Wednesday, October 06, 2021
Jeremy O. Harris Withdraws SLAVE PLAY from CTG Season of Disproportionately Male Playwrights; CTG Responds
www.broadwayworld.com: Playwright Jeremy O. Harris' Tony-nominated Slave Play was set to arrive on the west coast next year as a part of Center Theatre Group's new season; however, the show may not run as planned. Harris writes in a tweet today that he is withdrawing the play from the season to make room for works from young, female playwrights.
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I personally find Jeremy O. Harris’ actions quite admirable. I think the lack of equity in CTG’s season is only further perpetuating inequity within our industry. The team at CTG can defend themselves by saying there is equity within other sectors of their season. However, that does not make up for the lack of woman playwrights, especially within a company so large. I would be curious to know the number of other African American playwrights and performers across the season. With Jeremy O. Harris pulling, Slave Play I wonder if this number will take a significant plunge. He has also unemployed a significant number of performers and creatives looking to get back on their feet post COVID. I am curious to see if he intends on moving the production or postponing it to CTG’s next season. I am sure that with CTG’s meeting we will hear more in the coming days.
I think that the actions of Jeremy O. Harris are very admirable. I also think that these actions align with the mantra that people are realizing that strikes are powerful. It's also very powerful when people who have a big stake in a season like Harris. I think that the response from CTG really falls flat as we often see when major corporations make these lofty promises to change their season during the pandemic and then the season comes around and they forget about all of their lofty promises and go back to their old ways. Now that this has gotten a lot more attention I'm really hopeful that their next season is full of young women playwrights who's voices have been silenced for so many years and when they were finally coming out during the beginning of 2020, the pandemic hit and shut all of these down and most don't have the protection to tell that theatre that they should be on their next season whenever they're able to open back up.
This is big news, and incredible to see a young playwright use his privilege to further a call to action about the absence of women playwrights in Center Theatre Groups season. Especially considering Center Theatre Group has made their own claims to be equitable. They did publicly apologize for their shortcomings in their season creation and claim to do better in the future. I appreciated that Jeremy O. Harris also provided a list of ten women playwrights who could fill his slot in the season, giving no room for error on Center Theatre Groups part. They did however claim that is was a scheduling issue with other playwrights, which is certainly a factor. I believe people will be watching Center Theatre Group closely when it comes time for their season announcement for 2022 – 2023. Michael and Meghan’s response to the removal of Slave Play was a good one, and listed many ways in which the company was working to be more equitable. Ownership of mistakes and striving to do better is the best we can hope for as we begin reworking so much history of theatre being dominated by white men.
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