The theatre industry and drama schools are embracing “plus-size inclusivity training” to combat “fatphobia” and promote a more ‘inclusive’ environment for fat people. The Telegraphhas the details.
Ruth Anna Phillips, a “plus-size director” who runs workshops to address “anti-fat bias”, told the Stage earlier this month that “one drama school had already agreed to provide the size inclusion training for its staff.”
The training was devised “following research carried out by Ms. Phillips, which she said showed that nine out of 10 respondents felt teachers and facilitators should have training on size inclusion”, according to the weekly theatre newspaper.
Ms. Phillips is co-founder of Inclusion Collective, an organisation that provides training in “creative wellbeing”, “body positivity” and “inclusive movement”, among other areas. Her website contains resources on “fat activism” – “advocacy for the rights and dignity of fat people, combating discrimination” and “the body consciousness scale”, among other materials.
Phillips said she has been “able to solidify and archive her work” thanks to Arts Council England’s (ACE) “developing your creative practice grant” (DYCP), funded by the National Lottery.
Buzzing to announce my DYCP ‘Body Acceptance & Inclusion’ was successful
Thanks to @ace_national I can now formalise my work on making theatre more inclusive of diverse body shapes & embed an understanding of body image & fatphobia
Please share and follow for updates
— Ruth Anna Phillips (@ruthphillips100) April 3, 2023
ACE records show she was awarded £10,479 last year, which she used to develop her project “body acceptance and inclusion”. …
On Tuesday, Ms. Phillips visited Battersea Arts Centre, where she ran a “focus group for plus-size performers”. Pictures show participants engaged in a writing exercise, followed by pieces of paper with words on them such as “curvaceous”, “burly”, “fat”, “stocky” and “portly”.
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