An update on our DEI and anti-racism actions in the past year

You’re likely to see updates from multiple Bay Area performing arts orgs about the actions they’ve taken in the last year to promote equity and anti-racist practices within their orgs and within the Bay Area performing arts landscape as a whole, in response to the Living Document/BIPOC Equity Action Plan and #WeSeeYouWAT. We encourage you to look out for updates from the orgs you’re connected to. (Crowded Fire Theater Company has assembled an awesome toolkit to help with checking in on orgs, which you can see on their page.)

You can find some of the below mentioned documents if you scroll down this page.

Here are our actions of the past year, in no particular order:

- Introduction of an Artists’ Bill of Rights, to expressly outline and solidify the inalienable rights of artists working on KML projects (viewable on website)

- Introduction of Students’ Bill of Rights, to expressly outline and solidify the inalienable rights of students taking KML classes of any kind (viewable on website)

- Introduction of thorough Equitable Casting Guidelines for use in all casting situations (productions, class reads, etc)

- Introduction of an artists' Needs To Create form, to be filled out before each production by the creative team, so that we have a better understanding of the individual needs of artists before they ever enter our spaces (viewable on website)

- Best practice updates related to the above docs, including the addition of casting decision review process

- An update of our Mission, Vision, and Values (viewable on website)

- A full update of both our Code of Conduct & Employee Handbook

- In addition to a longstanding practice of post-production anonymous surveys, a second open survey so that concerns can be relayed sans any identifying context clues from the base survey

- Creation of guidelines for how to handle harmful incidents in classes (currently in editing process)

- Addition of a line in our annual budgets specifically allocated to DEI and anti-racism work in our org

- A commitment to annual donations to The Sogorea Te’ Land Trust (the first of which was made Jan 18th, 2021)

- Implementation of Land Acknowledgements in board and other meetings

- Creation of a BIPOC Scholarship Program to provide an avenue for classes to be taken at no charge, on a rolling basis, year round (info here: https://www.killingmylobster.com/scholarships)

- Addition of dedicated space on the KML website to post regular updates about these actions: https://www.killingmylobster.com/news-updates

- Hiring of Co-Directors of Writing Education, who have revamped all writing curriculums and supporting materials

- Weekly check-ins about upcoming DEI and anti-racism actions at all operations meetings

- DEI and anti-racism updates about latest actions at each board meeting

- Implementation of annual training for all staff, board, instructors, and TAs on bias and microaggressions, through Mosaic Collaborative (first training occurred on March 18th)

- Instituted performer pay for class reads, thereby eliminating volunteer performance positions

- Regular reexamination of all above listed documents, policies, and actions to make updates as needed

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As the Bay Area engages in more and more conversations about reopening strategies and what live performance looks like when it's safe to return, it's important that all orgs, groups, troupes, and entities ensure that we don't revert to practices that further marginalize and harm the very people who are the beating hearts of our work. We look forward to continuing to examine all our practices and to consistently make changes to create a better environment for the people who come through our doors.

Our Artists' Needs To Create Form

KML’s Needs to Create Form is a part of our efforts to increase equity, accessibility, and a safe atmosphere for our artists and collaborators, before they ever get in the room. This form will be presented to all artists working on any upcoming project, in preparation for that project’s kickoff.

KML ARTISTS' BILL OF RIGHTS

You have a right to be here.

You have a right to a safe and supportive creative environment free from harassment, intimidation, discrimination, or violence of any kind, including racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ageism, and ableism.

You have a right to be treated as a whole person, and with respect. 

You have a right to ask for what you emotionally and physically need in order to work, both via the Needs To Create Form and in general, and you have the right for those needs to change during the creative process.

You have a right to try new things, fail, succeed, and do both of those things repeatedly in a single night.

You have a right to speak up if you witness or otherwise experience inappropriate or harmful behavior from other performers, writers, directors, stage managers, and any and all other KML artists or staff members, or other employees in shared venues not working directly for KML, regardless of whether the harm was intentional or not. Behavior can be reported to any KML leaders even if they have not otherwise been working on the project directly, including Stage Managers, Directors, Head Writers, Operations Manager, or Executive Artistic Director.

You have a right to stay home when you’re sick (and you should!)

You have a right to acknowledge how personal, local, or world events, especially acts of violence, are impacting you and your capacity to be fully, healthily present in your work, and to have needs resulting from that impact met. This could include going home early, taking more breaks, having group or one-on-one discussions about how to move forward, or sitting out rehearsals, meetings, or other work which would be detrimental to your mental, physical, or emotional health. We do not expect you to silently grind through your pain for the sake of your art, and we do not promote the false narrative that such an act is necessary to the creative process.

You have the right to turn down any direction, note, role, or suggestion that makes you uncomfortable, or which you feel is in violation of KML’s Equitable Casting Guidelines.

You have a right to halt any meeting or rehearsal if you feel something dangerous or harmful could occur.

You have a right to have your stated pronouns used at all times in all spaces, including but not limited to writers meetings, rehearsals, tech, performances, marketing, and press releases and to correct those who get them wrong.

You have a right to have your name pronounced correctly, and to correct those who get it wrong.

You have the right to exercise any of the above without fear of repercussions or impact on any possible future opportunities with Killing My Lobster

You have the right to celebrate yourself and your peers. 

You have a right to propose edits to this list of rights, which can be sent to Stage Managers, Directors, Head Writers, Operations Manager, or Executive Artistic Director.

KML STUDENTS’ BILL OF RIGHTS

You have a right to a safe and supportive learning environment free from harassment, intimidation, discrimination, or violence of any kind, including racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ageism, and ableism.

You have a right to be treated as a whole person, and with respect.

You have a right to ask for what you emotionally and physically need in order to learn.

You have a right to try new things, fail, succeed, and do both of those things repeatedly in a single night.

You have a right to speak up if you witness or otherwise experience inappropriate or harmful behavior from students or staff. Behavior can be reported to class instructors, Directors of Education, Operations Manager, or Executive Artistic Director.

You have the right to turn down any suggestion that makes you uncomfortable.

You have a right to have your gender pronouns used in class by students and teachers.

You have a right to have your name pronounced correctly, and to correct those who get it wrong.

You have the right to correct unintentionally harmful behavior.  

You have the right to exercise any of the above without fear of repercussions or impact on any possible future opportunities with Killing My Lobster

You have the right to celebrate yourself and your peers.

The above list is meant to be changed or updated as often as is necessary based on feedback from students, instructors, and staff.

Meet Our Updated Mission, Vision, and Values!

KML Scholarships for BIPOC Students Are Open Now

If you identify as BIPOC and have been wanting to take a KML Sketch Comedy Writing Class, you can now apply to take them at no cost!

Due to COVID-19, all classes are currently conducted via Zoom. You can get more info about the classes themselves, the scholarship program, and how to apply, at this link.

KML Response to BIPOC Equity Action Plan

Killing My Lobster is dedicated to enacting anti-racist policies throughout our organization. We are committing to transparent change in response to the demands of the many artists who contributed to the BIPOC Equity Action Plan for performing arts organizations. We recognize that these demands have been a long time coming and that the theatre industry has long been a place of inequity, racism, and anti-Blackness. We also recognize that the comedy industry and its many PWIs and groups often do not engage meaningfully in these conversations, to the detriment of BIPOC comedians and students. We invite, and will continue to invite, other comedy focused institutions to join us in committing to necessary, meaningful change in our industry, and will freely share any of the mentioned supporting documents below with any comedy organization, individual, or team who would like to access them.

Not every aspect of our work is completely mirrored in the traditional theatre world, and thus in these demands, but there is significant crossover. These demands and other changes will be addressed below. These commitments are by no means an “end” to this work, which will be ongoing and evolving and to which we are committed long term.

COMMITMENTS:

• A BIPOC Casting Associate will be hired to assist both with our annual general auditions and invited callbacks for the KML Acting Pool, as well as the individual casting meetings during which directors cast their ensembles

• All directors and instructors must utilize our Equitable Casting Guidelines document, created with input from BIPOC stakeholders and regularly updated, in order to cast ensembles for class reads, as well as to cast the individual sketches in productions and class reads, which includes final review of all casting choices by a second party

• In addition to our Fellowship Programs, we are launching a KML Scholarship Program for BIPOC students to take writing and acting classes at no cost, with applicants accepted on a rolling basis throughout the year (the application will be available starting this week)

• Annual anti-bias and anti-racism training for all staff, directors, and instructors (beginning Jan. 2021)

• Hiring of a BIPOC Artist Resource to be present at kickoff for each production and on call for duration of the writing process, rehearsals, and performances

• Instituting a Needs To Create form for all artists to name their needs before production kickoff to ensure these are met throughout the process 

• 100% of writing teams will include BIPOC and women writers 

• At least 60% of writing positions in a given season will be filled by BIPOC, trans, non-binary, and/or queer writers

• At least 60% of performer positions in a given season will be filled by BIPOC, trans, non-binary, and/or queer performers 

• At least 60% of director positions in a given season will be filled by BIPOC, trans, non-binary, and/or queer directors

• Continued use of, and updates to, our Best Practices While Navigating Identity Based Content document which is reviewed by the entire team at kickoff of all productions, with physical copies prominently displayed in our rehearsal space

• Creation of Student Bill Of Rights and Artist Bill Of Rights prominently displayed in our rehearsal and classroom space

• Updated Code of Conduct explicitly stating KML’s anti-racism policies and consequences for breach of those policies, prominently displayed in our rehearsal and classroom space

• Continue practice of post-production anonymous surveys and post mortems, attended by BIPOC Artist Resource.

• Continued partnership with 826 Valencia, teaching writing workshops for  under-resourced youth, the majority of whom are BIPOC students

• Abolish any remaining culture of free artistic labor by instituting pay for performers in writing class reads 

• Continue practice of promoting BIPOC KML artists to new leadership positions (director, head writer, instructor) as well as bringing in BIPOC directors from other organizations 

• Continue to guarantee that 100% of identity focused productions will be entirely led by artists with those lived experiences

• Addition of dedicated page on the KML website for updates on present and future commitments as associated with the BIPOC Equity Action Plan, and all related developments, with links to relevant documents 

• Publishing of KML’s artistic values and commitment to equitable and anti-racist practices in our production programs and on our website 

• Linking to fiscal report on our website for financial transparency 

ITEMS WHICH REQUIRE MORE DISCUSSION AND/OR RESEARCH:

• Updating Mission, Vision, and Values explicitly stating our commitments to inclusion, representation, intentional collaboration, and anti-racism

• Reexamination of Board expectations and process for joining 

• Updates to the Employee Handbook including aforementioned Code of Conduct changes as well as reworked chain of reporting 

• Examination of artist pay in all areas of the organization 

• Acquiring more thorough demographic survey information from artists, board, staff, audience, and students

• Exploring additional partnerships with BIPOC youth organizations 

• Exploring partnerships and outreach with BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ led organizations, both in the performing arts world and otherwise 

• Reexamination of comp and discounted ticket policies 

• Overhaul of sketch pool used in acting class curriculums to ensure many opportunities for representation of BIPOC students in the written material they interact with 

• Identifying future opportunities for additional BIPOC staff hires 

We are grateful to the contributors of the BIPOC Equity Action Plan and the resulting changes stemming from its existence. KML has always been a place for artists to create new work, collaboratively. That can’t happen effectively without a guarantee of safety, earned trust, equity, and shared respect. It can be a risky endeavor to open up your thoughts and ideas to a room full of people and work on them together, but we are dedicated to creating an environment where that level of openness feels as safe as possible, where Black Lives Matter, and where these values are supported by the staff and board, and reinforced by the policies and processes at KML.

Our website will be updated in the coming week with links to current versions of the above named documents.

If you have any questions regarding these commitments, you can contact Allison directly at allison@killingmylobster.com or reach us at the contact form here: https://www.killingmylobster.com/contact-us

We believe laughter and comedy are not created in a vacuum, and there's nothing funny or edgy about ignoring the needs of the very artists who bring so much joy to others in a world full of heaviness and oppression. All of these measures are necessary, and as this list expands, so too does our ability to create the best work of our organization's history, together.

Allison Page, KML Executive Artistic Director

Kevin Kosik, KML Board President