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How do you make theater anti-racist? Nicole Brewer has the answer: formulate a personal anti-racist ethos.

Currently a faculty member at the Yale School of Drama, Brewer spent more than nine years cultivating an inclusive method of theater training and practices, which she calls Conscientious Theatre Training (CTT). After working professionally as an actor and director, Brewer grew tired of superficial attempts at diversity and inclusion, and set out to revolutionize the approach to equity in the theater world. Her renowned CTT workshops feature theater games, anti-racist theory, self-reflection, and collaborative exercises that model what anti-racist theater looks like.

“I want to change how people train folks in acting,” says Brewer. “I ask people to find themselves first. Be clear about who you are and what your politic is and move from there.”

While earning her degree from Howard University, Brewer was exposed to a diverse theater community, with actors and playwrights from different cultures and backgrounds. After encountering racist pedagogy in her graduate program, Brewer felt compelled to design a program that taught theater staffers how to spot racism in theater settings and take action. Her formative work launched what is now a burgeoning anti-racist theater movement.

“It’s not enough to expose inequity, champion diversity, and educate people around issues of white supremacy. Instead we must gather the strength and courage to put volume to our complaints, abandon the failed promise of equity, diversity, and inclusion, and launch a new season of anti-racist theater practice,” she told American Theatre in 2019.

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Brewer became one of four producers of the COVID-19 freelance artist resource website. As a freelancer herself, she saw the need to support the livelihoods of freelance artists impacted by the pandemic and move the cultural economy closer to an anti-racist future.