San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
THEATERS OUTLINE THEIR PLANS FOR CHANGE
Responding to demands to level the playing field for Black artists and other underrepresented groups, San Diego companies are implementing new anti-racist policies, hiring rules and plans for more diverse programming
Companies big and small say they’re committed
In William Shakespeare’s play “Hamlet,” the young Danish prince instructs a troupe of actors that the purpose of their work is “to hold, as ’twere, the mirror up to nature” to honestly reflect the world around them. Four centuries later, American theaters are now being asked to take a closer look in that mirror. For far too long, many say, U.S. theaters’ leadership, performers, the plays they produce and the audiences they serve have remained predominantly White, even though 40 percent of the U.S. population is not. On July 8, 2020, a coalition of hundreds of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of color) artists who grew tired of waiting published a sweeping 29-page list of demands for transformational change called We See You White American Theater, which can be read online at weseeyouwat.com. The document listed hundreds of demands for new policies, programs, practices and investments to level the playing field, including devoting 50 percent of jobs onstage and behind the scenes to people from BIPOC communities.
We See You W.A.T., as it is more commonly known, arrived when theaters across America were closed. Although the pandemic has devastated the industry, several local theater leaders say the shutdown gave them the time they needed to tackle this problem in a meaningful way. Since July, more than 100 of the nation’s largest theaters — including San Diego’s Old Globe, La Jolla Playhouse and San Diego Repertory Theatre — have responded to We See You W.A.T. with new anti-racist policies and plans.
For Freedome Bradley-ballentine, associate artistic director and director of arts engagement for the Old Globe, the historic importance of We See You W.A.T. can’t be underestimated.
“It’s the Magna Carta of the theater world,” said Bradley-ballentine, a Black theater artist who joined the Globe’s leadership staff in 2015. “Some people, when they first read it, were taken aback by the tone of the demands. But there have been people asking for space since the Black Arts Movement, and after 50 years of gently asking, these people said, ‘MOVE!’ People always say, ‘I don’t know what BIPOC people want,’ well this is a document that lays it all out.” Why is this happening now? The killing of George Floyd on May 25 was the flashpoint for the Black Lives Matter movement and, subsequently, We See You W.A.T. Jacole Kitchen, who is artistic programs manager and local casting director at La Jolla Playhouse and also executive director of the San Diego Performing Arts League, said the theater industry has long been seen as progressive in its programming, but there are clear blind spots in how theater companies operate.
“One of the reasons it took so long is we don’t always realize there’s a problem until somebody tells us there’s a problem,” said Kitchen, who is Black. A lot of time we’re able to say, ‘I understand, but I’m not a part of the problem.’ A lot of these institutions weren’t recognizing, previous to this, how great an issue it was.”
The clearest example of this in San Diego was the fumbled launch last May of a coalition of 28 local theater companies who united under the “One Theatre. One Story.” marketing banner to raise awareness about their plight in the early months of the pandemic. But the launch of “One Theatre” caused an uproar because none of the theaters in the group had BIPOC leadership, an unintentional slight that Kitchen called “the giant white elephant in the pandemic room.”
To remedy the situation, One Theatre was replaced in September with a new and more diverse, 45-member organization called the Theatre Alliance, which is operating in partnership with the San Diego Performing Arts League. The Alliance is overseen by nine ambassadors, of which four are BIPOC artists, including Kandace Crystal, an actor and director who is also artistic director of American History Theater and associate artistic director of Trinity Theatre Company.
Crystal, who is Black, oversees the Alliance’s periodic virtual member roundtable discussions that she said have been highly productive but have also occasionally grown heated.
“People have to be willing to do the work and have those missteps when they screwed up royally, where they can not just apologize but make it right,” Crystal said. “We have people who don’t agree with points, but it’s all about the communication. Marriages fail
when there’s no communication, and theater is a bit of a marriage. There’s a lot of pushing through the muck, and the people in the alliance are willing to do that.”
Besides seeing more people of color onscreen in locally produced virtual production this past year, San Diego audiences have likely heard a new addition to most preshow speeches driven by We See You W.A.T. — an acknowledgment to the Kumeyaay people, who occupied this region long before Spanish, Mexican and American people arrived.
Dea Hurston, a playwright and longtime local theater philanthropist, said that the last year of pandemic-related closure has been a terrible one for San Diego theaters and the new reckoning process has been messy. But she’s optimistic about the future.
“People are unsure if theater will return and what that will look like when they do,” said Hurston, who is Black. “I think theater will survive, and it has a responsibility to return, but not as it was. This past year has provided an opportunity for the reopening of theater that will look like it should — which is a supportive, creative, inclusive community that tells stories.”
Today’s “Theater’s Day of Reckoning” special project offered San Diego theater leaders and local Black theater artists the opportunity to talk and write about their views on the topic of social justice in the industry. We put out a call to all 45 members of the Theatre Alliance in San Diego for their antiracism plans. Twenty-one companies responded. What follows are encapsulations of the equity, diversity and inclusion plans and antiracist statements that we received. Wherever possible, we are including a web link where readers can go online to read the complete documents.
Old Globe
In October, San Diego’s oldest and largest theater published its five-page Social Justice Roadmap, an extensive five-year plan supported by a $2 million fund to bring it to fruition.
The plan has four phases, the first of which is now under way. Phase One includes new hiring initiatives that led to the recent promotions of Freedome Bradleyballentine and MFA program director Jesse J. Perez to senior positions; employee workplace culture training; and expanded representation of BIPOC members on the board of directors. Phase Two, launching when the Globe reopens, will include an expanded number of plays written and directed by BIPOC artists in productions with creative staffs that are 50 percent BIPOC; a new BIPOC resident artist program; expanded and inclusive community arts engagement efforts; inclusionminded paid internships and five-day workweeks; and new volunteer opportunities for BIPOC communities.
Phase Three begins in 2022 with additional BIPOC hiring and programming; the creation of two paid fellowships for BIPOC artists; and the hiring of an audience development manager to raise awareness in BIPOC communities. Phase Four spans from 2023 to 2025 and will include new programming at the theater’s Tech Center in southeastern San Diego; a residency or co-productions with a BIPOC theater company; expanded recruitment of BIPOC job candidates; the creation of a director of equity position at the senior level; and a new position for an multimedia reporter who will represent the Globe to diverse
constituencies. The full plan can be found online at theoldglobe.org/ the-old-globe-social-justiceroadmap.
Artistic director Barry Edelstein said only about 20 percent of the Roadmap work will be visible to the public, meaning its work onstage and in community engagement programs. By necessity, Edelstein said, the changes must go much deeper in order to “interrupt and dismantle” the longestablished systems that created the same outcomes.
“For White people who are being asked to listen in a new way, sometimes the language can be uncomfortable,” Edelstein said. “No person of conscience would think of themselves as a White supremacist, but what we’re talking about are systems of White supremacy. When I read We See You W.A.T., the most powerful impression I have is the legacy of pain and hurt. So when someone comes to you and says, ‘I’m in pain,’ the right human response is to say, ‘I hear you, I see that, and let me make space for that and respect for that.’ ”
Edelstein said that when he arrived at the Globe eight years ago, he could count on one hand the number of women hired to direct Shakespeare plays in the company’s now 86-year history. Since then, half of the Globe’s Shakespeare directors have been women. Hiring of BIPOC directors, writers and performers has also increased dramatically, and with positive results. Edelstein’s 2017 staging of “Hamlet” — being reprised next month in an audio production on KPBS Radio — had a cast that was more than 60 percent Black. It was the most successful Shakespeare production in Globe history.
The Globe was able to turn out this ambitious plan rather quickly because Edelstein said the company has been working on its blueprint for the past six years. In 2015, Edelstein hired Bradleyballentine to expand outreach to diverse communities. In 2017, the Globe crafted a statement of values focused on inclusivity; in 2019, the Globe’s board approved a strategic plan for equity, diversity and inclusion; and in February 2020, the Globe opened a conversation with the newly created San Diego Black Artists Collective, of which Bradley-ballentine is a founding member. Bradley-ballentine said he’s extremely proud of the Social Justice Roadmap because much of it was born out of dialogue with members of the BIPOC community.
“The work we’ve done the past few years — before the murder of George Floyd — helped us so that when that awful tragedy happened we were able to pivot relatively quickly, because we already had a model on how we wanted to work with communities,” Bradley-ballentine said.
La Jolla Playhouse
On June 3, La Jolla Playhouse unveiled its two-page Anti-racism Action Plan, which covers changes planned in 2021 and 2022. It includes issues relating to programming choices, artistic hiring practices, pay equity, staff training and more.
The plan calls for three of the plays in the Playhouse’s six-show 2021-22 subscription season to be written by BIPOC writers, including one person new to the Playhouse; at least one new BIPOC director and one new BIPOC designer in the season; half of all new commissions will go to BIPOC writers; artist residencies will prioritize BIPOC artists; the creation in 2022 of two-year fellowships for a BIPOC director and BIPOC stage manager; paid and inclusive internship opportunities; and more. The Playhouse also recently expanded its board by five seats to be more diverse. The complete plan can be found at lajollaplayhouse.org/ljp-antiracismstatement.
Playhouse artistic director Christopher Ashley said that the action plan was created through a monthlong series of staff meetings where BIPOC employees talked candidly about their experiences — good and bad — working at the Playhouse.
“Every sentence we put in front of people, they really beat it up. Everyone had powerful, urgent opinions,” Ashley said on a recent episode of San Diego Repertory Theatre’s “We Are Listening” interview series. “There’s some things we’re proud of, but there’s a lot of work to do.”
One of those employees was Playhouse artistic programs manager Jacole Kitchen, who said the conversations were challenging and slow-moving, but they were necessary to ensure the resulting plan was more than just meaningless “box-checking.” Besides creating new opportunities for BIPOC artists, the new plan also includes outreach to artists with disabilities and in the LGBTQ community.
“This is not fast work, and that’s why it’s been a problem up until now,” Kitchen said. “In the past, it’s been something we could Band-aid and fix. But that’s not authentic. Change isn’t going to happen fast.”
Ashley said there will be challenges ahead. American theater audiences are more comfortable attending theater where everyone looks like them, and theater subscribers are less diverse. But theater audiences are more socially progressive than the general public.
“I don’t know how you convince big parts of America to open their hearts and minds, but theater is a self-selecting group,” Ashley said. “You want to engage with something when you walk in the door. Theater audiences can change their minds. That makes me hopeful. People who want to see theaters are capable of change.”
San Diego Repertory Theatre
San Diego Rep issued its Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Strategic
Action Plan on Nov. 9. The fivepart plan builds on the Rep’s long-established history as one of the most inclusive theaters in San Diego County. Since 1988, the Rep has produced 55 main-stage plays by Latinx playwrights, the most by any English-language theater in the country. The Rep also has a long history of producing plays with 50 percent BIPOC artists. In 2005, the San Diego Theatre Critics Circle honored the Rep with a special award for its dedication to diverse programming.
The new action plan will be rolled out over three to five years. It includes committing to half of all season and festival plays by playwrights who are BIPOC and female-identifying; the expansion of roles for BIPOC, LGBTQ, women and artists with disabilities; the creation of a BIPOC play festival, a Black Lives Matter play-reading series, an annual Juneteenth play event, and a Jewish play-development program; staff anti-racism training; the creation of new artistic and general manager positions for leaders from the BIPOC, LGBTQ and female communities; staff equity training; and expanded conversations and partnerships with diverse communities. The full text can be found at sdrep.org/equitydiversityandinclusionstrategicactionplan.php.
Rep co-founder and artistic director Sam Woodhouse said many of the items on the action plan have already been implemented. Last summer, he and Rep artistic associate Ahmed K. Dents launched the Zoom/podcast series “We Are Listening,” featuring illuminating and often frank discussions between Dents and local and regional Black theater artists. The series has touched on so many important issues, the La Jolla Playhouse and Old Globe signed on last fall as presenting partners.
The Rep was a co-presenter of last fall’s The Breath Project festival of 8-minute, 46-second filmed plays inspired by George Floyd’s death; it recently launched its inaugural Black Voices play-reading series, now under way through April 5; and it will stream the Motown musical “Higher and Higher” beginning Monday. Also coming soon are the rap musical “Hype Man” and new commissions by American Indian, Filipino