The Dramatists Legal Defense Fund has determined that, in light of ongoing governmental attacks on the interests of dramatists and free expression through theatre, it is necessary to assemble a task force to initiate quick responses that can activate the broader community of dramatists, including the membership of the Dramatists Guild.
For many of us, the jolt which represented the necessity for this was the current administration’s actions in gutting the leadership at the Kennedy Center as well as the anti-DEI assault on the functions of the National Endowment for the Arts and on the theater institutions which it serves and sustains.
Due to these and other serious concerns about protecting the first amendment, the DLDF Board of Directors has formed the DLDF Action Task Force, consisting of Board members Robert Schenkkan (chair), Raúl Esparza, Emily Mann, Howard Sherman, Ralph Sevush, and DLDF President John Weidman.
The Task Force plans to provide playwrights, librettists, lyricists and composers around the country, including the Guild’s 9,000+ members, at frequent and regular intervals, with specific actions which each of us can take that can be executed quickly, with minimal effort, but which will be effective. The focus of these actions will be on advocacy for theatrical writers in particular and the arts in general.
The Task Force will provide dramatic writers with language which they can use, either in the form of a template for a short letter or an email, or language to be used in a brief phone communication, with their state and federal representatives. We will also provide links and sites to identify their representatives and to make this communication as effortless as possible. Pressure on the local level has proven to be effective precisely because it is local.
Our initial action, to follow shortly, will focus on the expression of support for state arts agencies, which are likely to suffer their own funding challenges resulting from a trickle-down effect of the assault on the NEA.
Also on tap is an action to speak out against the gutting of language that supports equity, diversity and inclusion in theatres and all arts organizations receiving federal funds. We will also provide information on proposed state legislation that requires a response from that state’s citizens, including its dramatists.
There will be more actions moving forward, and the Task Force welcomes suggestions from all those who have thoughts about the best way we can flex our muscles, our voices and our talents to make a difference.