Photo: members of the resident playwright company at the September, 2024 All-Writers Meeting, held at Soho Rep
In 2020, as the country engaged in the social reckoning brought on by the murder of George Floyd, New Dramatists was among the many Cultural Institutions who responded to the call to express our commitment to EDAI practices and values explicitly. Over the past several years, we’ve examined our policies, and practices, and discussed and identified paths to further progress. Throughout this endeavor, New Dramatists has taken the time our community needed to move through this complex process, which involved several teams of community representatives (from the writer, staff and board constituencies), shepherded by consultant, Diaz Inclusion. Ultimately, our organization adopted the EDAI mission and values statement below.
Next Steps – a Code of Community
Our next step focuses on the development of a holistic, organization-wide Code of Community, which will bring our EDAI mission and values statement “to life,” by illustrating how our mission and values translate into a set of community agreements, for how we work together, support, and respect each other. Just as we held time and space throughout our EDAI review process, we’re rededicating ourselves to the time and community conversation required, to craft a detailed and transparent Code of Community. This commitment invites all stakeholders to participate, and ultimately endorse, this foundational community agreement.
New Dramatists' EDAI Mission and Values Statement
EQUITY, DIVERSITY, ACCESSIBILITY, AND INCLUSION
ND is committed to the sustained, long-term investment of EDAI work. We commit to diversity in all areas of our institution. Our ability to embrace and celebrate each person’s unique contributions to New Dramatists makes us a stronger, more progressive organization. We meet each other where we are, exhibit curiosity, engage in critical conversations with care and candor, embrace productive conflict, and give grace. We seek collaboration and look for ways to build connections throughout our community. We foster deliberate, proactive and preventative systems to support the success of our community and to hold ourselves accountable to the values by which we stand.
OUR COMMUNITY
We believe that accomplishing our work requires embracing a widely nuanced diversity of perspectives and experiences inside our community. We define our community as an ecosystem comprised of New Dramatists’ playwrights (current and alumni), employees, other workers and contractors, volunteers, guest artists, and board of directors.
OUR EDAI VALUES
These Values are highlighted as we feel they are integral to our organization and community. Please reference our Code of Community for more information on how these Values are encouraged, supported, and defended throughout New Dramatists.
Stewardship: firm adherence to upholding the New Dramatists Mission.
Community: aligning around a shared vision for positive impact, actively uplifting each other, and building relationships of mutual benefit while giving space for the psychological safety of all. We define community as representative of past, present, and future contributors to, and stewards of, our mission.
Safe and healthy discomfort (a.k.a. Psychological Safety): being able to show and employ ones’ full-self without fear of negative consequences to self-image, status, or career while knowing that the possibility of discomfort or disagreement might exist with differing views or opinions.
Honesty: the ability to “speak in draft” through radical and compassionate truth-telling.
Curiosity: the ability to view community and varying perspectives with openness and a sincere desire to learn more.
Trust: a strong sense of confidence that those around you have your best interests at heart. Trust can be built, maintained, and repaired.
In situations where disagreement arises, we value: presence of mind, curiosity around and respect for each other's differing viewpoints; a lack of defensiveness in representing our own viewpoints; investing in complex conversations that do not need to resolve in consensus; choosing to identify our shared values as a starting point to whatever resolution may be required; and putting communal health and unity ahead of individual ego.
Accountability: sustain individual and collective responsibility through intentionality and effort.
Members of the Working Group
Thank you to the following members of the working group who drafted the EDAI mission and values statement:
Ron Riley
Sofie Wasserman-Smith
John Steber
Kristoffer Diaz
Aditi Kapil
Jen Silverman
EDAI Values in Current Practice
EDAI in Current Practice
Undeniably crucial to our rich legacy: since its founding by Michaela O’Harra, an openly gay woman, ND has identified as a diverse body of writers, welcoming and supporting those from underrepresented and underserved groups. Here are some key examples of how EDAI principles are embedded in our current practice:
Equity: New Dramatists runs on 100% contributed income, empowering our organization to combat economic inequity and freeing our writers from financial pressures in their work here. We offer all programming is free of charge, to playwrights and to audience members. ALL collaborators who work with our writers are compensated financially as temporary w-2 employees.
Diversity: Admissions determinations are made by an independent panel that changes completely each year. The panel is comprised predominantly of playwrights whose service is a way of giving back to the community. Each year, the invitations to serve roll out in an intentional way to comprise a diverse readership that ensures a multiplicity of perspectives on the admissions committee. New Dramatists does not prescribe any criteria for what makes a good playwright or a good play. This process has consistently and historically yielded a playwright company that is diverse and eclectic, in terms of age, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, geography (urban/rural), and aesthetics.
Accessibility: In 2025 we’ve committed ourselves to a bold search for a new physical home that espouses our commitment to barrier free access. This season, our Houghton Hall residency provides us with a barrier-free space for all programming. Stopgap partnerships pre-residency included Open Jar Studios, the Dramatists Guild, Soho Rep, and Hunter College.
Inclusion: Fundamentally, we seek to be inclusive in the way that prospective residents gain access to our community of writers. We never charge application fees and we conduct an open, technologically accessible submissions process in which first round review is blind, ensuring opportunity for lesser-known writers. Additionally, we seek to identify and address barriers to participation in our programming. For example, we partner with the Howard Gilman Foundation and individual donors to offset childcare costs incurred by playwrights and their collaborators while participating in work sessions. As needed, this Opportunity Fund may also cover travel and housing expenses that would otherwise financially preclude some from joining a workroom.