Suni Reid, a non-binary actor for various Hamilton productions, has claimed that their contract wasn’t renewed over a dressing room dispute.
Earlier this week, the performer filed an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint in which they alleged that their contact wasn’t renewed after requesting a gender-neutral dressing room.
According to the filing, Reid requested the room last June during the productions run in Los Angeles.
They went on to say that “weeks after” their request the Hamilton executives suspended the renewal of their contract and “sidelined them during rehearsals, previews, and finally opening night.”
Elsewhere in the complaint, Reid said that they faced “frequent incidents of discrimination and harassment” and many incidents occurred within the dressing rooms.
Reid also revealed that the production offered them a sectioned off area of the dressing room, which would have only been separated with a curtain.
It wasn’t until Reid’s co-star Rory O’Malley offered to give up his own private dressing room, that accommodations were made.
A spokesperson for Hamilton has since come out and denied Reid’s accusations and said they treated them “respect and consideration.”
“Suni Reid was a valued cast member for more than three years. We offered them a contract to return to Hamilton with terms responsive to their requests,” the statement said.
“We deny the allegations in the Charge. We have not discriminated or retaliated against Suni. Since the shutdown, our organization has taken care of our community.”
It continued: “We have treated Suni with the same respect and consideration as all the company members of Hamilton.
“Specifically, we have given Suni direct financial support, paid for their health insurance, and paid for their housing. We wish Suni well in their future endeavors.”
Reid’s attorneys, Lawrence M. Pearson and Lindsay M. Goldbrum have also opened up about the complaint in a statement to Deadline.
They said: “Publicly, Hamilton is a beacon of diversity and appears committed to causes seeking social justice and harmony.
“Behind the curtain, however, the company’s management will force out a Black, transgender cast member simply because they stood up for themselves and advocated for a more equitable workplace, and therefore called that public image into question.”
They went on to say that they hope Reid’s situation to be a “wake up call for the theater industry about the systemic inequities.”
Throughout Reid’s run in Hamilton, they played an array of principal roles including, Aaron Burr, Lafayette/Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and Hercules Mulligan/James Madison.
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