Technicians for Change: We have before us an opportunity for drastic and sustainable change. The pandemic and calls for racial justice have ignited fieldwide revolution and hopefully serious reformation. Theatremakers are being presented with a chance to reimagine the way our art form is made, both within and without the systems that are supposed to support the people and the work.
7 comments:
The Leadership pivots section was a really informative part of the article for me. It articulated very well some specific mindset shifts that need to be made not only in theatre, but across the board of the workforce as well. They are also important principles to digest and put to work internally, since we are so often ingrained and jaded into taking on traits of power-hoarding, paternalism, and individualism through our interactions with the workforce, capitalism, and society in general. These traits that need to be changed are at the root of so much persistent inequity on all fronts. In the Communication Pivots, I really like the phrase 'compassionate curiosity' as a starting point for hard conversations that must be had regarding race and other representation in industries. Too often people will get defensive at the first sign of what they perceive to be a blame game, which shuts down any opportunity for growth.
I very much enjoyed reading this article and reading about how design can be more equitable. Personally I have seen so much and learned so much on how to make the stage equitable in terms of actors or directors and all the solutions revolve around the people you hire. Personally I believe that having a diverse group hired is the first step but more important is how they are treated once they are there and how much they are valued within a company. I liked how this article highlighted different communication techniques and talked about valuing each one. I also liked how it was acknowledged that this is not just a leadership change or something that will change with a couple of classes, this is a cultural change and a change in the way we are used to perceiving things. I also liked the idea of the collective because I do think that theater is an all over collaborative artform and the more we think individually the more we just hurt our art. This article was a great start to the conversation however I think there needs to be a collective effort on everyone’s part to make it a reality.
The leadership and communication pivots particularly piqued my interest. They both brought into sharp focus the way that the theater industry is currently designed to work and how outdated it is. The whole article did for that matter but on these two topics it brought to mind topic that had been discussed in my classes. We have talked about the "ideal" way that a theatre is set up. With the certain amount of designers talking to a certian amount of managers talking to certain crew members about certain things. However, in those conversations a specific point is always made to say that almost no two theaters actually work in this way or in the same way. And I think that that is how it should be. This articles leadership and communication pivots point out some of the ways in which theaters are even currently not the same as the "ideal" model. However the issues that I think comes up is that the companies are trying to be more like the model and should embrace what the article is talking about in terms of listening to every person and their varied views. The people in every role come from all different backgrounds even now, and that should be embraced as the article describes.
This article is doing some really important heavy-lifting in terms of creating equitable work. It’s centering designers in these conversations about equity in a way that I have not really seen elsewhere. I think a big hurdle with developing anti-racist theater, creating equitable workspaces, de-centering white supremacy or whatever you want to call the work that is being done, is translating philosophy into actionable items. For the most part, people tend to agree with the idea of anti-racist theater and equity, but then don’t do anything about it. Often it falls to leaderships/administrations that will compose generic emails every time there’s a racist news story and speak about “how we don’t support this,” but then don’t talk the talk. What I love about this article is that it points to the power designers have as key members of theater communities to foster an environment they want by being mindful of their intentions and actions. It also gives these really great colored cards to act as a jumping off point for how we can restructure our intentions and develop clear action items.
I found this article very enjoyable to read, and in fact, found myself agreeing with several of the points made. I have been able to see what happens when you can just let creatives create, and the outcome is often beautiful. This obviously only really happens under those “perfect” or almost “perfect” instances, in which the budget is large or in which the team has a good process going on, and those do not always happen. Not necessarily out of anyone’s fault, just because of the nature of the jobs we work in. I particularly enjoyed reading the parts about leadership and how we can make spaces where leaders thrive more inviting and present. I think having experience in leadership regardless of your job is important but is especially crucial to designers who aspire to lead the process at some point in their careers. I thought the advice was helpful and realistic, which is appreciated.
I was a little dissatisfied with the vagueness of the article until I got down to the pivots. In such a succinct and unassuming way they really encapsulated so many of the equity issues within theatre right now. Some problems were things I had felt were issues but had never known the words or terms to describe until seeing them. The use of the word pivot is also something I find very compelling. By framing these initiatives/changes as pivots rather than overhaul or large-scale change it makes the goals feel targeted and small in each of its individual asks. It says let's turn away from this toxic continuing condition and pinpoints specific issues rather than asking for blanket equity and change. I think the places that really hit home were the leadership and communication pivots. Every single one of those were things I've seen or experienced in some way or another and movement towards power-sharing, valuing intelligence and skill, community, partnership, and understanding of each others views and abilities is something to be applauded.
This article mentions at the beginning how the covid-19 pandemic was a huge struggle and change for many theatrical designers. And with that change, it is the right time to evolve the outdated ways that the theater industry works. In this sense, this article does a great job of spreading their opinion to the reader, and personally, it was something I never really thought about. As many other people wrote, the leadership pivoting was an empowering thing to read for me. It gave me a lot of hope and a chance for change for the better within theater equity, and I hope that this article gets taken into serious consideration around the country and world. In a time of change, not just with the pandemic but with various social movements, we should go with it rather than fight it, and it is most definitely time to fight against inequitable theater and reform with how the world is changing.
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