Punctuate! Theatre is proud to publicly commit to the 35//50 Initiative. Amiskwacîwâskahikan (Edmonton) has an incredibly diverse civic landscape and this Initiative seeks to better reflect that in our professional arts landscape by hiring a minimum of 35% BIPOC and 50% gender-variant folx and women in paid positions. We are thrilled to join other Alberta based theatre companies in taking steps towards creating a more equitable, diverse, inclusive and accessible future in the performing arts.   

The 35//50 Initiative has asked all committed organizations to gather the statistics of their artistic and administrative team members who identify as women or gender minorities and those who identify as BIPOC. Punctuate! has tracked this information back to the 2017-18 theatre season when our current Artistic Director Matthew MacKenzie took over leadership of the company. Going forward, all paid artists/contractors will be provided with optional surveys to self-identify and our aggregate data collection will be updated on our website. 

We would like to extend our gratitude to the leaders of the 35//50 Initiative for this Call to Action. We encourage all Albertan professional and independent theatre companies to complete this actionable task of data collection and to take this opportunity to review their engagement with underrepresented communities.  

Read more about the 35//50 Initiative’s Call to Action here: https://www.3550initiative.com/