The Upright Citizens Brigade comedy organization, which has been financially troubled in recent years, has announced an effort to diversify its ranks and remake itself, at least in part, as a nonprofit.
The group’s founders, Amy Poehler, Matt Besser, Ian Roberts and Matt Walsh, who control operations of the organization’s training program and theaters, said that they have been seeking nonprofit status since February, and that they intend to pass control of their theaters to a new board “of diverse individuals.” They revealed the outline of their plans in an email on Saturday addressed to the “U.C.B. community.”
The statement said that they want the board to address “the questions of systemic racism and inequality within the theaters,” among other issues. The news comes less than two months after U.C.B. announced the closing of its two Manhattan locations — a theater in Hell’s Kitchen and a training center on Eighth Avenue — after they had gone dark in response to the pandemic.
U.C.B. still has two locations in Los Angeles, and has been operating online improv and sketch classes as part of its efforts to weather the pandemic’s financial impact.
Even before it closed its New York locations in April, the organization had been under strain: In what was not the first round of cuts in the last few years, it laid off many employees on both coasts in March, and early last year it closed a third New York location, in the East Village.
Since protests began in response to the killing of George Floyd in police custody last month, there have been calls for businesses, including the movie and theater industries, to root out discrimination and racism in their own institutions.
U.C.B. appeared to acknowledge criticism this month from the comedian Keisha Zollar. On Twitter, she said she worked for an unnamed organization as a diversity coordinator and “was NEVER PAID in money.” U.C.B. tweeted in response: “Thanks so much Keisha for bringing this to our attention. We have reached out to you via phone and email, and look forward to resolving this as soon as possible.”
She is not the first person to speak out about U.C.B.’s payment practices.
In their email the founders said the proposed new board would review the company’s audition and hiring processes and that U.C.B. would maintain a system for anonymous reporting of “complaints related to race, sexual orientation and safety.”
“Like many theaters and live entertainment venues, we are trying to survive during this health crisis,” the U.C.B. founders wrote.
It is unclear what role Poehler, Besser, Roberts and Walsh will play in U.C.B. once the organization has shifted control of its theaters. The email said that as of Aug. 1 the four founders “will no longer handle day to day operations of the training center.” It did not address what would happen if the bid for nonprofit status failed. It is also unclear whether the organization is seeking nonprofit status for the training operation as well as for the theaters. Efforts to reach representatives of the organization by email and phone went unanswered Sunday, and voicemail at the training center was full.
As of Sunday night, the online home page for U.C.B.’s theaters had no links to get further information or to contact management of the theaters. Since at least early April it has displayed a message redirecting visitors to another website, that one for the organization’s training center.
Source: Theater - nytimes.com
