FOR LEVELING THE FIELD

Jeremy O. Harris

Playwright, Slave Play

Racial trauma. Sexual repression. They’re not the average topics for a Broadway comedy, but Jeremy O. Harris is not an average playwright. When he got the chance to take his uncompromising comedic drama about three interracial couples, to the Golden Theatre last year, he told his producing partners that he’d only do so if young Black and brown theatergoers had the same access as the older white ticket buyers who typically patronize Broadway. Already, Harris had been appealing offhandedly to his “rich friends” via Twitter to purchase tickets and leave them at the box office for anyone to use. That concept became the basis for Broadway Plus One ticket initiative, in which people could pay an extra $25 at check-out to subsidize seats for others.