What’s it like to be making plays knowing that the theatergoing audience is primarily white?

DRURY That’s the way that it’s always been, since I even understood that plays were being performed in New York City. But also: I have always been in the audience of every play that I’ve seen, and I’m not a white person. So I also know that even if the plays haven’t acknowledged my presence, I know that I’m there and I know that people like me are there too.

COOPER It can be frustrating. There was one night last week where it was a 90 percent white audience, and most of them were older people, and the entire play was quiet. It’s a loud-ass play, and the audience was silent.

NWANDU I’m a bit of a pragmatist — I’m going to have a conversation with the people who show up. There were white people who responded to “Pass Over” and said this is great, and white people who were very offended, and there were black people who said this is great, and black people who were offended. At the end of the day, I’m writing for the people who want to go on the journey I’m making, and I’m not writing with one race in mind.

HARRIS So many of the power brokers of the theater have been running these theaters for 30 years, so why would they want to invest the time, energy and money into getting audiences that are actually under 35? But I’m thinking about me at 15 having to scour my local library, the internet and every other place to find the plays by black writers that felt like me. Part of my goal is to make it more accessible for the young black theater nerd to find work that looks like them.

COOPER The Public sends an email to audience members saying “What did you think of the show?” and some white audience members write back and they’re like “I just feel like I didn’t have a way in.” And the thing is, how many times do we have to sit through shows that we don’t necessarily have a way in on? We don’t see anybody who looks like us, and we don’t recognize these stories, and we don’t necessarily always feel welcome, but we still do the work to understand it. And I feel like some of the white audience members and even some critics don’t always do the work.