‘Hadestown’ director Rachel Chavkin: Diversity ‘is not a pipeline issue’

In a Broadway season nearly devoid of female directors, the sole woman at the helm of a musical this year — Rachel Chavkin, director of “Hadestown” — took home the Tony Award for best direction of a musical.

Chavkin, who was previously nominated in the category for “Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812” in 2017, emphasised diversity in the industry in her acceptance speech Sunday night.

“There are so many women who are ready to go. There are so many artists of color who are ready to go. And we need to see that racial diversity and gender diversity reflected in our critical establishment, too,” Chavkin said in her speech. “This is not a pipeline issue. It is a failure of imagination by a field whose job is to imagine the way the world could be.”

“Hadestown,” a folksy reimagining of an ancient Greek myth, led the pack this season with 14 Tony nominations. Before Chavkin’s win, the show had won in five other categories, including awards for scenic design, sound design, lighting design and orchestrations.

“Our field is filled with progressive people, and yet our field is not exemplary in terms of living its politics — first and foremost, who is telling the stories and what stories are they telling,” Chavkin said after her speech.

©2019 New York Times News Service