AN AMALGAMATED UNDERSTANDING OF RACE IN CONTEMPORARY AMERICA FILTERED THROUGH THE LENS OF THE INTERNET AND GENERALLY ACCEPTED, POPULAR NOTIONS OF DIVERSITY STAGED IN THE MANNER MOST BEFITTING A BUSINESS SETTING BUT WITH A NEO-FUTURISTS TWIST -Or- Nik & Jorge, Your D.E.I. Officers is an autobiographical piece telling the story of Nik and Jorge’s introduction to the harrowing world of workplace diversity initiatives. As BIPOC artists and administrators, they felt the singe of an institution getting it wrong - but how do we get it right?

Starting with a biting, racial experience at a famed cultural institution, Nik and Jorge retrace the moments that followed—turning to the pedagogies of celebrated thought leaders and influencers in the absence of proximate mentorship, searching for language, grounding, and solace. But like so many people of color in the workplace, they soon find themselves pressured to translate these half-formed frameworks for the comfort of others’ guilt—and their own survival—becoming de facto diversity officers in spaces that were never built to hold them. This retelling forces the audience to be unwilling participants in a fed-up series of pontifications as they make the moral and business case for accountability and inclusion derived from real, evidence-based management strategies in a less real corporate seminar format. 

Assistant Direction by Kate Horton with a special appearance by Cat Shieh

This project is partially supported by an Individual Artists Program Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events with additional support from the Independent Productions Initiative. Co-presented by The Neo-Futurists.

Production History:

Bag&Baggage Productions & Broadway Rose Theatre Company - Workshop Concert Production Commissioned by the Ensemble Studio Theatre/Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Science & Technology Project (October 2024)

Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events - Reading, Studio Theater Residency Pilot Selection (December 2023)

Chicago Musical Theatre Festival Staged Reading (January 2020)