HowlRound Theatre Commons: On a Friday afternoon in late June, the theatre advocacy group the Lillys sent out a call to action. Spurred by season announcements from Playwrights Horizons and Williamstown Theatre Festival that featured a remarkedly small number of female playwrights, the Lillys invited theatre artists from all disciplines to a town hall.
This article highlights an issue our industry will likely grapple with for years to come. With the current political climate, and Trump’s push to reshape art funding in America; the grants that once created space for diverse voices are being revoked. Williamstown has long produced quality work and has more recently begun incorporating diverse perspectives, but that shift only happened when the theatre world and broader community demanded it. Now, the question becomes. Which companies will truly stand by their promises to uplift minority voices, and which will chase funding by producing shows that align with the administration’s regulations? As artists, how do we continue to tell the stories that matter to us while still securing the resources needed to produce them at a level worthy of our audiences?
ReplyDeleteIt seems, unfortunately, like so many other companies, theaters are treating representation and inclusion as a passing trend that's importance shifts with profitability rather than a standard in the display of human experience. As the author quotes, “Use theatre to speak on personal experiences arising from social conditions.” To deny groups of people a stage is to deny their lives and statements from reaching the audience. This is simply not good enough, especially with our current administration overstepping to erase the voices of the past through museums and government archives. We are now experiencing a silencing of current voices, whether it is from social media, TV, or from the seasons of a play company. We’ve seen Target do exactly this, striking its DEI policies and pride sections the second it starts losing its profits. At the end of the day, these organizations are all companies that care more for the bottom line than the people they serve. Having presidential approval would likely increase their funds and may spare them from some of the recent budget cuts plaguing most industries right now. Especially with the current rise of anti-feminism, trad-wife, anti-woke sentiments online it's only fitting that a group historically hidden and only published when their husbands are taking credit for their work would be cast aside in favor of appealing to the dollar bill.
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