Editor’s Note, July 20: After this column was published, it was called to our attention that the Random Acts of Theater show has the same title and imagery as an earlier piece by Stephanie Diaz. We regret not catching that similarity at the time and apologize to Diaz and the other creators involved with that work. We asked Jessica Thebus and Stephanie Diaz for comment. Thebus responded: “Random Acts of Theater would like to publicly apologize to Stephanie Diaz for the appropriation of the title and central image of her show Mariposa Nocturna: A Puppet Tryptich. We believed we were creating an original work, but it is clear now that the many coincidences between our planned installation and Stephanie’s show are too many to justify our pursuit of the project in this form. We regret having contributed to even an accidental erasure of an artist’s work—it was certainly on us to have done our homework and appropriately honored the work of Ms. Diaz and her collaborators.”

Editor’s Note, July 21: We are updating this post with the full text of subsequent written statements from both Stephanie Diaz and Jessica Thebus.

Thebus responded:

Some of the points dovetail with those made in broader areas of anti-racist reform, such as the demand that theaters “cease all contractual security agreements with police departments.” Others are more granular in nature, such as demanding that theaters “provide the necessary hair and makeup products, barbers, and/or hairdressers when working with Black artists.” Demands for greater transparency and equity across all areas—funding, hiring, salaries, season selection, and board member affiliations among them—resonate throughout the document. There will be much more to report on We See You W.A.T. in the months to come, but the collaborative “living document” they’ve created should be required reading for all who are interested in breaking down racist structures and practices in theater and beyond.

But, she adds, “I live in Rogers Park. I’ve lived in Lakeview, I went to school in Evanston at Northwestern, I have a connection to the north side. So I was thinking about how people on the north side don’t tend to go to the south side or the west side, they perceive those areas to be dangerous. It’s where the Black people live, people of color live, they’re poor dangerous areas. And a lot of this brutality enacted on Black people by police are in those areas.”

Phase four for playmakers