Our Commitment to Justice

Fresh Ink is a company dedicated to showcasing new stories and amplifying unheard voices -- in that spirit, we stand in solidarity with those who raise their voices to call for justice and accountability in the face of white supremacy, both here in Boston and beyond. We believe in the power of theatre to create empathy and raise awareness of important issues, but art alone is not enough to make change. Sustained action and systemic changes are needed to address the deep inequalities present in the American Theatre and in society at large.

We also recognize that Fresh Ink is an institution that exists within the framework of white supremacy, and that our company practices contribute to and uphold white supremacist systems. We have been complicit in this culture for too long, and it is past time for us to step up for our BIPOC collaborators, audiences, and community members. We believe Black Lives Matter, and it is our responsibility to create a more equitable, sustainable, and anti-racist new play ecosystem here in Boston and beyond. Toward that vision, Fresh Ink is publicly committing to the following action items:

Anti-Racism Training & Resources

In addition to our individual commitments to further educate ourselves on how to dismantle oppressive systems locally and nationally, the Fresh Ink staff will complete anti-racist training together as a company. The first of our all-staff trainings is Anti-Racist Theatre: A Foundational Course, which is scheduled for September 2020.

We will hire anti-racist educators and continue anti-racism trainings for all staff at the beginning of each new season. Paying anti-racist educators will be a part of our annual budget for each season going forward.

We will draft an Anti-Racist Toolkit by the end of 2020 that will be shared with all artists (actors, directors, designers, dramaturgs, stage managers, and all other contracted artists) at the beginning of each workshop and production process. Our goal for the toolkit is to provide financially accessible Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) resources and a baseline approach to EDI best practices for our community of artists.

Anti-Racism Policies

We will draft a formal Anti-Racism Policy for Fresh Ink by the end of 2020, which will include specific expectations for our staff and all who work with us. We commit to sharing our Anti-Racism Policy with all artists prior to the beginning of their work at Fresh Ink, and we will require a signed acknowledgement of this policy from all contracted artists. We will make this policy available on our website once it is drafted for transparency and accountability, and will offer multiple avenues for our community to participate in the crafting and feedback phases of the policy.

We will create a formalized procedure within our staff for reporting and addressing racism within the company and will implement a clear system for reporting and addressing racism in the workshop/rehearsal/design process by the end of 2020. We commit to explicitly communicating this procedure to all artists, both those contracted at Fresh Ink and those auditioning for our shows.

Over the next season, we will also examine our current systems around hiring, submissions, etc. to make sure we are approaching company policies through an anti-racist lens.

Equitable Programming and Staffing

We commit to uplifting and supporting New England’s Black, Indigenous, and People of Color playwrights and their stories. Moving forward, we will never produce an all-white season, and will take steps to further diversify our submissions pool with the goal that BIPOC playwrights will comprise, at minimum, 30% of the application pool by 2023.

We will program more work that explicitly includes roles for BIPOC actors and centers underrepresented communities in every season. In service of this goal, will update our submission guidelines for 2021 to better reflect our expectations for playwrights who are sending us their material, and we will require that playwrights review these updated guidelines, as well as our anti-racist policy once it is published, before they can submit work for consideration. Plays that fail to align with our mission and commitments outlined here will not be eligible for production.

We will hire more BIPOC artistic staff, production staff, designers, and other behind-the-scenes collaborators. Starting with our 2020/2021 season, we commit to never having an all-white artistic team for productions or workshops, to never having only white representatives from an artistic team at the table during Fresh Ink auditions, and to having design teams that are at least 50% Black, Indigenous, and People of Color.

We commit to diversifying the membership of our company staff and Advisory Board to better reflect the fact that white people make up only 45% of the population of Boston. We aim to have at least 50% representation from Black, Indigenous, and People of Color on our Advisory Board by 2025.

Community Engagement & Support

We will support and amplify BIPOC-led organizations in New England. Starting with our 2020/2021 season, we commit to partnering with a BIPOC-led organization on each production to amplify their work, create engagement opportunities between our audience and their organization, and financially support the organization by donating ticket revenue from select performances. 

We commit to acknowledging the tribal land that we occupy and engaging the Indigenous tribal communities on whose land we sit. We will incorporate land acknowledgements into all productions, events, and rehearsal spaces moving forward, and will offer free tickets to members of these communities. 

Additional EDI Initiatives

We are also examining our current policies and practices related to accessibility and we hope to include updates and additional goals about that work moving forward.

In addition to what is listed above, we commit to updating our anti-racist action steps each season and will issue an updated list of action items July 1, 2021.

We acknowledge that these actions are only a small step on the path to becoming an anti-racist company and artistic community, and that this list of commitments is by no means comprehensive. It is our hope that this process will lead to better transparency about our company values and opportunities for growth, and we consider this to be a living document that will be updated as we address and improve on these action items. We will post details here as our policies and plans develop, and invite our community to get in touch with any thoughts or questions.

We are grateful to our BIPOC colleagues for their continued labor and advocacy for a more just and equitable American Theatre, and to the community of artists and audiences joining us in the necessary, life-long work of dismantling oppressive systems, both in our artistic practice and in our daily lives. Thank you for holding us accountable.

Sincerely,

Jessie Baxter, Literary Director
Jazzmin Bonner, Managing Director
Louise Hamill, Artistic Director
Stephanie Hettrick, Production Manager
Kim Klasner, Public Relations Coordinator
Lisa Nguyen, Marketing Coordinator
Sarah Schnebly, Community Engagement Coordinator
Chelsea Tichnell, Operations Manager