New leadership roles are popping up at theaters across the country. Many of the longtime artistic directors that have served their communities for the past 50 to 60 years are beginning to retire. It’s important to note that most of these directors are white men. Many of them are stepping down to retire, while a few of them are getting the boot after sexual misconduct and workplace harassment allegations. This has created the opportunity for greater diversity in leadership positions within the theater.

In the latest edition of The New York Times, theater reporter, Michael Paulson, writes about this major leadership transition and how it has led to a total transformation within the American theater. According to Paulson, the role of the artistic director is not only to choose the show lineup and oversee its production, but also to serve as the face of the theater, forming relationships with patrons and getting new community members into the audience.  

As many of these artistic directors are stepping down from their roles, more and more are being replaced by women and people of color. A study done by two Bay Area directors, Rebecca Novick and Evren Odcikin, looked at 85 artistic director jobs around the U.S. and found that since 2015, 41 percent of those jobs have been filled by women and 26 percent by people of color.

Paulson suggests that although this leadership transition is a huge step forward in terms of representation and diversity in the theater community, this is still an uneven demographic change. Women are still less likely to get hired over men, and women of color are even less likely to get hired.

“Theater leadership is still not broadly reflective of the nation’s demographics.”

Additionally, once these directors step into their new roles, it is a delicate balancing act to find the right amount of change and continuity. According to Paulson, it’s crucially important that they think strategically about how to lure in new audiences. They should not be so quick to make changes that they distance the theater’s current patrons as a result.

It’s going to take time before theater leadership is fully representative of the demographics of the nation. In the meantime, the small steps towards inclusivity are changing preconceived notions and creating a more welcoming theater experience for everyone.

For more on this, check out, Michael Paulson’s “The Theater, Transformed,” The New York Times (Mar. 20, 2019): C1