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As a Black biracial actor, I unfortunately have many stories of feeling alone, not considered, and frustrated. Worst of all? I’m not alone and my story isn’t unique. But creating a safe, happy, and thriving work environment for all actors isn’t actually that hard! One easy way to show that you value your actors of color is to have thought things through ahead of time.
In today’s solo episode, I’m sharing the top 5 things to consider when working with Black actors and artists. A quick note that this is going to specifically be centered around black actors as that's my personal experience, but so many of these points are relevant for a wide array of marginalized racial communities and cultures. As The Inclusive Stages Podcast is a shame-free zone, please know that I share these insights with love in the hope for more inclusive stages in the future!
In this episode, we cover:
How much diversity we’re seeing behind-the-scenes in the theater industry
What theater makers and leaders should consider before hiring folks of color
What products theater leaders need to have on hand for a variety of skin tones
How theaters could create better budgets to accommodate all cast and crew
How not being considered in the setup for a project makes an actor feel less than
What uncomfortable biases, stories, and behaviors we all need to grapple with
How to actually work toward improvement and growth in this industry
I believe that the more people we can engage in conversation, the better, safer, and more inclusive we can make this industry at large. I value advice and support that promote action vs just keeping things in our heads. I encourage you to sit with these 5 points. Let me know what I'm missing or if there's anything else on this topic that you'd love for me to highlight. I would love to hear from you!
Links & Mentioned Resources
Related Episodes
Corbin Bleu / color-conscious casting
Tori / how to support actors portraying racial trauma
Connect with Kira:
Thanks for joining me on this episode of Inclusive Stages! If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review on Apple or Spotify to help me reach even more theater makers, theater artists, and theater lovers who want to make our industry a better place for everyone.
Thanks to our music composer, Zachary McConnell, and our producer, Leah Bryant.
More about the Inclusive Stages Podcast
Welcome to 'Inclusive Stages' -- the go-to weekly podcast for theater makers, theater artists, and theater lovers who want to make our industry a better place for everyone. We'll chat with actors, directors, designers, scholars, and more about the current landscape of the theater scene and get their thoughts on how we can do better.
Host Kira Troilo will also give you a sneak peek into live EDI coaching sessions and offer actionable tips for creating more equitable, inclusive, and empathetic theater spaces that support and value the diversity of artists and audiences. Join the conversation, and let's collectively shape the future of human-first theater, one stage at a time.
This post may contain affiliate links, so I may earn a small commission when you make a purchase through links on my site at no additional cost to you.
The unedited podcast transcript for this episode of the Inclusive Stages podcast follows:
Kira Troilo (00:07.202)
Hello theater friends. Welcome to season two of the Inclusive Stages podcast. Season two, I can't believe we're here already, but I'm so excited to bring you more amazing, crucial conversations from and for theater makers, artists, and lovers. The feedback was, whoop, backing up.
The feedback from season one was so overwhelmingly positive. So if you're new here, welcome and please feel free to go check out all of the great episodes we've got waiting for you to binge from season one. If you're loving the podcast and you're returning, I would ask just one favor to start off with. If you could consider taking just 30 seconds to leave a quick rating or review, that would be so amazing. It really does help get the podcast in front of more theater people like you.
And I really do believe that the more people that we can engage in conversation, the better, safer, and more inclusive we can make this industry at large. thanks so much in advance. If you've got 30 seconds of time and energy, we are just so grateful for your rating and review. Now, on to this week's topic. This is a topic that's been on my mind for over a decade, probably longer.
Because this is close to me, this is not something I've just dealt with as an EDI consultant, but for years and years and years as an actor, a director, a choreographer, I have been a black woman, black biracial woman, working in a predominantly white industry. Now, we've made a ton of progress when it comes to racial diversity and representation in theater and the arts.
I mean, even just turn on the TV, every commercial you see, you're gonna see people of color in theater, same thing. But largely, and as you know, if you've listened to this podcast in the past, the work has been front -facing. We're doing performance, so the work is literally performative. And that's a huge challenge that we need to overcome in the industry.
Kira Troilo (02:20.562)
and one of the reasons I do what I do. So, you know, even one of my favorite Broadway actors, saw this recently, LaShans. I'm sure many of you are familiar, but LaShans is an amazing Broadway actor and now director, producer. She's been speaking out about this lately. And it's the fact that, you know, we're seeing a lot of diversity and representation on stage, but not so much behind the scenes.
And that's important for a number of reasons that I'll go into. But as a consultant, I go into spaces to ensure companies and projects create not just diverse environments, but also equitable and inclusive environments. So that means that these are places where thought goes into how current systems work or don't work for a diverse group of people. And it means considering what all people need in order to feel supported, empowered,
and just frankly psychologically safe at work. having said that, there are some very common things that come up when I go into most art spaces to support artists of color. And these things come up so frequently that I thought, you know what, I should just do an episode about this to make sure I share what I know and what I'm seeing in the industry. You know, if it can be helpful to make these places
more inclusive behind the scenes. This will benefit actors, artists, companies, places will get a reputation for being great places to work behind the scenes, not just on stage. And then of course the work just kind of permeates everywhere. It's so important. So I would like to spend this episode talking about some of the points I think that every theater maker leader should consider before moving forward with your season.
Kira Troilo (05:33.12)
You know, sometimes I'm just so overwhelmed with hope at how much better the industry is as a whole for folks of color than it has been. And then sometimes I'm just also thinking that we're further along in our knowledge than we actually are. So.
This, you know, Inclusive Stages, the podcast is a shame free zone. So this episode is not meant to be shaming in any way or condescending about, you know, a lack of knowledge or anything like that. That's never where I come from. But this is for me a place of just getting absolute clarity on some things, again, that I think sometimes I just assume are known, but
So many times in theaters and spaces that are of all different levels, I see this missing knowledge. So I share these insights with love in the hope for more inclusive stages in the future. So here we go. I'm gonna dive into my top five points I think all theaters and leaders should consider before hiring folks of color again.
Also quick note, this is going to specifically be centered around black actors as that's my personal experience. But I think so many of these points are relevant for a wide array of marginalized racial communities and cultures. So just to say that. So number one, this is the biggest one by far. And it is understanding, budgeting for and filling in learning gaps around, using quotes here.
black hair or textured hair. Now I feel so strongly about this topic, it comes up all the time in my work,
Kira Troilo (07:28.226)
that I actually created an ebook for this. I did a workshop, I think it was last year in Boston, that was titled Black Hair is Hair. And the goal was to just get the concept of black hair to be just hair. We all have hair, we have different types of hair. It's just what we've considered to be quote unquote normal hair in our industry has been more on that Eurocentric.
side. So anyway, I have an offering for you. have an ebook that's your complete guide to understanding, budgeting for, and learning about black hair for your theater or performance space. So I'm going to link that in the show notes. I hope that can be a helpful guide for you going forward here. But the spark notes we've got here, as an industry, we tend to think of black hair as a specialty consideration.
And you know, that's for a number of reasons. It's because of education. know, what hair professionals learn in school. They may not be learning about all textures of hair. It's about bias. It's about who theater and art spaces are currently set up for now. So whenever I talk about, you know, dressing room spaces and green room spaces, I say, you are looking for hair products, what do you think you'll find?
you'll probably find some generic hairspray or maybe a little drugstore gel, some little bobby pins. But I go in with my big mane of curly hair and I look at those products and think, that's cute, right? So that's who theater, let me go back. So I am not who theater and arts spaces were traditionally set up for, right?
Kira Troilo (09:33.152)
So some things to consider in the hair department. Do you understand the needs in terms of hair when it comes to your seasons or shows? Maybe it's just something that isn't even thought of at all. And again, when we don't think about something, it means that we are assuming all is well, right? All is good there. But so often this comes up for especially black artists where they go,
into a show, assume that there's a plan for their hair care or for, know, what kind of style is going to happen if they have to wear a wig? Are they going to be compensated to go get their hair in a protective style so it fits under a wig? How often does that hairstyle need to be updated? And is there anyone that can support the actor in, you know, changing the style or does the
the actor have to actually go to a salon because again, many people who do hair and makeup don't actually understand working with textured hair. I always tell a personal story, there's so many of them, but one sticks so clearly in my mind of when I was an actor once in a show that had kind of a divided ensemble. there was a, excuse me.
Kira Troilo (10:56.108)
kind of a divided ensemble. So there was a group of black actors and a group of white actors. A person came in who was set to do hair and makeup for the project. So I remember her talking to the white ensemble members about what they were gonna do with their hair. And I went over and I said, know, hi, do you have any thoughts about what we should be doing with our hair? And she said, I'm sorry, I don't work on black hair.
You know, maybe that sounds shocking, but it happens all the time, you know? And it was, it was one of those situations like I've encountered many times where you say, okay, you know, I just, I just went and I figured out my own hairstyle. spent, you know, an hour putting cornrows into my hair and, and, you know, the, the leaders who hadn't considered, you know, the needs of us, you kind of just say, yeah, that looks great.
without thinking about what it meant to have a resource that some people could use and others couldn't. And then also the time and labor and energy it takes to do hair that is textured as opposed to quote unquote the wig prep you'll see. If you Google right now wig prep for theater, you're going to see a lot of white people with straight hair.
and a certain way to prep your wig that doesn't take that long. If you're familiar, you do kind of twists and pin them and good to go in the half hour you have to get ready to perform. But that's not how it works for black actors. So anyway, have you considered those hair needs and do you understand how that might translate to your budget? Again, the budget is usually not created with textured hair in mind.
It's something that comes up on many shows I work on where all of a sudden it's like this surprise expense that ends up falling onto the actor to feel a certain way about like, great, if you want my hair to be like that, I'm going to have to get it done. And that might be two to $300. Now that actor shouldn't feel bad at all, right?
Kira Troilo (13:14.486)
that they should have been considered from the start in the budget. So it's something we want to think about. And there's so much I could say about this. There's so much long -term work to be done here. But in short, we really just need to understand where our learning gaps are here, where the bias is here, where the lack of education is here. Again, long -term, I'm working on it. I know there are a lot of people working on making this better. But short -term, as a theater leader or
know, company organization, filling in those short term gaps by just making sure you have a plan is really important. Okay, number two, another huge one that comes up all the time no matter where I go, and this is body microphones. Okay, it's an issue I keep thinking we've moved past, but I have, like I said, I've encountered this at all levels of theater and performance.
So I'm talking about the little lavalier, the microphone, and I'm not a tech person, so sorry for my lack of knowledge on terminology, but the microphone that you wear that goes on your face, that you tape onto your face, and the idea is it's supposed to blend in to your skin. You're not supposed to, if you're watching a play or a musical,
Unless you're doing like Rent or Spring Awakening or something where the microphone is like a part of it, you don't want to see the microphone, right? You just want to get lost in the story. So just a quick aside that's relevant, you know, currently, if you think about microphones, if you're an actor or, you know, you've been working in theater for a while, you know that there are typically two different colors of microphones. One is black, like the color black.
And the other is, I'm gonna use again my quotes here, it's like quote unquote nude or quote unquote flesh colored or skin tone. Now we know whose skin tone is being referred to when we hear that. It is meant for white actors and it's meant to emulate their skin tone.
Kira Troilo (15:30.454)
But just a quick history lesson about this, think about the word nude and what it means. Now think band -aids, think character shoes, tights, even crayons and colored pencils. I've seen my son coloring with a crayon that's nude and it's not our nude. Nude is different, flesh -colored is different depending on people's skin tones, right? So.
For microphones to be nude just implies that they're only for one skin tone, the other skin tones haven't been considered. So I hope it's easy to hear in that and to see that the bias is just super clear. So when a black person or a person of color walks into a space and sees that there are two options, the color black and nude, they know they haven't been considered, right? It just doesn't feel good.
And again, you know, there's, there's much to consider here. Microphones are not cheap. they, know, there's, there's a cost with everything, but it is something to consider. many, many black actors have had to deal with this on their own by, know, I know I have friends who bring their own tape that matches their skin tone. So every time they get a microphone, they wrap it themselves so that it matches their skin tone. So that's an expense for them also just to, just to feel.
you know, not ridiculous. Or you just go on stage with a microphone that's quote unquote skin tone. That's completely not your skin tone and just feel again, feel ridiculous. So, you know, one easy way to show that you value your actors of color and you of all skin tones is to have thought of this ahead of time, right? What are the options? There are ways to work with sound designers on, know, there's, can paint mics, you can tape mics.
And then again, you can buy them now. There are companies that sell these in all different colors. So we'll put a link to some of those in the show notes as well. But again, body mics, huge, huge thing to consider. number three, exploring and understanding tokenism. Now, I'm sure you probably know what tokenism is and you understand that, you know,
Kira Troilo (17:54.546)
You understand the concept. But when I'm talking about theater and performance spaces, here's what I mean.
Kira Troilo (18:21.152)
Where are you seeing people of color? Are you seeing them on stage, on the production team, on your staff and board? know, chances are you're seeing most of them on stage. And again, this is generally in predominantly white spaces. Theater is inherently performative, right? We're literally performing. But if we're simply performing a commitment to diversity,
then we need to explore why that is, right? Why are there, you know, if you have a lot of people of color or black folks on stage, but not behind the scenes, but not behind the table, then you have to think about your why, right? I think that it's so important for everyone, every person, not just organization, to really...
reflect on your why. Why you make the choices you do. Why you do this instead of that. Why are you choosing this show instead of that. Why are you putting black folks, people of color from marginalized communities on stage when there are no, let me go back, when there's no representation behind the scenes, right?
It's something that's uncomfortable to grapple with, right? I mean, I think we all post, you know, and I shouldn't say we all, I think post 2020, you know, theater's got the message that we wanted to see representation on stage. And I think we've got that message loud and clear now. And it's so important. Of course we know it's important for us to see, you know, by us, I mean, people of color to see.
other people of color on stage, that's crucial. And by doing that, are we exacerbating tokenism? Are we only putting folks on stage for a reason? Let me share this, you know, again, personal story. I mean, I've been an actor a million times where people of color are only on stage and there are no people of color behind the scenes. But other times I've been the only person of color on a production team, for example. And when that's happened, I end up doing two jobs.
I end up doing the job that I was hired to do. you know, being the choreographer, for example, but also I end up being the person to hold the labor of being black in a team of all other white folks. Right. So even when I wasn't an EDI consultant, I end up, you know, consulting on black culture and, empathizing with the, with the black artists that are working.
on stage through trauma, know, through racial trauma, through not being understood, through, you know, code switching or there's so much labor that can fall on, you know, that one person on the production team or that one person on staff who's there to do a job, but happens to reflect the identity, the racial identity of the people on stage. That's really hard. So.
You know, that's why I advocate for people like EDI consultants and cultural consultants. You know, this is a job that we need filled in a lot of these spaces. But, you know, it's just something, again, I think a really important point to consider. Where are you seeing those people of color and why? You know, we want to avoid tokenism and I think we need to grapple with those important questions. Okay, number four.
you're gonna wanna consider the context. Now, this is where we have a conversation about colorblind casting versus color conscious casting. If you haven't listened to it yet, head back to season one, you can listen to episode three with Corbin Bleu, who talks at length about this, it's so wonderful. But why it's important to consider context, right? When you hire actors of color.
especially if you're putting actors of color into stories that were traditionally written for or featured white actors, right? So when we're considering context with black actors or actors of color, you wanna ask a few questions. It's like the who, what, where, when, why questions. So what stories are you asking them to tell? Okay, so this can be, you know, are you having your black actors just regularly perform?
stories about trauma. are you only asking them to tell black stories, et cetera? where are you asking them to tell these stories? So are you a theater company or, or do you work with a theater that's in a predominantly white area, but you're pulling black actors or actors of a different culture, from a different place into your environment.
Kira Troilo (24:20.18)
So that where is really important. And then my favorite one, you know, why? Why are you asking them to tell the stories that you're asking them to tell? I think that's so crucial because I think we know why we perform shows for audiences. think, you know, when we're in the industry and we're thinking about like, what shows should we be doing? What season should we be presenting? We're talking about the impact on the audiences.
And one thing I feel very passionate about is just thinking about why are you asking performers to perform these stories? I think that question needs to be considered and, you know, if not answered, then at least grappled with so that you can think about this next question, which is, have you identified support resources for these people?
We talked to an actress named Tori on season one and she talked about, you know, her performing this racial trauma for white audiences night after night after night. And the learning was really supposed to be for the audiences. But what was the impact on her having to go through this really tough experience every night? And luckily we had support for her. But that is so crucial because if we're
It's a question I grapple with all the time. black actors, and again, it could be actors of color, but in this case, specifically black actors are on stage performing their trauma in order to teach white audiences, but we're traumatizing black actors further in the process, then that just doesn't make sense to me. So we have to think about support resources considering the stories we're asking them to tell.
you know where we're telling these stories and and why we're telling these stories. And then you know thinking longer term. Are you giving actors like you know black actors and actors of color opportunities to perform outside of their racial identities so you know like I'm I'm black but you know and I love there's nothing better than doing a show that brings a black community together in my opinion I love it and.
You know, I'm also a mom. I'm also, you know, like an ingenue. There are other things that make up my performer identity that I love to perform. So I don't want to always just be stuck performing blackness, if that makes sense. So I wrote an article about this that I can link to in the show notes too, but it's the difference of being a black actor and only getting called in when you know that a theater needs to check a box.
as opposed to a theater who's thought about, you know, what are some stories that we can tell that fall within our mission statement that involve a wide variety of diversity across the board. So it's not just like the black show, you know, the Latin show, know, fill in the blank show, you know, there's so many opportunities out there to be color conscious. So.
Kira Troilo (27:49.087)
Yeah, lots, lots to consider there. Okay, moving on to the final, fifth and final for now point. Of course there's many, but these are just my top five. Be prepared for and open to feedback. Ooh, feedback. Did you cringe when I said that word? Most people when I talk to them do. And I'm gonna have a whole other episode that's devoted to feedback and how both giving and receiving it is very complicated in our industry.
but I think it's truly just a missing scale that we need to spend more time on in our industry. But this is crucial for working with black actors and actors of color. Are you regularly collecting and reviewing feedback from these folks? Especially if you're, this is especially crucial if you're a predominantly white institution. Diverse feedback is critical to improving your inclusion efforts, right? So if you're inviting these folks in,
to perform shows and then it's like a revolving door of casting, then you're losing out on a huge opportunity for improvement and growth, right? So what could it look like to invite black folks, folks of color who are, you know, maybe they're gateway to your company or your professional life is through a show as an actor, because that's, you know, very common. But what would it look like to invite those folks into your community?
and engage them and ask for their feedback and incorporate their feedback. And again, continually engage them rather than just having them come in, do their job and leave. What might that look like? There's just so much that you can learn and hear about folks' experiences that you may not ever hear if you don't ask.
Again, I say this all the time, but actors and directors and crew and designers were infamous for just going to the bar after the show or after rehearsal and venting all the things that are wrong. There's also social media, which is a dumpster fire of venting. Well, don't get me started there. But there's all of this information that could be accessible to
Kira Troilo (30:11.413)
leaders and arts organizations, but there need to be openings for it. It needs to be navigated with care. It needs to be an...
Kira Troilo (30:28.928)
we need to work toward a culture of feedback, right? So it's one thing to say, you know, my door is always open, come on in and share your feedback. But then what happens, you know, when feedback is shared for a lot of, you know, theater freelance, theater artists, people get labeled as difficult for, you know, expressing an opinion or challenging the status quo. And then, you know.
when you're blacklisted or something because of that, it doesn't really feel like feedback is safe. So something to consider is creating an environment that's open to feedback, that's responsive to feedback, and creating feedback resilience within leaders in your space, right? Because giving and receiving feedback is an art and a science. So again, we'll talk about that more later in the season, but I think it is...
truly one of the most crucial things that you need to think about when you're hiring folks from different communities, know, marginalized communities who aren't represented on your staff and board.
Kira Troilo (31:39.243)
We wanna hear from them, right? We want their opinion, their feedback so that, you know, this can all, everything we've talked about today can get better in the long term, right?
Kira Troilo (32:01.971)
Okay, so summarizing, here are my five points I want you to consider when you next work with black actors or actors of color, which is hopefully very soon. Here's what I got. So number one, take the time to learn about black hair and textured hair. Again, there's a resource on inclusivestages .com. You can check that out. It's available for you for sale now. I really...
poured a lot into it, hoping that it will be helpful for theater and entertainment spaces everywhere. So check that out. Number two, body mics, right? Have you considered those? Number three, grappling with tokenism. So where are we seeing actors of color or black actors? And let me back up.
Kira Troilo (33:05.065)
Number three, grappling with tokenism. So where are we seeing black artists? Artists of color, is it just on stage? What does that mean? Why? Number four, considering the context. So what stories are we asking folks to tell? Where are we asking them to tell these stories? Why are we asking them to tell these stories? Getting clarity on those questions is gonna help those actors really
dig into why they're there and they're gonna feel a sense of value rather than a sense of being used to check a box.
Kira Troilo (34:06.4)
And number five, getting comfortable with feedback. We'll dig in more later, but it's just so important, right? We have to just grow and build that skill to receive feedback because, know, I, like me, I don't know everything. So feedback is crucial when you need, you know, diverse opinions to make your stages more inclusive, right? So those are my five. What am I missing? I know
There's so much more to say, but I'm hoping that these five points really give you something to think about and can help propel some action. Again, I really, really value advice or support that can promote action and not just kind of staying in our heads, right? So I really encourage you to sit with these five points. Let me know what I'm missing or if there's anything else on this topic that you'd love for me to talk about.
I would love to hear from you. you can head over to inclusivestages .com backslash connect. That's a great way to share a question or a thought with us at inclusive stages. You can also DM us on Instagram at inclusive stages. That's a great way. Or you can message us on LinkedIn, inclusive stages.
Kira Troilo (35:38.369)
Thanks so much as always for joining us. I'm so grateful you're here for season two, whether you're here for the first time or you're back. I hope you'll join us for the rest of this exciting season. We've got so many great conversations lined up for you. I cannot wait for you to hear what we've got in store. So stay well and we'll see you next time.
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