“The field of theater for young audiences is grappling with hard truths about how well our programs and our leadership reflect the very communities we serve. However, without measuring where you are starting from, there’s no way you can track your progress on where you want to go. Metro Theater Company is grateful for the field leadership from TYA-USA’s Executive Director Jonathan Shmidt Chapman in bringing this research study to life over this past year – and to the New York Times for including MTC Artistic Director Julia Flood in their analysis of the data.”
— Joe Gfaller, Metro Theater Company Managing Director
Letter from Jonathan Shmidt Chapman, Theatre for Young Audiences/USA
Executive Director
Theatre is meant to be both a mirror and a window, reflecting our experiences and introducing us to the worlds of others. Live performance can be an especially powerful tool for young audiences, providing children with the moment of seeing their own lived experiences represented on stage while allowing them to empathize with characters very different from themselves. In order to ensure that our industry is achieving this mission for all children in our communities, it is important that we also hold a mirror up to ourselves.
Thus, this report is both a mirror and a window, too, as it not only reflects the progress that has been made in the last decade but demonstrates the depth of work that the Theatre for Young Audiences field needs to accomplish in order to fully represent the diversity of our country, and of its children, especially in telling the stories of BIPOC communities. The report was initiated by the leadership of the national TYA field as a necessary step in confronting these inequities and in taking action. It also provides a window to other professional fields, connecting us with our colleagues across media who are creating stories for young people and bringing the TYA field into a vital conversation happening at the national level about the role that storytelling plays in ensuring that all children grow up feeling seen, represented, and celebrated. Additionally, it connects us to the important work happening in the larger theatre community, including the Artists’ Anti-Racism Coalition, in using data to inspire change.
Today, it is more urgent than ever that all young people, especially those who have been historically marginalized and underrepresented, find power and recognition through the stories we tell. It is also important that we support and uplift our entire artistic community, especially providing a platform to artists who have yet to tell their story. We need to use data to catalyze meaningful change and dismantle racism in our industry at all levels. In the face of crisis, we must enact our values as artists and organizations. We will utilize this data as a guiding source of inspiration for the stories we tell and the artists we employ moving forward. This report, and the information it offers us, will provide the foundation of the TYA field as it is rebuilt.