In June of 2020, eight theater producers of color sat in their homes, grappling with the racial reckoning that had been sparked by the murder of George Floyd. Those producers decided to gather on Zoom and contemplate how to turn their grief into action. And then they came back the next week. And the next one. For more than three years, this cohort has met weekly to dissect the intersection “between what happens in a police state, in a carceral state, and what happens in our everyday interactions with arts, culture, entertainment, hospitality, food [and] beverage,” said theater administrator Cheyenne Myrie. “Nothing is isolated.”
What resulted is the formation of the The Industry Standard Group (TISG) and the recent launch of its first initiative, Second Act Theatrical Capital (2ATC).
The group’s co-founders — Rashad V. Chambers, Miranda Gohh, Adam Hyndman, Toni R. Israel, Rob Laqui, Sammy Lopez, Ronee Penoi and Cynthia J. Tong — concluded that Broadway has lacked diversity not only onstage and backstage but on producing teams, which hold decision-making power about the art audiences see and who makes it. Therefore, TISG aims to create opportunities for BIPOC investors and theatermakers to invest in and produce diverse projects in commercial theater.
