March on Broadway!! (List of demands) — Page 2

RippedMan said: "Secondly, I don't know what they want the Union to do with inclusion? They can't force writers to write scripts that are more diverse, or require theaters to only produce diverse plays, or force directors to cast who they cast. I'm just confused as to what the outcome is suppose to be."

I think it's tough because it's not about giving a popular BIPOC performer a cabaret show like the recent Kristin Chenoweth show or Springsteen on Broadway. In most cases, it takes time to nurture the talent to write the plays or musicals. You have to invest in those writers every step of the way and hope that the end results prove it was worthwhile. I don't want to call anyone out specifically but I'm sure we've all seen plays where having BIPOC talent didn't result in a great theater experience or even a show that was meaningful to the audience members it was supposed to represent. Now, from the stories we've heard, it's very possible this is because of limitations created by the directors involved or because the people in charge of programming or even bringing something to Broadway were only interested in certain kinds of stories.

Basically, how do you fix a problem with so many causes? Addressing inclusion means looking at the ways the entire path to Broadway is broken and not just casting Joshua Henry and Lindsay Mendez in Carousel.

Here's a point I want to make:

Broadway is diverse as hell. Let's look at the Best Musical winners from the past few years:

• 2020: Moulin Rouge, Jagged Little Pill and Tina all have BIPOC leads
• 2019, Hadestown: majority of the cast is BIPOC (Gray, De Shields, Noblezada, 2/3ds of the Fates, several additional company members)
• 2018, The Band's Visit: set in Israel
• 2017, Dear Evan Hansen... ok, this one is pretty white. Can't win 'em all.
• 2016, Hamilton: Speaks for itself
• 2015, Fun Home: Biography of a lesbian cartoonist.

I get the larger point that "the work is never done", and perhaps the creative and production side is not quite as diverse as what we see on stage. But good god, take a step back and realize that this industry is working faster than pretty much every other industry to diversify, and doing a pretty damn good job.

ctorres23 said: "Here's a point I want to make:

Broadway is diverse as hell. Let's look at the Best Musical winners from the past few years:

• 2020: Moulin Rouge, Jagged Little Pill and Tina all have BIPOC leads
• 2019, Hadestown: majority of the cast is BIPOC (Gray, De Shields, Noblezada, 2/3ds of the Fates, several additional company members)
• 2018, The Band's Visit: set in Israel
• 2017, Dear Evan Hansen... ok, this one is pretty white. Can't win 'em all.
• 2016, Hamilton: Speaks for itself
• 2015, Fun Home: Biography of a lesbian cartoonist.

I get the larger point that "the work is never done", and perhaps the creative and production side is not quite as diverse as what we see on stage. But good god, take a step back and realize that this industry is working faster than pretty much every other industry to diversify, and doing a pretty damn good job."

Actually all of the Fates are BIPOC - there are no white women in the regular onstage cast.

From all the social media I've seen all the signs say "Ask if it's Inclusive" which refers to the Equity Campaign "Ask if it's Equity." But again, as if WHAT is inclusive? The industry? Again, look at how much diversity there is on stage. If anything they could fight for some more body positivity.

RippedMan said: "From all the social media I've seen all the signs say "Ask if it's Inclusive" which refers to the Equity Campaign "Ask if it's Equity." But again, as if WHAT is inclusive? The industry? Again, look at how much diversity there is on stage. If anything they could fight for some more body positivity."

This coming from a white person, I presume? Ask a BIPOC about diversity on stage

I think the actors have a valid grievance with the reopening guidelines, their vagueness and the union refusing to answers questions. Unions are responsible for members feeling safe in the workplace. However it seems like no one is talking about that. They’re talking about diversity issues.

For any type of protest/movement to work you need a leader or a figurehead. Someone with both passion and ideas. They also have to have the ability to articulate them clearly and a commitment to work on drafting concrete, measurable goals and objectives. The problem is usually no one has the time or energy to do that. Without that nothing happens.

If you are dealing with a union or an employer you aren’t allowed to just keep saying, “I don’t like that.” You need to have data that supports your claims and offer alternatives you find more equitable or preferable. It’s a lot of work. That’s why protests often go nowhere.

Remember the Women’s March. An amazing show of unity and strength that resulted in absolutely nothing because there was no focus. It never carried its momentum anywhere. All the celebs showed up to grandstand but nothing lasting was achieved.

Updated On: 4/23/21 at 08:23 PM

Kad said: "I think this thing is big on passion and low on focus and knowledge.

For one: it centers actors, basically exclusively (aside from Rudin, the march is essentially focused on AEA policy). This despite the fact that the inciting moment seems to be the Rudin story, which was about his treatment of his office staff, who are not unionized and are not actors. Producing offices are not party to any collective bargaining agreements made between AEA and the Broadway League, and putting Rudin on Equity's Do Not Work list could be seen as a strike, which would violate both the CBA between AEA and the League *and* federal labor law, which severely limits circumstances of strikes. So these actors basically just... took the abuse of an unprotected class of industry employees outside of their union's jurisdiction- production office staff- and used it to center themselves to make demands, none of which would actually *prevent* such abuse from occurring in the future. Unsurprising but not a good look for a movement that purports to make Broadway equal.

(there's also the fact that Rudin's productions included Book of Mormon and West Side Story, both of which employ a great many BIPOC performers. Putting him on the DNW list would essentially force those members to either cross a "picket line" of sorts and face disciplinary actions that the union would be legally bound to carry out OR give up their jobs when shows re-open).

Also, Broadway's diversity *onstage* is decent, if not actually pretty good. It's OFFSTAGE that's the larger issue- producers, creatives, writers, stagehands, etc. etc. etc. None of these other workers seem to have been included in this march, or at least not included in a public-facing way. Again: actors centering themselves while claiming to be focused on greater equality in the industry.

There also seems to be misunderstandings about what unions can and cannot do, and how Equity specifically operates. In copied and pasted text amongst some of the organizers on social media, there was surprise that Equity's elected leadership bodies are the ones that set policy, for instance. Also, Equity, being a labor union, has its finances publicly accessible- down to the exact names of staff and their salaries.

Equity cannot force employers to diversify their staffs or shows, since it's illegal to make hiring decisions based on race/sex/gender/disability.


And if members want to know where their dues went this past year, I can answer in four words: keeping the lights on."

Always the most intelligent/informative posts, KAD. Thanks.

JennH said: "These few Best Musical shows don't negate the fact that the vast majority of therest of the shows are white by default. These are the exception, not the rule."





This does not pass my personal eye test, having seen a lot of shows in the past few years. But I also don't have time to go through cast lists for every Broadway show to demonstrate that BIPOC are overrepresented on stage compared to the baseline population statistics.

unclevictor said: "did you really type BIPOC are overrepresented onstage?"

You left off the last part. I typed "overrepresented on stage compared to the baseline population statistics".

In a perfectly colorblind society, the racial and ethnic breakdown of the population on stage would theoretically match the general population. So if a colorblind society is the goal (which, I assume, it is?) then matching or exceeding those baseline population numbers should be what "success" looks like in terms of diversity.

Again, I don't know whether that baseline is exceeded or not, if you ran the numbers across all company members of all shows in the last 5+ years. But my personal eye test from just having seen a lot of shows is that casts tend to be pretty diverse these days.