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Thursday, February 23, 2017
Dead Writers Collective now dead after allegations of harassment and abuse
Bleader: A social media firestorm of allegations of sexual harassment and emotional abuse ignited Tuesday afternoon and incinerated Dead Writers Collective, a six-year-old theater company, which announced this morning that it was closing for good.
3 comments:
Julian Goldman
said...
I think this is one of those situations where everyone involved is at fault. First of all, DeLay quitting after taking the contract isn’t really okay, but at least rehearsals hadn’t started yet. Quite frankly, getting an angry email is response to that should be expected, though I wouldn’t be surprised if the email was so angry it was unprofessional. However, DeLay posting about the email on Facebook is both unprofessional and seems pretty stupid. Why would she want to publicize that she left a job she had already agreed to take? And if she was going to do that, she could’ve at least used privacy settings so that only her close friends could see it, or at least make the post invisible to Schneider. In most situations like this, I wouldn’t assume that people would take DeLay’s side.
Because of this, I suspect that DeLay’s real reason for leaving was not the higher paying job. I suspect if she had a good relationship with Dead Writers Collective, she wouldn’t have left. People quitting in mass due to the company’s bad behavior kind of proves to me it was never about the money, and Schneider was probably not as pleasant to work with as he might have thought.
I think the moral of this story is to keep your work conflicts private, and definitely off Facebook, because if you don’t, people might end up writing an article about you and then some random college sophomore will end up chipping in his two cents on your behavior on his professor’s blog.
This is the second article I’ve read about this horrible situation and the differences between the two are impressive. It goes to show never trust the media. While this article cultivates gossip the article by PerformInk cultivates awareness, two similar but very distinct things. It makes me feel better as a contributor to theater reading PerformInk’s article as it reinforces the idea that justice wins out in the end as the group was disbanded and the people responsible lost their power. After reading Reader’s version I felt ashamed and wary of the industry and of the internships I partake in this coming summer. While I’m glad the issue was sort of resolved it still lurks in the back of my mind that I might stumble upon this sort of abusive environment in my future career and I can’t help but wonder just how I’d react if I was in their shoes.
Article Rating: 6/10 Notes: “In sleep we all lie naked and alone” -Thomas Wolfe
It's a shame to see young theater companies fall to internal affairs, especially for acts of harassment, abuse, and belittlement. I think the spine chilling statement is what Schneider told media in the end commenting on the fact that the issue should've been solved behind closed curtains and shouldn't have gone out publicly. However, after multiple people besides DeLay came out about injustices and tension behind the scenes, the issue should have most definitely been released to the public. Granted, it probably shouldn't have been bottled up to the point that some of the most aggressive comments were seen pouring out, causing the company to fail, and should've been handled more respectfully and professionally, especially between professionals of such high standing such as an artistic director or a co founder of a company. It's a shame to see such a young company go but it's great to see that it's being closed down on a moral, just basis to stop any more horrible things to people just like us from happening behind closed doors.
3 comments:
I think this is one of those situations where everyone involved is at fault. First of all, DeLay quitting after taking the contract isn’t really okay, but at least rehearsals hadn’t started yet. Quite frankly, getting an angry email is response to that should be expected, though I wouldn’t be surprised if the email was so angry it was unprofessional. However, DeLay posting about the email on Facebook is both unprofessional and seems pretty stupid. Why would she want to publicize that she left a job she had already agreed to take? And if she was going to do that, she could’ve at least used privacy settings so that only her close friends could see it, or at least make the post invisible to Schneider. In most situations like this, I wouldn’t assume that people would take DeLay’s side.
Because of this, I suspect that DeLay’s real reason for leaving was not the higher paying job. I suspect if she had a good relationship with Dead Writers Collective, she wouldn’t have left. People quitting in mass due to the company’s bad behavior kind of proves to me it was never about the money, and Schneider was probably not as pleasant to work with as he might have thought.
I think the moral of this story is to keep your work conflicts private, and definitely off Facebook, because if you don’t, people might end up writing an article about you and then some random college sophomore will end up chipping in his two cents on your behavior on his professor’s blog.
This is the second article I’ve read about this horrible situation and the differences between the two are impressive. It goes to show never trust the media. While this article cultivates gossip the article by PerformInk cultivates awareness, two similar but very distinct things. It makes me feel better as a contributor to theater reading PerformInk’s article as it reinforces the idea that justice wins out in the end as the group was disbanded and the people responsible lost their power. After reading Reader’s version I felt ashamed and wary of the industry and of the internships I partake in this coming summer. While I’m glad the issue was sort of resolved it still lurks in the back of my mind that I might stumble upon this sort of abusive environment in my future career and I can’t help but wonder just how I’d react if I was in their shoes.
Article Rating:
6/10
Notes:
“In sleep we all lie naked and alone” -Thomas Wolfe
It's a shame to see young theater companies fall to internal affairs, especially for acts of harassment, abuse, and belittlement. I think the spine chilling statement is what Schneider told media in the end commenting on the fact that the issue should've been solved behind closed curtains and shouldn't have gone out publicly. However, after multiple people besides DeLay came out about injustices and tension behind the scenes, the issue should have most definitely been released to the public. Granted, it probably shouldn't have been bottled up to the point that some of the most aggressive comments were seen pouring out, causing the company to fail, and should've been handled more respectfully and professionally, especially between professionals of such high standing such as an artistic director or a co founder of a company. It's a shame to see such a young company go but it's great to see that it's being closed down on a moral, just basis to stop any more horrible things to people just like us from happening behind closed doors.
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