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Cultural Competency

Acknowledgement of Indigenous Peoples

We demand the naming and acknowledgement of American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian tribal land and its Native peoples who have lived, currently live, and will live on the land where any theatre activity happens.

  • Land acknowledgement practice must be incorporated into first rehearsal rituals and at the beginning of any official meeting at Broadway, Off-Broadway, LORT, Educational and BIPOC theatres, because we all must honor tribal sovereignty and self-determination.

  • Acknowledge that American Indians, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians exchanged millions of acres of land through treaties for basic needs and rights despite the fact that every treaty was broken by the US government.

  • Practice ongoing acknowledgement of this mistreatment and the need to rectify the debt that American Indians, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians continue to pay for allowing others, including other displaced and removed Indigenous peoples, to be on their homelands.

  • Recognize that the "I" in BIPOC refers to all Indigenous peoples, which can be yet another erasure of the specificity of the 573 Tribal Nations who negotiated with the US government and have retained continuous traditions and folkways in the wake of genocide. Learn our tribal affiliations. Call us by our rightful names.

Subcommittee Recommendation
  • Research to get the correct information and add a plaque to the lobby, a location on the website, and somewhere in the playbill/programs on major productions.

Acknowledgement of Enslaved Africans

We demand recognition and acknowledgement of the enslaved Africans, who have lived, been subjugated to free labor, and toiled the grounds where many theatres have been built and resurrected.

  • Respect the traditions of African diasporic, Afro-Latinx, and Latinx cultural practices inside of all theatre spaces.

  • Center descendants of African enslavement in communities where theatres are built in their proximity.

  • Acknowledge African burial grounds and the rejection of statues and other monuments that desecrate the memories of the enslaved.

Subcommittee Recommendation
  • Research to get the correct information and add a plaque to the lobby, a location on the website, and somewhere in the playbill/programs on major productions.

Acknowledgement of the Exclusion of People of Color

We demand recognition and acknowledgement of the exclusion, exploitation, and misrepresentation of Latinx, Asian, Middle Eastern and all People of Color.

  • Though we hold distinct histories of struggle and vast differences within our communities, we name ourselves present and stand together to demand respect.
Subcommittee Recommendation
  • Research to get the correct information and add a plaque to the lobby, a location on the website, and somewhere in the playbill/programs on major productions.

Creation of an Anti-Racist & Safe Environment

For Artists

We demand that theatres create a safe and anti-racist environment for BIPOC producers, board members, leaders, staff and artists working on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and in the Regions.

  • Ongoing mandatory EDI and Anti-Racism Training must be implemented for executive leadership, boards and staff. A dedicated EDI presence should be made available for all shows, and a budget line item should be provided for regular EDI work at the organizational level.

  • Quarterly Anti-Racism Training must be provided to full-time staff, part-time staff, contract creative hires, contract workers in costume shops, contract workers in scene shops, stage management hires, and production crew hires at the expense of the institution. Training must include bystander intervention, de-escalation, and conflict resolution training to provide the necessary tools to address racism and harm when it happens. It should be held quarterly to ensure artists and contract workers can be reached at whatever stages they are at in their professional journeys.

  • Intimacy coaches and fight directors must have mandatory BIPOC Training.

  • Prioritize hiring contract workers who have gone through EDI, Anti-Racism and BIPOC Training.

  • Hold a weekly 90-minute EDI/anti-racist check-in that is open to anyone and everyone who has attended Anti-Racism Training to allow for this work to continue.

  • Develop intervention and disruption protocols for harmful moments (i.e. racist audience members).

  • Require creative teams to undergo Anti-Racism Workshops at the beginning of each rehearsal or tech process and ensure accountability with signed statements.

Already Doing
  • Working on creating staff Anti-Racist Training programs with Wayfinding.
More Discussion Needed
  • Discuss with AR&E and workplace task forces different training needs and how often the training is done for various constituencies - full time staff; part-time and casual employees; creative teams, actors, overhire etc.
Subcommittee Recommendation
  • Establish a permanent budget line item for Anti-Racism and Equity Work. Develop intervention and disruption protocols for harmful moments (i.e. racist audience members).

For Audiences

We demand that theatres create a safe and anti-racist environment for BIPOC audiences on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and in the Regions.

  • Abolish the policing practices of audience response and promote statements of inclusion for BIPOC audience cultural practices.

  • Abolish the policing of BIPOC audience members inside of lobbies, rehearsal studios, and other theatre-related spaces.

  • Provide theatre personnel (including ushers, front of house, concessions, etc.) with Anti-Racist, Implicit Bias, Anti-Oppression and Bystander Training.

Subcommittee Recommendation

  • AUDIENCES: Figure out a way to educate our audience that different reactions are ok; not to police other audience members for those reactions; guidelines for what definitely not to do (record/take pictures) without laying out a set of rules that are off-putting for new audiences and that will be clear we welcome new audiences.

  • STAFF: Part of Staff Training should revolve around audience interactions - including training for how to respond to racist actions or remarks from audience members as well as cultural competency for interacting with all audiences and non-policing of audiences.

  • USHERS: Review training manuals to see where we should expand on discrimination/cultural competency training; add sections on non-policing of audience members, when to intervene when to not.

Acknowledgment of BIPOC Artists

We demand fair and equitable acknowledgment and recognition of BIPOC artists.

  • Recognize and acknowledge the labor of BIPOC artists who, in addition to their contracted work as artists, are working to provide marketing expertise for audiences with whom they have a more connected relationship.

  • Properly credit BIPOC marketing consultants, PR teams and theatremakers in all marketing collateral (print, electronic, etc.) on individual shows and within the pedagogy of institutions.

Already Doing
  • At least partly already doing - marketing firms hired, paid and acknowledged in programs. Payments made to actors for publicity work are made per union rules.
More Discussion Needed
  • Should we do more on a marketing level? (ex: permanent contracts for marketing to underrepresented audiences?)
Subcommittee Recommendation
  • Discuss with actors and creatives who are affected by this (perhaps with BIPOC Sig Actors as well as Black Artists Coalition) the kinds of recognition desired as well as where we may be falling short.

Hiring Diversification

We demand that institutional leaders seek out those who are different from themselves and value their differences. What you gain from these new relationships may reap even greater dividends.

  • We see theatres nurturing white artists, singling out their contributions, extolling their virtues and employing them again and again while BIPOC artists are hired once to fulfill the exigencies of a “diversity” project and are somehow never able to cultivate the same relationships. The unstated messaging is clear: this is not your artistic home, and it never will be. Understand why you are more comfortable around some people than others and seek to sublimate your racist inclinations.

  • Employ intentional and honest effort in establishing consistent, meaningful, long term relationships with BIPOC artists. Stop using the excuse that you don’t know any BIPOC artists - step outside of your professional circle to find them. And, if the work produced by BIPOC artists is successful (do not measure our success by reviews), we demand to be hired more than once, and not just for BIPOC shows. No more one-offs. Additionally, if the work produced by BIPOC artists is not successful for any of the myriad reasons we’ve stated in this document, we still demand that BIPOC artists be hired more than once -- like you would do for our white counterparts. Invest in BIPOC leaders. Provide Gap Training for future leaders of color. While participating in this training, embrace peer mentorship instead of paternalistic impulses around mentorship.

Already Doing

  • Signature is hiring BIPOC artists for non-BIPOC themed shows - especially actors, however this happens much less with creative/production teams (designers/directors/stage managers). HOWEVER, hiring BIPOC artists for traditionally white shows tends to center around our "favorite" actors. Otherwise, we sometimes call in some artists, especially those in the ensembles, ONLY when the show matches their background.

  • Include contractors (like Jon K; Stage Managers) in the Wayfinding training to understand the importance of expanding our pools of talent.

More Discussion Needed
  • We need to expand racial diversity in our musicians - how do we do this within our relationships with the unions? Our full-time staff is still a majority white - there are many steps we need to take to adjust this, so a lot of discussion and action steps are needed.
Subcommittee Recommendation

  • Establish a tracking system for the artists, musicians, creative teams for all shows to see how we are featuring artists. The tracking system should take a particular look at artists who may be only being hired for BIPOC shows to make sure we are not tokenizing particular artists - especially non-union actors. We welcome input from the artistic and management department and are open to other ways of executing this exercise. We see this as a tool to help us assess our inclusivity and areas of growth.

  • Conscious Expanding of Casting Databases and finding people we don't know. Prioritizing BIPOC actors and creative teams to be cast in non BIPOC shows.

  • Work with WERK (Workplace Standards Working Group) to come up with plans for intentionally changing our workplace practices to for recruitment of BIPOC staff, continuing anti-racist staff work, consider adding and funding leadership training/professional development and in-house mentorship programs so early career staff can prepare to move into Sr. management positions. Make training/mentorship opportunities available organization-wide rather than relying on the supervisors of each department for advocacy for their own staff.

BIPOC Artistic Freedom

If you hire a BIPOC artist to direct and reimagine an existing work created by white artists, we demand that you demand from the creators’ estates free interpretive rein over the piece on behalf of the BIPOC artist. The BIPOC artist ought not be expected to advocate for the freedom to reinterpret, adapt and reimagine work by white people.

More Discussion Needed
  • This is something that we need to prioritize with the new artistic director. The issue is complicated as it crosses over into rights issues with the license holders as well crosses into the role the artistic director takes in guiding the production (when they are not directing the show themselves). An important point relates to the issue above, surrounding hiring more BIPOC artists for traditionally white shows as these issues arise particularly in this circumstance.
Sub Committee Recommendation
  • Communicate with the AD search committee that a willingness to support this idea is desirable in Signature's new artistic director so they have it in mind when interviewing candidates.

Training and Hiring for Black Hair

We demand costume shops be given proper training in styling and consultation of Black hair and makeup when working with Black actors. Alternatively, take the time to hire knowledgeable technicians.

  • Provide the necessary hair and makeup products, barbers, and/or hairdressers when working with Black artists. If you are unable to, then you must provide proper compensation for Black artists who are forced to bring in their own hair products due to the institution’s inability to provide equitable access to hair and skin care.
Already Doing
  • Signature uses people of color currently for hair, but not always makeup with 100% consistency. The wig designers we hire are competent with the needs of Black artists, but the designers themselves are not always BIPOC. Every actor speaks with production staff about their make-up needs at the beginning of every show and what they need is procured for them. If haircuts are needed for shows where people wear their natural hair, culturally appropriate stylists at salons are used.
More Discussion Needed
  • Open a dialogue with BIPOC artists that have worked with us before that allows them to provide honest feedback on their past experiences and discuss shortfalls. We do not feel it is our place to speak on the BIPOC artist experience.
Sub Committee Recommendation
  • Committee recommends Signature’s costume and wardrobe staff create protocol and practices on how to communicate with and style BIPOC artists’ hair. Similar to our work with responding to comments from donors or patrons, we would like all members of the hair team to have the tools and skillset to address the needs of all artists, getting ahead of any issue that may arise.

Holistic Care of BIPOC Artists

We demand that you prioritize the cultural care and feeding of BIPOC artists.

  • Provide therapists or counselors on site for the duration of a rehearsal process and production run when producing/programming content that deals with racialized experiences, and most especially racialized trauma. These therapists and/or counselors should also have experienced Anti-Racism Training.

  • Hire culturally competent facilitators for BIPOC stories at talkbacks, especially for predominantly white audiences.

  • Ensure BIPOC artist work has the audience for which it was intended. Do this by supporting the marketing of our work, and hire marketing professionals who know how to engage every community.

  • Budget shows with BIPOC artists appropriately.

  • Disrupt “the show must go on” culture by acknowledging the disproportionate and harmful effect that “pushing through” has on BIPOC bodies. This culture is physically damaging and is driven by fear. Eliminate the fear and protect BIPOC bodies, spirits and mental well-being.

  • Stop tokenizing and fetishizing BIPOC artists and work, especially for donor dollars.

  • Don’t try to make one of us your pets. Stop pitting us against each other or attempting to use us to control one other. Doing this encourages lateral violence.

  • Dispel the threat of retaliation when we advocate for the cultural specificity of our work. • Do not permanently label BIPOC artists as “difficult” for providing critique when you’ve asked them for cultural consultation.

  • We demand to be valued for our worth as artists, not just for how we racially or ethnically identify.

  • Honor and value the lived experiences of BIPOC folx/artists.

  • Honor our elders and the work that they’ve put in. Our work should be framed in relation to theirs.

Already Doing
  • Hiring paid marketing consultants for BIPOC shows and outreach and prioritizing culturally sensitive outreach to BIPOC communities - this work has ramped up easily, but we still have a lot of work ahead in this area. Budgeting BIPOC shows appropriately - investment levels are similar, but this is something we should continue to shine a light on to make sure we are not unintentionally doing this for other reasons.
More Discussion Needed
  • “The show must go on” mentality should be discussed with workplace standards group (WERK). Discuss with BIPOC artists who have worked at Signature if they feel like they are being tokenized at Signature - when does representation turn into tokenization and does Signature cross that line? Also discuss whether the artists feel like we pit them against each other or if there is a fear of retaliation for speaking up about cultural issues. Do these artists feel like Signature represents their work equally with those of white artists? Discuss with Development department their expectations of artists when interacting with donors - should we expect them to sing at the gala but also sit with donors and schmooze with them right before they are expected to sing? Or do we just make this expectation explicit in their contracts and include this with the fee/Agreement?
Sub Committee Recommendation

  • Hire culturally competent facilitators for BIPOC stories at talkbacks, especially for predominantly white audiences - DISCUSSION NIGHTS. Stop being worried about audience members inappropriate actions - give the facilitator a heads up, staff should be there to intervene if necessary. Prepare audience materials for discussion nights outlining some of the issues as well as expectations - help educate audiences, especially questions that tend to contain microaggressions.

  • Just as we would hire physical therapists on dance-heavy shows, we should also look into and discuss hiring mental health professionals where the company may have to deal with any kind of trauma - racialized, sexual assault. Provide resources for mental health (trusted providers lists etc.) to actors when we have a show that would have a therapist - just like we recommend doctors. We understand there are challenges with finding mental health professionals that are taking new patients (let alone large groups), so this initiative may take time and creative thinking.

  • Continue to hire professionals for marketing who understand audiences we would like to welcome at Signature for shows that relate to a specific BIPOC community. When we have BIPOC shows, and we are back in the theater look at subscription shows to make sure there are ample seats available in all price tiers and areas of the theater. Continue to create a welcoming environment for audiences at all shows, whether or not they are exclusively BIPOC stories.