The innovative and award-winning Diversity Drama training approach incorporates live, interactive drama into diversity awareness programs with specially trained volunteers who act out short intercultural scenarios in order to stimulate audience discussion as part of a diversity awareness program or training program. Diversity Drama offers a powerful extension to traditional diversity awareness program by creating live high impact, real life situations that audience members witness, respond to, and discuss through facilitated discussion. Following each scenario, audience members ask questions of actors who remain in character and suggest better ways to handle conflicts and miscommunication. The engaging and non-threatening format of Diversity Drama assists audience members to identify any personal cultural assumptions or stereotypes and communication patterns that may sabotage personal relationships and workplace effectiveness.

What is so unique about this approach to diversity awareness training?

1.  Live drama is individualized, providing immediacy and program flexibility

2.  The format is high impact, participatory and entertaining

3.  Interactive dialogue engages audience who hear diverse perspectives

4.  Non-threatening environment is created which facilitates candid discussion and follow-up opportunities

5. Two-tier discovery process whereby audiences see culture through fresh lenses and volunteer actors deepen their sensitivity and interactive skills

6. Appropriate for all audiences (field tested and evaluated model)

7. Cost effective when trained dramatists become internal trainers

Created by Dr. Charlotte Hamlin when she was Director of Continuing Education at Guilford College (Greensboro, NC), the Diversity Drama model was developed in 1995 by a committee of human relations trainers, drama educators, and community leaders seeking to promote awareness and appreciation of cultural diversity and effective intercultural communication. A pilot program was launched in 1995-96 funded by a grant from the A T & T Foundation that tested and evaluated the Diversity Dramatist volunteer training program and presentation model. The copyright for Diversity Dramatist training model is shared by Dr. Hamlin and Guilford College.  Dr. Hamlin coordinates the program and customizes workshops and programs featuring the Diversity Dramatist model for audiences of all kinds for a fee. Although based in the Piedmont Triad area of North Carolina, Diversity Dramatist actors are available for presentations outside the region.

a) A comprehensive diversity awareness strategy for organizations that will quickly change organizational climate or interpersonal communication. However, it IS a highly effective training technique/tool that can be incorporated into a comprehensive program, particularly in the early stages,  to engender acceptance of the importance of understanding cultural diversity and the impact of diverse cultural perspectives on personal and work relations. 

b)  A media-based diversity program to elicit discussion of about culture diversity without live characters or audience interaction.

c) A tense diversity awareness approach that participants may feel is threatening or aimed at inducing blame, accusations or guilt in specific groups. The philosophy that underlies the Diversity Drama model format is that live, interactive drama with dialogue between audience members and actors brings to the surface provocative cultural issues and emotional responses that open people to see with fresh eyes the impact of cultural differences and social marginalization on individuals and organizations. Through identification with the actors, audience members become aware of the impact of cultural on their own mental processes and past actions... and they become receptive to changing their attitudes and behaviors. The non-threatening and non-coercive format generates lively discussion and raises issues without creating scapegoats or easy answers to complex social, political and economic issues of injustice and cultural misunderstanding.