“Who are you as an artist?” That was the question I posed to the cast and creative team for this cabaret when we first started this process.

It took me a long time to understand what my identity as a person of color meant to my identity as a performer. Who was I as an artist? I felt as if I had to pick a side: was I going to be a performer who played characters that spoke to my roots or was I going to be a performer who played roles that spoke to my heart? It wasn’t until I transferred to GTA and became a member of the Color Alliance that I realized those two options weren’t at odds. I could play Latinas who had more in common with me than just their skin color. And I could also play characters who hadn’t been imagined as anything other than white before. And that is the realization that sparked this version of the Voices of Color Cabaret.

I wanted to create a performance opportunity for the students of color here at GTA to showcase who they are as artists, whatever that meant to them, regardless of how those roles have looked in the past. While the theatre world may still have much to learn in terms of finding true equity and inclusion, I hope that opportunities like this one allow the emerging generation of theatre professionals to better advocate for themselves and the roles they wish to be playing.