hesherman.com: Having previously taken a quantitative look at new Broadway musicals and musical revivals, it was inevitable that I would look at play production on Broadway as well. So as not to bury my lede, let me begin with the list of playwrights who have had five or more productions on Broadway in the last 20 years, new or revival.
6 comments:
I enjoyed reading this article, easily my favorite I have read so far. I found it really quite informative, but also I liked how the writer thoroughly explained his research and indicated its flaws and gaps. It's funny, call me a feminist, but the first thing I noticed after reading this initial list of names, was that none of those authors were female. And in the next sentence he went on to highlight this fact. I think he makes a great case for why not-for-profit theatres should be included in the tallies for Broadway companies. For me that's the biggest conclusive factor that can be drawn from this article. I also thought his comparisons of new works versus old works was interesting and useful information.
Wow! I'm astounded by the lack of female playwrights. I've read a bunch of articles in the past year about that gap for Broadway, but I've never seen the stark numbers. That is outrageous! It's hard to think that the numbers could be so low for 20 years and continue in the same pattern. It's 2012 - where are the great female playwrights??? I simply can't understand what's going on.
I hope that in the next decade, this lack of female playwrights begins to turn around, and I am optimistic that it will, but also am worried that if the cuts of government funding happen, it will make it much, much harder. This article is incredibly well written and organized, and I found it all incredibly interesting, especially the part about revivals vs. new works. It's true that there are a ton of revivals happening all over of classic theatre works. In the vast majority of cases, revivals make more money. If the name of the playwright and/or of the play is well-known, you're going to get more people to come beyond your normal subscribers. DOing new or unheard-of plays by not well-known playwrights is a risk and a gamble. I hope that theatre will take more of those risks, and recently, names like Sarah Ruhl and Caryl Churchhill are beginning to gain more recognition among non theatre-buffs. However, the fact is that most of the classics were not written by women. At the moment, the playwrights that are basically guaranteed to make some money (Shakespeare, Tennessee Williams, Neil Simon) are not women, and so in order for that to change, theatres need to be able to take some risks with less well-known, and if the political climate changes and Romney is elected, that will be much, much harder to do with a huge cut in funding.
I hope that in the next decade, this lack of female playwrights begins to turn around, and I am optimistic that it will, but also am worried that if the cuts of government funding happen, it will make it much, much harder. This article is incredibly well written and organized, and I found it all incredibly interesting, especially the part about revivals vs. new works. It's true that there are a ton of revivals happening all over of classic theatre works. In the vast majority of cases, revivals make more money. If the name of the playwright and/or of the play is well-known, you're going to get more people to come beyond your normal subscribers. DOing new or unheard-of plays by not well-known playwrights is a risk and a gamble. I hope that theatre will take more of those risks, and recently, names like Sarah Ruhl and Caryl Churchhill are beginning to gain more recognition among non theatre-buffs. However, the fact is that most of the classics were not written by women. At the moment, the playwrights that are basically guaranteed to make some money (Shakespeare, Tennessee Williams, Neil Simon) are not women, and so in order for that to change, theatres need to be able to take some risks with less well-known, and if the political climate changes and Romney is elected, that will be much, much harder to do with a huge cut in funding.
I think we just need some new plays. We need to give new playwrights a chance to tell new stories that have not been told before and are not based on stories from back in the day. This goes along with giving people who don't get to tell their stories, a chance. This means, people of color and women. I think the weirder the show a theater is doing the better because that exposes the average person to something that is new and different. YOU CAN ONLY DO SHAKESPEARE SO MUCH. Don't get me wrong I love him, but I really don't need to see another Shakespeare show that literally changes nothing about it! If you want to do a show from back in the day you should at least make it interesting, make them speak in another language, make them from 2078, or make it 12th night with dogs. DO SOMETHING NEW OR OUR BUSINESS IS GOING TO DIE!!!
My junior year of high school, I had to give a speech in English class, and I chose to make my speech about a very similar issue. Mine was strictly limited to the comparison of revivals vs. original productions and the presence of musicals/plays based on existing movies/books/etc. I love that he includes race and gender as qualifications for lack of diversity as well. While I've always considered the lack of female playwrights to be concerning, just seeing the numbers compared to their male counterparts on Broadway was shocking. Where are our lady playwrights? I do think it's interesting that the not-for-profit theatres focus more heavily on revivals than the commercial theatres. I've always associated "commercial" with revivals, brand-names, and recognizable titles. But I guess commercial theatres are looking to create NEW works WITH a brand-name and name recognition. After all, if the production is a success, you're the one with the credit and royalties.
Post a Comment