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Do what you want âIt s important that young artists feel itâs important to choose to develop their work in the way that they think is going to be helpful to them. I don t think it is as helpful for lots of outside people to go, âHere, do it this way, do it this way. Here, you re BIPOC, you can have this, you can have that.â There are going to be people who do well with that, but that, in my experience, wasn t the thing that was helpful. It s going to sound contradictory, but the struggle actually helped me. Even though there were moments during the struggle where I was like, âOh my god, this is the worst thing ever,â I wanted to do it more than the worst thing ever. The thing I would hope is that if they don t want to do it, then they won t. Feeling like you have to do it just to feel something is a kind of poison in you. Sometimes saying no is going to save your soul. You can also say that the struggle is worth it, and that is also valid.â ....
Broadway Says Black Lives Matter As the country confronted its long-upheld systems rooted in white supremacy in the wake of the losses of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Ahmaud Arbery, and too many other Black lives, the theatre industry faced a reckoning of its own, challenging members to question the systemically racist practices in place. Black artists and theatre workersâincluding performer-director Schele Williams, stage manager Cody Renard Richard, and composer Griffin Matthewsâshared their own accounts of experiences of racism in the theatre. Complicit artistic leaders were called out in pursuit of accountability, and change was demanded. The anonymous collective We See You White American Theater, on behalf of BIPOC theatremakers, released a 31-page document outlining the necessary redistribution of power and funding in the industry. Additional groups were founded and/or mobilizedâsuch as the previously formed Broadway Advocacy Coalition and Br ....