Hasty Pudding alumni petition theatrical group to allow female cast members
At least 86 alumni of the Hasty Pudding Theatricals have signed a petition asking the exclusive student theater group to change its male-only casting policy, according to emails obtained by the Harvard Crimson.
The Crimson reported early Wednesday morning that the list of signatures was presented to the graduate and undergraduate student boards of the Hasty Pudding Theatricals.
Both this year and last, more than a dozen women tried out for the 221-year-old theater group. None received callbacks for a second audition. The group calls its males-only cast policy an “artistic decision.”
According to an email obtained by the Crimson, former Theatricals cast vice president and 2014 graduate Ethan D. Hardy wrote that the petition was motivated by a desire for ending the gender-exclusive policy and “demanded” that the issue be addressed in a way that includes alumni perspectives.
“While many of us have privately discussed that we would indeed be in favor of ending the all-male casting tradition of HPT,” Hardy wrote, per the Crimson, “I’ve heard rumors that the grad board is skeptical of this and I think they are under the assumption that most of us do not want to see this happen.”
The historic student theatrical society was first formed in 1795, according to its website, to promote “friendship and patriotism,” but soon grew to orchestrate mock trials and theatrical productions. While women eventually became allowed to participate in behind-the-scenes production, they have never been allowed to act on stage.
In 2015, the Theatricals’ president, Robert Fitzgerald, said the the group had “seriously considered” changing the all-male cast policy, but noted doing so would require “structural changes to the production, the company, and our larger institutional traditions.’’
This year, to the Crimson, the group’s president, Guan-Yue Chen, declined to comment on the policy.
Another Theatricals alum, however, confirmed to the Crimson that discussions about changing the policy had taken place during his time with the group.
“It seemed to me generally that things were open-minded, if not majority positive, in favor of eventually moving in the co-ed direction,” said Reed S. Silverman, a 2015 Harvard graduate.
In May, Harvard said it would prohibit students who join male-only social clubs from serving as sports captains or leader of other campus groups, beginning in the fall of 2017. The debate over the policy sparked a contentious campus debate.
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