Black Lives Matter In the Theatre Industry

If you’ve ever watched a movie featuring a high school drama troupe, you’ve probably been fed the same narrative that many American pre-teens and young adults are familiar with: the theatre community is all-inclusive and welcomes individuals from all backgrounds to make art for the stage. Some movies and television series even portray it as a refuge for those that don’t “fit in” with the rest of teenage society. I grew up believing that theatre, and the arts community at large, was a place where everyone was welcome, a place where prejudices didn’t exist, couldn’t exist because artists were inherently more accepting and more open-minded than the average individual. Now that I am a professional theatre practitioner, I realize exactly how far-fetched and problematic this popularly accepted narrative is.

The truth is that white men have always dominated the Western art community, that women, Black people, and other people of color have had to fight their way into it, and it’s taken centuries for them to be able to practice art alongside their white male counterparts. In a typical History of Western Theatre course, one of the first things students learn is that Western theatre dates back to ancient Greece, where plays were performed and witnessed solely by men. Later, in their second History of Western Theatre class, students learn that the first [white] woman would not set foot on the Western stage until the 17th century, and the first Black actor would not enter the scene until over 150 years later. While the first Black theater company in the United States — The African Grove Theatre—was producing plays in New York, theatrical stages were still segregated across the U.S. Consequently, while Black characters had been written for the stage (most famously, Shakespeare’s Othello), they were being performed by white people in blackface. The first desegregated playhouse would not appear in America until the 19^th century (Cambridge Companion to African American Theatre). In the vast history of Western theatre, Black individuals have only recently been allowed to participate alongside white men and women; 200 years of Black American theatre is a small fraction of Western Theatre’s 3,000-year history, and the fight for equal representation on and off the stage is still happening today.

In a survey published by Rodger C. Schonfeld and Liam Sweeney, 73 percent of technical and production jobs in the New York City arts industry were held by white non-Hispanics; similarly, 75 percent of designers in the same survey were also white. Furthermore, this research showed that 78.68 percent of leadership roles in the arts community are held by white people (Ithaca S&R), meaning that the people in power, the ones hiring and paying the actors, stage managers, and designers, are disproportionately white. If New York is supposed to be the embodiment of theatre in our country, these numbers show that Black and Brown individuals are severely underrepresented in all aspects of American theatre, a destitute case for a city where Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) make up over half of its population.

Pinpointing the exact cause of such unequal representation in the theatre industry proves difficult because there are so many ways in which the system is built in favor of wealthy, white individuals and thus excludes many people from other backgrounds. We could start by talking about the lack of arts funding in public schools, especially in poor and Black and Brown communities, making access to an arts education from a young age only available to kids in and from more affluent, white communities. An early start to an arts education is crucial to building the foundational skills that will get students into viable arts programs at the collegiate level; if an early arts education is only available to kids in richer and predominately white communities, kids from low-income households and minority groups are less likely to enter the arts industry at all.

Even after jumping through all of these hoops, many theatre makers face up-front costs with every contract they sign, such as model-making and rendering supplies, printing fees, transportation to work, and masterclasses. These expenses are not always covered for the theatre artist, especially young artists starting out at small theatre companies.  In short, it is expensive to become a theatre practitioner. Clearly, those with an economic disadvantage will have a harder time accessing the education and training they need to even enter the professional theater industry. Due to the intersections of institutionalized racism and socio-economic disadvantage, Black and Brown communities are more likely to experience economic hardship, and therefore, are less likely to be able to receive the training necessary to become professional theatre artists.

35 percent onstage representation in a city where BIPOC make up over half of the population demonstrates a problem in the system. The numerous obstacles preventing BIPOC from entering the professional theatre industry, and their severe underrepresentation on and off the stage is a result of thousands of years of white Western theatre, and Black people have struggled against the system at every step. The Black Lives Matter movement has emphasized white people’s ignorance and apathy towards centuries of Black individuals’ demands for racial justice. The movement is forcing the industry to look critically at their role in the oppression of BIPOC throughout history, and especially now. So how are the theatres responding?

The importance of having institutions stand up for BIPOC theatre practitioners makes itself clear in the experience of my friend, who, along with other students, petitioned his university’s theatre department to make a statement in solidarity with Black Lives Matter after months of students raising their voices against the rampant racism within their own department. His story demonstrates the need for those in power to listen to BIPOC when they speak up about injustices, and the consequences of institutions not taking action in support of their BIPOC students and staff.

While statements of solidarity are important to many individuals, they are only a small step for creating a truly inclusive theatre industry. We as theatre practitioners, especially those who are white, need to hold these establishments accountable for taking real, tangible action in favor of our BIPOC colleagues. It is time for American theatre to step back and listen: “theatres will need to unlearn practices of white fragility and defensiveness that often follows BIPOC staff speaking their truth” (Dinkins & Heartley, 2020). These same sentiments are echoed in my friend’s statements about the reception of his calls for justice in an educational environment. No person should feel so constantly ignored and gaslit that they abandon their passions and career aspirations. If we continue to believe the narrative that theatre makers are inherently inclusive, we will never recognize when our industry needs an audit. If those in leadership roles will not actively listen when members of their staff or student body speak out against the injustices they experience at work or in the classroom, we will continue to perpetuate white supremacy within the theatre community.

One thing we as individuals can do is to support Black voices and Black companies with our wallets and our platforms. If you are able, please consider donating to one or more of the Black theatre companies listed below. If you cannot donate, sign petitions, like and follow Black owned accounts, and share posts with your own followers. And if you are a business owner of any kind, hire Black people!

this page will continuously be updated as more resources become available. please feel free to use the contact page to suggest updates.

Black theatres and organizations to support

You can also find a list of Black theatre companies in your state here.

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petitions to sign

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more resources and further reading…

• We See You, White American Theater: weseeyouwat.com
• Black Lives Matter: blacklivesmatter.com
• Maria Cisco’s Spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1vbTjlhaBY-MefEdh3N9sJqtT5ie-6zfHJ90FOUhmTNs/edit?fbclid=IwAR0NZS-VFrCT-y8UQFIwV88Nm253IcZbFku-0ADFASRw9kx8rY8y-zyuTRw#gid=0
• Dinkins, Kelvin Jr., and Al Heartly. “We Don’t Want Your Statements, American Theatre”. Howlround. 11 June 2020: https://howlround.com/we-dont-want-your-statements-american-theatre
• Interview with Lydia R. Diamond: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/10/theater/systemic-racism-theater.html
• Ethnic Representation on New York City Stages. The Asian American Performers Action Coalition, Jan. 2018, http://www.aapacnyc.org/.
• Burgin, Say. “Black Lives Matter, Black Power, and the Role of White Allies”. Black Perspecitves. 12 Dec. 2018: https://www.aaihs.org/black-lives-matter-black-power-and-the-role-of-white-allies/
• Paulson, Michael. “Theatre Jobs Skew White and Male, Study Finds”. The New York Times. 26 June 2017: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/26/theater/theater-jobs-skew-white-and-male-study-finds.html
• Pogrebin, Robin. “New York Arts Organization Lacks the Diversity of Their City”. The New York Times. 28 Jan. 2016: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/29/arts/new-york-arts-organizations-lack-the-diversity-of-their-city.html
• Schonfeld, Roger C., and Liam Sweeney. “Diversity in the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs Community.” Ithaka S+R. Ithaka S+R. 28 January 2016. Web. 9 July 2020. https://doi.org/10.18665/sr.276381
• Shaw, Helen. “Building Trust After Inclusivity Failed: Lessons for the Theatre”. Vulture. 10 June 2020: https://www.vulture.com/2020/06/race-whiteness-black-lives-matter-lessons-for-theater.html
• Young, Harvey, editor. The Cambridge Companion to African American Theatre. Cambridge University Press, 2012.