and inclusion report since 2017 finds “modest improvement” in the hiring of actors and stage managers of color in the last three years, but describes the slight shift as “extremely gradual, inconsistent and not enough to change longtime problems in the industry.”industry can be attributed solely to multiple productions ofthe Lin-Manuel Miranda musical that casts non-white actors as the nation’s Founding Fathers.
“As in the previous study,” Equity reports, “when workers from marginalized groups actually do earn a contract, they are often paid less than their white male counterparts because white men more frequently are able to receive additional overscale pay beyond the contractual minimum salary.” A supplemental report will be released later this year breaking down the data by major theatrical markets.Contracts going to people of color increased from 15.3% in the previous study to 23.3% in the current study. Contracts to Black members represent 45.7% of that increase. That change however, does not necessarily reflect improvement across the industry.