fbpx Anti-Racist Theatre | HowlRound Theatre Commons
List

Anti-Racist Theatre

A selection of content that calls out systemic racism in theatre and points toward anti-racist practices.

How We Grew a Student-Centered Anti-Racist Movement at Our Institution of Learning
Essay

How We Grew a Student-Centered Anti-Racist Movement at Our Institution of Learning

10 September 2020

Tatiana Gil, Micah Rosegrant, Viviana Vargas, and Ciera-Sadé Wade—members of the Boston University School of Theatre Anti-Racist Student Initiative (BU SARSI)—speak to how, after a public outpouring of testimonials from former and current students of BU’s School of Theatre—detailing racism, sexism, ableism, and more—they rallied together to innovate ways of addressing the white supremacy within the school.

Poster with headshots of speakers that says Black Live Matter.
To the Arts and beyond: What Does It Mean to Support Black Lives Matter? (ASL interpreted)
Video

To the Arts and beyond: What Does It Mean to Support Black Lives Matter? (ASL interpreted)

A Cultural Equity Learning Community panel featuring: Sadada Jackson, Martin Henson, Dr. Marta Moreno Vega, and Michael Bobbit, with music by Precious Perez

Thursday 10 September 2020
United States

The Cultural Equity Learning Community (CELC), an initiative of Arts Connect International, presented To the arts & beyond: What does it mean to support Black Lives Matter? which livestreamed on the global, commons-based, peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Thursday 10 September 2020 at 3 p.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC-7) / 5 p.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC-5) / 6 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC-4).

actors onstage
Dismantling Anti-Black Language
Essay

Dismantling Anti-Black Language

27 August 2020

Holly Derr interviews Lavina Jadhwani about the document she created called Dismantling Anti-Black Linguistic Racism in Theatre, which offers several examples of potentially anti-Black language, such as Ethiopian, master, and minstrel; their use in Shakespeare; why they might be problematic; and possible substitutions.

fists
Exploring an Anti-Policing Theatre
Essay

Exploring an Anti-Policing Theatre

6 August 2020

While global protests have amplified calls for defunding the police, Chelsea Whitaker shares thoughts on how theatre needs to end its own policing of Blackness as well.

two people posing for a photo
We Commit to Anti-Racist Stage Management Education
Essay

We Commit to Anti-Racist Stage Management Education

28 July 2020

Stage managers Narda E. Alcorn and Lisa Porter—both women; one Black, one White—offer tools and practices to help build anti-racist stage managers.

lauren e. turner seated at a table
The American Theatre Was Killing Me
Essay

The American Theatre Was Killing Me

Healing from Racialized Trauma in an Art Workspace

18 November 2019

Amelia Parenteau speaks with Lauren E. Turner about racialized trauma in American theatre, Lauren’s experience with it, and healing.

a slide comparing the number of white directors versus directors of color from 2007-2017
Playwrights of Color, White Directors, and Exposing Racist Policy
Essay

Playwrights of Color, White Directors, and Exposing Racist Policy

29 August 2019

Nicole Brewer examines a prominent racist policy in theatre—when plays written by people of color are staged by white directors—through the lens of actors, theatregoers, and playwrights themselves.

Conversation Claudia Rankine: On Whiteness
Video

Conversation Claudia Rankine: On Whiteness

Friday 24 March 2017
Boston, MA, United States

ArtsEmerson in Boston presented the conversation Claudia Rankine: On Whiteness livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv Friday 24 March at 3:00 p.m. PDT (Los Angeles) / 6:00 p.m. EDT (New York) / 22:00 GMT-UTC (London) / 23:00 CET (Berlin). On Twitter, follow @ArtsEmerson and #howlround.

The Ugly Truth About Arts Institutions Led by Women of Color
Essay

The Ugly Truth About Arts Institutions Led by Women of Color

9 May 2018

Founder and executive artistic director of Dallas’s Bishop Arts Theatre Center Teresa Coleman Wash looks at the realities of running a theatre company as a woman of color.

three actors onstage
We’ve Seen White American Theatre
Essay

We’ve Seen White American Theatre

How Can We BIPOC Now See Ourselves?

2 July 2020

Betty Shamieh offers a response to the “We See You, White American Theater” open letter as a non-Black American of color.

Decolonizing Theatre/La Descolonización del Teatro
Essay

Decolonizing Theatre/La Descolonización del Teatro

an Introduction/Introducción

27 May 2018

Annalisa Dias and Madeline Sayet introduce the Decolonizing Theatre series by exploring the ways the American theatre has been and still is complicit in the legacy of colonialism.

two Black actresses sit on a couch
The Gift
Essay

The Gift

The Importance of Difficult Conversations Between Collaborators

12 May 2019

Playwright Pearl Cleage reflects on the power of truth-telling to find common ground and discusses how Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, GA is working to confront the legacy of Southern racism.

Ngozi Anyanwu and Jonathan McCrory.
SEGAL TALKS: Jonathan McCrory and Ngozi Anyanwu
Video

SEGAL TALKS: Jonathan McCrory and Ngozi Anyanwu

An update on the situation for theatre artists in New York

Monday 8 June 2020
New York City, USA

The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center presented SEGAL TALKS: Jonathan McCrory and Ngozi Anyanwu livestreamed on the global, commons-based, peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Monday 8 June 2020 at 9 a.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC-7) / 11 a.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC-5) / 12 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC-4) / 17:00 BST (London, UTC+1) / 18:00 CEST (Berlin, UTC+2).

an actor onstage
We Have Suffered Enough
Essay

We Have Suffered Enough

The Cost of Performing Trauma for Women of Color

12 September 2019

Melisa Pereyra talks about how suffering goes hand in hand with being a woman of color actor, how trauma is held in the body, and how audiences react when stories lack grief.

seven people pose for a photo
Parents of Color and the Need For Anti-Racist Theatre Practices
Essay

Parents of Color and the Need For Anti-Racist Theatre Practices

3 December 2019

Nicole Brewer talks about the term “child friendly,” reconstructing the issue of parent support as an issue of race and racism, supporting parent-artists with an anti-racist lens, and more.

an illustration of a blue eye
Woke Supremacy
Essay

Woke Supremacy

A Critical Perspective on the American Theatre

18 February 2020

Donny Repsher talks about a new permutation of American racism he calls “woke supremacy,” race and the institution, white fragility, and more.

two actors embracing
Intimate Reform
Essay

Intimate Reform

Making Space for Leaders of Color

19 March 2020

Ann C. James reflects on the quickly growing field of intimacy direction, arguing that it is vital for the leadership to include people of color so that stories centering on racialized sexual trauma and non-white romantic intimacy can be told in the most truthful ways.

Rage in Context
Essay

Rage in Context

23 July 2016

Play recommendations from playwright Pearl Cleage for contextualizing the current anger felt by many Americans.

Aleshea Harris onstage
"in this fine suit"
Essay

"in this fine suit"

On Being a Black Playwright in the American Theatre

19 January 2020

Playwright Aleshea Harris reflects on the tensions of being a Black theatremaker and "negotiating bodily presence" in a speech at the 2020 Under the Radar Festival Professional Symposium.

kevin dinkins jr and al heartley
We Don’t Want Your Statements, American Theatre
Essay

We Don’t Want Your Statements, American Theatre

or, The Solidarity We Actually Needed

11 June 2020

Al Heartley and Kelvin Dinkins, Jr., Black theatre managers who work in predominantly white American theatres, respond to the recent “solidarity” statements posted by theatres across the country after George Floyd was killed.

two actors embracing
Intimate Reform
Essay

Intimate Reform

Making Space for Leaders of Color

19 March 2020

Ann C. James reflects on the quickly growing field of intimacy direction, arguing that it is vital for the leadership to include people of color so that stories centering on racialized sexual trauma and non-white romantic intimacy can be told in the most truthful ways.

"Unbought & Unbossed"
Video

"Unbought & Unbossed"

Part One: The History of Black Women as Political Drivers ft. Shola Lynch, Candice Hoyes, and Val Jeanty

Thursday 1 October 2020
United States

NBT @ HOME presented an "Unbought & Unbossed" Conversation livestreamed on the global, commons-based, peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Thursday 1 October at 3 p.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7) / 5 p.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC -5) / 6 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4).