Stories

Mentoring diversity in the arts

Red Beti Theatre is helping the next generation of producers find both their voices and their audience.

Hamilton’s only Indigenous, Black and People of Colour (IBPOC) theatre, Red Beti commissions and presents live performances created and written by Canadian IBPOC women. One of those women is Narika Reddy. In 2021, HCF provided a grant from the Alfred and Joan Robertshaw Fund for the theatre’s mentorship program, which saw this up-and-coming producer build her skills in project management, technical production, budgeting, grant writing, contract development and negotiation.

Under the guidance of artistic producer Claire Burns, Narika helped three playwrights develop their scripts and organized a staged reading of the pieces at the inaugural Decolonize Your Ears online festival—all during a global pandemic.

As Narika shared in a blog on the theatre’s website, “The challenges we faced were definitely out of the ordinary. I left with more knowledge in terms of adapting original ideas to newer ones, which would later serve our audience, sponsors and partners more efficiently.”

Excerpt from 2022 Fall Legacy newsletter