The spreadsheet that shook the theater world: Marie Cisco's 'Not Speaking Out' list

Marie Cisco was fed up. America was in turmoil, rocked to its core by the brutal killing of George Floyd at the knee of a police officer in Minneapolis. Protests against systemic racism and injustice had been raging for five days, and the nation's theaters were excruciatingly silent in expressing support.

Cisco, a producer who has worked with the New York-based National Black Theatre, the Public Theater, Lee Daniels Entertainment and the Apollo Theater, was not surprised by the crickets coming from these institutions - self-professed bastions of liberalism and equality - but she felt hurt and angry all the same.

So Cisco created a public Google spreadsheet and titled it "Theaters Not Speaking Out." It was open for anyone to edit, and it had a simple directive: "Add names to this document who have not made a statement against injustices toward black people."

At 5:50 p.m. PDT on that Saturday, May 30, she shared the document on her personal Facebook page as well as with the Theater Folks of Color Facebook group to which she belongs. It has more than 7,000 members and serves as a supportive space for people to share thoughts and experiences about working in