NYTimes.com: “My God, there are a lot of women directors working in the theater these days in London,” a female theater director who happens not to be from London remarked to me the other day.
It’s true. More women directors are proffering their work in London than I can ever recall and at a level lately that has often eclipsed the men in their midst.
6 comments:
As I was reading this article I realized how many female directors I'd worked with over the years, and there were a lot. Then I realized how almost out of date the article was. Almost my entire life, theatre has been an equal(ish) opportunity employer. I've never worked in a male dominated theatre environment, actually. It hasn't necessarily been female dominated either, but fairly even between sexes. Within departments there are occasionally more males or more females, but the ratio is fairly even. It's certainly a testament to how far our society as a whole has come, that females can do the traditional work of males without serious confrontation. In fact, theatre has thrived under the influx of female directors.
It's wonderful to see women dominating the director's chair in London. But it makes me wonder why I haven't seen articles covering the same thing in the US. Perhaps women are just as dominant here and just haven't had any articles written about them. In any case, I, like Kelly, have yet to see any inequalities in the theatre. I'm not sure how different a professional work place will be from the educational ones I've worked in but I can't imagine there being alot of prejudices against either gender. I worked in a theatre where nearly all tech departments were dominated by girls and it was an empowering experience to hold a job that some may think would primarily belong to men.
FEMALES REPRESENT! But really, I'm tired of this ridiculous cultural and media obsession with our genitals. Can we move beyond this, already? It shouldn't even be an issue. Female directors shouldn't even be something to notice, let alone celebrate. Female directors, or TDs, or presidents, or shop workers being blah blah, blah blah blah blah to a job, while male workers bring blah blah blah and blah to a job, right? That's what I keep hearing. I have a hard time believing that these individuals don't actually just bring individual traits, methods, and experiences to their jobs. In other breaking news: The majority of directors in Africa have been found to be over 5'5" tall. OMG! (This week's Greenpage: Where Rachael vents all her anger).
This article makes it sound like female directors are a brand new fad. Women in this position have been around for years, it just irks me that there hasn't been much recognition of it before until an opportunity arises that a large number of nominated women gather at an award ceremony. Their work should be recognized individually just as their male cohorts have had that kind of recognition for years. Award ceremonies shouldn't be the only place where people's work, regardless of sex, should be recognized.
It's great that this article focuses on both the facts that there have been more women directors in London, but also that the work that these women are doing are innovative and inspirational. I wish the article did more than just list off these productions, though. Perhaps statistics about women theatre artists in London in the past decade and how much of a shift there has been, or numbers comparing the amount of men directors or women directors in London.
I read an article recently that discourages readers to take articles like this very seriously because it does a great job praising women who are working but does not focus on the true statistics of what is happening in the world for women in this industry and can sometimes cause people to believe the issue is not as serious as it has been in the past. I am overjoyed to see all of these great women directors get recognition, but I am curious to see how much women have really improved in the last decade. Honestly, if the issue was so much better, articles like this wouldn't need to be published. Let's really even out the playing field in the industry by getting an equal amount of women and men as directors. It's about time!
I certainly hope that we are not shocked by the fact that women are working and creating great art. It is great to see that gender equality is happening in our industry. Does equality start in the arts? I hope that this is true. In ten years’ time I would love to see reports that there is an equal ratio Men:Women as CEO's CFO's COO's, or any high level positions. A male dominated society is outdated and boring. There is that old saying "Behind every great man is a great woman" However true this may be, it is time for the women to step out from behind the man.
Post a Comment