About The Show

Saturday, Oct 13th at 12:30pm, 3 Arts Stage
The Second City Diversity & Outreach Panel - Meet & Greet

The Second City believes that everyone, regardless of race, gender, or sexual orientation should experience the gift of improvisation and the many life skills it helps develop in a safe, supportive way and is actively working to champion diversity, equity, and inclusion at all levels of our institution and associated programming. Our goal is to open doors, create a bridge, and make this work accessible and inclusive. We firmly believe that unique experiences and points of view are at the core of the art form our artists create and reflective of the audiences, students, and clients we serve. Please come out and not only hear what this amazing panel has to say, but actually meet with them, shake their hand, tell them your story, they'd love to meet you. This panel is free.

Mission

Our goal is to open doors, create a bridge, and make this work accessible and inclusive  by:

Fostering community with cultural sensitivity

Increasing access to our programs, scholarships, and performances to underserved communities

Facilitating and engaging in dialogue across departments on empathy, equity, diversity and inclusion

JOSHUA FUNK is the Artistic Director of The Second City Hollywood. Joshua is an alumni of the Second City Detroit as well as a multiple Jeff Award winning director in Chicago. He is now an Emmy nominated composer for his music on Comedy Central’s Key & Peele, and his other composing credits include Wabbit, The New Looney Tunes, Scooby Doo: Shaggy’s Showdown, Teachers, and NBC’s Red Nose Day. Acting credits: Key & Peele, Reno 911, The Informant, Come Simi, All Stars, Wild n’ Out, Kong: Skull Island, and Girlboss. Joshuafunk.com

DIONNA GRIFFIN-IRONS is Director of Diversity and Inclusion for The Second City U.S. and Canada. A Second City Detroit alumnus with 18+ years of experience as a performer, producer and facilitator, Dionna has taught 200+ workshops at colleges, women’s shelters, corporate boardrooms and worked with the United States Embassy in Norway and Latvia introducing improv as a tool for social change. Her outreach work has appeared in Diversity Journal publication, on NPR, ABC, NBC, and numerous academic posts including her 2015 TEDx Talk at the University of Chicago. Her 2014 published work can be found in Rowan/Littlefield’s anthology Women, Writing and Prison. She is currently writing a memoir on the intersection of comedy, diversity and women in prison. @dionnagirons

CLAUDIA WALLACE is Casting Director and Cast Consultant for The Second City, Resident Stages and Touring companies.  She is also an Artistic Consultant and sits on The Second City Executive Committee. For over 20 years, Claudia has worked in several capacities at The Second City.  She’s an alumna of the Touring Company and the Chicago Mainstage and works as an actress and facilitator for Second City Works, the Business-to-Business arm of The Second City. Claudia is also an accomplished actress who can be seen on TV, film and on stages across the country.  She brings a wealth of knowledge to these roles, and Second City is thrilled to have her as a part of the team.

ANTHONY LEBLANC is originally from Beaumont, TX. He performed with his sketch group, Boxaganga, while obtaining a Computer Science and Physics BS at Loyola University New Orleans. He directed The Second City e.t.c. review, Soul Brother, Where Art Thou? and The Second City Main Stage review, Winner…of Our Discontent. He had recently Directed Nothing to Loose (But Our Chains) at the Woolly Mammoth Theater in DC and  The Magic Negro and Other Blackity Blackness as Told by an African-American Man Who Also Happens to be Black at the Alliance Theater in Atlanta Georgia. He wrote and performed in two Second City Chicago Main Stage Reviews; America: All Better and Taming of the Flu. He is also An Artistic Director of the Second City Inc. and part of Columbia College Chicago’s theater department faculty teaching in the Comedy Writing and Performance Major. He hopes that His Sketch Directing helps him one day realize his dream of working for NASA, programming A.I. computer systems. He thanks Mom, Dad, David, Katie, Kennedy, Matt, Ryan, his friends… and of course… Stephen Hawking.

NOTE: Located on the 2^nd floor with stair access only