Our First coLAB PRIDE Celebration, in Collaboration with Diversionary Theatre and San Diego Pride

THE OLD GLOBE Presents Our First coLAB PRIDE Celebration, in Collaboration with Diversionary Theatre and San Diego Pride, Featuring Live-Streamed Short Plays by SHAIRI ENGLE, JAIME ESTEPA, KATHERINE HARROFF, and MIKI VALE, with Additional Material Created by Teen-Versionary and the Stonewall Salon

Special Sneak Peek on Saturday, July 18 and Live Performances on Sunday, July 19, Both During San Diego Virtual Pride Festival

SAN DIEGO (July 1, 2020)—The Old Globe’s first coLAB PRIDE Celebration, in collaboration with Diversionary Theatre and San Diego Pride, will feature live-streamed performances of short plays by LGBTQ+ playwrights Shairi Engle, Jaime Estepa, Katherine Harroff, and Miki Vale, with additional material created by Teen-Versionary and the Stonewall Salon—two of Diversionary’s arts education programs serving teenagers and the older generation, under the direction of Diversionary’s Director of Arts Education and Outreach and this event’s co-producer, Skyler Sullivan. These will be performed live during the San Diego Virtual Pride Festival on July 18 and 19 by professional actors as well as featured select participants from Diversionary’s Virtual Summer Acting Program and the Silver Squad. Join us in this groundbreaking collaboration with Diversionary Theatre and San Diego Pride with a special sneak peek on Saturday, July 18 andthe complete performances on Sunday, July 19 from 2:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. PDT onThe Old Globe Arts Engagement Facebook and The Old Globe YouTube, as well as on the digital platforms for the San Diego Virtual Pride Festival.

For more information on the San Diego Virtual Pride Festival schedule, please visit https://sdpride.org. For more information on Diversionary’s Virtual Summer Acting Program, please refer to www.diversionary.org/teenversionary.

“The history of Pride is long and rich,” shared Freedome Bradley-Ballentine, The Old Globe’s Director of Arts Engagement. “Born from the ashes of the Stonewall uprising in 1969, Pride has been instrumental in advancing human rights for not only the LGBTQ+ community but for all of society. In these times we need PRIDE more than ever. The Globe is honored to be a part of the San Diego Virtual Pride Festival, partnering with Diversionary Theatre, to make theatre that matters for those that seek Pride beyond our physical boarders.”

“Diversionary is thrilled to partner with San Diego Pride and The Old Globe this year to create some fresh content that reflects San Diego’s diverse voices,” stated Skyler Sullivan, Director of Arts Education and Outreach at Diversionary Theatre. “This year, our arts education programs serving teens and older adults focused on creating original material honoring this year's festival theme: ‘Together We Rise.’ We hope you enjoy it, and happy Pride!”

Additionally, Matt M. Morrow, Diversionary Theatre’s Executive Artistic Director, affirmed, “The San Diego theatre and not-for-profit community have always been exceptionally collaborative. The partnership we have forged between The Old Globe's coLAB program, San Diego Pride, and Diversionary will go a long way in bringing greater visibility to the unique story of the LGBTQ+ family. Diversity is central to who we are, and I'm ecstatic for this to be on full display at this year's Virtual Pride Festival.”

The coLAB workshops are a program of The Old Globe’s Department of Arts Engagement. coLAB is focused on the collaborative art-making process between community members and artists, uniting storytelling and playmaking. The goal is to develop original pieces and showcase them in established community festivals.

coLAB is supported by a grant from The James Irvine Foundation, with additional financial support provided by The City of San Diego.

NOTE: All in-person Globe productions and events have been postponed until further notice; all dates are subject to change. In the meantime, the Globe develops and presents a wide array of free online programs to continue reaching the San Diego community. These include the world premiere of Bill Irwin’s In-Zoom, available now on our YouTube channel and our website; On Book: The Old Globe’s Shakespeare Reading Group; a free commissioned short-plays project Play At Home; outreach from familiar Globe artists in Act Breaks and Flashbacks; The Old Globe Coloring Book; and Soap It Up with students from The Old Globe and University of San Diego Shiley Graduate Theatre Program. Barry Edelstein continues his hit presentation Thinking Shakespeare Live!and a special ongoing series Thinking Shakespeare Live: Sonnets!

The indefatigable Arts Engagement Department has pivoted several community-based projects online and has created new programs. Included are weekly offerings of Playwrights Unstuck with Globe-commissioned playwrights; The Living Room Play Workshop; collaborative program Word Up!; Community Voices playwriting workshop; and Behind the Curtain and its offshoots, the Spanish-language Detrás del Telón and Behind the Curtain: Technical Assistance forum. Globe to Go videos, a part of School in the Park, are online, as is Reflecting Shakespeare TV, a digital version of the transformative initiative. The popular Pam Farr Summer Shakespeare Studio moves online this year, and is joined by new program Creative Youth Studio and Theatre Design Studio.

Follow us on www.TheOldGlobe.org for schedules and updates!
An updated guide to our free online theatre programs,
as well as videos of those programs, are available here.
You can also watch our videos on our YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/user/TheOldGlobe.
Please contact Public Relations Associate Lucía Serrano
for high-res visuals for media usage, or visit https://bit.ly/3eXTZyE.

PHOTO EDITORS: Additional digital images of The Old Globe’s productions are available at www.TheOldGlobe.org/Press-Room.

The Tony Award–winning The Old Globe is one of the country’s leading professional not-for-profit regional theatres. Now in its 85th year, the Globe is San Diego’s flagship performing arts institution, and it serves a vibrant community with theatre as a public good. Under the leadership of Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Barry Edelstein and Managing Director Timothy J. Shields, The Old Globe produces a year-round season of 16 productions of classic, contemporary, and new works on its three Balboa Park stages, including its internationally renowned Shakespeare Festival. More than 250,000 people annually attend Globe productions and participate in the theatre’s artistic and arts engagement programs. Its nationally prominent Arts Engagement Department provides an array of participatory programs that make theatre matter to more people in neighborhoods throughout the region. Humanities programs at the Globe and around the city broaden the community’s understanding of theatre art in all its forms. The Globe also boasts a range of new play development programs with professional and community-based writers, as well as the renowned The Old Globe and University of San Diego Shiley Graduate Theatre Program. Numerous world premieres—such as 2014 Tony Award winner for Best Musical A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, Bright Star, The Full Monty, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,and Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas!—have been developed at The Old Globe and have gone on to highly successful runs on Broadway and at regional theatres across the country.

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Advance interviews are available with Director of Arts Engagement Freedome Bradley-Ballentine
and Arts Engagement Programs Manager Katherine Harroff,
as well as with the playwrights.
Please contact Lucía Serrano to arrange at
lserrano@TheOldGlobe.org or (619) 386-2513.

CAST AND CREATIVE TEAM BIOGRAPHIES for coLAB’s PRIDE Celebration

Shairi Engle (Playwright) is a teaching artist with the literary non-profit So Say We All (SSWA), an organization that helps individuals tell their true stories. She's also a member of the Veteran’s Playwriting Workshop (VPW) at La Jolla Playhouse. Her first commissioned site-specific play made its debut this October in the Without Walls (WOW) Festival. Shairi’s first full length play, TAMPONS, DEAD DOGS, AND OTHER DISPOSABLE THINGS won the 2019 Bridge Award and received professional readings at The Public (NYC) and La Jolla Playhouse. Shairi also created “The Fingerprint Project” - a community engagement activity that addresses the silence surrounding sexual violence. This project is expanding into a podcast that will help people break their own silence, with continued support after they’ve told their story. Having discovered her own voice through the arts, Shairi’s work is driven by her deep personal understanding that storytelling can save lives.

Jaime Estepa (Playwright) is a higher-education professional and spoken-word poet. He has been a featured performer in venues from Historic Filipinotown in Los Angeles, to CSU Fullerton in Orange County, and in San Diego spaces like Encinitas City Hall, Verbatim Books, Skyline Hills Library, and La Jolla Playhouse. As a UC San Diego undergraduate, he co-wrote the full-length play Kaluluwafor the university’s annual Pilipinx Cultural Celebration. He has written two plays through the Community Voices program.

Katherine Harroff (Playwright, Producer) is an Arts Engagement Programs Manager with The Old Globe and a local playwright and director. She developed the Community Voices playwriting program in 2012, and in 2016 she spearheaded the first coLAB workshop performance project. In addition, she is the program manager for the free AXIS performing arts series, and creator of the online programs Playwrights Unstuck and The Living Room Play Workshop.  She is the Founding Director for the production company Circle Circle dot dot and is a 2019 commissioned playwright with The Old Globe.

Skyler Sullivan (Co-Producer, Devising Artist of the Production) is an actor/director/ and arts educator transplanted from New York. While in NYC, he worked with The New Victory Theatre for ten years as a veteran teaching artist, where he honed his skills as a curriculum developer, and facilitator. Other NYC teaching credits include: The Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute, the Professional Performing Arts School, and on-set coaching on two P.B.S. shows: Sesame Street and The Electric Company. Skyler is thrilled to be working with Diversionary Theatre as it continues its tradition of arts education and outreach. Currently in San Diego he also teaches for The Old Globe, and The La Jolla Playhouse. Skyler also works as a therapeutic clown with Healthy Humor, a non profit serving chronically and terminally ill kids and their families. Education: B.F.A. in acting Emerson College, M.F.A. in Acting Brooklyn College.

Miki Vale (Playwright) is an international Hip Hop artist, Teaching Artist and commissioned playwright with San Diego's Old Globe Theatre. She has co-created physical and virtual spaces for women’s presence and engagement, exploring the impact of Hip Hop culture on race, class, and gender. In 2016 and 2018 she was the DJ and sound designer for The Old Globe’s Globe for All Tour.

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