A Black actor has taken legal action against Harvard University’s American Repertory Theater, alleging that she was racially discriminated against after obtaining permanent scalp damage.
During a production of “The Odyssey” held last year, Nike Imoru was told to have cornrows installed for the role as she was playing five different characters. Instead of hiring a professional hair stylist, the theater instead had a backstage worker style Imoru’s hair, causing permanent damage to her scalp.
Approximately 90% of her hair is now gone and a dermatologist has said that her hair follicles are now empty. Among all the actors, white actors were given licensed hairstylists. Imoru was given the opportunity to find a hairstylist of her own, but with the immediacy of the show schedule and her unfamiliarity with local stylists, she was unable to do so.
Under the Actors’ Equity Association, the American Repertory Theater is required to provide assistance. Imoru as a result opted to trust that the theater employee was qualified to style hair.
After the production and obtaining alopecia, Imoru lost job opportunities and officially decided to stop taking roles until she gained her “confidence” again. In the latest lawsuit, the actor is seeking damages for emotional distress.
“Between the tension and the extension hair, it caused damage so that the corkscrew style extension continued to twist,” said Imoru, per NBC. “Dissociation, trauma, anxiety, fear, dread, a real shredding, I would say, of my mental health over the course of a year. It hasn’t grown beyond maybe half an inch in a year.”
The lawsuit comes almost six years after the theater publicly apologized for its history of racial discrimination. In 2020, actor and writer Griffin Matthews accused the director of the theater, Diane Paulus, of racism when they worked together for a production of his musical “Witness Uganda.”
In a video, Matthews described Paulus as one of the “Amy Coopers” of Broadway, identifying a moment where she screamed in his face.
In a public press release, Paulus neither denied nor confirmed Matthews’s statements, instead apologizing.
“In a process filled with creative differences, many rewrites, and heated discussions around a subject matter steeped in the pain of racial violence, it was my responsibility to create a space where those issues were handled with the deepest care. I could and should have done better,” said the theater’s director. “I am profoundly sorry for the pain I caused Griffin and any other person involved in our process. I am learning.”
