Table of Contents
Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
The Utah Shakespeare Festival is committed to the principles of justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion in everything we do. This requires our devotion to erase all traces of systemic racism, within our organization and everywhere else we can affect it.
Shakespeare wrote that “we know what we are, but not what we may be.” We resolve that the Festival may be fully anti-racist, embracing all people who have been under-represented on our stages and that we will be a theatre that depicts, investigates, and celebrates the lives and humanity of people who have suffered discrimination and persecution, in order to play our part in relieving the oppression that, sadly, continues to this day while also honoring the vast tapestry of humanity.
Indigenous Land Acknowledgement
The Utah Shakespeare Festival has both historical and contemporary relationships with Indigenous peoples. Given that Southern Utah has always been a gathering place for Indigenous peoples, we acknowledge that this Too’veep (land) is the traditional and ancestral homelands of the Nung’wu (Southern Paiutes). The Utah Shakespeare Festival recognizes the enduring relationship between many Indigenous peoples and their traditional homelands. We are grateful for the territory upon which we gather today; we respect Utah’s Indigenous peoples, the original stewards of this land; and we value our relationship with the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah. To this end, we acknowledge and honor the Tribe for its resilience, its deep connection to this land, and express our appreciation for the opportunity to live, learn, and enrich the lives of all those who gather on their homelands.
