Sask. theatre artists of colour say racism, tokenism persists in local industry – CBC

Theatregoers in province ‘overwhelmingly older and white’ says SATP executive director

Jul 22, 2020

Theatre artist Logan Martin-Arcand asked an administrator for Persephone Theatre — the company Martin-Arcand worked for — what the theatre was doing to uplift local artists of colour at a 2018 Persephone event.

The response took him aback.

“[A senior member of the theatre administration] started yelling at me and pointing at me from the podium,” Martin-Arcand said. “He said the most striking thing: there just aren’t enough local Indigenous artists who are at the right level for me to put them on the Main Stage.”

Martin-Arcand resigned from Persephone a few weeks later.

He is one of several theatre artists of colour CBC spoke to about what it’s like working in the industry in Saskatchewan. They described barriers to inclusion and a lack of equity in the province and across the prairies.

Read More: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/theatre-diversity-representation-1.5657440