City Lights Theater Company is dedicated to philanthropy and goodwill toward everyone at all levels of participation: staff, artists, board members, patrons, volunteers and contributors. This “Culture of Care” allows everyone at the company to forge lasting, authentic connections to each other, to our audiences, and to the stories we tell.
As a reflection of this dedication to care and community as essential components of live theater, in recognition of the rich diversity of the community it serves, and in direct response to the intolerable social and professional inequities throughout the Bay Area and beyond, City Lights has taken important steps in recent years, including:
- engaging in honest self-assessment of equity, diversity and inclusion as reflected in all operations, in order to ensure the full engagement and investment of the BIPOC community with City Lights on and off the stage;
- implementing new, permanent criteria for season planning and production casting and staffing that uphold the high standard of equity expected by and acceptable to the BIPOC community;
- drafting an Inclusivity and Welcome Statement and posting it on the City Lights website and in the theater lobby, acknowledging all racial and gender identifications and affirming the company’s intolerance for oppressive language, actions, or behavior, whether implicit or explicit; and
- offering and continuing anti-racist/anti-oppression training for the staff and board.
We at City Lights continue to commit ourselves to:
- asserting ourselves as advocates for justice and equity among all human beings;
- standing against hate, injustice, inequity and white supremacy within the Bay Area theater community and beyond;
- telling stories of, by and for BIPOC playwrights, artists and audiences in a manner that is a genuine and truthful reflection of the BIPOC community;
- establishing and maintaining an ethnic and cultural balance within the Board of Directors that reflects as accurately as possible the diversity of the community City Lights serves;
- maintaining consistent and ongoing personal growth among all individuals who make up the City Lights community as advocates for equity, diversity, inclusion and change;
- recognizing that the work we do now to address inequity in all forms is only the start, and that there is much work to be done before the cloud of white supremacy and oppression that has been endemic to the theater industry is forever lifted; and
- listening to all members of our community as we work to effect change within ourselves, our company and our world.
We understand that we have a long journey ahead and realize that what is most important is not to be complacent, to keep moving forward towards justice every day.