‘ART IS THE LANGUAGE OF ALL PEOPLE’
Westport Country Playhouse hires first DEI director
WESTPORT — It all started with a letter entitled “Dear White American Theater” in 2020. Playbill reported that “300 Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) theatre makers, across various disciplines, have signed a letter—accompanied by a petition—demanding that the white American theatre recognize its legacy of white fragility and white supremacy.”
So, the Westport Country Playhouse responded to it through the formation of a new role — the director of equity, diversity and inclusion — with Bridgeport native Erika K. Wesley recently filling the position.
“I think DEI is at the center of authenticity,” Wesley said. “I, certainly,
Wesley said she came back to Bridgeport and saw that there were many young people who wanted to participate in the arts, but there wasn’t a lot of opportunities for that. She eventually joined the nonprofit sector in 2013, focusing on education advocacy and program management, then moving into philanthropy, where she became an executive director of an education access program, before joining the playhouse.
seek to be someone who is in partnership with people who have intersecting identities, people who are coming from different socioeconomic backgrounds.”
Wesley’s role will provide strategic and operational leadership for all of the Playhouses’s EDI policies, programs, training, and practices, according to Westport Country Playhouse Public Relations Manager Patricia Blaufuss,
“Erika is a tremendously impressive addition to our Playhouse family who is already bonding with staff and trustees and bringing transformative insights to our long-range work on equity, diversity, and inclusion,” Playhouse Artistic Director Mark Lamos said.
Wesley was educated in Bridgeport, including graduating from the University of Bridgeport with an English degree.
“I really knew leaving that school that I wanted to pursue the arts, but I think art access has always been a challenge in a place like Fairfield County and more broadly within Connecticut,” she said.
She then received her Master’s of Fine Arts degree from Manhattanville College, where she was also the editor-in-chief of their literary magazine.
Wesley said she came back to
Bridgeport and saw that there were many young people who wanted to participate in the arts, but there wasn’t a lot of opportunities for that. She eventually joined the nonprofit sector in 2013, focusing on education advocacy and program management, then moving into philanthropy, where she became an executive director of an education access program, before joining the playhouse.
“With the large nonprofit space, I’ve been able to hone in on issues that I think have always have hovered around diversity, equity and inclusion, particularly in major cities like Bridgeport and Norwalk,” Wesley said.
She has been trained in various areas of DEI, just out of her own interest, she said.
Wesley said she couldn’t believe that the playhouse was hiring someone to do equity work.
“I thought, ‘This is unique, this is different,’ ” she said.
“This role, I think, is much more nuanced,” she added. “I wanted to pursue something that had a singular focus in lens and I wanted to perfect EDI work in moving forward.”
Wesley said she believes the playhouse is a “fantastic institution that tells beautiful stories... that relate to so many people.”
She thinks her role can help the theater reach new audiences in Fairfield County.
Wesley said the theater’s artistic and educational approaches are important, as is equity.
“When we tell stories that reflect the best, and sometimes even the worst, of who we are as people, it gives us an opportunity to explore the vast depth of the human experience,” she said. “We should be doing that equitably. We should be telling stories from all walks of life.”
She said these stories are not only in terms of race, but also aspects such as socioeconomics and age.
“I think art is a language of all people,” Wesley said. “We have a really unique language that we can speak back to people in a way that, hopefully will feel familiar.”
Wesley said it is important to implement DEI in theater because it explores new voices and people with expertise. She said last season, their play “From the Mississippi Delta” was directed by a Black woman.
She said she talked to Lamos about choice and how it was thoughtful.
“Of course, there were other directors he may have known, but those directors, traditionally and historically, may not have been women, and may not have been a woman of color,” she said.
“It’s important for us to step into new spaces so we can bring expertise into the playhouse that reflects all walks of life, and that reflects so many different types of people who are doing the work, but they may not have done the work with us here in Connecticut,” Wesley said.
Wesley said Fairfield County is a place that is “divided by invisible lines and invisible barriers.”
She said art can bring people across those barriers.
“It’s critical for the future of the playhouse to ensure that it is leading and emerging as a thought leader in the world of equity, and that we are seen as someone who is willing to reach across those boarders,” she said.
The playhouse is launching a mobile unit in 2023, which she said is part of equity work, as it makes it accessible and relatable to people outside of Westport and its demographics.
“I also think it’s important so that the next generation of creatives in this area know that the playhouse is a place for everyone,” she said.
Wesley said she hopes the position is so successful that it may not exist anymore because DEI has become embedded within various areas of the playhouse.
“True to DEI, I don’t need to hoard this seat,” she said. “I actually think it will be successful when we don’t need it to be defined, and it will just be the principles that are pervasive within the playhouse, and that would bring me so much joy.”
Wesley also hopes they will soon hire an intern, so she can train and teach that person about DEI principles and how it relates to art.
“I really do believe that young people in Fairfield County deserve many more opportunities for professional development,” she said.