Land Acknowledgement

April 13, 2022

As America’s first regional theatre, Cleveland Play House honors those of the Erie, Miami, Ottawa, Shawnee, Potawatomi, and Haudenosaunee peoples whose land we reside upon today. We recognize the nearly 28,000 Indigenous people who live in Northeast Ohio; our neighbors, coworkers, classmates, and community members, who represent over 100 tribal nations.

CPH makes this Land Acknowledgement to honor the ancestral stewards of this region, to invite reflection on the history of this geographic area including forgotten and omitted legacies, to build a relationship with the Indigenous community in Northeast Ohio, and to bring awareness to – and to counteract – the ongoing impacts of colonialism and racism.

We recognize that this statement is a small step on a long journey toward reconciling with Indigenous peoples.  Cleveland Play House – on our stages and in our classrooms, in the workplace and in the boardroom – is committed to fostering an environment of justice and anti-racism where all can feel seen, heard, valued, and welcomed.

To learn more about land acknowledgements, please visit www.native-land.ca; www.nativegov.org.

CPH Statement

April 2, 2021

For more than a century, Cleveland Play House (CPH) has proudly served our community and addressed important social issues through our artistic and educational programming. However, the events of the past year — most notably the social justice movement brought to the forefront by Black Lives Matter — have prompted our staff and board to take a closer look at our systems, policies, and procedures as they pertain to anti-racism and equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI). Upon deep self reflection, we see that there is more work to be done in order to fully bring our practices in line with our principles and become the anti-racist organization, in both word and action, we strive to be.

We are grateful to the We See You White American Theater collective for bringing public awareness to inequities and racism throughout the theatre industry. We are also particularly thankful to the Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) members of our CPH staff who have thoughtfully and personally detailed concerns about ways in which unconscious bias has prevented CPH from fully including all members of our community. Our BIPOC staff has suggested ways to combat systemic racism and more fully integrate EDI and anti-racism. With this new awareness, all of us at CPH know that changes must be made. We embrace this opportunity and are committed to taking immediate and ongoing action to improve.

We have made steady progress since issuing our Solidarity and Acknowledgement statements in May/June. Both staff and board have devoted countless hours to studying our internal practices and procedures, providing anti-racism training, and developing action plans to better reflect and serve our CPH family and the community. The results of this ongoing work will inform and guide all of our decisions moving forward.

While the following action items are not an exhaustive list of all the anti-racist practices and policies we are examining, we want to share current action steps. We know there is more work to be done.

Ongoing action items to be handled by board and/or staff, as appropriate, for the 2020/21 Season:

• Establish a joint board/staff task force to define and promote conditions that advance equity, justice, and belonging company-wide.
• Establish a human resources department.
• Create an organizational standard for grievance reporting.
• Commit to a workplace culture that both attracts and retains highly qualified BIPOC candidates at all levels.
• Hire BIPOC staff and artists with decision-making influence and include them in full season planning.
• Increase apprentice stipend to a living wage.
• Encourage our educational partners to understand and participate in our anti-racist core values and embrace our trauma-informed care and restorative-practices approach to the classroom.
• Provide anti-racist onboarding and ongoing training for all board members and staff.
• Commit to fully supporting CPH employee resource groups.
• Fairly compensate employees for English-to-Spanish translation.
• Include quality-of-life measures in all production schedules including rehearsals, tech rehearsals, and build schedules.
• Create a preferred vendor list of local, regional, and national vendors that support our values of equity, diversity, and inclusion.
• Dedicate a budget line item for equity, diversity, inclusion, and anti-racism education at the organizational level.
• Implement a standing EDI agenda item for board meetings.
• Develop and implement strategies to cultivate broad and diverse sources of funding.

Thank you for holding us accountable.

Cleveland Play House