LATEST UPDATES ON OUR INCLUSION, DIVERSITY, EQUITY, ANTI-RACISM, AND ACCESS WORK
July 21, 2021
New and Refined Policies, Practices, and Procedures – and Our Organizational Values
Since we posted our response to the We See You White American Theatre Coalition in September 2020, we have continued to do the important work of creating new policies, practices, and procedures to make our organization more inclusive and equitable for artists, staff, and audiences.
As we stated last September, we commit to working to eradicate racism, oppression, and inequity in American theater. During these months, we have partnered with Equity and Justice for Institutional Change (EJIC), holding regular all-staff, board, HotHouse, and affinity group meetings to define institutional values (see below) and create a blueprint for next steps.
Among the policies, practices, and procedures that the Wilma has begun or refined during this time include:
- Updated our hiring practices: including salaries with all administrative postings, anonymizing resumes before review, and utilizing diverse resume readers from across the organization;
- Hired an Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Officer for Fat Ham, and pledged to continue hiring EDI Officers for future productions and a cultural liaison for Cherry Orchard;
- Moved to a five-day rehearsal week and eliminated 10-out-of-12 rehearsals;
- Upgraded our elevator;
- Increased wheelchair and companion seating in our facility;
- Provided captions and audio descriptions for our digital programming;
- Refined a program to more formally engage with Wilma HotHouse Acting company members in areas outside of training and performance, adjusting compensation to offer consistent weekly payment for work in Literary, Marketing, Education, and Development departments;
- Increased transparency with shared meeting minutes; and
- Refined our practice for land and labor acknowledgements in rehearsals, meetings, and in digital show programs.
Additional policies, practices, and procedures will be updated on this page of our web site.
WILMA THEATER ORGANIZATIONAL VALUES
- Curiosity: A willing, playful, open-minded approach to each encounter, each person, our work and ourselves with an inquisitive imagination about what may emerge.
- Courage: A desire to approach our work with boldness and openness, despite fear.
- Care: Thoughtfully considering the needs and wants of others with empathy.
- Rigor: Fostering an environment in which we individually and collectively continue to learn, practice, and deepen our craft.
- Joy: Actively creating the conditions for presence, pleasure, and vitality.
- Collaboration: A mode of working towards a common goal dependent on trust, respect, active listening, and mutual support; in which the ideas and experiences of all participants inform the outcome.
- Liberation: Inclusivity and equity in our work, ensuring a dynamic and productive environment in which everyone is empowered, heard, and valued.
LAND AND LABOR ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We acknowledge that our theatre is located on land that is not ours. We acknowledge that the Lenni Lenape people are the original people of this land and that they continue to be a vibrant community.
We acknowledge that we benefit from systems that are rooted in capital created and expanded by the free labor of Black people, in the form of chattel slavery and legal and cultural segregation. We stand in solidarity with Black people in fierce advocacy for equality and justice.
