COMMITMENTS

Mission

Our mission is to create a home for multidisciplinary, devised performances that rely on collective acts of imagination. We do this by investing in our richly diverse community of Bay Area artists, providing paid performance opportunities for their works-in-progress. We delight in and invite transformational work and back-to-basics theatre magic, including (but not limited to): mask, mime, puppetry, music, and improvisation.

Values

We are a small, growing company of performing artists, who operate as a collective, sharing tasks between us.


We are committed to growing slowly and with care, listening, examining and evolving in response to the artists we serve.


We are determined to resist the idea, ingrained in the theatre industry, that “the show must go on“ at any cost. We believe this obsession ignores the fact that artists are humans, and leads to unhealthy power dynamics and dangerous decision-making. Instead, we commit to slowing down and being willing to radically revise our plans if something is not working.


We are unashamedly progressive in our politics, some might say radical, and we are working towards a future in which we, Art workers of the Bay, seize the means of production, creating work whose development we lead and the product of which we own.


We passionately align ourselves in defiance of an American culture that devalues artists by refusing to compensate them. Furthermore, our industry has evolved to only give opportunities to artists who are already well established, or money to productions that are already rich in resources. At Analog, we believe that the permission and resources to cultivate artistic gifts should be radically accessible. As such, we strive to create platforms that celebrate and compensate artistic creation, and support artistic development. We also remove financial barriers for audiences by making all shows free to the public.


We ultimately believe that the physical expression of our stories and identities holds the keys to catharsis, healing, and joy for our communities.



Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion


Analog is committed to following anti-racist principles, guided by the work of respected scholars studying the effects of colonization and racial oppression on American culture. These experts on the national stage, as well as local activists and change makers, point us towards a powerful blueprint to a more just, inclusive and generous Bay Area. The commitments that follow are a living document for our organization, that we commit to continue to revisit, revise and add to each year.


  • We are committed to deconstructing the influence of American white supremacy culture in our industry, our working structures, and in ourselves. We are constantly interrogating our approaches to art making so that we may best serve the diverse cultural histories and identities that make up the Bay Area.


  • We will equitably make space, share our resources, feature, compensate, amplify and celebrate artists across race, ethnicity, gender identity or expression, age, language, class, culture, sexual orientation, race and ability.


  • We will advocate for indigenous sovereignty, ensuring that a consistent percentage of money that passes through analog is supporting the indigenous rematriation of the land we reside and make art upon.


  • We will promote the visibilty of our artists in the community, and offer unfettered opportunities for their self determined artistic development and ownership of content.


  • We will continue to seek out (and compensate) the guidance of wise and diverse local artistic leaders as we grow, always striving to improve our service to both our artistic community and the larger community of our audience.


2022 End of Year Action Summary

  1. Land Acknowledgement/Indigenous Support- Adopted policy of contributing 5% of each Mask Monday donation total to ARO, The Association of Ramaytush Ohlone

  2. Equitable Compensation- Increased devising rate for artists to $25 per hour (toward goal of meeting SF living wage of $35 by 2030)

  3. Diversifying Leadership Collective- Added veteran Mask Monday delight Jed Parsario as official Company Member, with humane transition to three-way shared leadership planned for 2023 season.

  4. Transparency- Posted 2021 annual budget to website. Will post subsequent annual Budgets in the first quarter of each new year

  5. Financial Accessibility- Adopted commitment of free admission to all Mask Monday shows