Playwrights Horizons Theater School | Title IX Policy Protocols

Content Warning: Title IX Policy Protocols, mention of Sexual Harassment & Misconduct concerns 11 June 2021 Dear Playwrights Horizons Theater School Community,

In preparing to step into my new position as Director of Playwrights Horizons Theater School last year, I spoke with many of you in the community - students, alumni, faculty, staff - to get a sense of where the theater school is in its trajectory, and what work there is to be done. Beyond the expected work of curriculum development and administrative structures, it became clear to me that there’s been a feeling that the theater school has not been transparent enough about allegations concerning issues of sexual harassment or misconduct, or communicated clearly enough about policies and protocols.

Many of you may have already seen an article published on Medium by a former student in February 2020, alleging several instances of sexual misconduct and harassment from a former faculty member. Beyond the narrative of interactions between these two individuals, the article brings into question a culture of sexual harassment and misconduct in our classrooms. While neither the student nor the faculty member in question have been at the theater school for many years now, my understanding from conversations with both alumni and the current community of faculty and students is that there is a sense that the theater school has not yet sufficiently acknowledged this article, nor has it addressed what policies and protocols the theater school has in place to protect members of its community.

I’m writing now in an attempt to address these concerns as fully and transparently as I can.

First, I want to thank those of you who’ve spoken with me in the last year for your trust, honesty, and calls for accountability. My work as studio director and the whole studio community is stronger and better because of you.

I also want to acknowledge that I am not qualified to speak to any allegations in the theater school’s history, and will not pretend otherwise here. However, I have heard clearly the need for more clarity, transparency, and accountability about these concerns. I feel acutely that silence on these matters,

or avoidance of their discomforts, only serves to deepen existing harm and the potential for future harm.

I’ll try to clearly outline here what the theater school currently has in place to prevent harm, as well as ongoing work we’re doing as we move forward, so that we can take on the vulnerable risks of learning and art-making without being compromised by abuses of power or fear of one another.

One of the more encompassing actions we’ve taken is the creation of a PHTS Resource Page, a web page available to all current students, faculty, and staff, which offers quick links to a large variety of different resources (including mental health resources). All resources, policy documents, and forms linked below are available on that Resource Page for everyone currently engaged in work at the theater school.

1. Sexual Harassment and Misconduct Policies NYU’s policy clearly prohibits consensual intimate relationships when one individual has power or authority over the other that may compromise freely given consent. This applies to intimate relationships between students and faculty/staff. The full policy on consensual intimate relationships is here, and the larger set of policies on Sexual Misconduct, Relationship Violence, and Stalking is here.

Additionally, Playwrights Horizons Theater has a clear policy on Sexual Harassment and Misconduct, which can be found here.

In compliance with these policies, Playwrights Horizons Theater School prohibits any intimate relationships or encounters between students and faculty or staff. It is our view that even in instances where these encounters appear consensual, the power dynamic between students and faculty/staff is too significant for that consent to be uncompromised. This policy was made clear to all faculty and staff at our first meeting together when I came into the job last summer, and has the emphatic support and agreement of our entire current team. This policy has also been made clear to all current students at our First Friday meeting at the top of the Fall 2020 semester, and will continue to be reiterated at these community gathering moments each year.

2. Incident Reporting Protocols This is an area I’ve found to be particularly unclear to people in our community, so I’m going to outline the particularities of how these protocols play out for our theater school specifically as a Tisch Drama Partner Studio: •

If an incident of sexual harassment or misconduct occurs that involves a student, it can and should be reported to NYU’s Title IX office. If the incident involves only students, the NYU Title IX office will review the report to determine next steps, which may include

an investigation and adjudication of the report, taking into account the wishes of the reporter.

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For incidents that involve both a student and a member of our faculty or staff, NYU and Playwrights Horizons may have independent but overlapping responsibilities given the collaborative partnership at the heart of the studio program. Such incidents involving students can, of course, be reported to NYU's Title IX office. If an incident of sexual harassment or misconduct that you choose to report also involves a member of the Playwrights Horizons faculty or staff, we strongly encourage you to report it to the HR manager of Playwrights Horizons as well. This is so that the theater’s administration can fulfill its responsibilities for processing and adjudicating the allegation. The incident should ideally be reported to someone in the studio’s administration (Studio Director, Manager of Student Affairs, or Administrative Director). The studio administrator will then file the incident report with Playwrights Horizons HR. However, if reporting to one of our administrators feels unsafe for any reason, it is possible to report the incident directly to the theater’s HR office. Here is the Playwrights Horizons Theater incident reporting form .

It should be submitted to our HR manager, Libby Zambrano (lzambrano@phnyc.org).

Please know that wherever appropriate, NYU and Playwrights Horizons will partner in their efforts to address incidents of sexual harassment or misconduct.

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Faculty and Staff at Playwrights Horizons Theater School are considered “Responsible Employees” by NYU. Responsible Employees are employees in a leadership or supervisory position, or who have significant responsibility for the welfare of Students or Employees, and are required to report Prohibited Conduct to the Title IX Coordinator. Responsible Employees may not promise Confidentiality or withhold information about Prohibited Conduct from the Title IX Coordinator. Responsible Employees who are aware of or informed of a report of Prohibited Conduct are required to immediately share the report with the Title IX Coordinator. This duty applies no matter how the information is learned, whether from direct report from a Complainant, from social media, or from a concerned third party. You can read the full definition of Responsible Employees in the policy document here on page 10.

If anything in these protocols is unclear, please feel free to reach out to us or to NYU’s Title IX office with questions.

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New Faculty Protocols We have instituted a number of new protocols for the hiring and onboarding of studio faculty:

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All new ongoing faculty are hired through a formal search process, unless they are coming in temporarily as substitutes or for short-term engagements. This search process includes: a formal job listing and recruitment effort across diverse communities; required CV, references, and teaching statement as part of the application process; a first interview; and a sample class and second interview involving multiple existing faculty and opportunities for students to give feedback.

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As part of the onboarding process, all faculty and staff are required to undergo criminal background checks. This background check is required for anyone working unsupervised with students, including substitutes, guest directors, and other teachers engaged on a short-term basis.

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All faculty and staff are required to undergo annual sexual harassment and misconduct training, in compliance with NY State law.

Professional Boundaries As a theater school, we are building a culture of clear professional boundaries between students and faculty/staff.

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All faculty and staff now have work email accounts through the Playwrights Horizons GSuite system. This allows us to keep our theater school-related communications separate from our personal accounts. It also makes communication much easier - every email address is the person’s first initial and last name as one word, @phnyc.org (for example, ttsunoda@phnyc.org).

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Faculty and staff are asked not to engage students through text message or social media messaging unless absolutely necessary (which sometimes happens in the age of remote learning and Zoom classrooms). Faculty and staff are also asked not to follow or friend students on social media platforms until after they have graduated.

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The kind of work we do together in an arts training program can become very personal, vulnerable, and exposed. Our faculty walk a blurry and complex line between showing up in support of our students (holding space for dialogue, listening, advising) while acknowledging that none of us are trained mental health professionals, and should not try to stand in for those professionals. Beyond the limits of our knowledge and qualifications, trying to stand in for qualified mental health care can lead to emotionally blurry and complex relationship dynamics that can compromise a sense of safety and clarity in the classroom. Our Resource Page has direct links to NYU’s Wellness Office, the Moses Center for Student Accessibility, and a non-university database of mental health support resources across the United States that is specifically for young adults. Faculty,

staff, and students all have quick access to these links on the resource page, and are encouraged to make use of them.

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All of the protocols above, and the protocols for when student issues of concern should be flagged for our administrative team, so we can notify the student’s official advisor at Tisch, will become part of our orientation process for all new and returning faculty at the start of each school year.

Moving Forward Below are a number of additional, developing initiatives for greater safety, transparency, and accountability on these and many other topics: •

NYU Tisch Drama has created a new required course for all incoming freshmen on Ethical Collaboration. In addition to this, our studio will be incorporating Intimacy & Combat direction as part of our required curriculum in Primary Training. It is our plan to have faculty and staff also undergo workshop training with the teacher hired for this work, so that the whole community shares a common vocabulary and approach. This training is currently offered in workshop form for students in the 3rd/4th year Project curriculum as part of their training in Creative Leadership, and will be more fully integrated into the larger curriculum for Primary Training in AY 21-22.

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Multiple members of the theater school’s staff are involved in an ongoing way with the larger Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion initiatives happening at Playwrights Horizons as a whole, including action-oriented anti-racism commitments, increasing accessibility in our building and our classrooms, land and labor acknowledgement practices, and other ongoing community initiatives for greater equity, justice, and transparency across the organization, making sure the school’s work and needs in these matters are regularly assessed and integrated with the rest of the organization.

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We have created an hour in the formal class schedule each week for Affinity Groups.

This initiative is entirely student-run with support and mentorship from Tisch Drama’s office of Diversity Initiatives, and together we’ve been developing strategies for collaborative dialogue between the school’s administration, faculty, and student body.

This work coincides with a Student Union group and Student Council representation for the theater school at Tisch Drama Student Council. All of us in the current studio community are organizing within these areas to build clearer communication, trust, and invitation for students to share their experiences and concerns without fear or retribution. I will pause here to note - our students have been just incredible in this work. We are constantly floored and moved by the depth of their clarity, trust, and care, and are so grateful for them as collaborators.

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This past year, we created a faculty committee on Equity, Anti-Racism, and Accountability, which met every other week to collaborate and spearhead initiatives for building a community rooted in trust, transparency, accessibility, compassion, and joy.

This work is not exclusive to sexual harassment and misconduct concerns, but it is part of our overall effort to increase transparency, collaborative dialogue, and accountability within our team. Moving into next year and beyond, we are looking to integrate this work with the larger faculty committee team so that these conversations are more synthesized with larger conversations about curriculum and training.

While this is a lot, it is also a start. Like all the best endeavors, the theater school is undergoing a process of self-examination, and we are committed to its progress. This kind of work is always ongoing - a way of being in an active relationship with each other rather than arriving at a static destination, and that requires constant self-assessment, accountability to our values, and continued growth over time. It also requires open dialogue, collaboration, and commitment to change across all facets and members of the community. My door (whether physical or virtual) is always open to all of you, alumni and former faculty as well as the current members of the theater school, and I hope you’ll continue to reach out to me with the trust and generosity of your concern as we move forward on this path together.

Yours sincerely,

Tomi Tsunoda (ttsunoda@phnyc.org) Director, Playwrights Horizons Theater School @ NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts