To our amazing community of actors and friends - we are listening! Our minds and hearts are open and we hear all of your comments and your grievances. We acknowledge our past mistakes and we are truly sorry. If we have hurt anyone through our production choices, casting choices, or made anyone feel marginalized in any way, again, we apologize with all our heart. We want the whole community to know that we stand with you in making sincere, conscious, and lasting change. As such, we have seen many of the issues that have been circulating and discussed recently on social media and elsewhere, and with love and good faith, we would like to address them now:
We recognize that our production of Lend Me A Tenor in 2015, was a poor choice. We weren’t being mindful of the insensitivities of this show and produced it anyway. We have no excuse. We are truly sorry. Also, as many know, it is a Hale tradition for a cast “meet and greet” with the audience after each performance. Most audience members and actors enjoy it. However, in this case, allowing the actor who played Tito Merelli to stand in line, in his costume and still in “black face” was abhorrent and extremely insensitive. We are sorry if anyone, cast member or audience was offended. It will never be repeated.
At the Hale, we have always tried to cast roles specific to the ethnicity for which they were written. We have always encouraged all ethnicities to audition for every show. That being said, we have failed on many occasions. In the past, while casting some shows, when we weren’t able to immediately cast roles intended for People of Color, we have taken short cuts and cast actors who were available, talented, and willing to play those roles. We acknowledge that we could have worked harder and looked longer to find actors whose ethnicity appropriately represented the characters they played. This too is cause for reflection and we commit to inclusive, appropriate casting going forward.
There is great consternation over our taking down the Hale Facebook page. While seeing, hearing, and understanding your pain and frustration, we felt hurtful comments towards our patrons were unjustified. We felt it appropriate to temporarily take it down. Facebook is a large platform that can be used for good or bad, to build up or tear down, to effect positive change or destroy it. We wish to use it as a means to build, encourage, and inspire. Please join us in our desire to effect positive social change.
Hale desires to bridge relationships and build trust with all actors, regardless of race, ethnicity, orientation, or creed. We love this community of actors, each and everyone of you. We are listening. We want to, and we will do better. Acknowledging our mistakes is the only path to correcting them. We pledge to move forward with acceptance, tolerance, inclusiveness and love. Please know that it has never been our intention to offend, hurt, or disparage anyone. We are human and make mistakes. Sometimes extremely important things and issues are missed by us and for that, we are truly sorry. We promise to be ever more aware and diligent to present productions that are family-friendly, uplifting, non-offensive, meaningful, enjoyable, and that reflect racial equality.
David and Corrin Dietlein
This is a pathetic attempt at a non-apology.
ReplyDeleteWhat direct action are you taking to ammend this?
ReplyDeleteAre you donating any funds towards BLM?
Are you actively building relationships and giving with organizations outside of yourself that build up and celebrate BIPOC like The Black Theatre Troupe or Teatro Bravo?
Are you actively looking to diversify your board and artistic staff?
Are you setting aside resources and financial aid to aid young BIPOC artists?
As of right now your statement has a lot of qualifiers in your "apology" without actionable items.
I would very much like to bslisvs that you are on your path towards real change and reform, but as of yet I don't see a plan set in place and that gives me very little hope.
*Screenshot for accountability*
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ReplyDeleteWhat steps are you taking to make the change?
ReplyDeleteWill you do more shows that require POC?
Part of me...doesn’t think it’s a full apology, only because you didn’t say anything to convince me that you WILL change.
I’ve seen shows here. I’ve auditioned here. I’ve danced in that studio.
Whenever I auditioned, I felt the “No’s” even before I sang for you. Call me paranoid, but that’s what I feel when I walk in. Did the vibe there bother me? Yes. But with my future husband by side encouraging me to keep going, I still continue to audition, because I want things to change. I still go to dance classes, because I love to dance and learn. I still go to the shows, because my friends are performing. I hope that one day I’ll perform on that stage. I want to convince you that POC belong in that theatre too.
Hello,
ReplyDeleteI see that Cambrian James has also apologized for this past actions, but neither of your apologies are enough. You can and should do better.
Just as the previous commenter mentioned, this is an inadequate response. Your patrons are NOTORIOUS for saying racist and sexist comments to cast members. For you to be so unwilling to publicly stand up for the Black Lives Matter movement (as well as the LGBTQ community) is a slap in the face to those you claim to care about.
Without taking a clear and public stance, it's clear that you care more about the money and support of racists than the dignity of members of marginalized groups, many of whom you try to exploit for labor by paying them far less than they deserve and well below what you can afford to pay, and then often expect them to play a stereotype (sometimes a stereotype of a DIFFERENT marginalized group...). Will you make a pledge to never cast non-Black actors for Black roles, non-Latinx people for Latinx roles? Will you make a pledge to keep holding auditions and reaching out to people until you find accurate representation?
Oh, and I saw that you posted a watered down version of this apology on Instagram, but mysteriously turned off the ability to comment on your two posts about race. Is that because you're afraid we'll see how racist your followers are, or because you're afraid of our criticisms? Either way, definitely not the best move if you really "care" about hearing from the community and want to "effect positive social change."
Calling out your racism and the racism of your patrons is EXACTLY what needs to happen to effect positive social change, and to claim that appeasing your supporters' white fragility is anything less than being complicit in white supremacy is ignorant, harmful, and certainly won't be tolerated by those who actually care about racial equity.
Your reputation among professional actors has already been low, and this certainly doesn't help. This only looks like you doing damage control versus actually making real changes on an organizational level. You can and should do better.
So you admit that you made the CHOICE (using your own words) to put out racist content in the form of racist shows, incorrect casting, and allowing people to perform in blackface? That was your choice? If you didn’t have the diversity to cast the correct actresses and actors in the shows, DON’T DO THE SHOWS! It’s as simple as that. Also any “hurtful” comments directed at your patrons were justified when they chose to harass several black actors and other people of color commenting that, “I never knew a black person could do a British accent and speak English that well”, or when one man decided it was appropriate to tell one actress that, “you have a nice big a**, I know because it was in my face all night” or when you edited the content of Sister Act (illegal, by the way), and you allowed laughter at blatantly homophobic jokes to go unchecked for far too long before continuing the show. All of this is due to your company’s choices. Nothing else. You made the choice to be racist. Plain and simple. Don’t try to backtrack and say you are sorry for conscious choices your company made.
ReplyDeleteHi.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your apologies and thank you for your candor. There are a lot of things we may not think twice about in times of peace and I'm sorry that it has come back to hurt you so much. I thank you, truly, for the opportunities you've cast me in as a black actor and I'm sorry I didn't stick around long enough to continue enjoying the experiences I shared with Hale as well as not giving feedback on things I probably could have educated you about. Thank you for your apology, thank you for your patience, thank you for enduring. I have faith you meant to true ill will to any POC. And I hope to collab with you again soon. I hope all of the arts stay strong and with this fresh perspective in mind that you make more consistent efforts and moves to continue integrating, collaborating and positively conducting future productions. Much love.
When you temporarily delete your social media channels, and then delete the comments on your posts about racism when you reactivate, it says to the community that you really don’t want to talk about, examine and be accountable for the things that have transpired at your theatre. The other comments here are spot on in asking for actions you will take to rectify the situation. Until you change your behavior and can have an open and honest dialogue, your apology appears to be an empty PR attempt at smoothing things over.
ReplyDelete