VIRGINIA STAGE COMPANY

The top 3 focuses for Virginia Stage Company as we build our strategic plan:

• DEI Advancement: Build DEI and Anti-Racism into our strategic plan including education and training of staff & board, implementing anti-racism policies, creating systems for review and accountability and increasing diversity of staff and board.
• Build Organizational Resilience: Depart from scarcity mindset; right size and compensate staff positions; secure a permanent office space and create resources and systems of support for VSC Staff and Artists
• Increase Sustainability: build municipal, organizational & community relationships that allow for arts partnerships; grow contributed revenue to decrease reliance on earned revenue to sustain programs and increase access to theatre by and for traditional & non-traditional audiences.

VSC is committed to advancing cultural equity and inclusion onstage and off through its arts programming, its organizational practices, its Board of Trustees, professional staff and its participation in the Hampton Roads arts ecosystem. This commitment comes from the core belief that all people have the right to theatre arts. VSC serves a multitude of cultures, communities, and identities. We define culture in inclusive terms to consider race/ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, status, religion, class and indigenous heritage. We aim to ensure that our work is accessible to patrons of all ages, cultural backgrounds, economic groups and physical abilities.
VSC has a long history of discussing diversity, equity, and inclusion both in the community and onstage. In October of 2020 the Operations Staff of VSC began meeting on a bi-weekly basis to review and discuss the documents outlining the many criticisms and shortcomings brought to light in our field as articulated by the “We See You White American Theatre” Movement, https://www.weseeyouwat.com/. Simultaneously, an Anti-Racism Team (ART) comprised of VSC Board & Staff was formed, whose goal it is to recommend immediate next steps in auditing and instituting anti-racist practices as the organization moves toward a more permanent equity, diversity and inclusion committee. This work is ongoing and we have added regular full staff meetings and will be adding additional staff to ART.

In 2021 VSC applied and was invited to attend an Arts Equity Assessment funded by the Hampton Roads Community Foundation and with Maureen White Consultants. This is an 18 month program that began with evaluation which was finished September 2022 and is now starting the coaching phase on implementing changes.

In Sptember 2022, the Strategic Planning Committee started receiving RFP's for a Strategic Planning Consultant. It is anticipated that by January 2023 a consulting firm/consultant will be in place to assist VSC with teh strategic planning process.

In 2021 VSC wrote and posted it's land acknolwedgement statement. This statement can be found on our website and we are in the process of posting it in the Wells Theatre, VSC's home theratre.

VSC is about to starte the second phase of its DEI Assessment program.