Anti-Racism at Trinity Rep

When Trinity Rep announced in As this work is so vital to our mission, we will take September that all in-person the time necessary to be deliberate and center performances would be the voices of BIPOC individuals in reimagining postponed through fall 2021, what our theater and community can be as we we also announced that while rebuild our organization and industry back from our stages will be dark, we will the destructive effects of the pandemic. focus on three main priorities: education, digital We resolve to immediately and meaningfully content production, and anti-racism work. Our place anti-racism at the center of our work. We commitment to anti-racism and equity, diversity, are committed to developing, sharing, and holding and inclusion began several years ago, but requires ourselves accountable to short- and long-term additional effort and focus. goals, with full recognition that this work has no

ANTI-RACISM AT TRINITY REP

As our community and country grapple with the trauma of centuries of racial injustice, groups like We See You White American Theatre and our own community of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) artists have told us that our initial steps have not gone far enough and that we have caused and continue to cause harm and pain, which we acknowledge. With humility, Trinity Rep thanks them for their labor in documenting and communicating important demands for our industry and organization. Their voices have been guiding our conversations in truly meaningful ways in recent months. Trinity Rep acknowledges our complicit and too-often active involvement in upholding and benefiting from structures of racism and oppression. We are committing now to go further and take steps toward healing in our community. endpoint. We acknowledge that our goals and methods will evolve as we continue through this iterative process, though our intent is to complete the planning phase and foundational actions for this work by June 2021. In September, we publicly committed to our investment in this work and chartered a non-hierarchical and representative Anti-Racism Transformation Committee to lead this effort. Together with consultants Michaela Pommells from CORAJUS (Coalition for Racial Justice), Karla Vigil and Carlon Howard from Equity Institute, and Kelvin Dinkins from Dinkins Consulting, they are spending this fall gathering input on how Trinity Rep has contributed to systemic racism in our community. Throughout the winter and spring, they will define the steps and timeline the organization will take to develop and implement a bold new vision for theater making, education, and community engagement for Trinity Rep, founded on the principles of genuine equity and anti-racism.

Specifically, we have committed to:

• Establish mandatory formal anti-racism training and an expectation for continued FROM THE COVER In June 2020, Trinity Rep commissioned local artists to continue the publicart-as-activism activity that began to appear on plywood-covered storefronts and businesses after the Black Lives Matter protests. The protests followed the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and many others who have yet to receive justice. Kendel Joseph’s portrait of Rep. John Lewis (left), Angela Gonzalez’s portrait of resident acting company member Joe Wilson, Jr. (right), and a work by Jess Brown will be installed at Trinity Rep. More about the artists and their work can be found at trinityrep.com/publicart.

learning for board, artists, and staff, including cultural competency and bystander training, while committing resources for intensive initial trainings and ongoing trainings to ensure the work continues. • Review and revise all current practices, policies, procedures, stated values, codes of conduct, systems, and structures to better align with anti-racist values. The review will include, but is not limited to recruiting, hiring, performance evaluation, and compensation; programming; funding; and the effectiveness of employee resources and benefits. • Host an EDI/anti-racism working discussion forum for board, artists, staff, students, and community members. • Engage all members of the board, staff, resident acting company, partners, patrons, students, and other community members in our process, including the creation and structural support of affinity groups, without placing the emotional labor of the work on our BIPOC staff and artists. • Develop a new EDI/anti-racism strategic plan, which will include specifically defining what it means for Trinity Rep to be an antiracist organization with measurable goals, metrics, and reporting systems.

This is a living and dynamic process that will be updated and shared publicly based on our ongoing work and feedback received from within and outside the organization. We invite input on these actions from any member of our community. We pledge to protect from retribution those who speak out or hold us accountable for this work. Updates on our progress and specific goals and actions will be published publicly at least once

each quarter at trinityrep.com/antiracism.