Anti-Racist Statement/Accountability
Theatre is a vehicle for social justice and human development and we are committed to utilize all our resources to focus our community consciousness toward justice and equality. The extremity of the violence and absence of justice visited upon George Floyd, Oscar Grant, Breonna Taylor, Trans POC persons and a host of others underscores the tremendous amount of work that needs to be accomplished.
Theater is a cultural enterprise and as such its purpose is to create structures that challenge, problematize and destabilize biased traditions and practices. Thus, we are reinvigorating our effort to correct inequalities in our institution as they are apparent in the way we choose plays, hire our staff and populate our board, and in the way we pay people and balance our budget. Anti-racism and ant-oppressive practices are at the core of our work, as an institution founded on social justice and equality for all people.
To this end we make the following commitments as an organization:
- Work with facilitators and coaches to implement anti-racist practices throughout our organization.
- Engage our artists, past and present, in feedback requests and respond to that feedback in a timely and effective manner.
- Actively recruit a more diverse and inclusive board.
- Incorporate anti-racist practices into rehearsal rooms and establish clear structures for acknowledging and addressing racist and oppressive behavior.
- Invest in an EDI committee on our board which will meet and develop strategies for eradicating racism company-wide.
- Commit to an annual audit by an outside team to review and report on the progress of our anti-racist work.
- Incorporate diverse voices in our play selection, with an emphasis on voices of people of color.