SECOND CITY NAMES INTERIM LEADER AMID TURMOIL
Interim leader named after co-owner resigns, admits ‘failure’ on race
Second City artistic director Anthony LeBlanc, who has worked at the famed comedy theater in various capacities for more than a decade, was named its interim executive producer Saturday.
He’ll preside temporarily over a company rocked by the pandemic-related closure of its theaters as well as accusations of institutional racism that last week brought down its white co-owner and executive producer, Andrew Alexander.
“While The Second City has sometimes made strides in the diversity of talent performing on our stages, we have grossly fallen short when it comes to supporting that talent — and diversity at Second City — as a whole. We must face the reality of our failings as an organization and hear the voices of our BIPOC [black, indigenous and people of color] performers, alumni, staff, students, and audience,” LeBlanc said in a statement. “I, we need to do better . . . because our community deserves better.”
LeBlanc, a part-time faculty member at Columbia College and an African American, wrote and performed in two Second City mainstage revues just over a decade ago: “Taming of the Flu” and “America: All Better.” Since then, he also has been a teacher as well as a resident director whose credits include the e.t.c. show “Soul Brother, Where Art Thou?” “The Second City’s Generation Gap” at Washington’s Kennedy Center and shows at Washington’s Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company and the Alliance Theater in Atlanta.
A search is underway for a permanent executive director, and Second City vowed the hire will be black, indigenous or a person of color.
The racism allegations followed Second City’s attempt a week ago to address the killing of George Floyd by posting a tweet declaring “Black Lives Matter” and quoting the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.: “There comes a time when silence is betrayal.” That drew responses from many Second City alumni detailing times they felt unfairly treated.
Most prominent was “Brooklyn NineNine” writer Dewayne Perkins, who replied: “You remember when the black actors wanted to put on a Black Lives Matter Benefit show and you said only if we gave half of the proceeds to the Chicago PD, because I will never forget.”
The demands for accountability continued all week, and on Friday, Alexander posted a mea culpa, saying that Second City “failed” to address its institutional racism issues and he was leaving the company and divesting his share of its ownership.
“The Second City cannot begin to call itself anti-racist,” he wrote. “That is one of the great failures of my life.
. . . There are so many things we didn’t do, but one of the things we did do was to engage facilitators in the field of anti-racism. I bring this up to acknowledge that it didn’t work. White employees of the Second City, myself included, participated in regular sessions taking place over months which outlined in detail the inherent biases in white society, and how those, consciously and unconsciously, oppress BIPOC . . . . On stage, we have always been on the right side of the issue, and of that, I am very proud . . . . Offstage, it’s been a different story.”
He cited the example of “A Red Line Runs Through It,” a 2016 Second City show acclaimed for its humor and diverse content that had tumult behind the scenes. By the end of the run, four of the six cast members had departed, and one white actor later sued the theater, alleging he experienced racial slurs from an African American castmate.
“As an administrator, I have not always had good instincts,” Alexander wrote. “While diversifying the theater artistically,
I failed to create an anti-racist environment wherein artists of color might thrive. I am so deeply and inexpressibly sorry. The damage for this failure is done, and it’s part of the legacy of the institution I love.”
Following Alexander’s resignation, Second City on Friday tweeted a statement of its own titled “How The Second City Will Do Better,” outlining some of the steps it will be taking in the wake of the fallout. The company said it is committed to “reviewing internal hiring, casting and student recruitment practices to ensure we are actively identifying and removing barriers to access and opening the doors to BIPOC in every area of the company, and to company-wide anti-racist training and education.”
Besides the diversity issues, Second City’s next leader also must lead its recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, which has forced the company to close its theaters and halt its in-person classes. It has been making do with online sketch and improv productions.