BIPOC Equity Action Plan

The Playwrights' Center of San Francisco recently posted our organization's "Black Lives Matter" philosophy and statement on our website. In response to the information collected in The Living Document, we now expand this statement and the values it conveys to include specific actions that will promote fully equitable treatment of all Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) individuals, and ensure anti-racist behavior and processes throughout our organization.

PCSF recognizes that we have fallen short as an organization when it comes to reflecting the diversity of the Bay Area. We must do better. We commit to educating ourselves, to listening to our community and to taking steps to bring new and diverse voices to our membership and board.

Our philosophy and intent with respect to this matter must be incorporated into our organization's mission statement. Accordingly, we have restated our mission as follows:

PCSF Equity Action Plan

The following includes the initial steps that PCSF has taken, or will take, to support anti-racist practices and the creation of BIPOC equity in everything we do. These commitments will be posted on the PCSF website, as will periodic progress updates.

  1. PCSF Governing Board
    • We commit to having our Board representation reflect the diversity of our community. We have opened three positions (on our 7-person Board of Directors) and we are actively seeking BIPOC candidates to fill these positions. PCSF would welcome considering any BIPOC candidates referred to us by the BIPOC Artistic Coalitions.
    • Until the PCSF Board includes at least three BIPOC individuals, we commit to establishing a 3-person BIPOC advisory committee, made up of BIPOC theatre artists. The purpose of this committee is to provide input to the PCSF Board on all decisions that may impact the BIPOC theatre community.
  2. PCSF Membership
    • We commit to building and sustaining intentional pipelines focused on diversifying our membership so that it mirrors the diversity of the Bay Area. This begins with immediate outreach to select SF-based theatre companies, academic institutions and individual theatre artists to identify prospective PCSF members within the BIPOC community
  3. PCSF Code Of Conduct
    • We commit to the creation of a code of "respectful and equitable" conduct. This code of conduct will be completed by Sept 22, and then shared with all existing PCSF members, with all new members upon joining PCSF, and with all playwrights, artists and production staff at the beginning of each play reading or production. This code of conduct will be posted on our website. Reported violations of this code will be thoroughly investigated by the Board. There will be a "no tolerance" policy for harassment, prejudice, discrimination or disrespectful treatment.
  4. PCSF Artistic Partnerships
    • In addition to our existing slate of events, PCSF commits that beginning in 2021, and each year going forward, we will sponsor (or co-sponsor) a festival of short plays by BIPOC playwrights. Participation in this festival will not be limited to only PCSF members, but instead will be open to all local BIPOC playwrights.
    • We will actively seek BIPOC producers, directors and actors for the aforementioned festival, and also for our new play reading series, Playoffs, and annual Best of PCSF production.
    • We commit to our current practice of considering BIPOC artists for all roles, and not just roles specifically designated as BIPOC.
    • We commit to adding at least three BIPOC individuals to the PCSF Literary committee, to ensure that BIPOC experience and sensibilities weigh on the selection of PCSF plays for public readings and events.

Updated 10/13/2020