Programmers still treat work by BAME or disabled playwrights as niche. We need concrete policy action to change this, and to make inclusivity a cornerstone of the arts, says Lyn Gardner.
When he was running the Royal Court in the 1960s, director William Gaskill was asked during an interview about his policy for running the theatre. “Policy,” he replied, “is the people you work with.” Almost 50 years on, it seems that we are still learning this lesson as we wring our hands about how to make theatre more inclusive and diverse, and attract artists and audiences from different backgrounds.
When Brigid Larmour, artistic director of Watford Palace, recently put a call out to writers’ agents to say that the theatre was looking for scripts, she was surprised that the overwhelming majority sent to her were written by white men... Keep reading on The Guardian
When he was running the Royal Court in the 1960s, director William Gaskill was asked during an interview about his policy for running the theatre. “Policy,” he replied, “is the people you work with.” Almost 50 years on, it seems that we are still learning this lesson as we wring our hands about how to make theatre more inclusive and diverse, and attract artists and audiences from different backgrounds.
When Brigid Larmour, artistic director of Watford Palace, recently put a call out to writers’ agents to say that the theatre was looking for scripts, she was surprised that the overwhelming majority sent to her were written by white men... Keep reading on The Guardian