Two years after a controversy-stirring choice to not announce nominees for the 2019-2020 theater season, the Suzi Bass Awards are back to their practice of adjudicating productions, albeit with new eligibility requirements. The decision by Suzi Awards leaders to step back and make internal adjustments, spurred in large part by a push for equity, created tension within the organization and caused several judges to resign.
Organizers of the awards, created in 2003 to honor excellence in Atlanta professional theater, surprised many in the theater community when they announced in fall 2020 that they would not present their usual slate of nominees nor stage the annual awards ceremony. They cited two reasons: COVID-19, which had caused theater companies to cancel productions; and a determination to strive for social justice and racial equality, following that summer’s three-day Atlanta Town Hall for Racial Reckoning, a gathering largely for theater artists.
“The conversations last summer, and all the things that occurred, led us to believe that had it not been for some systemic issues, we might have had more people in the circle of great performances,” Suzi board chair Cherie Caldwell told ArtsATL last year. “After the feedback and after acknowledging all the things that were going on in the country — and knowing that Atlanta theater is a microcosm of what is going on — we wanted to be more inclusive.”
Approximately 40 judges now serve on the committee, down from what was 55 at one time, and interim executive director Kate Warner points out it’s a younger pool and includes more theater artists. Although Warner admits the judging pool needs more racial diversity, with white judges comprising two-thirds of the raters, the Suzis are meeting their own standards for 2021-22 with at least 30 % people of color in the mix.
The biggest task has been adopting new judging guidelines for the Suzis, named after beloved local character actress Suzi Bass, who passed away in 2002. The board and staff worked on the requirements and voted them in last April before rolling them out to metro theater companies.
By last summer, judges began seeing productions again with the new guidelines in place. But between companies slowly getting back to a normal producing routine amid the pandemic, and the emergence of the omicron variant causing even more cancelations and postponements, judges have adjudicated less than 20 shows since. Nonetheless, the goal is to have nominees and a live awards ceremony in November, although if it’s considered unsafe to hold, the event will be presented online. It would be the first Suzi Awards ceremony since 2019.
To now be eligible for Suzi Award consideration in the categories of Outstanding Play, Musical, Theater for Young Audiences, World Premiere or Social Justice Production, presenters and theater companies must meet certain EDI (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion) standards.
Credit: MIKKI K. HARRIS / mkharris@ajc.com
Credit: MIKKI K. HARRIS / mkharris@ajc.com
Among the questions asked of each potential candidate:
- Does your board currently include at least 20 % people of color, or will you meet this minimum by June 30, 2022?
- Will you have or did you have an EDI discussion at the beginning of the rehearsal period to cover potential issues such as hair, make-up, costumes, microphones, lighting, mobility, tasks when off stage, storyline themes, trauma, casting, dramaturgy, etc.?
- Will you hold at least two anti-bias training sessions for everyone in your organization before June 30, 2022?
- Companies are also asked to review their staff and production personnel and determine if they can gradually aim for ratios of 50 % people of color, 50 % women, 15 % women over 50, 20 % LGBTQIA and 15 % persons with disabilities, identifying where they can make changes to be more inclusive. They are also required to provide a brief description of cross-cultural efforts. The new Social Justice Production category has even steeper requirements.
Credit: Elissa Eubanks / AJC
Credit: Elissa Eubanks / AJC
Productions do not need to meet these benchmarks to be eligible for individual awards such as acting, directing and design. The new guidelines also specify that actors, directors and stage managers must be paid at least $150 per week of rehearsal and performance. A full list of the new requirements can be found on the Suzi website.
The decision to not announce nominees in 2020 was met with resistance from some Suzi judges, who resigned after finding out about it in a Zoom annual meeting just prior to when the nominees were set to be released on Sept. 2 of that year. Among those departing were Rich Vitaris, the Suzis former co-judging coordinator, fellow coordinator Susan Stiefel, Barbara Lang (co-chair of the Theatre for Young Audiences panel) and longtime judges Marshall and Lyndsey Kaufman.
At the time of the announcement, Caldwell and Warner said they were not aware of who was nominated. Vitaris said that the nominees had already been tabulated and the decision was made not to present the slate of nominees, he felt, because of its lack of diversity. Vitaris says 20 % of the acting nominees were Black, Indigenous or people of color (BIPOC). According to him, the Suzi board was more concerned that only 15 % of nominees in the technical categories were BIPOC.
Warner vowed that the 2019-20 nominees would be announced at some point, and indeed they were listed recently on the Suzi website. However, unlike the social media hoopla that accompanied the virtual announcement a few days later of that season’s Lifetime Achievement Award to loyal playwright Pearl Cleage and the five groups that were given Spirit of Suzi Awards, the nominees were placed on the website quietly and not promoted on social media. None of the nominees or theater companies were even contacted with the news. The Spirit of Suzi Award winners were Atlanta Artist Relief Fund; Atlanta Theatre Artists for Justice; Black Leaders Advocacy for Cultural Theatre (B.L.A.C.T.); the Coalition for Racial Equity in Atlanta Theatre (CREAT); and I.D.E.A. ATL, aka Inclusion, Diversity and Equity in the Arts Atlanta.
“We wanted to drive people to the website,” Warner says in explaining the lack of fanfare over the belated nominees announcement. She clarifies that the nominees will eventually receive certificates and individualized notices.
Vitaris thinks those performers deserved more and does not feel that judges should be blamed for a lack of diversity in the nominations.
“I feel really sorry for these artists and designers who will not get the chance to have their work recognized,” he says. “I understand fully that there are too few nominees of color given the demographics of metro Atlanta, but that is not because of any bias on the part of the Suzi judges, but rather on the hiring decisions of the various artistic directors.”
Caldwell says no one has blamed judges but asserts that everyone has unconscious biases. “This is true for all people, not just judges,” she says. “Our proactive stance is to provide education and training and help increase our own self-awareness as judges, and as individuals, so we are mindful of that. This goes back to the feedback from the community at large, from people who had been impacted (by exclusion).”
Overall support from theaters about the new guidelines has been positive, Warner says, adding, “Some people have told us what we are asking is a lot but it’s worth doing.”
Yet others expressed concerns to ArtsATL.
Jeff Watkins, artistic director of Shakespeare Tavern Playhouse, agrees it’s vital to take steps toward greater equity. “We all have not done enough until Black Lives Matter, and there is more to do. We can’t rest on our laurels.”
Yet, Watkins adds, the new requirements may not be in the best interest of a company immediately — or easily attained.
“I have admired the motivations of the Suzi folks and I feel strongly we’ll meet their criteria,” he says. “But it can be dangerous to re-configure your organization and come out and try a new business model. If it loses traction, you don’t have any foundation.”
While Out Front Theatre Company artistic director Paul Conroy feels that the new requirements are important, he is not convinced that the Suzis should be the body that mandates what companies do.
“Everyone is different,” Conroy says. “For example, there are metrics that, as a queer theater company, we need to make. It can’t be a one-size-fits-all for everyone.”
The Suzi Awards don’t translate into box-office sales for participating theater companies, since winning shows have completed their runs by the time awards are handed out. Yet they are important for grant purposes, marketing, fundraising proposals and as a general seal of support from the Atlanta theater community. They are also invaluable for individual winners.
Twenty-five area playhouses/presenting companies are listed by the Suzi Awards as participating theaters. To be considered for awards, they have to provide tickets to Suzi judges during the run of the production. They are not required to donate to the nonprofit Suzi Bass Awards organization to be considered for honors.
Conroy withdrew Out Front because he does not feel it’s equitable for his company to participate in the awards anymore. “Companies that have budgets of under a million dollars are expected to be on the same level of companies that have multimillion-dollar budgets,” he says. “If you look, time and time again, including (at the 2019-20 nominees), the majority of the nominations seem to go to the companies with the bigger budgets.”
Other cities, such as Washington, Chicago, Boston and San Francisco, divide their awards based on budget, he says, and create more nominees and winners, allowing more artists to be celebrated. “That — to me — feels like a step towards equity,” Conroy says.
He also is not a fan of the Suzis gendered acting awards. Some of his performers do not identify as male or female, and when transgender actor Peter Smith was nominated in 2019 for Out Front’s “I Am My Own Wife,” Conroy says he was told by the Suzi committee that he had to speak to the performer and make Smith choose a male or female category. “It’s a terrible thing to ask someone to do,” Conroy says.
After talking to members of the Suzi committee and expressing concerns, he organized a meeting with other theater companies, and they agreed on several issues, especially that it would be advantageous to break categories down by budget. Yet when he went back to the Suzis organizers, he says he was told they were not ready to have that kind of conversation and were focused on these other matters.
Warner says that this year, the Suzis will be recognizing 10 gender-neutral nominations with two awards for Outstanding Principal Actor. Ditto for Outstanding Featured Actor. And while she admits that the majority of Suzi producers did not want to tier categories by budget in previous years, it is something that could be considered once the priority of eligibility guidelines have been effectively put into place by participating companies.
As the public face of the Suzis, Warner is aware of the various criticisms, but feels the organization is changing for the better.
“We are doing the right thing, and my wish is that folks could see that.”
Jim Farmer covers theater and film for ArtsATL. A graduate of the University of Georgia, he has written about the arts for 30-plus years. Jim is the festival director of Out on Film, Atlanta’s LGBTQ film festival. He lives in Avondale Estates with his husband, Craig, and dog Douglas.
Credit: ArtsATL
Credit: ArtsATL
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