The Coalition of Bay Area Black Women Theater Artists
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 11/01/2017
blackwomensvoicesmatter@gmail.com
Black Women Bay Area Theater Artists Continue Discussions with Marin Theatre Company Regarding “Thomas & Sally”
San Francisco, CA – Last Tuesday, October 24th, The Coalition of Bay Area Black Women Theater Artists met with Marin Theatre Company (MTC) after releasing a public statement regarding the theater’s production of the controversial “Thomas & Sally”.
While we appreciate MTC accepting our invitation to this facilitated meeting, we believe it is only a first step. The time in this first meeting was used to introduce the scope of the issues and grievances outlined in our public statement. During the meeting MTC agreed to respond to our list of action items in writing within a given number of days. We have requested a second private meeting to further discuss and determine agreements to our list of action items.
We are grateful to have obtained the support of over 1600 signatories, including Oakland Vice Mayor Annie Campbell Washington, several artistic directors, acclaimed playwrights, artists and patrons across the United States.
We have received hundreds of email responses in support of our public statement. We continue in our efforts to ask theater companies across the nation to take responsibility for what they put on their stages and market to their constituents. We continue to ask for equitable representation in artistic positions of power, and for thoughtful dialogue before developing and producing works centering on the bodies of black women and other marginalized voices.
The Coalition of Bay Area Black Women+ Theater Artists is a community of African American/Black diasporic theater artists of varying cultural backgrounds, religions, sexual and gender identities, worldviews and artistic aesthetics. We believe the theater industry has a responsibility to create work that does not do damage to the communities it attempts to represent on stage.
We can be contacted at blackwomensvoicesmatter@gmail.com or on our website blackwomenbayareatheatre.wordpress.com
Truth Telling 