United Colours of Arizona Theatre

A small community theatre here in the Valley has the mission of strengthening Arizona’s fine arts community by advocating for diversity, inclusion, access to opportunity and global awareness. They’re known as the United Colours of Arizona Theatre, or UCAT. UCAT normalizes BIPOC creatives on stage to create a theater that truly reflects the community.

Over the last 5 years, United Colours of Arizona Theatre has worked to nurture a safe space, networking opportunities, workshops, and audition prep. With the communities it serves, its founders cam to realize that there is a lack of access to formal dance training, classical theatre training, and vocal lessons. The UCAT initiative fills in that gap by providing workshops to hel BIPOC creatives feel prepared in and out of the audition room.

This year’s summer program is entitled “Summer of Love” and includes a bi-lingual (Spanish and English) abridged version of William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”; a reading of Andrew Rincon’s “I Wanna F*** Like Romeo & Juliet” — a queer love story; and cabaret performances by Alyssa Chiarello and Damon J Bolling. UCAT Summer Series — The Summer of Love begins on August 5 and ends August 14. Joining us on Arizona Horizon from the United Colours of Arizona Theatre, Jacqui Castillo. As well as Cabaret Artist, Damon J. Bolling.

Their mission

Per the United Colours of Arizona Theatre (UCAT), their mission is broken down into four categories, showing what they strive to achieve.

Mission

“We are committed to strengthening Arizona’s fine arts community by advocating for diversity, inclusion, access to opportunity, and global awareness.”

Intention

“Our goal is to network and shape a powerful learning community centered on enhancing our collective skill set in order to create and saturate a more equitable theater community with talented and qualified BIPOC candidates.”

Ambition

“Our pledge is to hold the arts community accountable to the normalization of BIPOC individuals on ALL stages, and to enforce proper representation ensuring a shared commitment to excellence in the arts.”

Declaration

“We strive to cultivate partnerships within our community that foster mentorship, workshops, and other opportunities to BIPOC creatives and future arts leaders.”

A look into the past

The company was founded six years ago, dating back to 2016. It all originated as a Facebook group by Chanel Bragg and Jacqui Castillo. Their goal was to build a place for BIPOC individuals, which was intended to be a place where they could convene, network, learn and thrive within the fine arts community. 

If you want to know more about the United Colours of Arizona Theatre, click here.

UCAT’s summer series, The Summer of Love, began on August 5 and ends August 14.