HowlRound Theatre Commons: Regardless of your age, race, or political leanings, if you live in a culture touched by colonialism, it is inevitable that racist ideals have crept into your work—theatrical work included. As such, anyone in the field—including the seven of us working as stage managers across the United States—must actively dismantle these aspects of our beliefs and practices. For stage managers in particular—whether acting as a production stage manager, assistant, or intern—we must be mindful of the ways we facilitate our rehearsal and performance processes.
7 comments:
this article changed my life! Everybody In theater needs to read this! I had no idea these qualities of the workplace stemmed from colonization and white supremacy culture. I’ve just regarded these as effects of capitalism or “hustle culture” (which now I see are part of that system). It’s ridiculous that we are made to believe that the more hours you work is like a badge of honor and working 60+ hours a week is something to brag about. these ideologies hurt ALL of us. this system not only makes us compete with each other for resources but gives us unrealistic standards of work and work us to the ground. We are human. We have families. We needs breaks for our mental and physical health. It is absolutely ridiculous that working 12-14 hr a day for 6 days a week is not only acceptable but it’s the industry standard! ESPECIALLY IN COLLEGE. No other department at cmu owns their students lives for that long every week. White supremely hurts everyone. And even though I’m white, I would greatly benefit from these changes being implemented. I want to have a family one day and I want to be able to see them everyday.
It is interesting that so many qualities that we think make a good stage manager can have such insidious ramifications. I do not think many stage managers think they are being racist when they demand a rehearsal stick to a schedule or expect perfectionism. They are just holding themselves and the theater company to a standard that was taught to them. However, when we really question who set these standards, we can see that they keep people out of the room, specifically BIPOC artists, but they don’t necessary give us better art. Urgency is a great example of a standard that at face value isn’t complicit in a white supremacist system. There’s nothing inherently wrong about wanting to be efficient with your time. However, when we value urgency over diversity, it can lead to voices of many great BIPOC artist being silence because “there wasn’t enough time.” I find it so fascinating that the article calls out quantity over quality, because I expected a top-tier program like the School of Drama to be on the front line of pushing for equality and labor rights, but I am incredibly disappointed by the number of hours that graduate students are expected to do, not in the name of an education but because the school needs the free labor.
Though I don't have much (any, really) experience as a proper stage manager, while reading this article I found myself drawing comparisons to stage managers that I've worked with in the past. Overworking and perfectionism are two qualities that were all too prevalent in my experience, but I never equated them with something as large and looming as the concept of white supremacy. However, this article puts forward the critical thinking that's needed for someone to contextualize and understand their experiences. On that note, it is odd to think about how theatre, capitalist work society, and oblivious racist tendencies all tie together. It's possible to go one step further, too, and show how the past 6 months have exacerbated issues for BIPOC artists and workers disproportionately when compared to white workers occupying the same or similar positions. As the veil is being pulled down and ideas like the ones presented in this essay are being pushed into the public eye, I hope that more people have more honest introspection and change the ways that they fit in to what we see as "the norm".
I thought this article was really great and worked very well with topics that we addressed in our anti-racist theatre class as well as a discussion we’re working on in our management seminar. It’s definitely important to look at the non-obvious characteristics of white supremacy and how they can manifest themselves in rehearsal rooms and across industry standards, so that we aren’t patting ourselves on the back for making a statement about how ‘diversity is important’ and calling it good. A lot of the problems, particularly the culture of long hours and 6 day weeks, that have been discussed throughout the industry actually play into the points laid out in this article, and I think that brings up an interesting point about the interplay between capitalism and racism as systemic structures. It’s going to be important, both now and going forward, to look at the way we do things in every area and ask the questions of ‘who does this actually benefit? Who does this harm? How can we reduce harm and expand benefits in the most effective way possible?’ with a particular focus on the impacts of industry standards on BIPOC in order to actually make any progress.
Reading this article made my eyes grow wide - as someone who has stage managed for 6 years now, I couldn't believe how easy it was to see how well I fit into some of the problems discussed. When I'm in rehearsal or doing any type of theater work, I am always charged with urgency and this drive to be completely objective. However, I do see the ramifications of having all of these coveted qualities, and though I never thought to connect it all back to white supremacy pervading the theater space, I have backed away from practices of rushing conversations just to get rehearsal started. If someone feels the need to talk and express their thoughts, opinions, or feelings, then we should be there to listen until the point comes at which a resolution has been reached or will be found. The connections that were made in this article between systemic racism and capitalism (time is money ideals) were super intriguing to read. I will be sure to keep reading about this and if I ever stage manage again, I will hopefully be able to apply anti-racist practices.
I chose to comment on this article because I understand now that creating anti-racist theatre is a continued practice, even though this article is written with the stage manager in mind. I was previously unaware how the listed items were upholding white supremacy in theatre: Perfectionism, sense of urgency, defensiveness, individualism, paternalism, and either or thinking, to name a few, as according to Dismantling Racism: A workbook for Social Change Groups. This article sparks interest because while I do understand the amount of pressure stage managers face, comparing them to “perfect robots” I never considered how that could be from White Supremacy, and how it was intertwined with perfectionism. It also addresses how we need to value slowing down, and speaking out if microaggressions and abuse take place, instead of worrying that speaking out can cause further delays during the busy process of creating live theatre. It’s important to support stage managers, but during this time, while theatre is shut down, we should also re-examine what we expect of them.
What an amazing article from a group of seven stage managers, I would have never thought that they were going to be this woke. The statement that is most compelling is “Regardless of your age, race or political leanings, if you live in a culture touched by colonialism, it is inevitable that racist ideal has crept into your work. This is such a powerful statement which really examines what our role is in upholding or tearing down the white supremacist created systemic racism. It is crazy that I have always experienced certain qualities from stage managers, such as overworking and perfectionism, but I’ve never equated them with the concept of white supremacy. This article really helps us examine every way in which we can be promoting white supremacy in our jobs and everyday lives without even knowing it. We also should focus on the impacts of industry standards on our BIPOC community members.
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