'GREAT COMET', COME FROM AWAY and A DOLL'S HOUSE, PART 2 Receive AEA's Excellence in Diversity Award

Actors' Equity Association today named The Great Comet, Come From Away and A Doll's House Part 2 the co-recipients of the Extraordinary Excellence in Diversity on Broadway Award for the 2016-17 theatrical season.

Presented by Equity's National Equal Employment Opportunity Committee, the award honors shows that exemplify and promote the union's founding principles of diversity, inclusion, non-traditional casting and equal opportunity for all who work in the theatre.

The award is scheduled to be presented to representatives from the shows at Equity's regular July 11 Council meeting in New York.

"We are thrilled to honor three productions this year for the ways in which they exhibit diverse and inclusive casting not routinely seen on Broadway," says Christine Toy Johnson, National Chair of the Equity's National EEO Committee. "In The Great Comet, a multi-cultural company of actors offers an expanded window into the retelling of a classic Russian story. In Come From Away, based on a true story portraying citizens of a largely Caucasian community, a diverse and inclusive company of both onstage and understudy actors play multiple characters without regard to race, age or type."

EEO Committee Vice Chair Allyson Tucker adds, "In A Doll's House, Part 2, we are treated to a cast where talent reigns supreme and where we cease to be confined by our visual limitations and definitions. The diverse casting serves to strengthen the message of the play by demonstrating the universality of the issues that are at the heart of the show."

Past recipients of the Extraordinary Excellence in Diversity on Broadway Award are 110 in the Shade and Les Misérables (2006-07); Billy Elliot (2008-09); American Idiot (2009-10); The Merchant of Venice (2010-11); A Streetcar Named Desire (2011-12); co-recipients Cinderella and The Trip to Bountiful (2012-13); If/Then (2013-14); It Shoulda Been You (2014-15); and co-recipients Hamilton, Spring Awakening and Waitress (2015-16). Note: The award was not presented in 2007-08 season.

ACTORS' EQUITY ASSOCIATION, founded in 1913, is the U.S. labor union that represents more than 51,000 professional actors and stage managers. Equity endeavors to advance the careers of its Members by negotiating wages, working conditions and providing a wide range of benefits (health and pension included). Member: AFL-CIO, FIA. #EquityWorks.