NPR: When Nataki Garrett began to receive death threats early this year, she said her impulse was to retreat.
"When this first happened, I actually tried to isolate myself," said the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) artistic director in an interview with NPR. "The act of threatening is supposed to make you feel isolated. And it does."
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Retreating when you receive death threats is a perfectly natural reaction and it is not at all unreasonable to do despite what your job may be. Theatre is not worth your life, and I constantly say, the operative word is “play”. I cannot believe the awful things that have been said to Garrett that had more to do with who she is than her job, which is disgusting and unfair. It was good to hear Mayor Akins and the Executive Director standing up for her and the mayor was frank in saying she did not reacting quickly enough to all of this happening. The fact that the police chief had no idea until the article came out is somewhat appalling because they should have known what was going on in the city around them, especially when it was as intense as this. It is great to hear that Garrett has so many supporters from all over the country.
I can’t quite put into words how absolutely disgusted I am by some people in this world. The creators of these death threats have to be people who like theater because otherwise why would they be threatening an artistic director of a theater specifically. It should be very clear to people that the theater community does not tolerate that type of behavior at all. It sounds like the increased security may help and we can only hope that the threats are completely unfounded and not actually going to happen. Not going to the police speaks volumes about the local relationship with law enforcement which is especially sad because this is one of the reasons that law enforcement exists. The comment from 2016 about the KKK being alive and well is completely disturbing and I had no idea that anyone would threaten someone like that because it’s a punishable offense. Sometimes this world just makes me sick
I genuinely cannot believe that we are still having this conversation in the US in the year 2022. The amount of disgust I have for people when I read this article is unbearable and tears are coming to my eyes. When I first learned about Nataki getting the job of Artistic Director at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, I was so excited for her! I am so devastated that this has become such an unsafe situation for her. However, I am glad that the people at Oregon Shakespeare Festival and the administration of the city of Ashland have taken this seriously. Though I'm so glad that this has happened, I feel like it's taking the industry as a whole back so many years. What happened to WSYWAT? I completely understand that she felt as if she had to retreat but I am glad that though she felt isolated, she had people behind her to help her and she had people to speak up for her and people to speak to that would hear her story. I hope that we see something credible happening to resolve this issue.
It's appalling to read about the attacks on Garrett. It's hard to imagine that something like this is happening today, when DEI is pushed more than ever. It's good to see that the Oregon Shakespeare Festival hired a security detail, though, and it's even better to know that Garrett is refusing to back down (which must take incredible bravery and strength on her part). The support from newspapers across the country is heartening, too. I can only hope that if there are other artists going through the same thing, their stories are heard, too - because, like the article says, not everyone has a powerful organization like the OSF behind them. I think that Akins is taking appropriate action in this situation, but it seems like Ashland itself may simply be a more unwelcoming community as a whole, given the incident with Juan Sanco, among other things. I hope that Akins is successful in diversifying the city's administration as well as hiring a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion officer.
While I feel sorry and wrong for such thing happening, I’m glad that there are actions taken in respond to things related to it and that a follow up report has been given to the audience. This is extremely worrying and for me personally, the emotion that I feel toward OSF make me think about what I could do to support my community. In the article, it have talked about how the artistic director need to move multiple times due to threats and how it could possibly make an individual feel lonely and excluded. This makes me think about how a death threat could be both impactful on mental and physical health. In addition, it would not only impact the individual who have received it but also their family members and ones that are close to them. It is really sad to see this continuous threat and mistreatment to the artistic director.
The thing that really frustrates me about this story is how nothing got done until the media gave this story attention. It is a really awful excuse that nothing was done because you “just could not believe it”. Someone’s life is on the line, so as a mayor you are not able to be slow to react, especially by a couple weeks. I just wonder how much the police department and government would do if this story was not covered by npr. I respect how strong Nataki is during this time and the fact that she strives for positive change in the theater community to come from this experience, but still I think it’s not fair that she has to bear the threats. It is scary to think that some people are so hateful that they would threaten someone for being a black woman in a leadership position. She deserves better.
A few weeks ago I remember reading some articles about the great work Garrett has been doing to continue work at OSF virtually during the pandemic, and the season selection being much wider than predominantly Shakespeare. In those articles, there were mentions of the death threats she is getting. The mayor said she didn’t do anything at first because she “didn’t want to believe it” which is not a good excuse. In a predominantly white area with a history of incidents involving racist people doing or saying atrocious things, and a Black woman in a significant position of power, you take that information seriously and act immediatly. You cannot ignore the blatant facts of the situation, and that context is so important. Garrett has had her life turned upside down just to keep doing her job. I’m glad she is beginning to get more support from the town, and I am excited to continue to see her work at OSF.
It was interesting and saddening to read this article. Nobody should ever receive death threats for trying to do their job and make a living, especially when that job is in theatre. It astounds me that anyone cares that much about keeping other people down. I am really glad that despite these comments, Garrett has yet to step down. I really admire her for it. I can’t imagine what it’s like to get death threats every day, to need security whenever you leave the house, and to not even be able to trust the police in this situation. I hope that Garett’s position as one of the few black women at large predominantly white institutions such as the OSF inspire more organizations to follow in her footsteps. I think that the only way to continue making this progress is to keep going and keep hiring non white people to positions of power and influence.
First off, I’ve never understood people’s need to threaten people to this extent. With everything happening in the world and with what happened to Juan Sancho, I fully understand why Nataki Garrett wouldn’t take it to the police and instead have the theatre try to handle the situation. It think if was smart of her and OSF to take this situation to a more national level. Now eyes will be on the Ashland police and loal government to see how they handle this. I mean, police are notorious for not doing anything with regards to stalking and things similar. Normally the line is until something physically happens we can’t do anything. Them taking it to a national level has already force one statement from the mayor, and it looks like they might take more steps in diversifying the local government. Though if it’s taken something like this to get them to even really do anything, it’ll be lucky if anything actually changes in the next few years.
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