STAGES Youth Theater recognizes and acknowledges the decisions and actions made in our past that have had a negative impact on the students, families, co-workers, and audience members in our community.
At times during the past fifteen years, we have chosen to produce shows that were not representative of our current community, and failed to practice race-conscious casting in doing so. We have not done our part to challenge the rights-holders of shows containing problematic themes and content, and instead have continued to present these plays and musicals with all-student casts. We have not done nearly enough to make our programs more accessible and welcoming for students who are not white and affluent. We have often relied on BIPOC Teaching Artists and students to bear the responsibility of helping STAGES create a more diverse program, instead of our predominantly white organization doing the work to make this happen.
We accept complete responsibility for our mistakes (including others not listed above) and apologize for the times when our activities may have hurt, confused, frustrated, excluded, or otherwise harmed anyone in the STAGES community.
Accountability
