Dramatists Guild Foundation Anti-Oppression Statement and Cultural Impact Plan

as of December 2023

 

Since its founding in 1962, the Dramatists Guild Foundation (DGF) has provided playwrights, theatrical composers, lyricists, and librettists with financial support, education and mentorship, as well as space to work and collaborate. DGF has offered this support as a way to further dramatists’ careers and help sustain them through the difficult work of making a life in the American theater. By doing so, we aim to foster the future and beauty of the theater as a whole.

We—the DGF staff and board—have prided ourselves on nurturing theater writers at all career stages, regardless of race, gender, sexuality, ability/disability, or personal beliefs. We have operated on the principle that theater thrives in diversity—of voice, perspective, aesthetics, and experience. The cultural upheaval and conversations of the past several years, especially surrounding our nation’s foundational racism and violence towards Black, Indigenous, and People of Color—and how those systems of racism and violence have played out in our own profession—has shown us that we need to do more. We need to be more intentional, precise, and active about what we mean by equity, diversity, inclusion, and access. We need to make clear commitments and programs to meet those foundational principles.

 

One step in this process involves questioning several assumptions embedded in our mission, including:

  • Who are the writers we aim to serve?
  • What do we mean by “American theater”?
  • Are our programs and application processes truly accessible and equitable—across age, race, class, ability/disability, gender, sexuality, and geography?

 

We are committed to this ongoing work, aware that any statement of Anti-Racism and Anti-Oppression and Cultural Impact Plan is only the first step. We are committed to reconciling the goals of our mission and the exclusionary practices of our past and to taking active steps to do so.

 

 

Cultural Impact Plan

 

DGF has:

  • Created a reporting structure for all departments, to ensure that equity and accountability is centered from the beginning through the end of all projects and policies. Staff report metrics on a quarterly basis.
  • Started ongoing conversations for the organization and staff to identify, discuss, and address DGF’s history of and continued relationships with anti-oppressive practices and racial and social harms. Including mandatory anti-oppression training for all staff and Board members.
  • Prioritized anti-racism/anti-oppression within the current strategic plan, as well as mandating training throughout the organization. Our Board of Directors has begun developing a plan for anti-racist and anti-oppression leadership within DGF.
  • Provided stipends or honorariums for all individuals, artists, reviewers, and committee volunteers.

 

DGF is:

  • Reviewing our Mission Statement and Values to embed equity in the foundation and operations of our organization and create a greater impact throughout the theater industry as a whole.
  • Working towards ensuring that theater writers holding identities that have historically been underrepresented in our community are prioritized and supported.
  • Identifying opportunities to build relationships with tri-state area and national Indigenous communities to help make amends for past and present harms and launching the Lortel Award to support these communities financially.
  • Recruiting new committee and Board members that reflect a diversity of class, race, age, and gender identities.
  • Enacting a communications plan that addresses the preferred languages of applicants, making available multilingual translations, formalizing the process(es) regarding document translation, and appropriately compensating translators.
  • Creating more equitable and inclusive fundraising policies that open opportunity and celebrate donors across all levels of contribution, financial and otherwise, including hiring a grant writer with knowledge of alternative, community funding practices.

 

DGF will:

  • Commit to publishing our plan to uphold these new standards of equity, diversity, and inclusion by the end of 2023.
  • Cultivate audiences, create programming, and employ staff that mirror the demographics of theatrical writers throughout the country and foster an environment that welcomes all individuals.
  • Specify the role of the Board of Directors, committing to ensuring safe and healthy interactions between trustees, staff, and stakeholders by the end of 2023. A new governance committee has been formed to review the By-Laws and practices of the Board of Directors and to engage five new members adding a diversity of experiences and perspectives.
  • Create a mechanism for capturing community feedback and criticism, to incorporate community needs into program planning.

 

We are dedicated to making an active effort to bring forward a better future for the theater industry and beyond. We are not working in a vacuum – we are working together, as a community to make an environment that is equitable, safe, and that we are all proud to work together in.

 

 

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