I have been a professional improviser and actor since 2001. Over my 20 years of experience I have worked with numerous improv companies and comedy theatres all over the US and although I treasure my experiences, it has not always been an easy or fun career to have. Like most American theatre companies, American comedy theatres are reckoning with their racist, sexist and homophobic practices.

Many comedy theatres were founded by groups of cisgendered, mostly heterosexual white men and the make up of staff and performers at these theatres remains overwhelmingly white. Although I am a cisgendered, heterosexual white woman and not marginalized in a way that is in any way comparable to my BIPOC or LGBTQIA+ colleagues, I have still experienced marginalization and trauma from harmful practices in these theatres. My privilege as a person who looks the way I do protected me from the worst of the bad behaviors at these institutions.

In the past decade many, many comedy theatres have started diversity initiatives that have yeilded varying degrees of success. While rosters of performers have become more diverse, many organizations have failed to put support in place for performers from marginalized identitites, leaving these performers exposed to harmful behavior with little to no recourse within the organization.