Sheldon Epps is an award-winning theater director. Even if you don't
get out to the theater much, you may have seen his work directing
episodes of popular sitcoms like Frasier, Everybody Loves Raymond, and Friends. For the past 10 years, Epps also has been the artistic director of the Pasadena Playhouse, making him the only African-American artistic director of a major theater anywhere in the United States.

While
Epps is committed to bringing more African Americans into his theater,
he also has a broad conception of diversity that includes generational
as well as cultural and ethnic differences. In 2005, he founded the
Pasadena Playhouse Diversity Project to "support new play development,
fund productions by minority and women playwrights, and allow access to
our theater for underprivileged youth."

Here are some tips from
Epps on how to diversify the audience for theater, which MOLI picked up
on a visit to the playhouse last week as part of an NEA-sponsored tour for theater critics. These strategies apply not only to theater, but to any organization seeking a more diverse membership.

Community: My
father was a preacher. He always felt a church should not only have
church services on Sunday, but should also be of service to the
community. The church building would host Girl Scout and Boy Scout
meetings, and other community activities.

I felt that this
theater should be open to the community beyond curtain time. I'm proud
to say there is always energy, always something going on, in this
building. The theater is alive and vibrant.

Programming: You
have to put on stage something that has to do with the lives of the
people you want in your theater. You can talk about diversity for 100
years, but until it's reflected in your programming, you'll never get
it.

In 2006, we did a six-week run of August Wilson's Fences with
Angela Bassett and Laurence Fishburne and it was a huge success. [The
crowds were so big that] everyone on staff spent all their time trying
to figure out how to fit more people in the theater. Then we did a musical version of Sister Act, the movie, and that was an equally big hit. This year we did a version of Cole Porter's Can-Can, and a very successful production of Ray Charles Live.

Marketing: We
have a lot of hubris. We think if we build it, they will come. That's
not just in theater, but in any art form. But you have to find the way
to get to the audience you want. The biggest ad in the LA Times might not do it for you. You might have to reach out to the churches or the social clubs.

Economic access: I don't believe that nonsense about African Americans not having money to come to the theater. You have the Tyler Perry experience in African-American theater, and Tyler Perry shows are not cheap. I've been to the Kodak Theatre with seats [selling for] $45 or $50 and the theater was full.

That said, we make sure that no one who wants to come to the theater is shut out because they don't have the money for a ticket.

Urban appeal: How
do you appeal to the audience that goes to a Tyler Perry show? I'm not
going to address the quality of what's called the "chitlin circuit."
It's impressive that they can come to these huge theaters for a couple
of weeks and fill the house. I want to be on that bandwagon. I know
that if I can get that audience into August Wilson's Fences or The Piano Lesson, they'll have as good or a better experience.

Once an audience shows up for those plays, many of them keep coming back for other productions, like Orson's Shadow, which is playing right now.