the week of september 28 - october 2, 2020
Medicare for All or bust
Welcome to Nothing for the Group, the newsletter where one dramaturg rounds up one week in theatre news, reviews, and takes.
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AAPAC report: guess what New York, there’s still a ton of work to do on racial equity
The Asian American Performers Action Coalition (AAPAC) released its annual report examining representation on New York City stages. The report examines the 2017–2018 season on Broadway and across 18 major non-profit companies.
I highly recommend reading the full report, which includes lots of excellent visual storytelling (charts and graphs!), but here are some key findings:
80% of Broadway shows and 79.1% of Off-Broadway shows are written by white writers. White writers were produced almost four times as often as their BIPOC counterparts. Overall, Black writers represented at 9.6%, Asian American writers at 6.2%, MENA writers at 2.8%, and Latinx writers at 2.3%.
93.8% of Broadway shows were helmed by White directors and 84.6% at the non-profits. In the 2017-18 season, 100% of Broadway musicals were directed by White directors. White directors were also given control of 100% of the Broadway shows written by BIPOC writers and/or about the BIPOC experience (i.e. The Band’s Visit, Summer: The Donna Summer Musical, Once on This Island, Latin History for Morons)
At 61.5 % of available roles across the industry, White actors continue to be the only race to overrepresent by almost double their respective population size in NYC. Black actors represented at 23.2%, Asian American actors 6.9%, Latinx actors 6.1%, MENA actors 2% and Indigenous Actors 0.2%
White actors occupied almost 2/3 or 66.4% of available roles on Broadway. At 60.1%, the non-profit stages were only marginally more diverse.
Only 20% of all available roles in the industry were inclusively cast (cast without regard to race or where race was not germane to the role). Asian American actors were the group least likely to be cast without regard to race
The report also included a new Economic Impact section for the nonprofit sector, which found some theatre companies guilty of redlining the most diverse stories to the smallest stages which correlated with lower salaries, creating a system of economic inequality. For every $1 spent on BIPOC actors, theatre companies spent $1.70 on White actors.
now would be a great time for the entire theater industry to support Medicare for All
In absolutely brutal and unconscionable news: the health insurance fund that covers thousands of actors and stage managers announced that it will require that they work more weeks per year to qualify.
Members currently need to work 11 weeks to qualify for six months of coverage. Starting January 1st, they will need to work for 16 weeks. (Did anyone even get the chance to work eleven weeks this year?)
The New York Times reports that the changes were made due to the catastrophic financial strain of the shutdown:
Nonprofit and commercial theater producers contribute to the health fund when they employ unionized actors and stage managers, but because theaters have been closed since March, those contributions — which make up 88 percent of the fund’s revenue — have largely ceased…
The fund began the pandemic with $120 million in reserves, and is now down to $91 million. Its administrators project that reserves will drop below $20 million by the middle of next year if its eligibility and benefits rules remain unchanged, and that it will be unable to pay benefits at all by the end of next year.
It’s particularly gutting to read this after the AAPAC report, knowing that this fund already disproportionately insures white members due to racial bias and now is making it impossible for anyone to qualify for coverage.
I don’t know how anyone living in this world right now can still think that tying healthcare to unemployment is a humane decision.
virtual theatre
Woolly Mammoth and Telephonic Literary Union’s Human Resources, “an intimate audio anthology for remote times” is now playing through October 25th. (I have a ticket for next week!)
The DC-based Irish organization Solas Nua premiered “The Emoji Play”, by Jeremy Keith Hunter. The piece was developed virtually over the summer by an international ensemble of artists from California, DC, Dublin, and London, and Washington Post theater critic Peter Marks sat in on the rehearsal process and wrote about his experience this week.
On October 4th, the Brooklyn Book Festival will host a conversation with Will Arbery, Amy Herzog, Lynn Nottage, and Michael R. Jackson about “the ways we take care of each other and ourselves during crisis, how theater can model or create those spaces for care, and the potential for care for one community to carry with it a blindness towards other communities.” Cultural critic (and my personal pick to be the new co-chief critic of the Times) Soraya Nadia McDonald will moderate.
On October 8th, AMFAR will stream a virtual performance of seven scenes from Angels in America, featuring a celebrity-filled cast. You probably already read about Glenn Close playing Roy Cohn, but the real buried lede for me is that Brian Tyree Henry is one of the actors playing Prior, which is a casting choice I didn’t realize I desperately needed until now.
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The Billie Holiday Theater in Brooklyn will spearhead The Black Seed, a strategic plan that will offer grants, ranging from $30,000 to $300,000, to up to 50 Black theaters across the country. The initiative is funded by a $5 million dollar lead grant from the Mellon Foundation, the largest-ever one-time investment in Black theater.
politics
The House Democrats released an updated Heroes Act, which included Save Our Stages Act, which would authorize $10 billion in grants to live venue operators (including theatres on various scales) to cover rent, payroll, and more as they remain shuttered due to the pandemic. The House passed the bill on Thursday night, but it seems unlikely that the Senate will vote on it unless an agreement is reached between the Democrats and the White House, which is, uh, dealing with a very different news cycle right now.
theater in the time of coronavirus
The Goodman Theatre canceled last weekend’s outdoor performances of Fannie Lou Hamer: Speak On It! after a person associated with the production tested positive for the COVID-19. After shutting down to “allow time for assessment and testing per established protocols”, the show reopened yesterday and will continue playing at various outdoor locations around Chicago for the next week.
2021 season updates
Jackalope Theatre in Chicago announced the titles of their all-digital New Frontier series. The lineup will include CROPT by Daria Miyeko Marinelli, Being Julia Roberts by Omer Abbas Salem, Michael Jackson and The Devil’s Book by Terry Guest, and PANGEA by Calamity West.
The Cleveland Play House announced its virtual 2020-21 season, with a mix of digital performances, programs, and events. The season includes CLUEbaret: A Comedic Musical Cabaret and the 2021 New Ground Theatre Festival, including commissions of Cleveland-inspired stories from playwrights George Brant, Vichet Chum, Jessica Dickey, Chelsea Marcantel, and Charly Evon Simpson.
Geva Theatre Center announced a reimagined 2020-21 season, with live performances resuming in January. The company will produce Recognition Radio: An Audio Play Festival Celebrating Black Voices in the fall, followed by in-person performances of Brian Quijada’s Where Did We Sit On the Bus, Christopher Rivas’ The Real James Bond…Was Dominican, Alice Childress’ Wine in the Wilderness, Dipika Guha’s Yoga Play, and Ring of Fire: The Music of Johnny Cash.
things I read this week
Helen Shaw on Soho Rep’s new Project Number One initiative, and how putting artists on staffs could revolutionize the industry
American Theatre’s special issue spotlighting the work and lives of trans and gender nonconforming artists and workers. (I especially loved seeing so many DC artists in the 19 Theater Workers You Should Know feature!)
That’s all for this week, and I’m sorry it was kind of bleak! Quit doom-scrolling, go take a walk outside, get some fresh air. You deserve it.