To our WCLOC community: 

 

For eighty-three years, WCLOC has been a proud member of the cultural and artistic life of Worcester, the heart of the Commonwealth. Now that heart is broken. Today, we grieve with the city and the nation. We stand in mourning with the friends and families of those who have been killed – murdered - with no regard for their humanity, their dignity, or their very right to breathe. We stand in solidarity with those who can stand it no longer and are protesting for needed change.

 

For people of color in communities across the nation, the images are all too familiar; the oppression all too real. The fault lines of our society are laid bare. The disproportionate impacts of COVID-19, the devastating impacts of police brutality, the long-standing racial injustice and inequality in America have long been ignored. But, now, those who have been ignored are demanding to be heard. WCLOC is listening.

 

Our commitment to diversity and inclusion will not waver. We embrace our unique opportunity, as a theater company, to bring the experiences of people of color to our stage. We recognize our obligation to ensure the voices of those people are heard by the richly diverse cultural, ethnic, and social community that is Worcester. We acknowledge that, like any other American institution, we have a past from which much can be learned and a future in which we must pledge to always strive to do better and be better.

 

Thus we. here, reaffirm our mission to use our stage as a platform for those who have historically endured social and political invisibility; to amplify the voices of those who have been ignored or silenced; and, one day, to be able to re-open our house to welcome all, regardless of race, ethnicity, faith or gender identity to participate in the collaborative theater experience. Our doors may still be closed, but our hearts and minds are open. And we are listening.

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#BlackLivesMatter

 

 

Sincerely,

 

The WCLOC Board of Governors