Last September, representatives from the PlayGround leadership, staff, board, company, writers, audience and supporters came together as the PlayGround Equity Workgroup, meeting monthly to review and address the demands of #WeSeeYouWAT and the Living Document BIPOC Equity Action Plan, and to help review and establish PlayGround policies to assist in this critical work. In March, we shared our Anti-Racist policy and, more recently, our Land Acknowledgment Policy. While the work is ongoing and will continue, we wish to share another important step taken in our work toward building an equitable theatre for all — the development and adoption of PlayGround’s Casting Policy. We look forward to sharing more of our efforts in the weeks and months to come.

In community and solidarity,

PlayGround Equity Workgroup
Diana Burbano / Victoria  Evans Erville / Norman Gee / Jim Kleinmann / Brittany Mellerson / Katja Rivera / M. Graham Smith / Chris Steele / Annie Stuart /  Jomar Tagatac

Casting Policy

2021

This policy is applicable to all PlayGround-led programs.

AUTHORIZED BY:      Equity Workgroup
VERSION:                      Version 1
DATE:                             October 2021
REVIEW:                       August 2022

PlayGround is committed to creating a diverse, equitable and inclusive community through its identity-conscious and anti-racist casting practices. There is no casting default that supports white supremacy. We prioritize integrity in representation and the casting of artists who identify with the lived experience of the characters they play whenever possible. With an eye to always uplifting populations that have been historically excluded, we also recognize that theatre performance is a creative enterprise and will actively work to provide artists with opportunities not solely defined by their ethnicity, race, gender, sexual orientation, age, or disability.

As a playwright incubator, we center the playwright’s vision and articulation of the characters that populate their stories. PlayGround will make all best efforts to fully realize casting in keeping with this vision and articulation, acknowledging the impact of the different timelines involved in various PlayGround programs. We will also maintain transparent and open communication with playwrights and other collaborating artists as we work to achieve this goal. When circumstances fall short of the playwright’s vision, the playwright is kept notified of the need to consider alternatives.

We commit to expanding our casting database in the following ways: 1) hold general auditions annually for union and non-union performers and promote these auditions broadly, including through web, email, social media, existing casting listings, and word-of-mouth; 2) open the database up to ongoing year-round submissions to our pool; PlayGround will create a clear set of written welcoming guidelines for submitting materials; 3) actively cultivate relationships with organizations and communities that have been historically left out of casts in PlayGround’s work for casting opportunities; 4) encourage referrals from PlayGround playwrights and directors to expand the pool of candidates for all positions. PlayGround will involve multiple artists in reviewing auditions and online submissions in order to eliminate the “gatekeeper” perception.