Diversity is a word that’s become something of a buzzword in the performing arts industries within recent years – and rightly so. The theatre industry is almost notorious for having a major lack of diversity and statistics surrounding the topic are pretty damning; in fact, when the Arts Council England announced its plans to begin publishing data on the diversity of arts organisations back in 2015, it was revealed that that in London (a city in which 41% of the population is BAME - black, Asian and minority ethnic), some theatres only had a BAME workforce of 5%.
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| Image courtesy of Rob Laughter on Unsplash. |
In addition to this, the Arts Council England’s 2016-17 Equality, Diversity and Creative Case Report found that BAME employees made up a tiny 11% of the workforce and, when it comes to arts leadership roles – BAME employees only made up 8% of chief executives, 10% of art directors and 10% of chairs.
More recently, research for numerous trade bodies in the UK in 2018 showed that 93% of individuals working in theatres were white; and in a survey carried out by Sphinx Theatre in 2018, it was revealed that only a fifth of English theatres were run by women. It also showed that, shockingly, women controlled only 13% of the total Arts Council England budget and that 28% of playwrights are female.
The thing about diversity is that even the word itself is diverse – it means a lot of different things, and involves a lot of different aspects. It’s about inclusivity and representation of different backgrounds, cultures, race, religions, genders and so on. We can’t look at the issues of diversity in relation to just BAME theatre industry professionals; it’s important to recognise the importance of women in theatre, those with disabilities, members of the LGBTI+ community and everybody else in society. It’s broad – but that’s today’s society: diverse and multicultural, and everyone has a different experience.
Laura Jury is the 39-year-old head of a Devon-based theatre company, focusing on historical drama and classics such as Shakespeare. Not only is Laura female, but she’s also mixed-race in an area that she describes as ‘very un-diverse’.
‘From my experience, I find it very hard to be taken seriously as a company owner who is female, working class and mixed race. People make a lot of assumptions that they can’t work with me in case I don’t speak English or am here illegally, or am simply acting outside of my social place’, she says. ‘As an example, my company won a theatre award for our production of Macbeth over in New York, earlier this year, directed by me. All the local press here refused to report anything about it – and, later, some reporters told me they thought it was a joke, until they got to actually handle the trophy’.
Something that’s been a talking point in the industry is whether there’s ever a justified reason for a lack of diversity in theatre. Laura thinks there typically isn’t, saying ‘I specialise in historical dramas. Sometimes there is a very specific reason that a historical personage needs to have a certain appearance which impacts upon the storyline. However, if there is not a very specific need for that appearance, then I am fully open to anyone of any appearance. With Shakespeare, we often gender-bend characters’.
Although Laura hasn’t always had an easy ride with her background and career, she’s fairly optimistic about the current state of the industry – ‘In more diverse areas, I think theatre is pretty good with diversity. On a national scale, I believe it’s making good progress, with trade union campaigns to improve diversity. My home region is always a bit behind!’.
‘It’s all about challenging old-fashioned ‘conservative’ ‘white middle class’ assumptions – not by argument, because that just creates friction and a bad name for you, but by actions and proving what you can do, repeatedly. I would like to see theatre become much more welcoming, overall, and people to feel less afraid to apply for things and appear in things based on social anxiety from bad reactions in general life, towards them’, she says.
Tommi Bryson is a 20-year-old ‘queer trans theatremaker based in Sheffield’. She works with Sheffield Theatres as a workshop assistant and as a freelancer in various other capacities. Tommi is more apprehensive than Laura in her take on diversity in theatre today; ‘where I come from, theatre can feel very diverse. I’ve grown up with a 50/50 gender split across seasons at The Crucible and, since Robb Hastie took the reins, we’ve gone from strength to strength with LGBT+ representation. However, although we’re making huge strides in this area, we continue to let people down and, with some projects, we fall at the first hurdle’.
When speaking about the progress of theatre diversity, Tommi says that ‘it depends who and where – Victoria Sadler’s yearly article about how many British women writers were programmed at the 10 biggest London theatres has become a deeply sobering annual experience. Here in Sheffield, we’re making outward progress, building on our equal gender-split cast policy by casting more non-white actors and more deaf and disabled actors. But it can’t just be actors – diversity in other positions is extremely slow to change’.
‘I work in an all-white department of 10 and am the only trans woman employed year-round by the trust. Until we address the lack of representation in our offices and production teams, real change will not happen’.
And that’s something Tommi, similarly to Laura, argues when asked about if there’s ever justified reasoning for a lack of diversity – ‘even if you’re telling a story about exclusively white men, the team around that can and should be diverse. As for ‘colour-blind casting’, it’s a false concept. It’s always seemed like a phrase used to tiptoe around the issue of ethnic diversity – or lack thereof’.
Reflecting on her own career, Tommi says ‘being trans impacts my career in a weird way. There are jobs I’ll get because I’m trans, but countless more for which I’ll never even be an option. I’m yet to interact with any casting directors who ‘get it’ in regards to trans actors and characters’.
‘Overall, I don’t think diversity is the right word. ‘Representation’ or ‘intersectionality’ comes closer, I think. It’s about making voice heard, and giving people room to explore what their voice is, free of the institutional – typically racist, sexist, transphobic et cetera – pressures and expectations’.
Research from leading industry publication The Stage examined the backgrounds of over 500 performers in 19 shows in London theatres and found that only 38% of performers were black or Asian; and, although this sounds like a disappointing figure, when compared to the statistics for Broadway casts (34%) and British TV (18%), it feels more promising.
But it’s not all doom and gloom. There’s no denying that there’s a real atmosphere for change in the industry – or at least an attempt for change. There’ve been some monumental changes and achievements within the last decade: in 2013, Paulette Randall became the first black woman to direct a drama in London’s West End; in March 2016, the Royal Shakespeare Company gave the role of Hamlet to a black actor, Paapa Essiedu, for the first time ever in its 50-year history, and diversity is appearing in shows themselves too. Representation of minority groups has become a central element in characters, scripts and casting; examples of this include Soho Cinders, Hamilton, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie and there are plenty more – especially within independent theatre companies.
So, things are changing – both for individuals and industry-wide, and in November 2019, more than 90 theatres in the UK signed up to support an action plan, developed by the entertainment and media trade union Bectu, to tackle the lack of diversity in off-stage roles in the theatre industry. But maybe Tommi is right; perhaps we should focus on representation more than diversity – theatre should reflect audiences and, with theatre becoming more accessible to audiences, the diversity is perhaps already there. Now, it’s about reflecting that in casts, characters, shows and offstage teams.
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