The Berkeley Rep School of Theatre Will Launch DIG IN

The Berkeley Rep School of Theatre will launch DIG IN, Berkeley Rep's new digital initiative that provides school communities across California with no-cost digital access to professionally captured performances and interactive experiences and provides an online creative community for emerging artists in all genres. DIG IN has two components-the Digital Library and the Virtual Stage - that provide expanded accessibility to professional theatre and inspire creativity in the next generation of artists.

"Berkeley Rep is committed to our values of innovation, equity, and discovery," said Tom Parrish, Berkeley Repertory Theatre's managing director. "DIG IN will provide students and teachers with incredible access to theatrical resources and experiences that can provide entry points for new audiences, tools for artists and students to harness their creative power and build empathy, and curricular support in a variety of subjects."

The DIG IN Digital Library contains high-quality recordings of innovative productions, including works that align directly with California Core Curriculum and CASEL Standards. Any student in California will be able to digitally access full theatre productions, performance clips, production programs, resource guides, video lessons in arts or humanities, career development interviews, and interactive challenges to create content on social media and in a virtual theatre space.

The DIG IN Virtual Stage activates dialogue among students and young adults with the productions on Berkeley Rep's stages. Students and young adults will create stories, music, video, dance, visual art, poetry, and theatre pieces through interactive challenges on social media and our virtual stage.

DIG IN is available for use in the classroom and can be shared in educational settings, as curricular programming for school clubs and campus affinity groups. It is a new platform that gives direct access to any student by leveling the playing field for entrance.

"DIG In goes beyond passive viewing of content," said Dylan Russell, associate director of School of Theatre and leader of DIG IN. "We are growing an online maker space for young-adult storytellers to create art that responds to the work on Berkeley Rep's stages. It is a new way to inspire emerging theatre-makers to respond, create, and be in dialogue with our productions through a multiplicity of art forms."

The current schedule of digital productions offered through 2023 are:

• Goddess
• Sanctuary City
• the ripple, the wave that carried me home
• Wuthering Heights
• Clyde's (Available spring 2023)
• Cambodian Rock Band (Available spring 2023)