The Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival is committed to promoting inclusion and diversity in its leadership and through its programming. This commitment is essential to our educational mission of training and empowering the future artistic leadership in American theater.

We embrace the idea that diversity in experience and perspective makes our organization stronger and more relevant. To this end, we pledge to:

• Nurture talent in all areas of the theater based solely on merit and achievement
• Encourage discourse that affects positive change in the ways that under-represented groups are portrayed onstage
• Oppose acts of cultural appropriation and character depictions that deepen existing cultural divides
• Promote collegial exploration of new ideas, supported by a clear understanding of long-held artistic practices, fully respecting the communicated intentions of the playwright.
• Encourage production respondents to use inclusive language that affirms the variety of artistic choices generated by the diversity of perspectives that exist on college campuses across the country.