The Diversity Conversation in Improv
2017-present
The ongoing, institutionalized discourse at UCB, iO, Second City, and their counterparts about race, gender, access, and power — triggered by #MeToo and 'Improv So White.'
Known for
- American Theatre's 2019 'Improv So White? Yes, And' feature marked the institutional-response phase — schools could no longer treat diversity as individual-performer responsibility.
- Specific reforms: scholarships for historically excluded performers, affinity-group house teams, curricular audits, diversity staff hires.
- Persistent tension: the reforms are uneven across schools; institutional memory of pre-reform culture remains in the room.