The Case for Funding Theater to Advance Social Justice

Theater has become an important vehicle for social justice not only because of the powerful stories it tells but also because it brings people together in community.

I envision a future where American theater artists, workers and organizations are abundant and thriving presences in all communities, animating the histories, documenting the realities and helping people imagine the potential of a multi-racial, gender- and disability-just democracy. In this future, theater is a vital public good, a means to redress inequality, advance social justice and benefit all. This vision is far too large for arts supporters alone to carry. It requires sweeping cross-sector investment and coordination, including interagency government funding at the scale of the Federal Theater Program of the 1930s that matches theater’s benefits to society and the economy, a transformation of corporate social responsibility and philanthropic support across charitable programs from health to climate. 

As a first step, I propose engaging social justice funders and building their knowledge, capacity and relationships to achieve shared creative and justice goals. American theater is rich with examples of social justice content and interventions. In the 1920s and 1930s, Prolet-Buehne and Workers Laboratory Theatre helped build a mass workers’ theater movement to address workers’ issues. The rise of nonprofit regional theaters was linked to the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Theater makers such as Amiri Baraka and Ed Bullins seeded the Black Arts Movement to advance Black self-determination and culture. Feminist theater emerged in the 1970s and 1980s and lives on through Spiderwoman Theater, Teatro Luna and many others. 

The pandemic and broader climate, as well as social, racial and economic reckoning, deepened American theater’s commitment to social justice. Many mainstream groups are addressing long-standing inequalities called out by We See You White American Theater and Black Theatre United, addressing racial disparities in staffing and training, ensuring safer work environments and presenting increasingly diverse, justice-themed work. After bringing its first two shows to Broadway, National Black Theatre recently won its first Tony Award. Penumbra Theatre transformed into a center for racial healing. Disability theater makers such as Ryan Haddad and Sam Gold are helping to dismantle ableism and shift the narrative on disability to joy, solidarity and liberation.  

What we can glean from these and countless other examples is theater’s capacity to reveal inequitable social conditions, educate, increase empathy and resilience and stir people to socially committed action, both audiences and the people who make theater. Theater can make injustice evident and point to solutions. It’s an important vehicle for social justice not only because of the powerful stories it tells but also because it brings people together in place and in community and engages all of our senses, whether presented in or outside of a proscenium theater. Our country needs more social justice stories beyond popular media and more ways to unite its people.

I appeal to social justice funders of all kinds—from civic engagement to climate, worker rights and economic, gender, disability and racial justice funding spheres—to provide unrestricted resources to theaters focused on your program goals. Consider the Borderlands Theater’s efforts to shift border narratives, Golden Thread Production’s work to probe and celebrate Middle Eastern culture and identity, or Perseverance Theatre’s spotlight on missing and murdered Indigenous people.

Resource your movement grantees to partner with theater makers and organizations and to deploy theater tools. Adapt and scale the model of Out of Hand Theater, which works with partners to create a more just world through programs that combine theater with information and conversation, from dinners to shows in homes. Learn from Houston in Action’s 2020 partnership with the theater group Art2Action, which mobilized the largest voter turn-out of communities of color in Houston’s history. 

Collaborate across issue areas to resource a narrative system of theater artistry to shape the democracy we want, propagating cross-cutting, intersectional narratives about care and cooperation, linked fate and people power. Invest in testing and evaluating theater’s impact in a culturally responsive and participatory way. I also call on theater funders, both public and private, to collaborate with social justice funders to build cultural power. Invest in theaters committed to social justice that lack a donor base and access to resources. Offer support for theater makers and organizations to build their capacity to engage in movement work, partner with movement organizations and unify their messaging. Provide relief and security resources to counter the anti-rights movement and legislative threats to free expression, especially state bans on LGBTQ+ content, drag performers and critical race theory, which are putting theater productions and educational programs of all kinds on the chopping block and theater workers at risk of policing, protests and violence. I’m moved by the story of the drag theater troupe Friends of George’s, which, in 2023, took action to protect their workers and block Tennessee’s anti-drag legislation. Take your cue from theater artists on the ground and engage them in your decision-making. 

Finally, dear theater workers, I see opportunities for you to collaborate more deeply with each other and across movements, sectors and funding spheres to advance justice. I’m not advocating instrumentalizing your artistry or chasing funding misaligned with your mission, but I believe both that resources follow relevance and that the future of theater is bound up in the future of our democracy. By claiming theater as a public good and its power to fashion and make felt a positive vision of the future and address the pressing issues of our day, you may at the same time elevate your artistry and impact and draw in new sources of support. Your collective advocacy is needed to push government and philanthropy to do more and help social justice funders learn and engage. De-siloing arts and social justice funding is one key step to benefit theater and our country. American theater demands new funding relationships and approaches to realize its potential as a public good and weather this moment of financial precarity and political extremism.