, intimacy direction, production management (with an emphasis on safe and supportive practices for stage technicians), and more.
If you are reading this, it is because someone who is already committed to attending admires your work in the world and wants your voice in this room. You are welcome to invite other people within your network—please do!
We hope to host a conference in two years, which will be a “share-out” event—people who are interested in doing this kind of work would come and attend sessions run by people who are already experienced in it, to provide them with tools to begin this journey. We will widely and loudly publicize that event.
This symposium, however, is for the people who are already up to their elbows in it.
Where does “Radical Welcome” come from?
The phrase comes from the Rev. Canon Stephanie Spellers’ 2006 book Radical Welcome: Embracing God, The Other, and the Spirit of Transformation, which challenged houses of worship to an honest reckoning of whether and how they were truly welcoming places. Theaters are sacred spaces of a different sort. When we were trying to find a phrase to describe the many kinds of inclusion we think theaters should embrace, from caregiver access to consent work to pay equity, radical welcome was the one that came to us, as encompassing all of that, and also the things we haven’t thought of yet.
What is Take 5?
Take 5 is a policy and practice framework created by the Silk Moth Stage Artistic Director, Aili Huber to move theaters toward better workplace practices. It provides practical, actionable tools to help theaters create better work, faster, with more joy and less burnout. This project stands on the shoulders of all the movements toward inclusivity in the theater community. Conversations that have arisen out of Take 5 sessions are a big part of what prompted her to call this symposium.
What is a “dine around”?
It’s a concept we’re borrowing from the Shakespeare Theater Association conference. Basically, we will reserve tables for 8-10 at various restaurants in each town, generate a discussion topic or interest group, and invite people to sign up for a slot. This allows us to encourage people to share meals and engage with each other, while also removing the complexity of finding places for a large group to eat every meal. We also will be including restaurants at a variety of price points so that people can accommodate their budgetary needs.
What precautions are planned for COVID safety?
COVID has done nothing but throw our industry a pile of curve balls. This plan may change if there is a spike in COVID numbers (or other illness). For the past couple of years, COVID rates have generally been at the lowest for the whole year in late May. At the present moment, our plan is as follows:
- We are encouraging everyone to make sure that you are up-to-date on your vaccines.
- If you’re traveling via plane or train, please consider masking during your travel.
- Every break-out and dining session will have at least one outdoor option, weather permitting. If the weather is uncooperative, these sessions will be in a very large room, relative to the number of people. If you have a particularly high level of concern about COVID safety, and there is a breakout you are especially interested in, let us know which one that is and we will endeavor to make that an outdoor (or very large room) session.
- With possibly one exception, all of the full-group sessions will be in theaters at 25% or less capacity.
- One of the vans that we will use for transportation from hotel to theaters will be designated as a masked van.
- We are looking into getting UV air purifiers for the spaces.
Is discounted registration available?
A few people have asked whether we can offer a discounted rate, and a few others have offered to contribute to support people who have a financial need. We are presenting this symposium basically at-cost; the host theaters are donating spaces and discounting show tickets. The organizing is done by volunteers. We are basically not able to lower the price further. That said, we do very much appreciate the generosity of those who have offered to support others. We’re going to wait until late April, about a month before the symposium, to see how the needs and offers balance out, and then we will let people who have requested this kind of support know what we have available. If you are interested in supporting somebody’s cost of attendance, or if you are in need of support, please let us know.
Schedule
This is a draft, and subject to change, but we wanted to share it to help you imagine the shape of the event.
Most events are included in the registration cost. The only exception is the “dine-arounds,” where we will make reservations at a variety of restaurants (different styles and price points), and you will pay for your own meal.
If a session or dine-around doesn’t have someone’s name by it, it’s because I’ve sent an invitation but am waiting to hear back – if they are not up for it, we will substitute it with something else, TBA.
Friday, May 23:
12:15 – Van from Hotel 24 South to The Wayne
1:00-1:45 – Welcome and orientation
What are we all doing here? What’s the hoped-for outcome of this event? What are some ground rules?
Introduction to the Wayne – its organizational context, its goals, its challenges. Also maybe a building tour.
2-2:50 – “Family Tree” activity (Aili Huber)
We all stand on the soldiers of giants. As a group, we’ll map our artistic and activist family trees, and then share and compare. Maybe you’ll find a new “giant” to explore. Maybe you’ll find a “cousin.” Maybe you are on somebody’s tree.
3-3:50 – Ethical Leadership: Mottos and Morals (Lesley Larsen)
How are we identifying our ethics as leaders (and, to be clear, we are using a very broad definition of “leader”—regardless of organizational structure, people are probably looking to you, whether you know it or not)? How do we clearly and concisely communicate our moral framework?
4-4:50 – Tool Sharing
Some attendees have tools they would like to offer the group; we’re going to set up some stations where everyone can go visit them for demonstrations and discussions
5-7 – Dine-around in Waynesboro
Groups will unpack the following “thorny questions”:
- In the age of Trump 2.0, how do we talk about what we do without setting off warning bells? (Andrew Roblyer)
- How can we move beyond performative gestures in terms of accessibility? (Maria Porto)
- How can we build work schedules with wellness in mind? (Brian Smallwood)
- And also a casual conversation option
7-8: Midsummer Nights Dream by The Wayne’s ReperTOURy Company
8:30 – Van back to Hotel 24 South
Saturday, May 24:
9 – Van from Hotel 24 South to Bridgewater College
9:30-10 – Coffee & snacks
10-10:45 – Welcome and check-in (Scott Cole)
Introduction to Theatre at Bridgewater College. Reporting and reflection from Friday’s events and conversations.
11-12 – People Over Possessions (Elizabeth Wislar)
How can we create radical welcome by examining our budgetary structures?
12-2 – Dine-around in Bridgewater
Groups will unpack the following “thorny questions”:
- How do we dismantle “This is how we have always done it?” (Cary Gillett)
- How to balance performer needs in the same space; if they need such different things, how do you accommodate everyone? (Monica Flory)
- Possibly one more.
- And also a casual conversation option
2-5:20 – Breakout sessions
The breakout sessions will consist of about half an hour of one person sharing a practical tool, skill, or framework, and half an hour of group discussion on similar tools; how one might apply that tool to one’s own context; and expansion of that tool.
2-3 – Breakout Session 1
- Emancipatory and Abolitionist Pedagogical Practices (Kate Powers)
- Creating Accessible Programming in Existing Theater Institutions (Maria Porto)
3:10-4:10 – Breakout Session 2
- “Networking,” Strategic Positioning, and Inter-Company Collaboration (Katherine Mayberry)
- Communicating Safety and Inclusion (Without Just Saying It) (Heather Wallen)
4:20-5:20 – Breakout Session 3
- Rebuilding Trust in Creatives Who Have Experienced Harm (Aili Huber)
- Building the Ensemble with Storytelling and Other Practices of Care (Heidi Winters Vogel)
5:30 – Van from Bridgewater College to Silk Moth Stage
6-7 – Picnic dinners and music by the Lua Project
7-8:30 – The Last Wide Open at Silk Moth Stage
8:30-9:30 – S’mores!
9:30 – Vans to Hotel 24 South
Sunday, May 25:
9 – “Walking van” from Hotel 24 South to MBU at the Wharf (It’s about six blocks; we will also have an actual van option)
9:30-10 – Coffee & snacks
10-10:30 – Welcome and check-in
An introduction to the American Shakespeare Center and to Mary Baldwin University’s Shakespeare & Performance MLitt/MFA program.
10:30-11:30 – Ensemble building in practice – Stickwork technique (Jemma Levy)
11:30 -12:30 – Roadmap (Corey Holmes)
Where do we go from here? The goal of this session is to generate shared vocabulary, standards, goals, and commitments to radically renovate our industry, at every level.
12:30-2 – Dine-around in Staunton
We may just do freeform discussion; we may generate question groups out of the work of the weekend.
2-4 – Sense and Sensibility at the American Shakespeare Center
4 – Celebratory gelato at the Split Banana if anyone wants some (I will be going there immediately after the play)
Productions
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, performed at the historic Wayne Theatre
In A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, the real and fairy worlds collide. Let Shakespeare’s enchanting comedy transport you! Dive into a magical forest where love, mischief, and transformation abound as two young couples and a troupe of amateur actors fall prey to the whims of fairies.
The Last Wide Open, performed at Silk Moth Stage
In THE LAST WIDE OPEN, by Audrey Cefaly, Lina and Roberto’s lives intersect and parallel as three alternate realities unfold. The play renders the near hits and near misses that are the realities of this worn out waitress and immigrant dishwasher as well as the mystical ways the universe conspires to bring us all together.
Sense and Sensibility, performed at the American Shakespeare Center
Love, heartbreak, and the power of sisterhood in Austen’s most beloved tale, in an adaptation by Emma Whipday.
About the Hosting Theaters
Silk Moth Stage
Silk Moth Stage is a small professional company producing “new classics”: The highest truths, universally told, with healing powers. Programming primarily new work, Silk Moth Stage endeavors to create a theatrical experience that invites the audience and artists into a relationship. They share picnics and music before the show, s’mores afterward, and in between, go on an imagination-driven journey together.
Bridgewater College Theatre
Bridgewater College Theatre is a small college theater department, chaired by Dr. Scott Cole. The department produces work that challenge and expand students’ concept of theater, from site-specific works to plays that place the audience on stage. In the past 15 years, they have been honored to have two productions invited to the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival.
Wayne Theatre
The Wayne Theatre is a performance venue located in Waynesboro, Virginia. Since 2016, they have been a welcoming space for students, opening the doors for more than 14,000 Pre-K to adult students for their Arts Education program. In addition to creating a full roster of community theater productions, they host a variety of programs, including movie nights, touring musicians, and scientific lectures. Recently, they launched a professional touring repertory. The Wayne “is dedicated to supporting, fostering, and encouraging a collaborative, inclusive, consent-based theatre community.”
American Shakespeare Center
The American Shakespeare Center (ASC) is located in Staunton, Virginia. At the American Shakespeare Center, our mission is to advance understanding, imagination, and community by illuminating Shakespeare through performance, research, and education in the Blackfriars Playhouse and beyond. Since its founding, ASC has served as a beacon of artistic innovation, empowering education, building community, and fostering accessibility. We’re a theatre where you become part of the performance.
Shakespeare and Performance at Mary Baldwin University
Mary Baldwin University’s Shakespeare and Performance program is where the page meets the stage. This program, run in collaboration with the American Shakespeare Center, trains students in acting, directing, dramaturgy, and teaching, using the Blackfriars Playhouse as an inspiration and laboratory.
Silk Moth Stage 