New Fellowships Announced
One of the first things I do when I get up in the morning is to check the theater message boards. I especially like one called “All That Chat.”
I was so surprised and pleased to read a recent announcement about new fellowships by the Black Theatre Coalition and the John Gore Organization .
The initiative by Black Theatre Coalition and the John Gore Organization will, according to the press release, “provide ten paid part-time fellowships across the United States with specific training in areas of Marketing, PR, Sales, Programming, Accounting and Finance, Operations, Venue Management and Ticketing.”
Rhymes Over Beats applauds this initiative. Since our founding seven years ago, our goal has been to increase the representation of BIPOC individuals in all levels of our productions, not just on stage but also back stage and front of house. We have, for example, primarily used black PR firms for both of our Off-Broadway productions.
More BIPOC Theatermakers Increases Diversity
In the past in order to accomplish our goal (of hiring BIPOC theatermakers) we had to conduct a targeted search. We are very excited that there is now an initiative that will provide a pool of people to choose from.
To paraphrase what Victor Laszlo said to Rick Blaine in Casablanca – welcome back to the the fight.