Wednesday, October 13, 2021
Bay Area theater artists who called out discrimination find that as some doors close, others open
Datebook: The first rule of theater is you don’t speak out against theater, but no one has to say that rule out loud. Every ingenue crowding into an audition room, every playwright lobbing a script into the void, every college grad applying for the privilege of an unpaid internship can tell that if you get branded as difficult, there are plenty of others eager to take your place. Speak out loudly enough, and you might never work again.
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In such an interconnected industry, theatre workers have almost always been afraid to call out inequity and abuse when they saw it or experienced it. It is seen as just “the cost of doing business” rather than something that actually needs to be addressed. This article discusses recent cases of theatre workers calling out theatre institutions, and how that’s actually been a benefit to their careers instead of getting them forced out of theatre. It provides me with a little hope for the future. People in this industry are no longer afraid of fighting oppression because they won’t get work, but rather calling out these acts gives them opportunities in spaces that actually value their voices. Retaliation is what makes me and so many others afraid to report incidents, even if there’s a clear case of injustice. This industry is long overdue for a restructure of how abuse and discrimination is treated and stigmatized, but these stories show that we’re on a path to break that mold.
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