Director: Alley Theatre moving forward
Culture changed in wake of claims of harassment
In his first extensive interview since Gregory Boyd abruptly left the Alley Theatre amid allegations of harrassment, Managing Director Dean Gladden says the theater’s leadership is “committed to creating a positive work environment” by installing measures for artists and employees to issue complaints about harassment.
The theater will hire a human resources director for the first time and establish a hotline for employees to anonymously report violations to a third party, Gladden said. The company also will establish an internal message board for staff to anonymously raise questions to senior leadership. All staff members will be able to view the posted comments, as well as Gladden’s responses.
Since Boyd’s departure — the theater’s former artistic director resigned in January during a Houston Chronicle investigation of harassment and abuse — the Alley has worked with Robbin Walker, an outside consultant specializing in leadership training in the corporate and theater industries, to improve a culture that former employees have characterized as sexist and vindictive. Walker conducted interviews with more than 100 Alley staff members and, as a result, presented six “action items” to the Alley’s Board of Directors, who approved those items.
Gladden did not wish to share the memo outlining Walker’s suggestions but mentioned there were four other proposals besides the HR director and hotline:
Reviewing and revising the Alley’s discrimination policies.
Making sure Boyd’s replacement, the new artistic director, will commit to a positive work environ-
Giving managers coaching sessions on team building and leadership skills.
And training sessions to reinforce policies against harassment, discrimination and retaliation.
The Alley will continue working with Walker. The theater currently holds a monthly companywide meeting in which management updates the staff on these changes. These efforts are overseen by a Work Environment and Governance Committee, which consists of 12 Alley Theatre Board members.
Boyd retired on Jan. 11. In a news release two days prior to his retirement, the Alley Theatre claimed that Boyd’s departure was a long-planned move delayed only due to his wish to stay and help the theater in the wake of Hurricane Harvey. Two weeks after allegations of abuse surfaced, however, Gladden issued an apology for how the theater handled the matter, though he did not specify what the apology was for. He did not comment on Boyd’s $383,000 severance package.
Gladden remains silent on these matters and refused to answer questions on how management addressed or continues to address complaints about Boyd.
“We’ve had ways of handling that,” he said. “But those are personal issues that I won’t go into.”
The Alley also has faced substantial financial challenges this season, with damage related to Hurricane Harvey totaling $24.6 million. The theater’s insurance will cover $3 million related to building damage and $7 million related to flooded contents within the building, Gladden said.
The theater company has made phone calls to audience members soliciting donations, telling potential donors “we are in debt and rebuilding” and “we’re really suffering.”
Gladden said he’s hoping for the theater to recoup these losses through fundraising by the end of the fiscal year.
He said Boyd’s departure has had no effect on the Alley’s fundraising efforts.
Gladden also had no comment when asked if he had anything to say to the “silence breakers” (a term describing women speaking out during the #MeToo movement), such as former Alley actor Emily Trask. In a Chronicle story published in January, Trask said Boyd groped her and called her a “c---.”
“I’m not commenting on the past,” Gladden said. “I’ve already apologized for the past. I’ve already made a statement. Right? I’ve apologized.”
When asked if he ever felt complicit in allowing an environment of harassment, Gladden said, “I mean, you know that’s like asking somebody, ‘Have you ever slapped your wife?’ That’s a leading question. That’s a ‘gotcha’ question.”
Gladden said he prefers to focus on the positive steps the Alley is taking.
“We have spent a great deal of time trying to move forward very positively and very actively,” he said. “It’s a pretty normal process of how you address these issues. There’s no silver bullet. They’re all difficult issues, but how you deal with it is talk through the issues with the appropriate people. I don’t know your situation in your place of employment, but ours will be very open about talking about those issues. That’s what we’re all about.”
Paradigm shift
Several powerful men in theater have left their positions in the wake of allegations of sexual harassment during the #MeToo era. These include former Long Wharf Theatre Artistic Director Gorden Edelstein and former Dallas Theater Center Director of New Play Development Lee Trull.
But Rachel Dart, a New Yorkbased actor and the founder of Let Us Work, an advocacy group combating sexual harassment in theater, said there isn’t a broad conversation about #MeToo taking place among the nation’s top theaters.
“Partly why is it’s admitting wrongdoing. They don’t want anyone focused on their organization,” she said.
There’s little doubt among both local and national theater workers, however, that the #MeToo movement, and the resulting outing of several powerful alleged sexual harassers in media and entertainment, has pushed a paradigm shift in which women, and their claims of abuse, are taken more seriously.
“The previous accepted standard of just putting up with what’s going on is slowly going away,” said Rachael Logue, an actor and co-artistic director of the Houston theater company Rogue Productions.
“This kind of treatment of other human beings has been pervasive and hidden and accepted for way too long,” said Houston actor Shannon Emerick. “And it is no longer hidden. And it is no longer accepted.”
Houston-based actor and director Bree Bridger said that, before #MeToo, women often pretended to ignore or dismiss in stances of harassment — mainly because they knew speaking up resulted in negative consequences.
“Your first response is to rebuff it as a jokeand assume it wasn’t malicious,” she said. “You try to downplay and defuse the situation with humor and friendliness.”
But the changing atmosphere of the past year has meant that women who choose to speak up aren’t always punished or silenced.
“There’s a legitimate shift,” said Claire Carpen, a New Yorkbased actor and advocate. “I don’t know if it’s going to continue. But there are consequences for harassment now. People are listening to the victims now.”
Still, “the structures to fix these issues don’t exist,” Bridger said.
For organizations that do not have the resources to create their own internal systems, some such as Human Resources for the Arts are attempting to provide recourse for artists. The group NotInOurHouse, which arose as a response to sexual misconduct revelations in Chicago theater, offers a sexual harassment guidebook for theater companies to read out loud with their cast and crew before each production.
Another obstacle to reporting harassment in theater is the idea that certain men are artistic geniuses who, because of their dedication to their craft, can be difficult to work with. Gendered problems often are flattened and put into the category of artistic difference.
That was a sentiment echoed by Houston socialite Joanne King Herring, who wrote in an email to the Chronicle in January, “We must forgive those who create because they care, maybe too much. … If (Boyd) has been irascible, we need to remember that irascibility usually springs from the frustrations of carrying burdens that burst into flames when they become too heavy.”
But Dart said that was a “profoundly lazy mindset” that “rement. inforces the same patriarchal nonsense we’ve been dealing with forever. If you say whatever’s on your mind, isn’t that easier than being thoughtful, listening to the people who are in the room with you, and taking responsibility and modifying your behavior?”
Part of the challenge comes from the idea of an “untouchable, institutional way-things-are,” Logue said. Speaking out remains a huge risk for actors, she said, because anything construed as attacking a powerful member of the theater industry could result in loss of work.
“Actors want to work,” she said. “It’s a collaborative art form. We’re dependent on others to create environments for that to happen.”
Encouraging signs
Local theater leaders say they welcome any change that attempts to undo the mindset that allowed for Boyd’s behavior.
“I believe the Alley is sincere,” said Kim Tobin-Lehl, co-artistic director of 4th Wall Theatre Co. “If they prove us wrong, we’ll go after them, but I don’t think that’ll be true. They want to do right.”
Tobin-Lehl says she believes the Alley is interested in improving. She was livid at the organization following Boyd’s departure but she said that has changed.
“I had to step back and ask myself, why am I mad at them?” she said. “That man is gone.”
But Dart said she’s worried the change may hit a ceiling nationally because institutions don’t stand to gain from outing harassers within their organizations.
“People want to protect themselves and their friends and shield this behavior. To out people, it incriminates more people,” she said. “If people knew about the situation, there’s a web of people who get in trouble, not just the person who was perpetrating the abuse.”