Circle in the Square Theatre School faces accusations of systemic racism and sexual misconduct

A prestigious theatre school in New York City is facing accusations from systemic racism to sexual misconduct to homophobia after more than a dozen alums have posted their accusations online.

Last week, alums of the Circle in the Square Theatre School began to post their accusations on both social media and a website created to address these issues titled “Circle of Inequity.”

While the school has a history of producing talented alums such as Philip Seymour Hoffman, Idina Menzel, and Lady Gaga, according to recent students, they also have a history of racist behavior, abusive microaggressions, and questionable tactics when educating their students.

According to the group of alums, “Rather than celebrating the diversity of the student body within the program, there is an erasure of diverse cultural background under the guise of neutralization.”

One actress, Jody Doo who is Singaporean, was constantly told by faculty that her accent was an issue. She states,

“It was the winter of 2013 when I was in my first year of acting school. During voice class, each student took turns to read lines from a script, to showcase our best voice. I barely said a few words when the teacher suddenly yelled, ‘Your accent is not American!’.”

This became a routine she would have with faculty at the school. At one point a faculty member doubted that Ms. Doo was understanding the classwork.

According to her, the faculty member said, “Some of the faculty wonder how much you understand their classes.” 

The final nail came when she and another Asian student were removed from the graduation showcase. The director pulled her aside and broke the news.

“He told me, “We have to cut you from your graduation showcase, because the faculty feels that your accent is not American enough.” And worse. A Filipino guy got cut from the showcase too. But a French-accented Swiss guy and a blonde British girl were not. The Eastern accents were booted. The Western ones remained.

Another Black former student, Lebene Ayivor, recalls an incident where a teacher forced her to look at images of police brutality while she sang in order to elicit an emotional response from the actress.

Between rounds of singing, Beth(Falcone) asked me if she needed to show me images of police brutality. Shocked, I replied “no.” She yelled over the intro “I can’t breathe,” in reference to Eric Garner and elaborated by saying “Yeah, it’s that fucking intense.” At some point she stopped me, and my classmate enthusiastically told me that I was more connected that time. Beth did not share her enthusiasm. She took her phone out and said, “Don’t hate me for this” and proceeded to spend 5 minutes searching for a stock image of a police officer beating up a Black man. As she handed me her phone she said “We’ll see what this one does to you. I hope this one is good enough. Look at it.”

Some of the other accusations include:

“During a lesson, a White faculty member commented that a certain Asian student’s inability to express anger was due to their “culture.” They then proceeded to make statements such as“China is buying all of America’s territory, but one thing they will not be able to take over is America’s culture, America’s expression.” They seemed to imply that an Asian “culture” was something to overcome in order to develop as a better actor. They also knew that this student was not, in fact, Chinese, and yet deemed this opinion of China as an appropriate example. Another instructor who was later informed of this incident agreed that there was some truth to this faculty member’s statement.”

~~~

“I was told by a singing technique teacher during class that I should have songs from Miss Saigon, Flower Drum Song, and Marcy Park from The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee in my audition songbook, even though my range and vocal quality in no way resembles those songs. When I countered with the argument that upon walking in the audition room, it would be clear to the room that I was of Asian descent and so not necessary to limit myself to these songs. The teacher dismissed me and said she knew better than I did about such matters.

~~~

Our teacher, Larry Gleason, was speaking to me regarding a text we were reading (I believe it was Measure for Measure). I asked for a clarification, to which his response was, “you probably aren’t getting it because you’re very urban for Shakespeare. You most likely won’t become a Shakespeare actor due to the way you were raised, and that’s perfectly ok.” I won’t even begin to recount how many times I was referred to as “spicy” in various instances.

The alums behind the website and accusations are calling for change. Among their list of demands is the termination of faculty and administrators “guilty of initiating and encouraging repeated and unapologetic racial micro- and macro-aggressions, cultural appropriation, and verbal abuse against BIPOC students.”

They also call for mental health counseling for students as well as mandatory equity, diversity, and inclusion training for both staff and students.

They finish by stating that they cannot endorse prospective students to attend the school until changes are made.

“We understand the time it will take to fulfill and implement these demands. Nevertheless, we genuinely cannot encourage prospective students to attend Circle in the Square Theatre School in its current state. It is not enough to be non-racist; we all must be actively anti-racist. Currently neither of these practices exist institutionally. Now is the time to work with your community.”

The letter was signed by over two dozen recent alums of the school. A separate petition has been signed by over 190 people as of the publication of this article.

Officials from Circle in the Square Theatre School have yet to comment publicly or respond to the accusations.

We will continue to update this article with new information as it becomes available.