Stephane Duret
HE / HIM / HIS
Stephane Duret is a performer, educator, acceptance advocate, and disability inclusion speaker. He is the Founder and Executive Director of KAISER’S ROOM, a non-profit organization that offers arts programming to individuals with cognitive and developmental disabilities, and Co-Founder of Learning Alchemy. He was last seen in the Tony Award Winning Musical KINKY BOOTS on Broadway.
"Creating The Space" for expression and actual acceptance.
Popular Talks
Actual Inclusion in the Arts
One of my most popular talks are “How to create an inclusive arts classroom from day one?” Taking participants through simulations that help demonstrate sensory overload, then use the embodied experience to explore new ways of structuring a class, leaving behind the patriarchal and harmful structures we’ve inherited.
True Acceptance and What It Can Look Like
What are the ways we undercut and under-value ourselves and how does that impact the way we treat others? The Gold and Platinum Rules are not hierarchical but symbiotic. The Golden Rule (treat other’s the way you want to be treated) helps one understand their needs and desires – once these needs and desires can be accepted and honored, they can then be requested. The Platinum Rule (treat other’s how THEY want to be treated) helps people observe, honor, and accept others as they are. At the end of the day, it’s all about how are we accepting ourselves as we are in order to accept others?
How to Build Rich Connection With your Autistic Child or a New Friend
The Seven Keys to Unlock Autism by Elaine Hall and Diane Isaacs is a 7-step guide helping parents build connections with their autistic children. Upon deeper reflection, these 7-steps can be used with ALL beings…so why not use them everywhere? Steps like “set and intention,” “understand sensory profile,” and “live miracle minded.”
Workshops & Consulting
Workshops
By combining movement and sensory-rich activities with research-validated insights and indigenous wisdom, I provide an integrated learning experience that goes beyond a typical DEIA training. These multi-sensory, interactive, and interrogative experiences allow participants to integrate learning through multiple channels and build on that learning through communal curiosity and dialogue.
Consulting
I consider myself a paradigm shifter, I use my creativity and research resources to get to the root of my clients breakdowns and offer alternative solutions. These solutions are normally embodied in some way to bridge the knowing-doing gap.
“A beautiful way to grow empathy and understanding for not just others, but also yourself. If you can extend it to yourself, you can extend it to others!”
– Juliana C. Company member, Theatre 68
Stephane Duret is an empathetic performer and acceptance advocate. He was last seen in the Tony Award Winning Musical KINKY BOOTS on Broadway, and is also the proud Founder and Executive Director of KAISER’S ROOM, a non-profit organization that offers arts programming to individuals with cognitive and developmental disabilities in NYC.
Stephane started his musical theatre training at the New World School of the Arts in Miami, Fl where he was raised with his 3 brothers. He then moved to Chicago, Il (his birth city). and now holds a B.F.A. in Musical Theatre from the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University. Upon graduation he began performing and working with children with disabilities and never stopped. In 2011 he moved to New York City in pursuit of more of what he was doing in Chicago but on a greater scale and found it!
He worked with a young man named Kaiser who would inspire him to “create the space” for many more disabled students by way of the performing arts and he’s graced one of the sweetest stages of all time in a show that boasts “Accept yourself and you’ll accept others too!” while playing the star of the show! Over the years, Stephane has become known as an expert in inclusive practices in performing arts spaces, classrooms and in the workplace. He’s become extremely passionate about sharing his gifts using his theatrical background to help people connect with themselves in order to connect with others and create more considerate and inclusive spaces. There have been many chapters already but this book is far from complete!
Today Stephane lives in Bloomfield, NJ with his husband Max and their sweet dog Cooper, as they await their first child through adoption coming early 2024.
Let’s collaborate to ensure a transformative experience.