Doubly Invisible

Written by Tony Adams Friday, 05 February 2010 22:56

Chris Jones has a post up about the many African-Americans prominently featured on stage right now for Black History Month. "As many of Chicago's black theater professionals wryly observe, theater in this city would much better reflect the makeup of the people who live here if only our arts leaders carried over this kind of programming commitment to the other 11 months of the year."

But it's also a fairly problematic post, beginning with: "In the last week or so, I've seen four different Actors' Equity-affiliated Chicago shows with almost exclusively African-American casts. Demonstrably, it's February."

He also says "they reveal the remarkable depth of the card-carrying African-American acting pool in Chicago." According to AEA's 08-09 Annual Report, 86% of card holders are white. Not only are black artists shut out of most of those institutions Chris writes about in his post most of the year, the emphasis on an Equity Card for validation further pushes many extraordinary artists into the margins.

I left a comment, but as I've said, my comments only make it through on The Theatre Loop if I use a fake name so I'll be surprised if anyone sees it.

my comment follows:

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I know this comment probably won't make it through, as most of mine don't, so no sense mincing words. 

I so want to agree with this post, but the push to be Major Equity Institutions before they've had a chance to get their feet under them is what breaks many companies like Congo Square. 

As Adam Thurman commented on the last post on Congo Square, there are big questions to be considered. The push to institutionalize without the organizational capacity to sustain it, without the support  to do so,  prevents that from happening.  Chris, don't get me wrong, I don't think hurting the growth of any company is your intention,  but I think that push has hurt the long-term growth of The House as well.

A quick look at the posts by category on the side says:
Broadway in Chicago-170
Broadway-115
Steppenwolf-100
Goodman Theatre-89
Court Theatre-22
Black Ensemble-11
Congo Square-10
Silk Road-5
Teatro Vista-2
16th Street Theatre-1
Teatro Luna-0
Rasaka-0
MMPACT-0
ETA-0
Urban Theatre Company-0
Albany Park Theatre Project-0
Free Street-0

There are many more multi-cultural/inclusive companies and culturally specific companies at zero as well. I hope this won't be written off as sour grapes because I run a small non-equity company. I know that Kerry and Nina review a lot of those companies and do a very good job at that. But one would never know that from looking at the Tribune's website.

285 posts on Broadway or Broadway-in-Chicago. 10 on Congo Square, 2 on Teatro Vista. There are many, many who need to step up. Pronto.

It saddens me that you think this is how the system is supposed to work. It saddens me that the Trib doesn't cover most of those companies mentioned in the comment above.  It saddens me that your response to OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE was to write everyone off as whiners. It saddens me that every time you favor a work tied to New York, try to push a work to New York, or review through the lens of “Will it be a hit?” or “Can it play in New York?” it further isolates theatres that look like Chicago.

It is a sad slate. We as a city are the poorer for the companies that are largely ignored.

Tony Adams
Artistic Director
Halcyon Theatre

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Thoughts?

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