Twi McCallum Reveals Anniversary Article of Open Letter to the Theatre Community on Hiring Black Designers and Creatives

Last year, Sound designer Twi McCallum wrote a "letter to the industry", expressing the "grief from a designer's perspective of how we are often not included in this 'diversity' platform, as it is often limited to Black actors, writers, directors, and producers."

Today Twi has released an article to mark the first anniversary of that open letter.

Read it below:

I would like to preface this article with: happy belated birthday to Breonna Taylor, and RIP to all the other Black women, nonbinary, and transgender people of color we've lost in the past year to racism and/or domestic violence, whose deaths did not spark marches in the streets because they're not cis men. RIP to all of those lost to COVID-19, although America is starting to get back on its feet, we are still in shambles.

I invite you to dive into resources curated by people who are much smarter than me, as this article is in no way filled with data, instead it is written from personal truth:

Porsche McGovern's Who Designs and Directs in LORT Theatres, SoundGirls, We See You White American Theater, Production on Deck, Black Theater Coalition, Black Theater United, Blue Collar Post Collective, Asian American Performers Action Coalition, and Design Action.

Yes, even a year later with the stage lights flourishing in the theater once again, it is important to continue the discussion of changemaking. Backstage artists experience beratement, isolation, racism, sexism, all the -isms, fatphobia, homophobia, all the phobias, working for pennies, on top of being sexually and physically abused while fearing if we will have longevity in the field. The industry is in purgatory, waiting to see what will change, and what seems doomed. However, I desire to pen a list of "hopes" I am holding onto for theater:

1. Virtual theater holds its place, making theater affordable for viewers and accessible to an array of artists.

1. Meetings continue to happen on Zoom, echoing the work of No More 10s out of 12s.

1. Regional and off-Broadway theaters accept more "cold emails" and make their design/technician seats public information, such as the unconventional step Baltimore Center Stage made in fall 2020 by soliciting sound designer resumes on Facebook for their upcoming season.

1. A development of a human resources model for designers/technicians, separate from the unions, allowing the production team to elect a deputy, similar to how the cast elects a deputy per Actor's Equity Association rules.

1. Production reviews and artist interviews focusing on design work, with emphasis on the work of BIPOC designers, and interviewing these artists without asking them about how difficult it is being a BIPOC designer. Inspired by this, I created a digital series, Thank You, Dark, available on Broadway on Demand for free, that highlights emerging BIPOC designers, administrators, and post-production creatives. The pilot season is currently streaming, with season 2 launching in the fall.

1. An increase of intimacy coordinators and cultural consultants hired for productions. Shout out to Teniece Johnson, who is a Black intimacy coordinator who approaches their work through a lens of inclusion and equity for actors as well as the production team.

1. Production managers and directors beginning their pre-production meetings with community agreements. Some examples of sites that explain community agreements include: The Antioppression Network and National Equity Project.

1. An increase in pipeline programs for high school students and HBCUs. Open Stage Project is a fantastic model for youth technical theater education.

1. More designers, technicians, and administrators in leadership. Institutional change can happen if BIPOC backstage artists are afforded the opportunity to be part of a board of directors for a theater, or elected to a committee seat on a major nonprofit. A powerful embodiment of this include Jerrilyn Lanier- Duckworth, VC of Hair & Makeup for the Costume Commission for USITT.

With a year in retrospect, I never could have dreamed that I would be part of affinity spaces, committees, and service organizations that have helped to shape my knowledge on the above list. Most interestingly, I will be making my Broadway debut this fall, designing a new play hoping to open October 2021. This is thanks to a director who has graciously taken me along for the rides of his virtual plays, and the producers who gave the final signature instead of pushing to hire an "experienced" sound designer, who likely would not have been a Black woman.

In the words of my friends and mentors, there are factors to consider as a contrast to the "old White men who won't retire" trope: (1) I am prospectively the youngest designer ever on Broadway in any discipline at 25 years old; (2) the 9th woman; (3) maybe the third Black person of 2 known men: Justin Ellington and Mikaal Sulaiman; (4) and, perhaps the first Black woman/woman of color overall.

I am unsure if these claims are true, since it's challenging to uncover demographic data about designers through databases and unions, and the full 2021-2022 Broadway season is yet to be announced for investigation. Furthermore, articles often do not name designers who are not men and/or not White, such as this slightly outdated article from 2018 that states, Broadway producers have hired five women to design sound to date. No woman has ever designed the sound for a Broadway musical solo. And a total of three non-white sound designers have designed on Broadway. Thanks to my colleague and luminary sound designer/engineer Joanna Lynne Staub, the names of those *8* women as of 2021: Freya Edwards, Lia Vollack, Jill BC DuBoff, Ashley Hanson, Cricket Meyers, Carolyn Downing, Jessica Paz and Palmer Hefferan. I hope in the future more is done to give a name and face to the "others" who serve as backstage artists not only on Broadway but in off-Broadway, regional, and educational theater.

To close this article and in the spirit of saying names, I want to honor the breadth of artists who have been an influence to me.

BIPOC women and non-binary folx in theatrical sound who I stand shoulder-to-shoulder with in my generation: Kathy Ruvuna, Megumi Katayama, Sadah Espii Proctor, Kay Richardson, Fan Zhang, Nina Field, Bailey Trierweiler and Adjua Jones.

BIPOC women in theatrical sound whose shoulders I stand on as they've broken the glass ceiling before me, who have not already been named in the above paragraphs: Carin Ford, Elisheba Ittoop, Melanie Chen Cole and Pornchanok Kanchanabanca.