Azuka Theatre EDI Commitment - renewal for 2025-2026 Season.

Azuka Theatre Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Commitment

We live in a world shaped by systemic racism, inequity, and marginalization. Azuka Theatre acknowledges this reality and accepts responsibility for contributing to meaningful, sustained change within our organization and our field. We recognize that this work is ongoing, requires accountability, and demands continual learning and growth.

The name Azuka comes from a Nigerian word meaning “strength of foundation.”
Founder Raelle Myrick-Hodges named the company after her niece, Jane Azuka, to honor the strong, supportive community in which Jane was raised.

Over time, we lost sight of the full significance of our name and its cultural grounding. We recommit to honoring that meaning with intention—by sharing this history openly and ensuring it informs how we build, nurture, and sustain our community.

At Azuka Theatre, we are committed to listening deeply, doing better, and doing more. We strive to welcome artists, staff members, board members, and audiences across differences of race, ethnicity, nationality, age, gender identity, sexual orientation, physical ability, socioeconomic background, and political viewpoint. Our goal is for every person who works with us or enters our space to feel respected, valued, safe, and empowered.

We expect our artists, staff, and board members to prioritize equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in both principle and practice. We invite everyone in our community to examine their own biases and to hold themselves—and Azuka—accountable.

Azuka Theatre does not tolerate discrimination, harassment, or abuse of any kind. Our anti-discrimination and anti-harassment policies are shared with all artists, staff, board members, contractors, apprentices, and volunteers.

Our Ongoing Commitments

Organizational Learning & Accountability

  • We regularly reexamine our policies, structures, and workplace culture to ensure they align with our values.

  • This statement remains a living document and is reviewed and revised at regular intervals.

Programming & Representation

  • Azuka commits to centering stories and artists from marginalized and underrepresented communities in at least half of our programming each season.

  • We evaluate productions to ensure stories reflect the full humanity of represented communities—honoring joy, complexity, and lived experience without exploiting trauma for entertainment.

Land Acknowledgement & Cultural Responsibility

  • We maintain a public-facing Land Acknowledgement in our spaces and online.

  • We continue to seek meaningful ways to honor and build accountability to the Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania.

Hiring, Recruitment & Board Development

  • We actively seek artists, staff, and board members from marginalized communities through expansive, accessible, and transparent recruitment practices.

  • We commit to interviewing from a diverse pool of applicants for all paid staff positions.

  • We commit to growing and diversifying our Board of Directors, seeking perspectives that reflect the communities we serve.

  • Board information, including photographs, is updated publicly on a regular basis.

Artist Care & Workplace Practices

  • Azuka is committed to fair and transparent compensation and regularly reviews pay scales for artists and collaborators.

  • We hire directors who share the cultural identity of a story when that identity is essential to the work, and we consult playwrights in director selection whenever possible.

  • Cultural consultants are budgeted for and engaged when appropriate.

  • Qualified intimacy and fight directors are hired for productions involving physical or emotional violence; intimacy directors must have EDI training.

  • We do not utilize the “10 out of 12” technical rehearsal model.

  • Anti-racism, anti-sexism, and anti-oppression policies are shared at the start of all rehearsal processes and with new board members and staff, including clear reporting procedures.

Feedback, Transparency & Care

  • We maintain an anonymous community response form for audience, artists, staff, and board members to share concerns or feedback.

  • Artists are offered the option to participate in exit interviews with artistic leadership.

  • We conduct regular internal check-ins to assess our progress and ensure our commitments are being upheld.

Looking Forward

Azuka Theatre’s commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion is not a fixed goal—it is an ongoing practice. We acknowledge the movements within our industry, including We See You, White American Theatre, that have helped catalyze necessary change. We remain dedicated to challenging harmful norms, building equitable systems, and creating theatre that reflects the world we want to live in.

Thank you for holding us accountable. We welcome your thoughts at any time:
https://www.azukatheatre.org/contact

— Azuka Theatre