Overall Rating Silver
Overall Score 49.64
Liaison Adam Maurer
Submission Date March 31, 2021

STARS v2.2

Seattle Central College
IN-47: Innovation A

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 0.50 / 0.50 Adam Maurer
District Sustainability Coordinator
Office of Sustainability
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Name or title of the innovative policy, practice, program, or outcome:
Associate Degree Program Emphasis in Technical Theatre for Social Justice (TTSJ)

A brief description of the innovative policy, practice, program, or outcome that outlines how credit criteria are met and any positive measurable outcomes associated with the innovation:

Intiman Theatre and Seattle Central College (SCC) have formed a partnership that will offer a new associate degree program emphasis in Technical Theatre for Social Justice (TTSJ), as well as a residency for the Tony-award winning theatre. This new partnership provides a home for Intiman’s professional productions at Seattle Central’s Broadway Performance Hall and The Erickson Theatre Off-Broadway. Intiman’s administrative offices, costume and scene shops, and rehearsals have also been relocated to the SCC campus, which is centrally located in Capitol Hill.

This new associate program emphasis is a unique community partnership that connects a curriculum degree emphasis with a community need. In addition to creating a unique partnership, this degree emphasis fills a need to create programs to recruit students of color and focus on social justice issues. Over half of students enrolled at SCC are students of color, and alum of the STARFISH Project are over 70% students of color. The field of technical theatre has historically lacked people of color in its ranks, and Intiman and SCC are committed to creating an equitable and accessible pathway to paid jobs for these students.

International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) is the labor union that represents technical workers for theatre, film and television, concert venues and more. The TTSJ degree emphasis will provide the necessary training and apprenticeship hours to apply to join IATSE upon graduation, leveling the playing field for people of color and eliminating one of the key barriers to access: getting the chance to apprentice.

The new TTSJ associate program emphasis is designed to provide a next step for the high school students in Intiman’s STARFISH Project, a free after school technical theatre training program that has been offered in South Seattle high schools for the past five years. Graduates of Seattle Public Schools are eligible to enroll in the Seattle Promise initiative to receive free tuition and support services.

"We look forward to working with Intiman to provide students with a pathway into the world of technical theater. This partnership is a vivid model of how to better serve our students and how to close the opportunity gaps in our community,” said Dr. Sheila Edwards Lange, the President of Seattle Central College.

The new degree emphasis begins in the fall quarter of 2021, and applications are now live. Intiman worked closely with the faculty of Seattle Central College to develop the curriculum which offers learning in technical theatre elements including costumes & properties fabrication, stage lighting, electrics, projections, audio engineering, and scenic carpentry & painting.


A letter of affirmation from an individual with relevant expertise or a press release or publication featuring the innovation :
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The website URL where information about the innovation is available :
Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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