“They don’t hire black directors”

On opening night at the Walnut Street Theater, more than a year after the nation’s oldest continuously operating theater closed, ticket holders arrived to see Beehive – The musical from the 60s. Outside the theater, a group of protesters asked patrons to think about what it was like to work inside its walls.

Former employees handed out flyers denouncing the $ 745,015 salary of artistic director Bernard Havard in 2019 and spoke to clients about the lack of racial representation in the theater.

“They don’t hire black directors, they don’t hire black designers,” Ryk Lewis told a client, trying to make his voice heard despite the din from the Fralinger String Band, who showed up to perform at outside the theater. Lewis, who is Black, was the lead sound designer for The Walnut for three seasons ten years ago.

The protest is a revival of efforts this summer by artists and staff to hold the Walnut Street Theater accountable for what they describe as a toxic culture at the prestigious institution. Led by actress Jenna Pinchbeck, the group, dubbed Protect the Artist Philly, is calling on Walnut’s board to dismiss its chairman and art director Havard, 80, for decades, who he says has presided over a culture of racial discrimination and exploitation of workers.

The theater, according to 11 current and former Walnut artists and staff, is a place where newcomers are warned not to voice their concerns, otherwise they will be blacklisted. The theater world in Philadelphia is small and tight-knit, and as one former artist put it, “so many lines lead back to walnut.”

Six black performers said in interviews that there were few opportunities for black performers, especially on the main stage, and those who got roles said they suffered micro-assaults, such as getting caught for a keeper and not be called by their correct name by their director.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Walnut said, “The board hired a third-party investigator who found the allegations against the president to be false. We also categorically disagree with all negative statements about the institution. “

Current and former Walnut artists and staff have also criticized Havard’s high salary. During the year ending June 2019, he received $ 745,015 in total compensation, while many staff started at minimum wage, and those in its acclaimed apprenticeship program took on second jobs paying the bills while at The Walnut. In 2019, only two theater artistic directors did more than Havard: the directors of the Lincoln Center Theater and the New York Shakespeare Festival, both of which generated about three times Walnut’s annual revenue of $ 26.5 million this year. -the. The following year, with the pandemic, Havard earned $ 566,569.

Current and former performers and staff have said it is hypocritical that Walnut’s educational agenda was to put on shows for low-income schools with predominantly black and brown students when there were so few students. opportunities for black artists, directors and production staff at the theater itself.

In a statement, the Walnut Street Theater said that over the past three seasons, “our performers have been 27% people of color and 73% white.”

“While we have always welcomed diverse stories, audiences and staff to The Walnut, we recognize that we can all do better,” the statement said.

Two black performers said they were so traumatized by their experience at Walnut that they stopped performing.

“At Walnut, I realized that my darkness was almost a commodity,” said Dominic Santos, who apprenticed in the theater during the 2011-12 season. While at the Walnut, he said he felt like he was disappearing. Santos, now 32, works as a waiter and in his spare time focuses on making shows that focus on black voices.

While an apprentice during the 2015-16 season, Deontez Lockett said he heard from other people in the theater that Havard didn’t like involving black people in shows, especially if they were dark skinned, like Lockett. . But he didn’t believe it, he said, until he heard Havard describe a woman who had auditioned for a show as “too dark.”

Three other former apprentices and staff at Walnut Street said they saw Havard’s notes on actors’ resumes such as “too big” and “too wide nose.”

Board chairman Scott Rankin did not respond to questions emailed early Wednesday afternoon about specific allegations about Havard and the Walnut.

Sarah Kelly Konig, a casting intern who applied in 2017 to become a casting apprentice, said in her interview Havard asked her what she thought of casting quotas, which he compared to reverse discrimination.

The protests are part of a larger movement to diversify the Philadelphia theater community. “No longer all white seasons,” wrote a group of members of the theater community in an open letter to the Philadelphia Theater Company in 2019.

Lewis, the former sound designer at The Walnut, said it comes down to this: “We want art in Philly that looks like Philly.”