Following an inaugural summit in 2024, RISE Theatre (Representation, Inclusion, & Support for Employment) has scheduled a return with the second annual RISE Summit, a community-building gathering for theater change makers set for Sept. 9 at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts starting at 10:00 a.m.
The 2025 RISE Summit will feature panels led by RISE network partners Axis Dance Company, Dance Data Project, Invest in Access, the Harriet Tubman Effect Institute, Expand the Canon, Parity Productions and Women Count. The panels will focus on this year’s theme of pathways to access and will cover topics that include but are not limited to access practices for theater makers and patrons, data as advocacy and resource sharing as a point of access.
Opening remarks will be made by the executive director of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Roberta Pereira, and the director of RISE, Victoria Detres. A conversation with award-winning theater artist Ryan J. Haddad (“Hold Me in the Water,” “Dark Disabled Stories”) will conclude the day. Tickets are available through this link.
This RISE Summit will bring together the current 57 national RISE Network partners and fellow theater makers to centralize conversations around accessible practices to include in the theatrical industry and at large. The RISE Summit will host, in addition to the speakers, panels and networking opportunities designed to equip attendees with the tools and connections they need to further their careers. RISE Theatre is a program co-founded by Maestra Music, the Miranda Family Fund and Lin-Manuel Miranda.
“At Maestra, our programming aims to promote equal opportunity, and access is a vital part of this equation,” said Detres in a statement. “We wanted to look into the ways in which the industry is still upholding barriers to access with disability and opportunity. This is a community-focused event where leaders in access and resource building will have a platform to share their expertise with those eager to learn how we can all show up with more intentionality and care.”
RISE seeks to build a more equitable and inclusive theater industry by centralizing diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility tools and resources through a network of partners and a national personnel directory, serving all theater professionals but intentionally designed to amplify folks from underrepresented backgrounds, including but not limited to people of color, women, trans, nonbinary, deaf and disabled theater professionals.
For more information about RISE Theatre, click here.
