Diversity and Inclusion Statement

This is a developing document.

At Cortland Repertory Theatre (“CRT”), a diverse, inclusive, and equitable organization is one where all employees and volunteers feel valued and respected whatever their gender, race, ethnicity, national origin, age, sexual orientation or identity, education, or disability. We are committed to a nondiscriminatory approach and provide equal opportunity for employment and advancement in all our productions, departments, programs, and volunteer opportunities. We respect and value diverse life experiences and heritages and ensure that all voices are valued and heard.

We are committed to maintaining an inclusive environment with equitable treatment for all.

To provide informed, authentic leadership for cultural equity, CRT strives to:

• See diversity, inclusion, and equity as connected to our mission, and critical to ensure the well-being of our staff, actors, technicians, artistic leadership, and the communities we serve.
• Identify and remove any inequities in our policies, programs, and services, and strive to update our organization progress regularly.
• Explore potential underlying, unquestioned assumptions that interfere with inclusiveness.
• Advocate for and support board-level thinking about how systemic inequities impact our organization’s work, and how best to address that in a way that will connect with and expand our mission.
• Practice and encourage transparent communication in all interactions.
• Lead with respect; Commit time and resources to expand more diverse membership within our board, guild and staff.
• We expect all employees to embrace this notion and to express it in day-to-day interactions and practices.

CRT seeks to promote diversity and inclusion in our organization thru the following action items:

• Pursue cultural understanding and transparency in our organization by continuing and maintaining formal, transparent policies.
• Pursue research related to equity to make incremental, measurable progress toward our diversity, inclusion, and equity efforts.
• Create and support programs and policies that foster leadership reflecting the diversity of our global community.
• Continue and increase the search for and hiring of BIPOC guest directors, designers, technicians, and artists.
• Pool resources and expand offerings for underrepresented constituents by connecting with other area arts organizations.
• Develop and present sessions on diversity, inclusion, and equity to provide information and resources internally to staff, hires, and Board/Guild members, and publicly to our local community.
• Continue our system for being intentionally and consciously aware of bias during the hiring or evaluating process.
• Include a salary range with all public job descriptions wherever possible.

In order to better understand CRT’s role in this ever-evolving conversation, our Board of Directors was happy to host Dr. Nia Nunn (https://drnianunn.com/) to a Board meeting for a diversity, equity, inclusion and anti-racism workshop.  It was an exciting and invigorating discussion, and we look forward to further similar conversations of this nature.

The above statements are clearly the first steps in our organization’s expanding and maturing understanding of our accountability in these areas.  We are aware that while each step may not be perfect, we commit to our continuation of reviewing, refining, and altering our practices as time and transparent conversation educates us in how we can, simply, do better.