Olney Theatre Shares Internal EDIA Report Card, Updates Strategy

Olney Theatre Center has reaffirmed its commitment to pursue a more anti-racist theatre after an evaluation of progress made since its initial statement of intent was released in 2020. Both the reaffirmation, the evaluation by the theatre's staff-led Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Accessibilty (EDIA) Committee, and the original statement of intent are available on the theatre's website: olneytheatre.org/anti-racism.

Said Kevin McAllister, co-chair of the EDIA Committee "Making our shortcomings as well as our achievements transparent, allows us to be held accountable to our community, to our artists, and to ourselves. While we are proud of the progress we have made, we want to keep focusing on the work that needs to be done. We are at the beginning of this process, and thinking long-term, we're still at the beginning of the beginning." McAllister serves as Olney Theatre's BIPOC Artist Advocate/Director of Curated Programs. Eleanor Sobczyk (Individual Giving and Special Events Manager) serves as the committee co-chair, and was preceded in that role by Jenna Place, Associate Artistic Director and Casting Director.

While the Committee found progress in each of the theatre's previously identified key areas, the report makes clear that there is still significant work to be done and that Olney Theatre has not yet fulfilled its anti-racist commitments as fully as it must.

The statement, which was submitted to Olney Theatre's Board of Directors, says in-part:

Olney Theatre is therefore issuing this affirmation of its anti-racist commitments, taking what we've learned in our first post-pandemic season, including the EDIA Committee's report card, and adapting our strategies. Olney Theatre's EDIA committee will continue to evaluate the theater's progress on an annual basis, and successive affirmations will, together, become a living archive of the company's efforts to becoming anti-racist: a long-term journey that has no end-point.

The update reports on achievements and shortcomings in the areas of programming, theatremaker diversity, audience diversity, educating a more equitable generation of theatremakers, and cultural competency. The report covers the period between the issuing of the original statement and a retreat held by the EDIA committee in June 2022. It also took into account the programming of the current 2022-23 Season