 We were able to take a bit of a breath, I saw lots of photos being taken so that reinforced relationship building. I have a couple of logistic things to point out. First of all, if anyone owes Julia money for dinner last night, everyone's energy in the last session and we really thank you for that. I'm assuming from the little bit that we heard in the lobby that that continued it to lunch as well as it should. I do want to make sure that everyone had an opportunity to work or think about or consider their personal manifestos and not. What I'm going to do right now is really quickly read our three prompts because we're going to have an exercise in a bit where we're going to ask everyone to share one. I think that's going to really closely connect to what we were talking about. I just want to take that moment knowing that it may not have happened before. You don't have to write it out. I'm going to read it to you. You can have it, as Akita says, in your heart. I want to make sure that we allow a little space for that knowing that we do have a progression of events planned as we're moving forward. So personal manifesto, things to consider. In my path to leadership, I will advance my ability to or to become more skilled at. That's one thing. In my path to leadership, I will address my own personal obstacles of. And then the last one, which actually I feel connects a lot to what our last conversation was. In my path to leadership, I will help affect change and shift consciousness by. So take that, know that we're going to go back to it in a little bit. But first, what we have, which is really exciting, is a panel discussion on some incredible women leaders who have done exactly what we're talking about. They have seen an issue in concern and have stepped up and they do work to make change. And so I'm going to hand it over to Erin and you can introduce your panel over here. Thank you so much. Hi, y'all. So before I start, I just want us to give a huge shout out to the creators of this to-go. Martha Richards, who was on our steering committee, Schaefer. Rachel, who was on that committee as well. And it's been so amazing and extraordinary to see what this conference of four folks coming from different institutions to merge together to create this kind of second thought about what women's leadership is. It's extraordinary. Before we get to these three change makers, I'd love for us all to just close our eyes just for a moment. So at the Soul Center in Atlanta, we believe in energy and we believe in grounding ourselves. So as we kind of reflect over our last two days, I want you to kind of speak to yourself and tell yourself, thank you for being so brave to be here. I want you to reflect and to really sit with yourself and think about the courage that you have to speak up and to name who you are and to really believe that you are a woman in leadership and that you have all of the power that you need to create the things that you want to create and to build. And as we go into this last session, take your amazing energy to continue to think and to listen to these women that are creating models that are answering some of the thoughts that we've been having. We can open your eyes. Thank you so much. So as we lead in, we have three phenomenal women. We have Joy Meads. We have Carol Dunn. And we have Kristin Vangen-Holmen. They're going to kind of give statements to us and talk about the work that they've been doing. Why have they created the spaces that they're creating? What they're answering, the holes that they're filling in. And then we're going to have a conversation about what more do they want to be doing. And then we'll open it up for questions. Let's start with you, Joy. Great. So I had my statement that I prepared beforehand. And then you guys have inspired me so much, I actually just wrote a few new paragraphs. So I want to start out by saying two things. Really quickly, I want to talk to the field and then talk to you. Message for the field, it's your job to fix inequity. It is your job to understand the obstacles to progress that you have inherited and created to break them down and to make equal room for the vision and brilliance and creative potential of all of the people that your institution has historically disenfranchised. Okay? It's not something that you do out of charity. It's not something that you do because you're good people. That is your job. Okay? And legal and ethical responsibility as publicly subsidized institutions serving the public good. This is not beneficence, it is competence. Okay? Okay, Trayarchy, for a second I'm going to talk to you guys. And I want to say how inspired I am by every last one of you. Here's what's pressing on my heart to say to you and also to say it to myself. Okay? Do not wait for these institutions to change. Okay? You have unique and irreplaceable gifts. I've heard you speak. I've heard your words. You have this electric dance of genius and innovation and passion that is alive and alight in your brain. But you know what? We have a few precious years on this earth. And one day that electric dance is going to be quieted by death. Real talk. Okay? Do not waste your precious years on earth waiting for somebody to give you your place in line. Right? It's never going to come. Okay? You don't have time to wait for the American theater to fix itself. You don't have time to wait for other people to give you power. Don't get so fixated on the power that you don't have that you forget to use the power you do. Okay? Do not become so fixated on the roadblocks ahead of you that you miss the end run on the right. Okay? We all have to MacGyver our success. We have to use our bold and brilliant minds to reimagine new structures to exercise power and to leave our impact on this earth. Okay? So I'm here representing the Kilroy's. Woo! Woo! We're a gang of 13 playwrights and dramaturgs. And we formed in 2013 when a conversation at a house warming party got a little out of control. And it was at that season announcement time of year. And what we were seeing was the same thing that we were seeing every year, right? Announcement after announcement of seasons where female and trans voices were either excluded or given a single token slot. Okay? And we started talking about the fact that throughout all of our professional lives, you know, we're all mid-career. We've been around. We had seen endless articles and panel discussions and convenings and initiatives all earnestly addressed to the goal of just an inclusive programming on American stages. Right? And yet, nothing was happening. The problem was saying the same. People were saying the right things about the problem. I think sincerely, but they weren't holding themselves accountable for solving it. And we also felt so frustrated by the fact that things weren't changing. I'm going to tell you, this was a moment where I was feeling a little spark of burnout because I was seeing these geniuses who were not being recognized the way that they should be on my watch, right? And just sitting around talking about what those people in power was doing wrong, it wasn't helping, right? It was actually disempowering. So we decided that we were done talking about gender equity and we were ready to take action. We decided to focus on one specific aspect of the larger problem, something we had a theory of what the problem was and how we could change it and that we would do something to fix that one thing. And I actually don't want to breeze past the first part of that equation. We met for the better part of a year before we went public. These kind of passionate, engaged, rigorous thought sessions where we were working to analyze the roadblocks of progress, right? Because the thing is, if this problem was easy, we would have solved a long time ago, you know, right? We knew that the problem isn't due to some shadowy cabal of moustachioed villains gathering in some back room and vowing and shortling to keep women off status, right? That's not the problem. We really believed, this is actually the messed up thing about the whole situation, we really believe that everyone in our field wants to do the right thing. But too many of them have been blind to the unconscious and systemic biases that create this gravitational pull towards plays by white dudes. So, one thing that we noticed, and we talked about a lot, is that when producers were asked about the gap between their rhetoric and their action, they would say one of two things. They would either say, the plays just aren't there, right? Or we just produce the best plays, okay? Now, let us just take a moment to acknowledge that both of these answers are utter bullshit. I'm a literary manager, I've read several hundred plays a year for the last decade. I can tell you with utter certainty that we are living in an extraordinary age of American playwriting, that there are brilliant voices that represent every aspect of the diversity, the great diversity of this country. We should feel awed and fortunate that we have access to an unprecedented diversity and abundance of excellent new play every single year. And the truth of that is a race. Every time a producer says that they just produce the best plays. I call that the quality dodge, and I find it offensive because the unacknowledged logic buried within it is that the best plays are written by white men, or white cis men. But the thing is that these leaders were never forced to unpack that logic, to ask themselves unconscious questions about their unconscious biases or about the patterns of access that they've inherited and created because the false answers always ended the conversation, right? The producers believed their answers and arts journalists had no reasons to push farther. The fundamental truth that we as playwrights and dramaturgs knew that there's a wealth of excellent new plays that never see the light of day wasn't visible to journalists or to the public at large. And so we decided that we never wanted to hear another producer perpetuate the idea that the plays are not there or that plays by cis men are better, okay, cis white men. We decided that we were going to destroy the false answers because we thought maybe once those false answers are out of the way then we can start looking at what's actually happening. And maybe break the cycle once and for all. So the first thing we did is we surveyed the field. Artistic directors, actors, directors, drum turks. What were the great plays by female and trans artists that they'd read in the last year? And we published a list of the most recommended plays and we said, hey producers, you said you couldn't find great plays by women. You said you just needed high quality plays. Here's a bunch. Here's a tool to use. Now go and produce them, okay? The first year all that the action took was just under $200 between the 13 of us. Some potluck stacks and a whole lot of elbow grease. We published this list of industry recommended plays and it was covered by press on three continents. It resulted in a reading series in at least four different American cities. It resulted in playwrights getting agents. It resulted in playwrights getting produced. This year TCG Press published a book from the first two years on the list. It contains 97 monologues and scenes by female and trans playwrights, each as brilliant and distinctive as the writer who imagined it. Those writers and artists have peopled this book with a range of compelling characters and stories that represent the country that we actually live in. The book is proof of the vitality of American playwriting today. It is proof that the answer to the stubborn gap between the diversity of the cities that we live in and the stages within them. The answer to that gap is right within reach. The book also proves that any theater that chooses to perpetuate the erasure of plays by female and trans playwrights isn't suffering from a lack of supply but from a failure of competence. There's one last point. The consequences of that failure are grave and they are far-reaching. We are in a pivotal moment in the life of our nation and our field. We're in the middle of a generational shift in leadership on a scale unlike anything I've ever seen. The leaders who are hired in the next two years will shape the next 25 years of American theater. I am frightened by the fact that almost all of the artistic directors appointed in the last year have been white. We cannot separate that fact from what is happening in the life of our nation as a whole, right? Where we see the forces of white supremacy and patriarchy on the march desperate to reverse our progress towards equality. Desperate to flatten that arc of justice. I think about the election last year where I watched the horrified amazement as pundits on news programs actually debated whether the first female major party candidate had the stamina to be president. As if she was some delicate, anti-bellen debutante instead of the former secretary of state. Or as she was asked on a debate stage about why she was so unlikeable. Or as her ambition was discussed with grave concern as though it was some character flaw instead of a necessary quality of everyone who's ever run for the highest position in the land. The novelist Chimamanda Adichie warns us of the danger of a single story. A single story creates stereotypes. The problem with stereotypes, she says, is not that they're untrue, but that they're incomplete. They make one story the only story. One of the core takeaways of the Wellesley study is that the biggest obstacle of standing in the way of women's progress in theater is our collective imagination, right? I'm not saying that the problems are imaginary. I know they are very real, right? But it is that we have a deficit in our ability to envision the potential burning within the female candidate sitting across from us, okay? And because we don't have enough experience working our imaginative muscles, knowing what it means to see that potential. More painfully, this dearth of images of women as bold, visionary creators of stories and in our systems, it constrains our ability to imagine our own success to dream ourselves into the fullness of our potential. Every time a female or trans theater professional shows the world their competence, their vision, their innovation, that act radiates around them with explosive force, okay? It blasts through stereotypes. It shatters assumptions that limit our potential. It reshapes the world. Each one of us, right now, has the power to reshape the landscape around us. We are here because we are a leader. And I just say, don't wait for permission. Start meeting. Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! So I'm starting. She'll like it. Okay. So hi everybody. I've never met 99.9% of you before and I'm an artistic director of a $3 million theater and I was an artistic director of a million dollar theater before that. But as a woman artistic director, I thought I couldn't spend the money on myself to go to conferences, join TCG or a board. So this is a really profound experience for me to be here with all of you. My story very quickly is I started running theaters at 42. I'm an actress and director and I never thought I could be a leader. I had one mentor in college, Carol McVeigh, who mentored Michelle Hensley also. Woo! So Carol McVeigh everybody. And this was 1980s in college. I never thought I could lead anything. I thought I was going to be an actress and hopefully be an actress the rest of my life and then great things happened. But Carol kept saying to me, Carol Dunn, you should run a theater. And I go, oh, stop. Oh, I can't do that. And then I had children. And I thought, oh, I can't do that. And also I married to a former artistic director. Peter Hackett, he was the artistic director of the Cleveland Playhouse. So I am also the Hillary Clinton of artistic directors. So my story. So at 42, so I got into all of this really with no real mentoring. I mean, in college, absolutely. Carol McVeigh said, Carol, you go and do this. First man I asked to mentor me in the theater. I said, I really think that maybe I could learn to direct. Would you help me? Really wonderful white male director. He said, no Carol. I always thought I would mentor a man. Second person I asked to mentor me was a woman, guys. And we know this. And it didn't work. It didn't happen. And I was working with this director and was just always sent out to get me so soup for people rather than be around in the rehearsal hall. We can't do that to each other. So the way I learned to become an artistic director is totally on my own. And actually I think that's what's made me good at what I do. So first I went to the new London Barn Playhouse. This wonderful old summer stock theater. I thought, yeah, I'll try this. Maybe I can run this at age 42. $500,000 deficit. Buildings falling down. No staff. Sure, I'll take the job. What are you going to pay me? Kind of almost nothing. Great, I'll do it. I'm a woman. I'm so easy going, I can do this. But it taught me so much. I'll build the website. How do you do the budget? I googled it. I talked to people. I went to equity. I googled my whole job. All on my own, right? And so at the new London Barn we had some great success. We turned it into an equity theater. We air conditioned it. It's been running in the black for years. It's one of the happiest places in the world. In 2013, Northern Stages Board came to me and asked me to run their theater, which had a $500,000 deficit. Falling down ceilings. No company to speak of. They've been through a hard place. I said, absolutely. And I'll run both of them at once because I'm a multitasker. And I said, I can do it. Don't worry about supporting in any big way. I'll solve all of it. And that's something we all have to deal with, right? And me in particular. I'm such a yes person. And yes is so good, and sometimes yes is really bad. Because you take on too much for yourself. We raised $9 million at the end of the stage. My associate, Amanda Ray Fuse, my associate director is here. In two years we raised $9 million, built a new theater, launched new works, have a really strong new play program. We've had five world premieres, two off-Broadway transfers. So we've had some really, really great success. So my story, why I'm here, why is this woman here, is because I met with board members of the Pussycat Foundation in July. They were honoring me for my work turning around these two theaters. Extreme makeover of the theater edition, okay? So they asked me to start just talking about my place in the theater as a woman. And as I've heard from all of you, a lot comes out of me. A lot comes out, a lot of anger, a lot of feeling like I didn't have the help where I needed it, I didn't have the resources where I needed it. I didn't even know how to be a leader because no one thought I was going to be a leader. I've read books, Good to Great, and Google, I told you. So I started talking about just experiences like the New London Barn and like what I had done, and all of these have worked out so beautifully. And the foundation asked me to come back the next day and talk more about how they could help the American theater. This is the easiest thing I've ever done in my life. I wrote, I took five minutes and I created a white paper for the Bold Theater Women's Leadership Circle. I said support women artistic directors because nobody is out there supporting and nurturing us. The program is $250,000 per theater. There will be five theaters per year. That $250,000 that will go to that woman artistic director requires that she hire an associate director who she will mentor to become an artistic director. It also requires a certain number of designers, directors, playwrights every year, and the grant pays for it. Money is power, right? If we find those people who believe in what, and they are out there guys, they're out there, but it really is, it's women. Guess who these were women? Helen Curly Brown was a feminist. I know you, yes. She disguised it. She got that magazine published by sort of pretending it was serving men but she was a real feminist and this is all in her spirit. I wanted my salary to be underwritten like the men at the great universities who have the so and so endowed chair of thing. I wanted to be the chair, I wanted to be the chair of thing. Is my board look at me in a different way and say, well, she took care of her salary. Now let's support what she's doing out there, okay? $250,000. It supports me joining Lort and TCG and it paid for my gas to come down here today. So the Bold Theater Women's Leadership Circle we are open for applications. Northern stage, I hate to tell you I am one of the recipients. So it's four other women, but we're just beginning and this foundation wants us to grow this program. They want us to grow this program. We have a wonderful panel of amazing theater artists including Ellen Richard is helping us with this. We are going to be meeting and going through applications this fall and announcing the four other women who will receive this grant in February and the grant begins in June. So what do you have to do to apply for this? I just want to tell you. We are looking for theaters with a budget of $500,000 and up that produce three shows a year. It used to be five, I'm changing it. I just want to open it up a bit more as I'm speaking with people, okay? You have to have some sort of relationship with equity because that's the reality of growth, right? So I'm looking for equity actors in your show. We had said two per show, but I've had some theater say what have we averaged to? That's good enough for me and us. And what is it? That's it and you have to identify as a woman. Is it America? It's America. We want to make a deep impact on the American theater. So please, and we made a very simple application. It's so much about mentoring. It's so much about, you know, with this change over right now in the next 18 months, I don't want to be too late. But we're building towards the future and all of you young people, you could be one of these associate directors. And the difference is you're not going to be getting the miso soup all the time. You're going to be in the room for the auditions, opportunities directing on the main stage, in the New Works festivals, et cetera. So it's very much about making sure that mentorship among all of us is towards leadership, not just status quo. Oh, northernstage.org is my theater company, our theater company. You could also Google Bold Theater, okay? And I didn't bring a card because I'm so isolated up in Vermont, no one ever asks me. But please just Google me, northernstage. I also teach in Dartmouth. So you'll find me and just reach out to me if you want any information about the Bold Circle. So I think my story is the story of the people in the room who have nothing to do with the regional theater and are thinking where, how do I actually earn a living and create theater? So I love that we started with Michelle Hensley, who founded her own company and sort of thinks outside the box so much. And then I love that we had Hannah, incredible Hannah. We like all want you to like get this job. We want to get all the jobs. Run them all. You know, in the last session, she could, she could run them all. So that we both hear about the challenges of like being in the regional theater scene, which I have like zero experience with. And we hear like the Michelle Hensley story of like building something from the ground up. And when I met Enika and Sumru last August and they said that something that was so apparent in the study was how many women artistic directors or artistic directors only because they founded their own company. And just like Hannah thinks, I've spent 16 years doing this and making other people's vision. And I think the parallel story to that is I've spent 15 years building a company, learning all these things. And why is the search firm not calling me for these fucking jobs? Because I want to earn a living and buy a house and take a vacation. And I don't want to earn $21,000 for the rest of my life as a 45 year old woman because I deserve to earn $150,000 to do what I do. Also a late bloomer moved to this area. I'm a proud Canadian representative. Appreciate that this has been such an America-centric summit. But I love that you're all here. I know you from Halifax and Stratford and it's just awesome to have you also represented. Moved here for personal reasons, didn't have a green card, couldn't work, felt, oh, woe is me, white girl with an MA, you know, coming from Brussels, oh, my life is so hard, I can't work. And then I'm reading a book called Half the Sky by Nicholas Kristoff and Cheryl Wodun of other people in the room read it. And it's full of these stories of these incredible women all around the world dealing with these global women's issues like sexual trafficking, gender violence, lack of education, maternal mortality, these big global women's issues and thinking, holy crap, I just want to work as a theater artist and these people are trying to survive these situations. And the book just really inspired me to find a way to use what I do to benefit women and girls. So that's where I think what I represent is there's all of these struggles in our field and then there's all of these struggles for women and girls. And I don't earn enough money to write a big check. I don't come from a family that has the capacity to write a big check, but I want to be a philanthropist. I really do. So what I can do, what I do know how to do is to create an entertaining evening in the theater and maybe I could use that as my way to give people like me jobs. I don't want to live in New York City. I thrive in the country. I like nature. I like to hike and canoe and bike. I don't want to look at a building. I want to look at the sky. But I also am stubborn and I want to earn a living as a theater artist. So maybe I could give jobs to people who want to do that like me and live in this beautiful area and maybe I could use that to give jobs to women like me who don't get enough of these jobs and maybe I could use it to do plays by women playwrights who aren't getting produced enough and maybe I could also give some money away from those box office proceeds to those incredibly brave people who can be on the front lines dealing with those issues. I don't have the resilience to go and come face to face. I'm actually gathering more of it now through this work but to like deal face to face with sexual trafficking and gender violence and I'm a sensitive artist. That's what helps power my work as an artist but it also swallows me up when I think about these huge issues. So this was my way of taking action, of doing something. The phone isn't going to rain. Kristin, come run this theater. Maybe it will now. But we all know that that's what happens. We create our own opportunity. We take this job of fixing this theater. We start our own. We create our own opportunity. So I have to say that like those days like next Sunday from this show we'll make a donation to the soldier on women's program, women military veterans most of whom have been sexually abused in some way sexually assaulted in some way. Their circumstances have led them to the place of being homeless and this soldier on women's program provides them the care and services they need to go from being homeless to living an independent life and from putting on a play and giving people jobs we will be able to help that happen for those women and that to me is the most incredibly satisfying thing that I've ever done as a person let alone a theater artist to know that I can not only have an impact to create an opportunity for myself, for my peers be they of any gender if they want to live here and I can give them a job to play a leading role on a local stage or the scenic designer who's in the room who built this set and give them jobs but then I can also have an impact on these global issues that really overwhelm me. I don't have to be Angelina Jolie or Melinda Gates but I can try to make an impact in my own way here so those days of being able to make those check presentations and because Kelly's done such an amazing job directing this play, we've exceeded our box office goals and we have one week left we'll be able to make probably at last year we were able to make a $10,000 note for around $10,000 that's a substantial amount of money for a $200,000 theater company and so that's what I bring to this that's what I bring to this everybody in the room is a powerful person I didn't know so I just had one question and then I want to open it up to the group because I know we got other things to do and this is a question to the larger whole but you ladies are here to answer as well so as kind of founders of these ideas is that you leaving Schaefer? No, no, no, I'm going to the universe is helping us Schaefer's flight is delayed these ideas you know Carol you spoke a lot about power like we hold this power how do you all question your own power and question your own privilege in the positions that you're in how do you continue to grow your ideas and your projects and note you know where am I going and are others that might not look like me also in the spaces around me when I'm doing all of this as we call activist work how do you make sure that the power you hold also is distributed across the larger things within your own creations and your own ideas because to be able to create is a privilege to be able to have a base of power to come from and say I don't want to follow the norm I want to build and create my own is really something I think we need to say like everybody cannot do and everybody doesn't have the luxury to do so how do you make sure how a broker that you actually distribute that in your project I can just answer that everything comes down to vision and it's one of the greatest things that I've ever learned and also Joy I was so inspired by Joy saying just go do it just go do it I don't think I've ever waited for anyone's permission to follow my vision always follow my vision and hope people will catch up and come along because it's in the building of things that we've brought people in for example art we have a great education program Shakespeare in the schools everybody's heard of that kind of thing but there was nothing like that where we are all over the state and I have many many people questioning how can you be spending the time and the resources doing that well it's that kind of thing that vision that's brought in the funding for the program so I'm an acting teacher and I think what do you want and how are you going to get it and we as leaders have to have to have the vision that we can open the doors for each other and do work that represents the world and doesn't shut people out and you're going to get it well power you hire people you get that play right you know it's all in action and it's so doable but you have to start with the vision and the belief and the acceptance that you're going to be a strong supporter of change and if you don't do that if you're scared of it you're not going to do it you're scared of change I want to build on that and say like okay so I don't know about you guys but when I was in school I did learn about theater history but I learned a very very biased form of theater history right and like the more that I've learned about this film and the legacy that we walk within what I know is that there is a long tradition of extraordinary creators that look like the country that we're actually in right and I want to one thing that I also realized is that part of why I'm in the position that I'm in is like that things like culture fit have actually worked for me sometimes because I'm white and that brings with it so I had privilege and I got jobs that other people didn't get because I had privilege and so part of what that brings with it is a responsibility to use that privilege for others right and yeah and like and I don't know I just feel like one thing that I can do is like dedicate my mind and my resources to make sure that the extraordinary work that is and has always been created by extraordinary artists of color right trans artists female artists artists with disabilities you know lesbians everyone that I can shine a light on that and this is something we talk a lot about in the killer ways right because I think we have to consciously discuss these dynamics in order to ever affect them and change them and so one of the things that we noticed was with the list is that we there were a lot of white people on the list right the first year and so first year we just reached out to people we thought would return our emails and so it was network of people that we knew and it wasn't the largest network that it could be right and so one thing we did the second year that once our name was established we really expanded the list of nominators and the diversity work really hard and that helped right but we still didn't feel like it was capturing everything that was happening in the field because we're working with the dynamic like the dynamics of you know who gets read widely etc etc we know that there are biases in those dynamics the other thing that we saw is just the lilies and the dramatist skill they did a study of who's being produced on a major American station it's called the count definitely recommend everybody check it out but there's a statistic in that that was just it's a it's obscenity it's not a statistic it's an obscenity which is that only 3.6 percent of the plays that are done in America every year are by women of color right and that's a pulp and so and we we felt like what we had done so far was kind of inadequate to addressing this and so one thing that we decided to do this last year is just to focus the list on female and trans writers of color only and and we thought that one thing that we could do is just ask our nominators to only nominate the work by female trans artists and we thought that would have a couple of facts one is we'd really be able to show again the abundance and excellence of this work the other thing we thought it might do is that we thought that there are probably people who through just perpetuating systems they inherited because of kind of inertia what comes from people who weren't reading enough plays by our writers of color and we thought that actually we send an email to your nominators about a month ahead of time saying like okay we're gonna have the survey open during this window so make sure you have plays ready right and we thought that there were people that would get the email and be like I have not read enough plays by women of color and would go get those plays in the week and I want to say another thing like the response was I mean it's just this is one action it's one action is insufficient in and of itself but it's if we all work together we can attack the system I mean it went really well overall but we did one thing that was interesting to me is that we did get a few emails just a handful most people were very excited super on board you know but we did get a handful of emails from people who were nominators who questioned this initiative and I thought that was interesting because everybody who is a nominator for us has already bought into what is an affirmative action project right so the whole idea of the list is that there are gifted voices that are being overlooked because of systemic imbalances right so if you've been nominated for us you've been working to address that every year and I thought it was interesting that for some people there were just a handful of people but there were some people who didn't question that project when it was for women of all races but all of a sudden when we asked them to just think about women of color were like wait a minute there are all these other good players and I just like you know and there are a couple of people who we went back and forth with a lot and then there were a couple of people who were like oh wait okay I got it sorry you know when we responded the first time right but I mean part of what is like we have all been brought up in you know a white supremacist patriarchal heteronormative culture and those there are assumptions and expectations and we have seen that wrap themselves inside of our minds right and it's part of our job is to untangle you know as associations and anyway I just want to like it's a powerful thing even among people who are kind of committed to addressing inequity when it comes to gender being like okay but seriously it's not just gender y'all like there are few people who are really kick up at that and we need to be honest about that and we need to root that out yeah I think the journey I'm on in terms of untangling those assumptions is I call it the bite my lip action Cheryl Sandberg in her book is like if I leave a meeting and I feel like I wish I talked more I probably talked the right amount I'm learning the most I'm not talking but I love to talk so it's the listening Dr. Martin in her incredible session this morning was like is the conversation about you sending a message or is something like that right about sending a message or having it be a learning a learning experience and so I am trying to spend a lot of time and then this steering committee process has really done that for me and various other things going on Liz said yesterday in Erin's amazing session about what is our natural resource and you said I'm listening better I'm listening more and that's what I'm trying to do too that's my way of stepping into the power that your question was around I'm sorry just the ripple effect you know so there I am alone you know Vermont and Googling and I found the Wellesley study right when I was making my white paper so you all made this commitment Inika and you amazing people it's the ripple effect and then you weren't sure if it was going to make any change and now there's 1.2 million dollars behind that for next year so I think we lose faith that our little our big steps aren't going to pay off but together in this there will be more and more ripples from the thought it's a kind of question common so Joy the killer wife made a very clear decision that in this round of the read there will be women of color and so for the most part people got that and there were some people who did okay and that was fine minority and they came along what were you what were you almost did you find that that the people on your readers list realized how much they were not reading playwright of color one question did it show your intention was to get women of color on the list so let's read works of women of color did folks realize I'll give you an example I was being interviewed by a major newspaper in my town and at the time people knew my name and I had never seen my face and they were standing there waiting for me and she said oh my god I never realized how many black people there aren't in Boston until you were made for and that was a nice thing no no no but what I want to know is didn't show your reading by the disparity when they were asked to stop reading and have you noted any intention from that group of nominators to look to these stories and then you know it's interesting because we just have email contact with most of them so I had we heard a few things like there are a couple of people who like grew up by far and I was like oh my gosh I have a million right so I wanted to acknowledge that that is that was within the reading pool there are a couple of people who did say you know what I realized I need to read more plays by women of color female and trans writers of color and they did that so we did hear that I think probably there were a lot of responses that we didn't hear and I think you know there's that David Foster Wallace anecdote in the comments and speech where you know it's the two fish in a tank and one of them says the other like how's the water today and then that fish leaves and he says to a friend what's water right like it is really easy to like for these systems to be invisible and I appreciate you saying that you don't blame that person for having that for that moment because I I guess I think that part of what the job is for all of us that we all have patterns of not seeing and it's all of our work to to notice what we have and been noticing and to see the full glorious complex humanity you know the potential brimming inside of all of the people that I know right and to disrupt all of the things in the world outside and also that we've drunk in right and sometimes that's about ourselves you know that contribute to our perpetuating system so I mean I guess like the thing is I've heard some indications like the real answer is going to be down the road and again like this one thing is not enough like no one gesture is going to be sufficient but I think if all of us do this one thing you know then we'll start to see change so just in the what you just talked about the thing that we may not notice within this industry within the past two days I've actually not heard anybody mention technicians seeing teachers are aspects within who we work with on a regular basis that are going through these issues too I can tell you in Canada I have seen there is a huge divide between women trying to get to those head of department trying to get to those key positions and they can't so when we're looking around for allies and opening our eyes to see what else are things that we do not see please see the technicians yes one technician I would love to call out is Portia McGovern and just tell us what you're doing and what you're working on because we need to support you I'll start at the beginning I'm not a technician I'm sorry I'm a designer so I do this research on Lore theaters, designers, directors and artistic directors by gender over the seasons and then it goes out and howl around one thing I'd like to lift up from that is that I now have people telling me at their theaters that they see this research being used to increase the number of women and people of color because on the face of it aims at their designables yes but I, yes let us look at everyone and I should put it out there technicians, stage managers, designers there's a whole other aspect of people that support us, enjoy us that's part of the work that I do we're there for you guys and just you'll call out to us thank you we're looking for designers of color Dave Stewart and recovery he's open to sharing it's been a magnificent tool for us we've really become conscious about diversifying our designer pool at Baltimore Center State to be happy to share with you you know me, I'm happy to share with you but I think that we need to have some intentionality around diversifying our design tool and our education so I work on staff at a national initiative called Art Equity and the folks that have not heard of it we do work with national consultants with large institutions but we also build a cohort of individuals each year we're in our third cohort and this is the way I mean I just thank you so much for naming the things you came but you are looking to get more skilled and build a stronger community around doing work at the intersection of arts and activism that's a journey program that you should really look into it's not based on traditional power or who you are within your institution it's really based on your commitment as an artist to moving the needle on a lot of really critical issues in that field I have a question mostly for Carol when I read about both theater I got so excited and then I went oh it's for directors which like not that everything needs to be for everyone and I work with directors and I love directors but something that keeps cropping up in our conversations is how do women who have spent their lives or will spend their lives working in institutions and trying to reach that artistic director position get there if they're not a director because I think when we do talk about seeing potential in women it's often directors who it's like oh I see the potential of you leading an institution because I've seen you lead a room but like I worked for a female set designer who is an artistic director is an artistic director and I love her to death and I think I named the one and I think there are just so many transferable skills in different parts of theater and so I guess I'm curious if there is room in the program or if there will be room in the future to see voices from different areas absolutely and actually we're supporting artistic directors whatever I mean Anita I hope is applying for it so whatever that specialty is and yet that person is the CEO and the vision of the company that's what we want to support but it is a very biased very biased I've had many actor friends want to become artistic directors there are blocks there also but we are absolutely open to all but the associates are directors they don't have to be training to run a regional theater and we want to get them to these board interviews and have them win in fact if you don't mind if I speak up Carol and I I wrote my own job description as the associate director and we worked on it together and I'm with you you know I come from a development background and I'm an artist I'm an actor I'm a teacher I'm also a director but I spent five years as the director and my power is in a room and in relationships with people and when we talked about you know the directing piece for me it's even more about it's the new play development and it's the education programming that I'm most specifically interested in uplifting so I think that's right that's right and so I believe Amanda should run a theater so I'm going to help her do it I wanted to speak about one more resource available to you all and also a great opportunity so I'm co-president of the women in the arts and media coalition and SDC equity drama to skilled and many many other guilds organizations unions are members and you can all get as mentioned made of Martha Richards women arts used to do the funding newsletters where the group that took them over you can get onto our mailing list and get the state jobs newsletter where we have extended also to other disciplines as well for submission opportunities but starting this Monday it's just going out is our every three years we give something called the collaboration award and you should be applying for it it's for a production doesn't have to be theater it can be the film it can be any of our disciplines but it has to be two women from two different disciplines from two different of our member organizations collaborating on an artistic project and you I've heard people talk about plays that have been going on and stuff female playwrights female directors or designer and actor or dancer and musician you should all be checking it out you should all be applying for it so as we transition to Akiva is going to come up and do the next section what is a word that you want to give to us here kind of like a charge from you for us to kind of take with us as we go back home to continue to encourage us to be creators and to be activists in that way the ways that you think I know what I want to say answer be the answer often in these situations of interviews or trying to get something to happen we give other people the power to sort of let them shmoo around this is sort of what I think I want be the answer provide the answer and then people will support you Maxine Green talked about the capacity of art to lead us to question the fixed and the taken for granted and to open up a window onto the possible and I really do want to talk about this idea of imagination and that what we are doing is we are we are collectively imagining a field that we know can be but has never been and so part of I think what we need to do first of all we need to imagine our own potential fully imagine that our vision of success but also if there is somebody that can help us towards that goal we need to help them envision our potential and so I think this idea of reframing the issue showcasing a vision of success shining a light on potential and excellence and assuming allyship I do want to share just one study because you know me now I'm a big key for studies so it's interesting they did a study of hiring managers at the University of Virginia and they gave them a pool of resumes and they asked them to make a hiring decision and there are three conditions for this study one condition is the control that's all they said who is the best candidate for this job the second condition they said okay choose the best candidate for the job who you want to hire and keep in mind that bias is a big problem in your field okay that's the second condition the third condition was they said okay choose who you want to hire keep in mind that bias is a big problem in your field and most people are trying to do something about it and what was interesting is in the control condition the hiring decision showed some bias because that's the status quo the condition where they said bias is a huge problem in your field those managers actually showed more bias because what it did is it normalized a status quo that perpetuated bias but in the condition where they said bias is a big problem in your field most people are trying to do something about it the bias almost disappeared because what it did is it articulated a vision of what the field is doing that created pressure for them to create change and so this idea of assuming allyship giving people the opportunity to manifest a vision that you helped them imagine to be if that makes sense well I was going to say imagine I was going to say manifest so she said the both is a view from the top but the summit is really conversations lots and lots of meetings and conversations and convenings and that's what we've been doing much of the time it's been spent talking at you and with you and now we feel like to close you're here like at the late we feel like to close this summit we wanted to stand before you and actually close the summit with your voice your vision now you got two directors two stage directors in front of you so we're dramatic so we said we were going to figure out a way to actually turn the direction of the audience to have you all speak so you have been given a kind of an activity throughout the summit around this idea of a manifesto this thing is called clarion call to advancement and when we were visioning we were saying are we going to come up with one big manifesto as women leaders in the theater and Kristen said what if the manifestos were individual and what if these individual manifestos were human so instead of one collective manifesto we actually took a different term and we want you to see yourself as a woman we said it exactly right you are actually the answer what you're seeing on this stage is an individual, a woman who stood up had a basic resource they said theater is two planks and a passion, she had two planks and she built a platform and we came in and we helped her to structure and now we all sit here on this platform so this exercise this call to action that you are about to do we're going to ask that each person now if you choose to pass then you will not stand you will remain seated we're going to give you directors and give you the instruction and believe it or not this is actually going to be done within 20 minutes you're going to choose one of the bullet points from your personal manifesto you have written three so if you haven't written three you're going to choose look at the personal manifesto right now you are going to choose to answer one if you didn't take time to do the homework I'm a game day player we are going to ask you to speak to declare to fill up the room by Canada we already said we will be continuing that conversation for us and for all the number twos in our country that are not here that conversation because we've had the white man shuffle as well and just know you have sparked something for all of us thank you very quickly and we're actually going to start with the attendees because I know we've got to catch planes and get on buses and get on out of here we're going to start at the end Diana down and you're going to just stand you're going to stay one of your personal manifestos I want you to fill up the room with your voice this is a declaration a declaration and a declaration so let your voice take space if you were in Dr. Martin's class today she said if you work from the diaphragm and not the chest we're all actors we know this work from the diaphragm so that you do not scream you're heard very well and then when that person is done you sit and the next person will stand say they are one bullet point and if you choose to pass this remain seated and we're just going to go like a wave around the room I understand that the attendees have been doing this and not the speakers but if you are a speaker and you want to look in your program right now and answer one statement you are welcome to do so so we're going to start with Dr. Downs would you mind if you're ready to just stand and declare I will advance my ability to become more skilled at connecting artists to artists and artists to opportunities from whatever platform that I am standing on next I will advance my ability to or become more skilled at demanding rather than asking next I will address my own personal obstacle of not remembering in the back my ability to be fully present and embodied in my interactions and in my art in order to listen more deeply think more wisely and act more intuitively next on both sides because we didn't do this I will help effect change and shift consciousness by calling out inappropriate behavior amongst the people that I work with in my organization and continue to speak out against attitudes that I don't agree with I will effect change and shift consciousness by engaging, enraging and encouraging I will advance my ability to articulate goals like this my own personal obstacle of being immobilized by frustration I will address my own personal obstacles of feeling as if wearing multiple hats is a sign of weakness rather than strengthen entities I will help effect change by being okay with being uncomfortable and stop saying why and instead say why not I will advance my ability to own and value my artistic work within my family I will advance my ability to create great space for women to make the change that is needed I will help effect change by pouring even more energy into mentoring those artists with less privilege and authority than me I will help effect change and shift consciousness by following up with search firms and continuing to conversation about bias and barriers to leadership in our field I will address my own personal of not moving them I will advance my ability to be fully present for conversations that can feel uncomfortable I will become more skilled at stepping up I will help effect change and shift consciousness by examining the pedagogy that I give to the students that I work with I will help effect change and shift consciousness by calling out and in other white gender women when we don't center intersectionality in our conversations about equity and parity I will help effect change and shift consciousness by always supporting women and people of color on their up for job and hiring them whenever possible and by continuing to exist despite it all I will address my own personal obstacles of always just taking the bull by the horns and doing everything myself and assuming that I am not worthy or deserving of the support of others required to fully realize my goals I will help effect change and shift consciousness by continuing to challenge the white male canon and help recreate a more diverse canon I will help effect change and shift consciousness by using my positional power and leading with the questions who is not in the room and how can we get them in the room I will help effect change and shift consciousness by combating systemic issues regarding arts education in all areas I will effect change and shift consciousness by trying to create a better world for women because a world for women is good for everyone a world that's good for women is good for everyone I will continue to address my own personal obstacles around money resenting it hating it's being a God and continue to learn to respect it and appreciate it as fertilizer for the work that I'm trying to do I will advance my ability to become more skilled at being a leader by finding that mentor all the while continuing to mentor the women below me I will help shift consciousness and effect change by using my position within an institution to create opportunity and space for everyone especially those coming up against systemic barriers I'm more skilled at inviting people in no matter what and at putting generosity first I will help effect change and shift consciousness by using my position within a festival for young artists to match teenage artists with mentors who look like them I will help effect change and shift consciousness by demystifying my own hiring practices making diverse hires and making it clear the powers would be that identity was affected I will try and effect change by contacting the people I know in the women's funding network to see if they'll back a proposal to approach the theaters that I have openings I will help effect change and shift consciousness by not just speaking up for myself when I observe sexism and patriarchy in my field but leveraging my privileged position when I observe white supremacy and racism and recognizing that while I'm often silent out of fear it's probably more often out of comfort I will help effect change and shift consciousness by calling out for hiring practices within our industry and being more intentional in my own recruitment and hiring across fields I will help effect change and shift consciousness by empowering women artists to come to the full potential as leaders in the search for work-life balance I will help effect change and shift consciousness by making the work and collaboratively exploring methodology that is family inclusive fights for inclusiveness across the board and parody is gentle on the environment works towards sustainability in all senses I will work toward believing that my voice has an impact I will help effect change and shift consciousness by committing to help ensure that the spaces I choose to operate in are reflective of the world that we live in in all its iterations, permutations, and beauty I will become more skilled at being an informed conversation leader and engaging with uncomfortable conversations I will help effect change and shift consciousness by helping to render all of the amazing work being done largely by women in education and community departments that is rendered invisible to visible I will address my own personal obstacles of fueling my own internal revolution I feel that the poetry of theater has grown within me through the years it is bursting at the seams it is a river that can no longer make content right here, right here I will help effect change and shift consciousness by being mindful of purposeful vocabulary speak from positions of strength and non-apology for who I am and not putting up with institutional bullshit I will become more skilled at not only deeply listening stepping up but also speaking up because the good that could come from my voice is bigger than my fears I will help effect change and shift consciousness by insisting on identifying motherhood as one, a valid lifestyle choice two, leadership quality and three, a creative and professional asset I will address my own personal obstacles of maintaining confidence in the value of my artistic work and the worthiness of my place at the table I will become more skilled at connecting with artists outside of the comfort of my immediate community and keeping parity at the center of every decision that I make I will help effect change and shift consciousness by continuing to provide a space for the voices of those who are not often heard to continue to be heard change and shift consciousness by promoting and supporting the talent of young visionary women to be all of the big parents because that's what my mother told me the next generation of male female parents from high school I will help effect change and shift consciousness by staying mad as hell and using that to effect change I will help effect change and shift consciousness by acknowledging the infernalized patriarchy and acknowledging the ways that I undermine my own power I will advance my ability to become more skilled at making my voice heard and taking up space as a Latinx theater maker I will advance my ability to be heard because I believe in my voice and listen to hear stories that are different than my own I will help effect change and shift consciousness by committing to female lead stories on my community so I will help effect change and shift consciousness by first checking my lens and this is only supported by number one which is checking my lens continue to explore new methodology that might dismantle systemic barriers free equity but also demonstrate possibility of new models which is kind of what we've been talking about and so I have been continue to do that in my own creative factors with my company in my classroom as I develop the next generation of theater makers and then the companies that I work for so the idea of to become women I will help effect change and shift consciousness by using my power and privilege to be an ally and advocate and dismantle systems that aren't working while building new ones. Thank you I will help effect change and shift consciousness by bringing but furthermore demanding name American artistry in addition to unconventional creative thought and ideas to the main stages of American theater I will help effect change and shift consciousness by sharing the passion that I experienced here by starting a conversation and awareness of my own talent sequence I will help effect change and shift consciousness by having meaningful conversations of people in position of power and by keeping my allies accountable I will help effect change and shift consciousness by supporting and creating space for coalition building for folks of all marginalized identities to promote our collective elevation I will become more skilled at stepping up or moving up for the constitutional staff in patriarchal spaces that seek to bury my voice as a loudmouth woman and devoted mother and stepping back or moving back in white supremacist spaces that seek to bury the voices of my sisters of color Thank you I will effect change and shift consciousness by providing space for young people of color to achieve their creative potential bringing their voices to the stage stepping aside when I need to identifying within my power to reimagine and restructure theater in my city Thank you I will help to effect change and shift consciousness by identifying my allies on boards, funders in positions of leadership and educate them to share the load of our industry Thank you I will help effect change and shift consciousness by aligning resources of time, energy and money with my values around justice and equity I will help effect change and shift consciousness by actively seeking and listening to stories and voices that are different from mine I will address my own personal obstacles of letting over thinking frustration and exhaustion lead to immobilization Thank you I will help effect change and shift consciousness by disrupting societal patterns of seeing and understanding the work of female and non-white artists in terms of effort and intention by instead naming their vision and genius and intentionally using words like really innovative, influential to describe their work Yes So they'll be, I mean it's going to Alright, I'm sorry I will help effect change and shift consciousness by loving myself Structions to yourself This is your manifesto no matter what comes from this movement you gave yourself some directions and so you need to follow them Rachel is going to close us out for the evening for the afternoon Wow, thank you all so, so very much we have been working so hard on this and to reach this point, I know I'm like a little speechless right now, I can't speak for everyone else there's a couple things we want to do and one we don't know yet what's going to happen there's been lots of questions we gave ourselves permission first to just get this damn thing on and so full intent on being in contact with everyone, there'll be an evaluation and we'll take some time to step back and breathe and reflect and really encourage everyone else here to this as Kristen has said was born from someone stepping up to a microphone saying I want to do something and bringing along and creating a tribe as Ellen was talking about earlier so one we encourage, there's so many things we can do we encourage everyone to connect that with a personal manifesto and figure out what their next steps are and we will be sharing information I encourage you to continue using the Facebook group Julia and I have been talking about compiling all the resources that were distributed at the breakout sessions creating a Google drive so that those can be shared that is of course the beginning of a resource thing so we can go beyond that, I've heard other suggestions of other types of lists and resources to create so maybe that can be a communal space but then these are just beginnings of ideas and they'll continue to grow so if everyone can both celebrate this moment and then also take this as a springboard for what's next I encourage you to do that and then also there's a light reception out in the bar so please join us before we all take off