HOOLIGAN's Commitment to Equity in the Arts

As an educational theater company, HOOLIGAN is committed to listening and learning from our BIPOC members and turning these lessons into actionable changes within our company. 

HOOLIGAN Participants Elect First Diversity & Inclusion Committee

December 2020
Open to all members of HOOLIGAN Theatre Company, HOOLIGAN held our first election for members of the new Diversity and Inclusion Committee last December. All three applicants were elected to lead the committee fully independent of senior staff. Their first actions have been to meet with the heads of various departments including IT, Development, and the Executive team to talk about ways to make HOOLIGAN more accessible. 

HOOLIGAN Theatre Company Endorses CA Prop 16

October 29, 2020
We acknowledge that removing the ban on affirmative action involving race-based or sex-based preferences allows for a more diverse student body and is essential to our commitment to upholding and uplifting BIPOC voices in our theatre company and the greater UCLA community.


Learn more at voteyesonprop16.org

"After HTC" BIPOC Alumni Panels

August 21-28, 2020

After HTC was a career series event for BIPOC members of the UCLA theatre and arts community. In collaboration with HOOLIGAN alumni Ari Garcia, this series of panels featured BIPOC HOOLIGAN alumni who are currently pursuing careers in various sectors of entertainment, education, and policy making. The daily panels hosted over Zoom covered a variety of topics such as "Being a BIPOC Actor in Today's Industry and the Cultural Power of Theatre" and "Translating Skills from HOOLIGAN into Advocacy, Policy, and Government." 

Our gracious panelists shared their stories with current members, described their experience advancing their careers, and offered an open conversation for questions and advice. Through this series, our alumni hoped to uplift BIPOC members of the HOOLIGAN community by prepping them with the necessary information to ensure their successful entry to the workforce. 

Music & Chilligan for The Okra Project

June 24, 2020

This Spring, we dedicated our quarterly open-mic night, Music and Chilligan, to The Okra Project. In their words:

"The Okra Project is a collective that seeks to address the global crisis faced by Black Trans people by bringing home cooked, healthy, and culturally specific meals and resources to Black Trans People wherever we can reach them." 

Through a night of music and community, we were able to raise a total of $3015 for The Okra Project, of which HOOLIGAN Theatre Company donated $1000. We thank our generous donors and all the HOOLIGANs who participated and performed. Special thanks to Jerell Briggs who helped organize the fundraising!

HTC in Solidarity with Black Lives Matter:
June 3, 2020
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HOOLIGAN Theatre Company unequivocally denounces all acts of racism, hate, and violence. We stand in solidarity with the demands of the Afrikan Student Union and the resolution passed by USAC addressing anti-blackness and police violence, and we denounce the use of the Jackie Robinson Stadium parking lot to hold protesters. We stand in solidarity with the Black community speaking out against the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, and all the other lives lost to police brutality. Black lives have been undermined, undervalued, and underrepresented both in our country and on the stage. The systems of our country have been created unequally and at the expense of Black lives. As we navigate this issue as a company, it is important that we check our privilege, acknowledge our role in perpetuating predominantly white spaces, and recognize the systems of inequality that organizations like ours have been complicit in. It is imperative that we support the Black members in our community and our organization. Words have power, but actions create change. As an organization we will hold ourselves accountable for our inaction in the past and for our actions in the future. We have to do better. We will do better. We will spend this time reflecting inward and creating a plan of action to see how we, as a company, can better support and amplify Black voices on stage and within our UCLA community. 

In solidarity,  
The Senior Staff Members of HOOLIGAN Theatre Company
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Emily Allendorf, Ethan Breaux, Jerell Briggs, Olivia Crawford, Nika Eskandari, Aubrey Gilman, Abby Green, Sadie Holzman, Miriam Kimsey, Emma Lauterbach, Kate Logan, Peyton Lumley, Jaya Mapleton, Katherine McLinden, Korina Moriarty, Jack Morris, Nick Pantoja, Laura Pasquale, Shelby Ravetch, Maggie Rubin, Apoorva Shukla, Kimberly Sklow, Katie Strawn, Dana Tankenbaum, Naomi Vann, Vivian Wall

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HOOLIGAN Theatre Company
PO Box 24943 Los Angeles, CA 90024
email: info@hooligantheatre.org
​phone:(310) 363-0482​