the week of october 11-15, 2021
it's time for a five-day work week
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this week in debacles: walnut street theater, again
In June, I wrote about the Walnut Street Theater serving actress Jenna Pinchbeck with a cease-and-desist after she publicly questioned the company’s commitment to creating a safe working environment for marginalized artists. (We also ran the math on artistic director Bernard Havard’s wildly inflated salary.)
WST threatened to take Pinchbeck to court unless she retracted her comments on social media. She responded by hiring her own legal team and organizing a protest, where she shared collected testimonials about “Havard barging into women’s dressing rooms after a cursory knock, colorism, tokenism, massive wage disparity, size discrimination, oppressive working conditions, and no mainstage directors of color.”
Broad Street Review published a concise history of the Walnut Street debacle, as well as the latest protests on WST’s recent opening night:
Organizers received a permit to protest across the street. They handed out leaflets, shouted, and held protest signs, but were largely blocked by two police cars parked in front of their table. The Walnut’s entrance was guarded by several security officers, and, in one of the evening’s multiple ironies, that six-piece Mummer string band (Fralinger). One of the band’s members noted that they were “apparently” hired as a counterprotest. Nothing says cluelessness more than hiring an organization known for annual scandals over racist and sexist behavior to overpower critique of an organization quickly becoming known for... well, you know.
It’s worth noting that Walnut Street is currently producing Beehive: The 60s Musical. After releasing a lengthy diversity, equity, and inclusion statement, WST reopened after an 18-month shutdown with a musical revue that “depicts The Supremes with a white member, [features] Tina Turner referring to the Ikettes but not to her own suffering or liberation, and includes an onstage band composed entirely of white men, along with the entire production team. (The costume designer is a white woman.)” I’ve said this before, but here’s a question for every theatre in America: are your institutional core values a practice, or are they words on your website? I think we know the answer for Walnut Street Theater.
ma-yi & the humane work week
On October 7th, Ma-Yi Theater Company announced it was committing to “a 5-day workweek, 8-hour tech days, and not less than NYC living wage of 21.50 per hour for all workers, along with union benefits.” The company added, “Theater does not just magically appear, it is built off the labor of countless workers. All workers deserve a living wage, healthcare free at the point of service, affordable housing, and the time to build their own lives.”
The announcement was followed by countless public calls from artists advocating for humane work weeks and the abolishment of the infamous 10 out of 12 rehearsal. (For the ten people who don't work in theatre and subscribe to this newsletter, here’s your explanatory comma: “10 out of 12” refers to an Equity rule that says that when actors are called in for 12 hours of tech rehearsal, they can only work 10 of those hours. The union mandates do not apply to technicians, who often work 12 out of 14 hours or more.)
The action was supported by the NO MORE 10 Out Of 12s Working Group, a collection of designers, stage managers, production managers, and other theatre artists dedicated to changing the way that we practice theatre.
We See You White American Theatre advocated for this change in their 2020 public demands: “These are long-standing practices that are seeped in capitalist and white supremacist culture. When these practices are in place, the growing and nurturing of the BIPOC family structure is imperiled. Many BIPOC artists have been forced to make a choice not to have families. For Indigenous artists and other peoples recovering from genocide, these practices are extremely detrimental.”
Many theaters – including Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Baltimore Center Stage, Playwrights Realm, Kansas City Rep, Round House Theatre, and The Wilma – have recently eliminated 10 out of 12s.
For the record, the only 10 out of 12 this newsletter supports is the 2015 play by Anne Washburn.
no one asked for this
The previously announced, pandemic-delayed revival of David Mamet’s American Buffalo is coming to Broadway in 2022.
Three years after MCC Theatre abruptly severed its 15-year relationship with him, Neil LaBute has resurfaced in Germany with his new play The Answer to Everything. The New York Times described it as “an artistic response to #MeToo and ‘cancel culture’…a tightly coiled chamber piece about three women who plot vengeance on the men who’ve wronged them.”
Full disclosure: I did not finish reading the review as an act of self-care because a combination Mamet/LaBute news cycle is designed to spike my blood pressure.
If you want to produce a play that reckons with sex, gender, and power that is not written by Neil LaBute or David Mamet, here are some of my favorites. I dispense season planning advice for free now because my soul will collapse in on itself like a dying star if I see a theatre announce an Oleanna revival:
John Proctor is the Villain, Kimberly Belflower
Witch, Jen Silverman
Usual Girls, Ming Peiffer
The Gradient, Steph Del Rosso
Love, Kate Cortesi
how to defend yourself, liliana padilla
digital theatre
Alexandra Wood’s Descent will be released by Audible on October 21st. The world premiere audio play is directed by Natalie Abrahami.
in-person theatre
Hilary Bettis’ 72 Miles to Go… starts performances October 15th at the Alley Theatre. The drama, directed by José Zayas, takes its title from “the distance between Tucson, Arizona and Nogales, Mexico—and the distance between a recently deported mother and her American-born husband and children.”
Jen Silverman’s Witch starts performances October 15th at the Huntington. The subversive spin on The Witch of Edmonton is directed by Rebecca Bradshaw.
Jocelyn Bioh’s Nollywood Dreams starts previews October 21st at MCC Theatre. Saheem Ali directs the world premiere of the 1990s-set romantic comedy, which follows an ambitious ingenue in the booming Nigerian film industry.
Melisa Tien’s Best Life premieres at JACK on October 21st. Directed by Susanna Jaramillo, the play is “an alarming dark comedy that centers on two women trying to bridge their racial and economic differences.”
2021-22 season updates
Slave Play will be in Center Theatre Group’s 2022 season after all. Last week, playwright Jeremy O. Harris withdrew the production in response the gender imbalance of CTG’s upcoming season. CTG pledged that its 2022-23 Taper season will be comprised of “entirely women-identifying or non-binary playwrights…and a BIPOC majority.” CTG also commissioned six new plays from Black women-identifying or non-binary playwrights.
Bryna Turner’s At the Wedding will reopen LCT3 in February. The world premiere will be directed by Jenna Worsham.
DC’s Theater Alliance announced its upcoming season. The line-up includes the devised piece A Chorus Within Her (directed by Alina Collins Maldonado), John Adams and June Jordan’s musical I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw The Sky, and Mara Nelson-Greenberg’s Do You Feel Anger? (directed by Kelly Colburn).
I always look forward to Theater Alliance’s seasons because I think they’re one of the few DC theatres that is meaningfully engaged with its neighborhood and immediate community. This is an opinion that will likely get me in trouble but I don’t care because it’s true.
playwrights elsewhere
Sarah Ruhl’s new memoir, Smile: The Story of a Face, is now available. In a series of piercing, witty, and lucid meditations on her experience of Bell’s palsy, Ruhl chronicles “a ten-year medical and metaphysical odyssey that brought her physical, creative, emotional, and spiritual healing.”
Bess Wohl is adapting Lillian Hellman’s The Children’s Hour into a limited television series. The 1930s-set boarding school drama will be executive produced by playwright Jon Robin Baitz.
me elsewhere
I talked to Elliot C. Williams at DCist for his comprehensive feature on the slow rebuilding of the local theatre industry and hopped on my usual soapbox that a theatre isn’t committed to anti-racism and equity if it’s posting jobs with salaries below the living wage.
that’s not a living wage
Here are this week’s featured underpaid job listings, paired with the living wage for a 40-hour work week for one adult with no children in that area. (You can read more about the methodology here.)
Development Manager, Ensemble Studio Theatre: $43,500
Living Wage for New York City: $51,323Group Sales Assistant, Syracuse Stage: $31,000 - $33,000
Living Wage for Syracuse: $36,475Artistic Assistant, Arden Theatre Company: $28,000 - $33,000
Living Wage for Philadelphia: $38,291
I usually like to let the data speak for itself, but the Arden position is shameful. It’s even worse when you consider the scope of responsibilities and how prominently the Arden displays its EDI statement on its website. Very curious how posting full-time jobs that start at $28,000 a year factor into the Arden’s public commitment to “being an equitable, diverse, inclusive, anti-racist organization.”
