Hello from the Studio Players DEI Committee!
We have sadly had a very difficult few months this spring as we lost our beloved, visionary leader, Elizabeth Quiñones, to breast cancer in April. It was Elizabeth that truly jump started our DEI efforts when she founded the Studio Players Diversity & Inclusion Committee as a response to the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020. Her tenacity and generosity sparked true and meaningful change at Studio Players, and she even began to partner with other theatres in the area to support their growth in these areas. In her honor we have renamed our committee the Elizabeth Sanchez Quiñones Committee for Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion as a sign of our appreciation of her work and our commitment to continuing it.
Signage and a memorial tribute will be on permanent display in the Studio Playhouse Lobby. We hope that it will help to bring solace to all who knew and loved Elizabeth.
Assuming the role of DEI Chair will be Idris Talbott, who began his work at Studio Players in our production of Sweat by Lynn Nottage (2023). He also piloted our show-specific producer initiative when he produced King Charles III. He became a co-chair of the committee in 2024 and was able to work with and learn from Elizabeth for several months before her passing. He will be assisted by our Community Outreach Chair, Alicia Hayes, who was also a founding member of the DEI Committee. We all look forward to helping them both as they continue Elizabeth’s vital work.
While we seem to have plateaued in our goal of diversifying our productions racially (a priority that we will re-address in the 2025-2026 season), we continue to see growth in our representation from the neuro-diverse committee, and we have implemented the use of a new accommodation form for all artists– removing the onus of requesting accommodation from the artist by creating an easy means of communication.
We are also proud to announce that we have (finally) been able to complete the work on our DEI Powerpoint presentation, which we have published below. If you are looking for ways to diversify your own companies, we hope that it can serve as a valuable resource to help you get started.
This spring we were able to get into the community by tabling at both the annual Montclair AAPI Lantern Lighting Festival and the Montclair Pride Festival– enabling us to make many new friends along the way. We look forward to embracing all of their talents this coming season.