EDI Initiatives History

TCG's strategic plan includes a multi-year Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Initiative (EDII) to transform the national theatre field into a more equitable, inclusive and diverse community. TCG is increasingly taking an intersectional approach to identity and equity that infuses all of our programming. The Initiative's six points are divided into the following two areas of focus, Establishing a Baseline and Action-Oriented Programming. Establishing a Baseline is funded through support from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

The Initiative began with the 2012 TCG Fall Forum on Governance: Leading the Charge, and continued through the Diversity & Inclusion arc at the 2013 TCG National Conference: Learn Do Teach. At that Conference, TCG also launched the Leading the Charge Diversity & Inclusion Institute. This work continued at the 2013 TCG Fall Forum on Governance: Investing in Vitality, and was a central aspect of the 2014 and 2015 TCG National Conferences.

Establishing a Baseline

The Circle – The new TCG Circle is an online platform to connect theatre people with the resources and relationships to strengthen their work. Just as our theatre field is a movement comprised of many overlapping communities, the TCG Circle connects peers to share knowledge across our diverse personal and professional affinities.

Legacy Leaders of Color Video Project – Through a series of video interviews, the Legacy Leaders of Color Video Project chronicled the stories of theatre Leaders of Color who created the work, founded the organizations and led the vanguards of the resident theatre movement. These leaders were inspired by the need to create opportunities lacking for Artists of Color; to challenge appropriation and misrepresentation through staging the full richness and complexity of diverse racial, ethnic and cultural identities; to gain political power and creative autonomy; and to contribute their unique aesthetic and social perspectives to the American theatre and wider culture. The Legacy Leaders of Color Video Project honors not only the elders, but serves as a road map for future leaders.

Action Oriented Programming

Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Institute – At one of the Pre-Conferences at the 2013 National Conference, TCG launched a national cohort of over 20 TCG Member Theatres, including TCG, to create and execute action plans around diversity and inclusion. Since then, the Institute has continued to hold smaller training programs and convenings on cultural awareness, managing diversity and activating change, and launched three more cohorts. This intensive approach not only creates a climate within each individual theatre whereby institutional change is more likely to take hold, but it also adds significantly to the collective impact and national momentum of diversity and inclusion efforts already taking place. At the 2019 Conference, TCG launched the first cohort made entirely of representatives from Networks and Theatres of Color. The EDI Institute is supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and The Hearst Foundation.

Rising Leaders of Color Program (RLC) – The RLC re-envisions the Young Leaders of Color (YLC) program and SPARK Leadership programs to nurture and support early-career Leaders of Color in all areas of theatre. Together, the SPARK and RLC programs form an intergenerational network of theatre professionals who will change the face of the theatre field.

Nurture Theatres of Color -TCG will develop programming to address capacity-building amongst culturally-specific theatres, and raise the awareness of the importance of these theatres around the country. TCG has convened leaders of theatres of color at TCG’s National Conference and Fall Forum on Governance to identify their unique needs and challenges.

TCG is committed to supporting the plurality of aesthetic, perspective, race/ethnicity, class, gender, sexual orientation, disability, age, mission, as well as organizational size and structure. We’re working to transform the national theatre field into a more equitable, inclusive and diverse community.