Daviorr Snipes started at the Stratford Festival four months ago as its first Director of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI). Before arriving in Stratford, Daviorr served as Director of EDI at the Alliance Theater in Atlanta. In his present position his focus is on devising and implementing strategies to make the theater experience more attractive to racialized communities which in the past have not felt welcomed. We spoke about the need to extend this feeling of being treated as equals at the theater to everywhere in the city of Stratford. 

Daviarr shared many memories of his upbringing in Macon, Georgia and how at the age of 16, in an English class, even though he had never seen a play, he  suddenly had this irresistible desire to act in the play they were reading, which was Macbeth, instead of simply reading it. His love, he told me, was about the joy he received from telling stories, and having a communication with the audience where he got to talk about the most difficult, personal and joyful aspects of life with complete strangers every night and hopefully have the chance to show them a different way to see the world and the people in it through these stories. 

 

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