Industry Pro Newsletter: Antisemitic Protests at Parade, New AEA Report on EDI

The growing threat of antisemitism in our culture spilled onto Broadway last week as a group of neo-Nazi's protested outside preview performances of Parade. Cara Joy David dives into that, not only looking at the protests themselves, but how it fits into the wider cultural conversation and what each of us should be doing in our day to day lives to further combat this alarming growth of antisemitism. Beyond that, some good news from governmental budgeting processes - as Wisconsin's governor has proposed an increase in arts funding, and the Scottish government reversed their planned cuts to arts funding. At this critical cultural juncture, seeing those in positions of power recognize the importance of the arts is an important step to protecting the industry as a whole.

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Employment Opportunity

Artistic Director - Seattle Rep

Seattle Rep's Artistic Director will co-lead the company in partnership with the Managing Director, and will actively engage and work closely with Board, staff, artists, audiences, and community members to embrace the opportunities and challenges of producing theater in the wake of the pandemic, seizing the chance to innovate and produce in ways that will captivate dedicated and yet-to-be-engaged audiences. Click here to learn more...

Industry Trends

AEA Report: "Progress Towards Diversity and Equity" in 2021

Progress During an Atypical Year: Hiring Bias and Pay Gaps in Theatre in 2021 was released by Actors' Equity Organization. This analysis, the most recent in Equity's series on hiring bias and wage gaps, looks at employment opportunities and typical earnings for union members in 2021. According to this study, the industry may be moving in the right direction in terms of diversity and equity. Click here to read more...

Broadway/New York

PARADE Protesters Bring Growing Antisemitism to the Streets by Cara Joy David

In some ways, it was a surprise that antisemites took to the streets last week to demonstrate outside of PARADE. We don't see that sort of thing outside a Broadway show. We don't typically see it at all in New York City. But, if you were paying attention--and, as a member of an Anti-Defamation League NextGeneration Advisory Board, I have been--you would know that antisemitic sentiment is increasingly spilling onto the streets.

"It's critical that we look at this protest and see it through the lens of a broader disturbing trend that we're seeing across the United States," said Etzion Neuer, ADL New York/New Jersey Senior Deputy Regional Director. "This relatively small gathering of extremists, under the bright lights of Broadway in the middle of Manhattan, is in many ways emblematic. There's a rise we're seeing in extremism and antisemitism."

A recent ADL survey of U.S. adults found that approximately 20% believe in six or more antisemitic tropes, as opposed to 11% in a 2019 survey. Neuer believes this rising hate can be linked to three factors. The first is social media and its ability to give hate a forum. The second is the polarization of society. This one is a little less intuitive, but the theory is that when the right and left are pitted against each other, they do not look introspectively at their own group, allowing hate to fester within. The third is the emboldening of extremists; individuals now feel comfortable to protest outside PARADE or hang "Ye is right" banners over a California freeway.

Strangely, most people didn't even understand much of the hate being spewed outside PARADE. Leo Frank--the central character of PARADE (portrayed by Ben Platt)--is a name recognizable to white supremacists, those knowledgeable about Jewish history and some musical theater fans, not many others. Indeed, the majority of people I interviewed going into a preview of PARADE did not know who he was.

Frank's story is 110 years old. It was 1913, and he was living in Atlanta, managing his family's pencil factory, when a 13-year old employee, Mary Phagan, was found dead in the factory. Four men were arrested and released for the murder prior to Frank; Frank was brought to trial on the word of one of them, a factory aide. While there was no hard evidence against him, Frank was convicted of Phagan's rape and murder after a trial energized by antisemitism. (The factory aide is now thought to be Phagan's actual killer.) During the trial, residents gathered with signs that said: "Hang the Jew!" In 1915, when the Governor reduced Frank's death sentence to life in prison, residents did just that: a mob dragged Frank from his prison cell and lynched him. Some of those in the mob later revived the KKK. Great people.

The ADL was formed in 1913 too, not in direct response to the Frank trial, but the formation of the group and the treatment of Frank are linked together, evidence of that time in America. The ADL was also instrumental in the posthumous pardon of Frank. This is why the PARADE protesters badmouthed both Frank and the ADL.

Frank has become a favorite cause célèbre of neo-Nazis, who still proclaim his guilt. In the "don't believe everything you read on the internet" world, websites run by white nationalists purport to be research guides on the case but mix real evidence with doctored photos and white supremacist talking points. Tweets accuse Frank of murdering Phagan because of a ritual Jewish sacrifice (that doesn't exist).

What was on display outside the Jacobs Theatre is the same old in a more visible form. Of course, this being Broadway, the unions came out against it immediately. Performer Ari Axelrod held a community gathering (which I attended as a supporter, not press). Axelrod, Becca Suskauer, and Michael Kushner have since announced the formation of the Jewish Theatre Advocacy Coalition. The reaction has been strong and supportive. But, the truth is, in order to make headway against antisemitism, we must not only call out the aggressive and obvious hate, but also the more subtle ways antisemitism permeates our days. Watch for those. When Jews tell you about them, listen. Don't argue.

Coalition of Broadway Unions and Guilds Condemns PARADE Protests

The self-described neo-Nazis who harassed theatergoers outside the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre before Tuesday's preview performance of Parade were denounced by the Coalition of Broadway Unions & Guilds, which represents performers both on and off stage in New York State and elsewhere. The participating extremist group is categorized as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center because it has a history of staging inflammatory racist and antisemitic "protests." Click here to read more...

20at20 Returns in March and April

The bi-annual Off Broadway event, 20at20, will return, courtesy of the Off Broadway Alliance. The popular campaign, which begins March 20th and continues through April 9th, makes $20 tickets for participating Off Broadway plays and musicals accessible to theatregoers twenty minutes prior to curtain. For theatergoers on a tight budget, 20at20 has grown to be one of New York's most highly anticipated promotions for more than ten years. Click here to read more...

Regional

Benjamin Hanna Named Artistic Director of Indiana Repertory Theatre

Benjamin Hanna has been named as the Indiana Repertory Theatre's next Margot Lacy Eccles Artistic Director following a comprehensive nationwide search by Management Consultants for the Arts. He will step up from his role as Associate Artistic Director on July 1, 2023, following the official retirement of current Artistic Director Janel Allen. Click here to read more...

Wisconsin Governor Proposes Arts Funding Increase in Budget

Evers' budget proposes investing $100 million in the Artistic Endowment Fund, from which interest income would be distributed to promote the arts throughout the state. Also, his plan would enhance Wisconsin Arts Board funding by $552,500 over the course of the two-year period. Grants are typically used to distribute that money to artists and art organizations. Click here to read more...

MacDowell Artist Retreat Appoints Chiwoniso Kaitano as Executive Director

Kaitano previously served as the executive director of Girl Be Heard - a non-profit that employs the performing arts and theater to promote social change. She is a Zimbabwean native who also sits on the boards of various arts institution. Located in Peterborough, New Hampshire, the illustrious MacDowell retreat is run by resident director David Macy. As of mid-March, Kaitano will work out of the company's New York location. She will succeed interim president Philip Himberg. Click here to read more...

International

Scottish Government Reverses Planned Cuts to Cultural Budget

The interim Finance Secretary reaffirmed remarks he had made earlier that this was the "hardest budget process" he had ever overseen as he completed the Scottish Government's budget for the upcoming year. The state reversed cuts of about £6.6 million to Scotland's arts and Cultural Industry, but Swinney warned that this was the "absolute limit" of cash he could provide for Creative Scotland. Click here to read more...

Missed our last few newsletters?

February 20, 2023 - Hal Luftig Company Declares Bankruptcy, New Ohio to Close

Earlier this month, the Box Office of the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Kimmel Center became tied up in a cyber attack - not unlike the attack that tied up the Met's box office for weeks - offering everyone a reminder that cyber security vulnerabilities should be examined by institutions of all shapes and sizes. In the newsletter this week, we also have stories about leadership changes, a bankruptcy filing, and the closing of the New Ohio, an off-Broadway institution for the last 30 years. Click here to read more...

February 13, 2023 - Are audiences worse behaved? The Antonyo's (Renamed) Returns

Recent reporting from the UK has many, anecdotally at least, convinced that post-pandemic shutdown audiences are significantly worse behaved than they were before the pandemic. While we don't have hard data to back up that claim, the stories in the linked article below about the audience behavior are certainly eyebrow raising. We've also got a great story from an event that our friends at Situation held last month, with their key takeaways about the way audience buying behaviors - and thus the ways in which we reach those audiences - have been changing as live events emerge from the pandemic. Click here to read more...

February 6, 2023 - Innovate to Survive, Tony Eligibility Decisions Raises Eyebrows

In both the US and the UK government funding decisions have shifted the way that many companies are able to go about their business - in England, the massive shift in Arts Council England funding has left many major stages looking to fill huge gaps in their books. In the United States, the end of government funding related to the pandemic, combined with changing audience behaviors have forced many theaters to look at their leadership and business models and reimagine their whole model of doing business. Click here to read more...

BroadwayWorld Resources

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