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EQUITY, DIVERSITY, INCLUSION & ACCESS

at Delaware Theatre Company
Delaware Theatre Company values the inclusion and support of a diverse group of players from staff to board members, patrons to volunteers, students to teachers.
DTC is taking a proactive, intersectional approach to achieve these goals.

We want to thank members of the theatre community, specifically those individuals of color, who dedicated countless unpaid hours to providing resources, creating roadmaps (such as We See You White American Theatre), and offering training which has made this work more accessible.

We’ve divided our work into two categories:

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  1. Educating ourselves and our community

  2. Developing and enacting plans to dismantle systems of exclusion and build new systems that are inclusive, diverse, and collaborative.

Recently we have:
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  • Held staff training and self-learning sessions

  • Developed internal EDI Guiding Principles

  • Engaged consultants to hold focus groups with stakeholders of color and implemented their recommendations into our strategic plans

  • Begun a Board diversification project

  • Overhauled our onboarding and employee welcome process, including creating new resources for employees

  • Begun including a salary range for all position listings

  • Created new channels of reporting and communication

  • Expanded our casting & hiring files to include more individuals from marginalized communities

  • Eliminated gendered position titles

  • Raised the salaries of our lowest-paid positions

  • Developed a rigorous hiring and recruitment process guidelines

  • Eliminated the “10/12” rehearsal option

  • Begun conversations with new community partners

  • Supported neighboring non-profits with free space

  • Begun a monthly newsletter for board, staff, volunteers, and regular artists to increase transparency

  • Added transparency to our website around hiring and casting

  • Increased programming from local artists and from artists of color

  • Completed a full rewrite of our employee handbook including:

    • Adding additional anti-harassment policies

    • Creating space for Affinity Groups

    • Creating policies that mandate additional transparency in rehearsal schedules and transportation options at the time of auditions

Our strategic plan moving forward includes:

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  • Increasing and centering individuals from marginalized communities in casts, creative teams, volunteer slots, staff, and board, including minimum checkpoints

  • Increasing the stories of marginalized individuals

  • Continuing staff education through professional development and self-learning sessions

  • Incorporating EDI into volunteer training, first-day-of-rehearsal procedures, and staff orientation

  • Expanding up our existing educational panel discussions to center marginalized voices and create offerings for our dedicated volunteers.

  • Adding additional education resources on website, show programs, etc.

  • Within and across departments, creating regular opportunities for communicating organizational check-ins to include both work-centered updates (e.g. DTC shows, events, initiatives, and planning) and team-centered updates (e.g. practices supporting the valuation of diverse individuals and perspectives). 

  • Continuing to collaborate with new community partners and include them in programming conversations

  • Regularly reviewing our policies and procedures

  • Developing pipelines and paid opportunities for prospective future makers, with an emphasis on marginalized communities

  • Increasing distribution of casting and hiring notices

  • Dedicating increased resources to recruitment through sending staff members to local arts events, attending showcases and job fairs, and connecting with colleges and universities

  • Increasing sponsorships to cover tuition for summer camps

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

“The land upon which we gather is part of the traditional territory of the Lenni-Lenape, called “Lenapehoking.” The Lenape People lived in harmony with one another upon this territory for thousands of years. During the colonial era and early federal period, many were removed west and north, but some also remain among the continuing historical tribal communities of the region: The Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Tribal Nation; the Ramapough Lenape Nation; and the Powhatan Renape Nation, The Nanticoke of Millsboro Delaware, and the Lenape of Cheswold Delaware.

 

We acknowledge the Lenni-Lenape as the original people of this land and their continuing relationship with their territory. In our acknowledgment of the continued presence of Lenape people in their homeland, we affirm the aspiration of the great Lenape Chief Tamanend, that there be harmony between the indigenous people of this land and the descendants of the immigrants to this land, “as long as the rivers and creeks flow, and the sun, moon, and stars shine.”

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