ANTI-BIAS / ANTI-RACISM

OUR HISTORY

From inception, The VORTEX has been an inclusive theatre company. Early work was especially focused on LGBTBQ+ voices and experiences, with a special focus on AIDS plays from 1989-1996. Our non-traditional casting practices placed BIPOC actors in central roles and featured many roles for women. Women have dominated artistic and administrative leadership. The Board of Directors has always had BIPOC members.

We also acknowledge that our theatre rests on the unceded land of the Coahuiltecan, Lipan Apache, Tonkawa, and Commanche Peoples. We acknowledge that our theatre stands in Six Square Austin’s Black Cultural District, in the Holy Cross/Rogers Washington Historic Neighborhood, a historically black residential district. We acknowledge that as we live in the United States of America, and more specifically Texas, White Supremacy has affected our vision and choices throughout our history. The VORTEX has been predominantly white-controlled. We have actively worked to diversify our casting, and in recent years expanded management, staff, stage management, and design teams to include more BIPOC and young people. 

In 2014, The VORTEX began more radical Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion work. This included a series of training sessions for staff, board, and artists in EDI tools and language. An equity task force was formed, but was never successful at making meetings work. Plays by Black women began to dominate the seasons, and Black Lives Matter became a central focus of our work. When we shut down in March 2020, we were in the midst of refocusing a number of initiatives for queer, trans, Latinx, Black, and Asian artists and patrons. Some of those were able to move forward virtually through the height of the pandemic shutdown, while others are now beginning to move back toward thriving expansion. 

INTO THE FUTURE

It is important now to re-engage with all artists and staff, to find out how and where we all are after these extremely difficult and isolating times. The majority of the staff was not here in the Before Times when we did the IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Access) work, so now is a good time to start over. 

In 2023, we added to our staff a new Director of Education and Social Justice Activation, Jasmine Games, who is currently leading social justice activation trainings for all staff, board members, and VORTEX Company members. These sessions began in September 2023 and will continue through 2024.