Purnell to give speech at Equity’s Diversity in Broadcasting and Entertainment Conference

Published Tuesday 30 October 2007 at 13:50 by Alistair Smith

Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport James Purnell, will talk at an event which aims to address under-representation for black actors and professionals within the entertainment industry.

Purnell, who caused uproar within the black theatre community earlier this year when he called for ethnic access targets to be scrapped, will join MEP Michael Cashman to give a keynote speech at Equity’s Diversity in Broadcasting and Entertainment Conference at the Theatre Royal Stratford East on Wednesday (November 7).

Equity’s equality officer Max Beckmann said: “We’ve attracted a fantastic line up of speakers and guests to this conference, which reflects the vital importance of making our entertainment industry more representative of the diversity of Britain’s communities.

“We plan to make this conference a positive and practical step towards achieving that goal.”

Other speakers include playwright and performer Kwame Kwei-Armah, BBC head of drama commissioning Ben Stephenson, performers Matt Fraser and Shobna Gulati, Channel 4 acting head of drama Luke Alkin and Theatre Royal Stratford East artistic director Kerry Michael.