The Groundlings Theatre and School will present its inaugural Diversity Festival from July 29-30, celebrating and exploring diversity and inclusion.

The festival will run from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. both days at The Groundlings School.

The weekend, co-sponsored by NBC and Nickelodeon, will include a series of panels and performances that will be free and open to the public. The festival will also host several diversity-related workshops exploring such topics as Embracing Your Diversity, Women of Color, Creating Diverse Characters, Queer-Prov and Teen Diversity. These two-hour workshops are $10 and registration will be open to the public.

The Diversity Festival comes just a year and a half after The Groundlings Theatre and School launched its diversity initiatives, including outreach workshops with local colleges and high schools, and a scholarship program that has awarded over $50,000 in Groundlings School credit to 143 students.

The festival also comes one year after The Groundlings partnered with NBC’s Talent Infusion Programs, the network’s long-standing diversity and inclusion initiatives for onscreen and behind-the-scenes talent, to create the NBC/Groundlings Writing Lab Scholarship. NBC provides full-tuition scholarships to The Groundlings Upper Division Writing Lab to students of diverse backgrounds. A selection of the scholarship recipients will perform throughout the weekend.

Nickelodeon will support the youth portion of the program sponsoring the improv training for a select group of kids invited to perform at the festival.

The Groundlings School is located at 7280 Melrose Ave. For information, visit groundlings.com/diversity.