Report #20 of the Wisconsin Theatre Diversity Study
Check out this post for more info on the study and our methodology.
Our twentieth report is for First Stage Children’s Theater. The reporting period covers their 23/24, 24/25, and 25/26 seasons.
Actor Breakdown
The below data is the number of roles cast with actors of each demographic and the percentage total.
White - 70 roles, 58.3%
Black - 21 roles, 17.5%
Latino/a/x - 12 roles, 10%
Multiracial - 10 roles, 8.3%
Asian-American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) - 4 roles, 3.3%
Indigenous - 3 roles, 2.5%
Director Breakdown
The below data is the number of times a director of each demographic was hired and the percentage total. These numbers include directors and co-directors.
White - 13, 65%
Latino/a/x - 4, 20%
Black - 3, 15%
These numbers reflect 18 full productions consisting of 120 total roles for actors.
Only actors listed in the adult cast/adult ensemble were considered for this study.
Their casting rate of white actors at 58.3% puts First Stage at the 3rd lowest/6th highest rates out of the 8 total Equity companies.
That 58.3 represents a little over 1.8 times the representation in city racial demographics, while their 17.5% Black actor casting rate is a little under 1/2 of the representation of Milwaukee's largest racial demographic of 38.5%. First Stage’s casting rate of Indigenous actors matched or exceeded their relative representational population in the City of Milwaukee that were tracked per the census.
Milwaukee Demographics
White (Alone) - 31.1%
Black (Alone) - 38.5%
Latino/a/x or Hispanic - 20.9%
AAPI (Alone) - 5.2%
Indigenous (Alone) - .8%
All Others (Including Multiracial) - 3.6%
Current Milwaukee Census Estimates: Link
We acknowledge that census data is imperfect, in part due to a lack of representation for SWANA and South Asian populations and confusion for Latin/Hispanic populations, but it gives us a starting point to understand where we’re falling short when it comes to representation in our community.