Tue, November 15, 2022
In our commitment to transparency, we’d like to acknowledge our omission of an EDIA update in February 2022. As our staff and teams were undergoing transition, the work of EDIA continued but we did not put out an update. Still, we are no less committed to ongoing action toward EDIA. Since our last update in August 2021, we have made progress in some areas while in other areas we’ve taken time to re-evaluate our priorities and approach. As always, in providing these EDIA updates and acknowledging that the work of EDIA is ongoing and non-linear, we are committed to transparency in sharing progress, shifts, setbacks and new developments.
Complete
PROGRAMMING, ARTISTS & DESIGNERS
• We launched our new Fellowship program to offer paid, educational work opportunities to early career theatre makers and administrators. The program began Fall 2021 with an Artistic Fellow and is expanding to include a General Management and Marketing Fellow for Season 22-23.
• While we had a slight delay in launching, as of February 2022, we offer a voluntary survey to staff, artists and production crew to submit identity preferences and demographic information, including but not limited to race or ethnicity, gender, sexuality and disability, to be anonymized when sharing with the public for the point in progress.
AUDIENCE & COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
• We invited the Lenape Center in February 2022 to conduct a staff-wide workshop on crafting a land acknowledgement that actively benefits Indigenous communities.
• Our Land Acknowledgment Working Group installed a digital instance of our land acknowledgment in The Pershing Square Center.
• The ARADIA (Anti-Racist, Anti-Discrimination Interactions with Audiences) Committee published a community agreement for all visitors, to convey and establish anti-racist and nondiscriminatory institutional values when at the Center and/or in community with Signature.
• We have allocated funding for two ASL-interpreted performances in the 22-23 Season, in addition to existing commitment to one Open Caption and one Audio Described performance per production.
STAFF & BOARD
• We have reduced unpaid internships and created a paid Fellowship program in their place.
• We diversified our senior management team by creating more seats at the table with additional Director of HR and Director of Artistic Programs positions, to include a more diverse representation in leadership positions.
• The Board of Trustees integrated members of the Board EDIA Committee into the Nominating, Governance and Finance Committees.
• In concert with our plans and due to a change in NYC pay equity laws, as of May 2022 we made wage ranges for open positions available for prospective and current staff, to help combat wage discrimination and empower individuals in their professional development.
• We have developed a vendor audit to better work with companies that align with our EDIA commitments and support more businesses run or owned by people from historically underrepresented communities and will report findings with our next update.
• Arts Consulting Group, with the guidance of The Board of Trustees along with the senior staff team search committee conducted a broad-based executive search in alignment with Signature’s commitment to equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility. This search resulted in the offering and hiring of the Executive Director position to Timothy J. McClimon.
• We are committed to offer Board and Staff EDIA Training workshops, at minimum twice a year, starting Fall 2022. September 2022, staff attended Defining DEIA, Racial Healing, & AntiHarassment facilitated by Harriet Tubman Effect.
In Progress
PROGRAMMING, ARTISTS & DESIGNERS
• Our goal to inaugurate LaunchPad shifted from our 21–22 Season to the 22-23 Season. Fall 2022 Melis Aker was named LaunchPad Writer-in-Residence. The 3-year program will support an emerging writer from a historically underrepresented community as they begin to build a body of work.
• We are creating an advisory board of artists to help continually identify areas for growth and improvement to have more equitable relationships.
• We are actively expanding our education programming with students, led by our Manager of Artistic and Education Projects. Our programs will meet people at different parts of their learning experience, with special partnerships established with high school, college (four-year and two-year) and pre-professional training programs. All partnerships and programming are established in conversation with students and educators.
AUDIENCE & COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
• Our ARADIA Committee is auditing the newly launched system for incident reporting system and developing action plan for addressing discriminatory and/or harmful interactions between audience and staff, to improve its rate of intake and effective dissemination.
• With a change in staffing, we are shifting the goal to Fall 2023 to develop the framework for a partnership program to work with other organizations that support artists from historically underrepresented backgrounds, to share our resources and bolster the work already being done.
• Working in concert across various departments within Signature, we will install a permanent Land Acknowledgement to be displayed in our lobby by 2023.
STAFF & BOARD
• The Staff EDIA Committee is working to create a system to better provide professional development opportunities for staff to ensure growth and leadership training at every level.
• We will annually publish details of Board Member affiliation with corporations.
• Our Board EDIA Committee has committed to reviewing this fiscal year’s goals for each board committee to ensure that EDIA values are effectively worked into each committee's annual goals.
New
PROGRAMMING, ARTISTS & DESIGNERS
• We will offer student discounts, student memberships and student group discounts starting in September 2022 for the 22-23 Season, $20 student tickets to Signature Theatre productions (limit 2 per production).
• $30 guest tickets for students to bring a non-student guest (limit 2 per production).
• Advanced booking for Student Night performances.
• Special Member Benefits o Invitations to special Student Nights for each production. Student Nights will feature a variety of pre/post-show events including parties, artist conversations, student work sharing and more.
• First chance for special free ticket offers for students
• Invitations to student-centered special events including artist talks, masterclasses, backstage tours of The Pershing Square Signature Center and more.
• 15% off at Signature's Café and Bookstore.
• A special Student Newsletter with information about upcoming shows and events alongside special artistic and community features.
• Memberships stays valid through a student’s graduation year. If the student continues their education, after graduation, they may rejoin the membership.
• We will schedule at least one Student Night for each Season and multiple student targeted events each season.
• After noting a low voluntary response rate of the identity & demographics survey, we are auditing the method of receiving identity & demographics survey responses and will be moving forward inviting those who work with Signature to complete this survey upon onboarding.
AUDIENCE & COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
• We will aim to expand from one to two yearly opportunities for De-Escalation & Self-Defense training with the Center for Anti-Violence Education. These trainings will be offered to all staff but will prioritize opportunities for front-of-house, ticketing and security staff.
• We will aim to produce a minimum of one show with an ASL-interpreted performance in collaboration with HandsOn in the 22-23 Season.
• Informed by Belonging and Inclusion research as well as hands-on experience piloting and hosting such events in the 21-22 Season and prior, we are committing to scheduling a minimum of three community nights scheduled for each production to invite audiences to come together in community for each production in the 22-23 season, bringing in people either from underrepresented communities and/or groups with a special connection to the production.
STAFF & BOARD
• We have hired a new Director of Marketing and a new Director of Finance. These two hires add more diversity to our senior leadership team.