San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
‘Statements are the easy part. The follow-through is the measure'
Ahmed K. Dents is the development and artistic associate at San Diego Repertory Theatre.
Set against the background of a raging pandemic coupled with a racial and cultural reckoning not seen since the civil rights movement, the issues of race, equity, inclusion and representation now have the most prominent seats in American theater houses. In the shadow of “We See You White American Theatre” and theater companies big and small (predominantly White) making statements of solidarity with Black Lives and promising anti-racist practices and a new era of equity, the question arises: Is it real?
Alternatively, does this fade when things get “back to normal”? Does it all become a memory when “Black Lives” are not trending?
I pose these questions daily with my own organization at San Diego Rep. If this is a serious endeavor, then everything at respective organizations has to be questioned at every level.
How can you expect true diversity and representation of thought, production and art if your board of trustees is mostly White or of one upper economic class? What is the racial and gender makeup of your leadership staff? How culturally aware is leadership and how personally invested are they in that sense?
What are your hiring practices, not just at administration and production levels, but what is does your pipeline look like in regards to bringing young people in at entry-level and front-of-house positions? Are you hiring and contracting with directors, actors, designers and other creatives that can bring true representation of multicultural works to the stage instead of relying on your limited interpretation?
This gut-wrenching, honest and self-confrontational work needs to be engaged by theater companies from top to bottom to be the transformational organizations that they claim to want to be. The statements are the easy part. The follow-through is the measure.
“Does it all become a memory when ‘Black Lives’ are not trending?”