the week of july 5 - 9, 2021
"diversity" is meaningless without inclusion
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this week in racism: WaterTower Theatre
Last week, Dallas Morning News reporter Lauren Smart wrote about WaterTower Theatre’s recently announced all-white cast of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.
In the initial casting notice, the Dallas area theatre promised to “reflect the diversity of modern-day London in the casting of this production.” (As of 2021, 41% of London’s population is non-white.) After the company released a flyer with eleven white cast members, local theatre-makers criticized the decisions on social media. Artistic Director Shane Peterman outlined the theatre’s audition process:
According to Peterman, of the 183 actors who auditioned for Curious Incident, only six BIPOC actors went through with the full audition process. When the director, Emily Scott Banks, saw the lack of diversity, she leaned on her producers, including Peterman, to use contacts and networks to cull more submissions, to no avail.
“An effort was made. Was it good enough? Was it the right effort? Was it an effort that was still within the blind spots that we have? Possibly,” Peterman says. “However, we are trying and we recognize there is more education and information that we need to collect so we can try to do better.”
But WaterTower’s blind spots have been an ongoing issue for years. In the Dallas Morning News article, Peterman unfairly throws his predecessor Joanie Schultz under the bus for theatre’s financial problems. Schultz prioritized work highlighting “voices of women, people of color, and Texas natives” during her short tenure:
“The prior artistic director, Joanie Schultz, had pushed the company in a new, progressive direction, drawing critical attention but alienating WaterTower’s traditional audience, according to Peterman. He said that the theater lost regular subscribers and general ticket sales plummeted.”
Schultz resigned in 2018 after less than two years as artistic director, telling American Theatre at the time that WaterTower hit 100% of their ticket goals and that she was “brought in to create a new direction and bring in more diverse, younger audiences, but that sort of transition needs a lot of support. If everything is not in the right place, that’s hard to accomplish.”
In 2019, Peterman announced his inaugural season as artistic director, promising “diverse storytelling that is both thought-provoking and entertaining…emphasizing the importance of diverse backgrounds and the communities from which these stories are told.” Every writer in the season announcement was white.
Last year, in the wake of the George Floyd protests, WaterTower released a public statement that notably did not include the words “Black Lives Matter”. As the Dallas Morning News reports:
When the theatre received criticism online, Peterman initially responded defensively in one of the larger community Facebook groups…But Peterman says that last summer was a wake-up call for him. When defending the theater only prompted more blowback, he had his team to go silent and spend time listening to the criticism and reflecting on ways to improve.
WaterTower issued a statement this week promising to “redesign its audition process, build relationships with local BIPOC communities, and host several upcoming public discussions about diversity and equity.” (It is worth noting here that WaterTower’s four-person staff is all-white.)
The work of anti-racism is difficult and ongoing — but at some point, all of the reflection, listening, and “trying to do better” needs to yield actionable change. When the same institutional patterns of oversight, neglect, and systemic racism persist, a company is not creating “innovative, diverse theatre that builds community by fostering empathy and dialogue”, as WaterTower’s mission states. It’s upholding white supremacy, biased practices, and inequity.
digital theatre
Ben Okri’s Changing Destiny starts performances — in-person and streaming — at the Young Vic on July 9th. The new adaptation of the 4,000-year-old Egyptian poem is directed by AD Kwame Kwei-Armah and is the first production to be broadcast on the Young Vic's new multi-camera streaming platform.
Nikkole Salter’s Lines in the Dust streams July 8 - August 8 from New Normal Rep. The 2014 play, directed by Awoye Timpo, follows a single mother navigating the complexities of the educational system after losing a charter school lottery.
Preston Choi’s Drive In to the End of the World streams July 13th as part of Sideshow Theatre Company’s Freshness Initiative. The apocalyptic and irreverent play — set at a small town drive-in rocked by the arrival of the Mothman — is dramaturged by Yasmin Zacaria Mikhaiel.
Miranda Rose Hall’s A Play for the Living in the Time of Extinction starts streaming July 15th for Baltimore Centerstage. Taibi Magar directs the darkly comic world premiere solo play, which “becomes an awakening about how to be human in an era of man-made extinction.” (I’m also burying the lede that the protagonist is a dramaturg, we love to see it!)
in-person theatre
Edinburgh Fringe festival organizers released plans for a scaled-down schedule. To adapt to Scotland’s recent surge in COVID infections, producers are “favoring outdoor and open air venues such as beaches, city squares, courtyards and pedestrianized streets.”
Daniel Goldstein and Dawn Landes’ Row starts outdoor performances at the Williamstown Theatre Festival. Directed by Tyne Rafaeli, the world premiere musical — inspired by the memoir of Tori Murden McClure, the first woman to row solo across the Atlantic Ocean — is also available as an audio production on Audible.
Two installations — Becca Blackwell’s The Body Never Lies and Stacey Derosier’s Peep Show — are both open at Soho Rep until July 18th. Blackwell and Derosier are two of eight theatremakers invited to be year-long salaried staff members as part of Soho Rep’s Project Number One COVID-era job creation program.
2021-22 season updates
Theater J announced its 2021-22 season. The DC theatre’s line-up includes Mark St. Germain’s Becoming Dr. Ruth (directed by Holly Twyford), Jeffrey Hatcher and Mitch Albom’s Tuesdays with Morrie (directed by Jenna Place), Rinne B. Groff’s Compulsion or The House Behind (directed by Johanna Gruenhut), Michael Bloom’s adaptation of Nathan the Wise (directed by AD Adam Immerwahr), and Anna Deavere Smith’s Fires in the Mirror (co-directed by Immerwahr and January LaVoy).
the regional theatre game of thrones
Blanka Zizka is stepping down as co-artistic director of The Wilma Theater after 40 years. Last winter the Philadelphia theater announced a new shared leadership model, with a rotating cohort of artistic directors. Yury Urnov is the lead artistic director for the current 2021-21 season, James Ijames will take over for the upcoming 2021-22 season, and Morgan Green will lead the 2022-23 season.
The Jungle Theater in Minneapolis announced its new artistic cohort. Twin Cities artists Sequoia Hauck (filmmaker/director), JuCoby Johnson (playwright/actor), James Rodríguez (actor/dramaturg), and Angela Timberman (director/actor) join artistic director Christina Baldwin as part of a new shared artistic leadership and development model.
scammer update!
A few weeks ago, I wrote about Pioneer Theatre managing director Christopher Massimine, who fabricated and exaggerated his résumé with grandiose claims that somehow cleared Management Consultants for the Arts’ $35,000+ vetting process. (This entire story was a matryoshka doll of grifts.)
Adam Herbets, the FOX13 investigative reporter who initially broke the story, posted an update that Massimine also lied about the company’s finances in an American Theatre article:
1 - According to new documents obtained by @fox13, Massimine used @AmericanTheatre, a national industry-leading publication, to lie about @pioneertheatre Company finances. "In FY20, PTC faced a potential $1.4 million deficit; we ended the year with a true deficit of $66,000."
A FOX 13 investigation has revealed Christopher Massimine, a high-paid executive at the University of Utah, tricked recruiters with outlandish claims about his work experience to get the job. The lies didn’t stop there. https://t.co/JzqgLzLQ9E
Adam Herbets @AdamHerbets
Pioneer has named an acting managing director, but Massimine remains on paid administrative leave from the company. (Cue me rolling my eyes so hard my optic nerve severs.)
