Conscious Creativity
How can we unlearn what we don't think we think?
Conscious Casting
Casting is the single most powerful tool in our creative arsenal to undermine implicit gender bias in our storytelling practice.
But we are all being manipulated by our unconscious bias.
Even Actors, and Spectators.
This method can help liberate you from the confines of implicit bias.
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What strategies are you currently using to ensure implicit bias doesn't influence your choices unconsciously during the casting process?
Bias restricts our creative potential, but awareness is insufficient as an intervention. To liberate our creativity from the limitations of bias - mitigation strategies are essential.
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Conscious Casting supports your vision for the project.
It is not prescriptive, but inclusive. The method takes you through a series of deliberate steps to help you avoid potential bias pitfalls and discover creative casting solutions that are right for your project.
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The Conscious Casting method was developed using my PhD research into gender and leadership, alongside research into the most effective anti-bias strategies. It offers a template and toolkit for identifying and obstructing the role of bias in casting.
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Gender bias is produced when stereotyping is present. There are four elements to consider when identifying gender bias: the sex of the text character, and that character's gender personality; as well as the actor's gender identity and expression.
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This method can be used on any project, from commercials to stage productions. It is equally valuable when casting traditionally (where the character's gender is 'locked') or unconventionally (where the character's gender may be swapped).
The toolkit is available to use online.
If you're interested in trying the Conscious Casting method, please email me. My consultation is free of charge.
My interest is only in supporting your engagement with the toolkit, and in ensuring the method is not misrepresented.
The Method
This methodology is designed to support the current movement toward increasingly diverse representation on stage and screen.
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Although there is considerable good will in the industry, where explicitly intentions to change are frequently voiced, there is still insufficient support available to untangle the intersecting biases involved.
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Conscious Creativity is actively anti-bias. It deliberately works to make the unconscious conscious at every stage, and provides a guide to navigating our own and other's biases in the process of producing a project.
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It is not my intention to impose a ridged checklist, or to stifle creativity.
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Rather, to demonstrate how our bias is limiting our creative potential by constraining possibility to the confines of stereotype.
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Following this toolkit will facilitate a more conscious approach to our creative practice, and will inspire storytelling that is entertaining, impactful, and inclusive.
Conscious Performance
Do you know, we make biased assumptions based on behaviour?
Bias can even influence an actor's creative choices when building a character or playing a scene.
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Unconscious bias is like a lazy habit - and one we need to break if we want to offer truly nuanced performances.
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My acting prompts and rehearsal exercises guide actors and directors away from replicating behaviour-bias in performance.
The performance toolkit empowers actors to create layered characters that subvert stereotype representation.
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If you would like to learn more about this toolkit, please email me.
I would be delighted to learn more about your project and to offer a free consultation on my methodology.
Conscious Spectating
This toolkit is a call for reflection, and a plea for more conscious consumer practices.
It offers a template for identifying the operation of implicit bias in the entertainment we consume.
Applying this method to a production can illuminate surprising levels of gender bias - even in explicitly feminist narratives.
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It will be valuable for citizen critics, as well as professional reviewers, and academics.
It may additionally offer insights for writers in the process of creating a new work.
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If you would like to learn more about this method and take a look at the online toolkit, please email me.
The consultation and access to the method are free of charge.
My only interest is in learning more about how the method is being used.
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