#blacklivesmatter

Gaslight Theatre Company is committed to making our theatre community better and strongly stands with #blacklivesmatter. But we know saying it is not enough.

Our board has been having a lot of conversations this past week about how we can support our community immediately and improve as a company. And while we have brainstormed a list of actions, they have been created in our own vacuum.

We believe the first thing we need to do is listen. With that in mind, we are pledging two initial things:

1. To host a preliminary public forum on June 22 for our local theatre community to learn about shortfalls so we can strategize how we can make actionable change, large and small, to support Black artists and voices. However, we can’t expect one forum to find all the solutions and anticipate holding others.
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2. To producing a classical, under-produced, or original show written by a Black playwright and/or directed by a Black artist in our upcoming season. Gaslight has historically had open call submissions for directors to submit plays they are passionate about, but this time we’re specifically making this call.

We know there is much more we can do in terms of inclusivity on our board, within our play selection, and with outreach. But we truly want to develop a specific and actionable plan to make that happen, which will be our primary objective at our Board Meeting this month. And we want to hold ourselves accountable and pledge to share a more detailed plan by July 1.