Try getting Universities to support their female theatre students in casting, awards, and leadership roles and you still have another hurdle to jump.
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This is very encouraging news. Thank you for this story. I'm familiar with the Shakespeare Festival. Ms. Garrett is inheriting a company that is emotionally and financially damaged from years of overspending and questionable leadership. I hope this isn’t true for all of the new artistic leaders. Best of luck to all! You make a difference!
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This article forced me to consider the meaning of this term, "People of Color". My family migrated from Palestine to what is currently the Ukraine, and then to the US around 1908. Is it reasonable to identify myself as a person of color? Half of my extended family was killed by the Russians in pogroms or by the Nazis in the Holocaust, so I think it's fair to say that I'm a member of a persecuted minority. My skin is light, but so is the skin of several people pictured in the article. It doesn't appear that the definition is based on skin color. Since the term appears in the headline, I think it's reasonable to ask what the term means. Can someone explain? Does the term apply to me?
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@ShenBowen, the meaning, which I gather from the use of the word "Inclusion," is someone who has been given lesser treatment or denied opportunities or access because of the way we were born. It usually correlates to what the legislators have determined to be protected classes. You are being kept out, not being allowed in, and saying "I want to get in, the law says you have to let me in, why won't you?"
It also means that if you file a human rights complaint. you also can't be punished for having complained to the state for any agency. Discrimination is so hard to prove because it involves a state of mind, unless someone is foolish enough to say "I'm not hiring you because you're ... " Retaliation is usually much easier to prove, because a specific act happens shortly after lodging a Human Rughts complaint.
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Surprised Oscar Eustis is not mentioned here. How long has he been at The Public?
This is wonderful news, but I do worry about secretly racist elements in American theater audiences finding excuses not to make donations. I just have a hunch about predominantly liberal white audiences and their silent prejudices affecting the bottom line at black run theatres. I hope to God I'm wrong.
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@Jeffrey Gillespie, regarding "finding excuses not to make donations."
The new ta act which took effect January 2018 means ALMOST everyone who used to itemize their deductions will now take the standard deduction, and because of that, gave no tax benefit from charitable contributions. (Many people were thrown into itemizing to begin with by state/local taxes, but are not being thrown into itemizing now. And the standard deduction, which was always the choice instead of itemizing, has been increased in addition to that.)
There was actually a "1040" musical being written by Jery Bock ("Fiddler") and Jerry Sterner ("Other People's Money"). http://www.playbill.com/article/bock-sterner-musical-1040-taxes-texas-nov-14-23-com-72137
I wonder how that would have adapted to the "More for me, none for you" era.
Strange to concede given how crucial we feel the arts are, but especially with no tax benefit, and people becoming more aware that artistic directors are (to attract the best qualified people) earning executive-level salaries like $400,000 and up, it starts to make sense that whatever donation money people are willing to give is going to cancer research, or shul or church, or Covenant House when friends do those sleepovers to raise funds.
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You are selective in who you include in your minority categories. Social politics do not belong in the arts. The media has no business pushing their chosen agenda on the arts, any more than foundations and other funders do. You compromise their independence and ability to make decisions based on creativity alone. Terrific for these people if they are indeed the most qualified. If not, they're just tokens, and will probably be expected to bring their identity politics into the job, which is a recipe for lowered standards. It is not the place of any newspaper to wage campaigns for any agenda. You have an ethicist in residence, consult him.
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One has to wish these new artistic directors well but hope they understand just what they have signed up for. (And they are all really smart individuals, so here's hoping so.) While the classic play is called The Servant of Two Masters, the artistic director of a major regional theatre faces a Medusa's head of competing serpents. Trying to balance the needs of artists, audiences, boards, donors, staff, education, time and budget leaves little room of expressing yourself. Yes these jobs come with a nice annual salary, a multi-year contract, health care, pension contributions (if your lucky) and valuable travel perks but at the cost becoming a fundraiser, an arbitrator, a public figure who has to follow a script, and mostly a compromiser.
I was disappointed the author of the article makes no mention of LGBTQ representation in diversity. Regional theatres (and the arts in general) have long been among the few welcoming to this community.
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All I can say is "hooray!"
While I hope this trend continues beyond bi-coastal theatre groups and into great theatres in middle America, this is very positive news. I say that not just for actors, directors, playwrights and others, but for theatre goers too. Art has always had a profound impact on the larger society. When an audience sees, hears and feels the great abilities of a female artist of color, for instance, hearts and minds change. Resistance to bigoted political trends can be no better accomplished than through watching in theatres across the land our American diversity of background, race, gender and sexual orientation. That will truly help make our nation whole again.
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There is unquestionable value in disrupting (permanently) the hegemonic qualities of any industry’s leadership. Diversity is indeed a virtue—for reasons both quantitative and qualitative. The one thing I find consistently eye rolling about these changes in the arts, however, is the degree to which people see activism (political, cultural, etc.) as inseparable from an institution’s artistic mission. Activist theater has its place, but so does every other kind of theater under the sun. The venerable theaters mentioned in this article will wilt and die—regardless of who is at the helm—if they choose to operate principally as social engineers. As Leonardo DiCaprio (as Howard Hughes) yelled at Cate Blanchett (as Katharine Hepburn) in The Aviator: “You are move star, nothing more!”
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That's great for non-profit theaters, but commercial theater is another story. The next time you go to a Broadway show, take a look at the creative team on your Playbill. Women directors, choreographers, associate choreographers, lighting designers, scene designers, music/vocal arrangers, book writers, playwrights, sound designer, projection designer, hair and makeup designers, music coordinators, production stage managers are the exception rather than the rule. Even lead producers, who develop the work and get the funds, are more often men than women. There are women producers, just not in the same numbers. Women shouldn't just be relegated to costume design on Broadway. #TimesUp
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Congratulations to Ms. Garrett for gaining the artistic helm of the nation's largest regional theatre. Perhaps it's time now to re-name the theatre, an idea that would have been scandalous 20 years ago. But the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, with its primary task championing new work, no longer represents its namesake to the extent that it should. I've been visiting Ashland and OSF yearly for 43 years. The changes over the last ten years, for better or worse, have been massive. The theatre's founder, Angus Bowmer, envisioned a traditional Shakespearean theatre that is no longer the prime focus. Respect his initial vision, but if this new direction is paramount, then redo the mission statement and rename the theatre.
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@kevinhugh I've been going the the Oregon Shakespeare Festival for 50 years. Over the years, there have been changes and growth. I'm excited by Nataki Garrett hiring and look forward to learning more about her.
This is the OSF's Mission Statement. "Inspired by Shakespeare's work and the cultural richness of the United States, we reveal our collective humanity through illuminating interpretations of new and classic plays, deepened by the kaleidoscope or rotating repertory."
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@Robert Mission statements can be changed at will by the board, and are generally written so as to appeal to the greatest number of funders, rather than serve as real guiding principles for decision making.
@Grittenhouse Many people who work at the OSF worked to develop the Mission Statement. I've been going to the OSF since 1969. Each Artistic Director has built on foundation of those who have gone before. In addition to their Mission Statement, there are four Values Statements, all of them are printed in the season programs. They serve as real guiding principles for decision making. The 2019 season is:
As You Like It directed by Rosa Joshi, Hairspray directed by Christopher Liam Moore, Mother Road by Octavio Solis directed by Bill Rauch, Indecent by Paula Vogel directed by Shana Cooper, Cambodian Rock Band by Lauren Yee directed by Chay Yew, Between Two Knees by The 1491s directed by Eric Ting, How To Catch Creation by Christian Anderson directed by Nataki Garrett, La Comedia of Errors directed by Bill Rauch, Macbeth directed by Jose Luis Valenzuela, Alice in Wonderland directed by Sara Bruner and All's Well That Ends Well directed by Tracy Young.
There are many people of color onstage and off at the Festival. The Mission Statement is not just words on the page.
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It will be interesting to observe the changes in play choices and policies that the new artistic directors make. Most of these theaters have fairly entrenched subscription audiences. What will be their response to the new choices? Does an artistic director at this point feel obligated to "please" his or her subscription base, or do they have the strength to say something like "my vision is important---accept it if you like--if not, too bad---see theater somewhere else" How these theaters evolve in the next few years should be very interesting.
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@landau38
As a long time theatre fan and attendee at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival productions, I can say that OSF has often pushed the boundaries of traditional approaches, especially under current Director Bill Rauch's leadership. The acting company are constantly working to bring new ideas to the standard offerings such as the recent production of Hamlet with Dan Donohue's tortured Prince and Othello with Danforth Comins as the unrepentant Iago. New offerings include World Premiers and ongoing series such as the American Revolutions' "Between Two Knees" about discrimination and suppression in America from the 1890 massacre at Wounded Knee to the 1973 takeover at Wounded Knee and everything in between. I and many others look forward to a new production of Hairspray as well as a play-rock concert Cambodian Rock Band. Yes, this is a full-on appreciation of OSF but it shows how theatre today is not content to play the old standards but is ready and able to take on new directions.
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Susan Booth has been Artistic Director of Atlanta's Alliance Theatre since 2001; her predecessor was Kenny Leon, who became Artistic Director in 1988. Maybe some of the theaters discussed in the article have something to learn from Atlanta, where several theater companies have been run by women for years.
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Also: Laura Kepley has been Artistic Director of the Cleveland Playhouse since 2013. Gina Vernaci was recently appointed President and Chief Operating Officer of Playhouse Square in Cleveland.
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Melia Bensussen will be taking over at Hartford Stage soon. The recently announced half season (her contributions will be announced in the coming weeks) consist of two women playwrights and Octavio Solis. All three plays are being directed by women. I can't wait to see who and what will be included on the second half of the season. Welcome Melia.
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Great line!
Artists can usually be depended on to be visionary risk-takers.
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Perhaps I misunderstood but I read in the trades that the majority of artistic directors of regional theaters were women well over a decade ago.
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@Don Arrup and on Broadway in the 1970s into the 1980s, before there started being 20 people over the title due to spiraling costs (I assume), there seemed to be parity between the number of shows from female producers vs. male producers. This seems to have gone backwards.
This is fantastic news.
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@Craig Lucas For whom?
Did I read too quickly? I don't know how this article could not have mentioned Emily Mann, director of the McCarter theater in Princeton.
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@mary Mann will retire after the Theater's upcoming 2019–2020 season.
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