We are listening. We have made mistakes. We acknowledge and take responsibility for how we have failed our BIPOC artists.

We thank our community, especially our BIPOC artists, for speaking their individual truths.  Your speaking out and the Black Lives Matter movement urge us to be better, to examine our own shortcomings—including systemic bias within our own organization—to be uncomfortable, and to take action to become agents of change. 

We acknowledge that we have a lot of work to do to educate ourselves and to then implement the policies and practices to prevent or quickly resolve any instances of racism, implicit bias, and harassment within our Company.

We will follow through.  We will develop a comprehensive plan to train all staff, teaching artists, faculty, and Board members on cultural competency, inclusiveness, anti-racism, and sexual harassment. 

We will include a broader range of voices in our play selection, and we will actively pursue partnerships with other organizations that reflect the ideals to which we aspire.

We are committed to continuing to listen.

We are committed to becoming a fully-inclusive, diverse organization that welcomes and presents a diverse range of experiences and perspectives.

We are committed to ensuring that our BIPOC artists feel safe and know that their voices will not be ignored, dismissed or trivialized when sharing their life experiences or raising issues around racism and inequities. 

We know there are many more specifics we need to provide to follow through on the intentions listed above as well as changes to programming and hiring practices.  We will update you on our progress towards addressing all of them because this will not be a temporary fix for us.  This will be a continual process, to hold ourselves accountable to all we welcome to our campus.

You—our students, training participants, patrons, artists on and off stage, volunteers—are the core of this Company.  We will do better.  We will be better. 

-Shakespeare & Company