Pittsburgh Arts, Regional Theatre, New Work, Producing, Copyright, Labor Unions,
New Products, Coping Skills, J-O-Bs...
Theatre industry news, University & School of Drama Announcements, plus occasional course support for
Carnegie Mellon School of Drama Faculty, Staff, Students, and Alumni.
Women and Hollywood: The Goodman Theatre has announced that its new playwrights unit will be comprised entirely of women. The writers selected for the Chicago-based theater's 2015-16 season are Kristiana Rae Colón, Sandra Delgado, Jenni Lamb and Calamity West.
That is an interesting move for the Goodman, even though it was not done on purpose. This makes me wonder how the female writers are going to affect the audience members that are going to see these shows. Are they going to be reaching new demographics with this change? I would be surprised if the theater and program did not try and use this as marketing or PR. It is also incredible how many female written plays the Goodman has put on over the years. I actually find it exciting considering there was also that statistic about the most frequently produced plays and there are only 4 women on that list. Maybe after seeing the success of the Goodman after this season more theaters will want to take a step in this direction. It’s a shame that this is an issue needing to be addressed, but hopefully this is another step towards gender equality in theater.
I think the emphasis the Goodman Theatre is placing on using theater to represent and illuminate minority voices and opinions is outstanding. Theater is meant to challenge, provoke, and foster growth in those who encounter it. With the current demographic spread in modern theatre, many important voices and opinions that could be elevated and amplified through theatre are instead excised, and their exclusion from the spotlight reinforces their status as a minority, or underrepresented population.
The Goodman made an important choice in creating an all-female playwright unit, instead of merely creating a female-dominated group. In completely removing a male voice this season, the unadulterated perspectives and creations of these women will be allowed to stand on their own, thus elevating their voices even further. I look forward to hearing about the works created by this unit, and I sincerely hope the Goodman Theatre continues this effort to present minority voices and opinions to the larger public.
While I'm very excited about this, one thing that always bugs me about stories such as this (stories that cheer on a theater/movie/show with a female director/writer/actresses) is that we even have to point it out. Why should we be surprised that all these playwrights are all women? Especially because they didn't do it intentionally, why were they so surprised that all the selectees were women? If they provided the best work, OF COURSE they would all be selected. We're so normalized to accept men in positions of authority that a group of women doing something in the same vein is foreign to us. Especially in the arts, we enjoy championing women who break through the glass ceiling, which is great, but why shouldn't women doing well be just as normal as men doing well?
All in all, though, this is very cool. It's a great step for female playwrights and I'm very excited to see the work they produce.
I have been. over the last few weeks, reading many, too many, articles on the inequality faced by women (especially women of color) in Hollywood and on Broadway. To be very honest, I didn't want to see another one of those articles, because, as a woman hoping to achieve something pretty wonderful (no clue as to what exactly, though) in a performance arts field, these articles made me feel uncomfortable, and a little apprehensive about what is to come for me in my future employment in this male-dominated field. Then comes this article, trumpeting gender parity from the heavens. I exaggerate, of course, but after reading article after article about the systematic chauvinism in theater, this article, however overdue it is, seems like a true breath of fresh air. While I do agree with Amanda, that female playwrights dominating a season should be as commonplace as their male counterparts doing the same, I can't help but feel a tad relieved. It is not impossible for a woman to succeed in high-caliber theater, as much as statistics will tell us otherwise. I truly hope this becomes more common, and more visible. Rock on, Jenni, Calamity, Sandra, and Kristiana. Rock on.
Articles like this leave me so emotionally confused. I want to be really happy that it’s all women playwrights and then I’m upset that it’s something that has to be announced. Then after I read the article and it said that it happened by chance; that’s something I really appreciate. The fact that these women were all chosen by their talent and not their gender to make a statement is the pinnacle of what women artists have been trying to do for practically all of history. The Goodman theater has a history of being blind to race and gender and still being able to churn out great theater. Other places should take them as an example. I am also really happy to hear that the program they are authoring for is a learning type experience developed to foster their creativity. The stronger they are as a unit, the stronger their work will be and the stronger their image will be for women artist all over.
I have an overflowing amount of appreciation for Tayna Palmer’s method of picking the plays for her new season. It seems like she had a perfect balance of giving attention to talent and giving attention to the underrepresented artists who submitted. She did not sit down and tell herself that she had to pick all-women, that would be setting limits for herself and that would mean that the women picked were only selected for one reason, their gender. Instead, she sat down to pick her new season with the needs of the underrepresented in mind. She made these decisions because she cares about equal representation, she cares about everyone having a voice. This way, she is able to provide a stage for voices in need. This attention to the underrepresented female writers is what is going to make her theatre so worthwhile, the article showed that they are already making a change. The dent they made in Chicago statistics can spread an inspire many other theaters to think the same way.
6 comments:
That is an interesting move for the Goodman, even though it was not done on purpose. This makes me wonder how the female writers are going to affect the audience members that are going to see these shows. Are they going to be reaching new demographics with this change? I would be surprised if the theater and program did not try and use this as marketing or PR. It is also incredible how many female written plays the Goodman has put on over the years. I actually find it exciting considering there was also that statistic about the most frequently produced plays and there are only 4 women on that list. Maybe after seeing the success of the Goodman after this season more theaters will want to take a step in this direction. It’s a shame that this is an issue needing to be addressed, but hopefully this is another step towards gender equality in theater.
I think the emphasis the Goodman Theatre is placing on using theater to represent and illuminate minority voices and opinions is outstanding. Theater is meant to challenge, provoke, and foster growth in those who encounter it. With the current demographic spread in modern theatre, many important voices and opinions that could be elevated and amplified through theatre are instead excised, and their exclusion from the spotlight reinforces their status as a minority, or underrepresented population.
The Goodman made an important choice in creating an all-female playwright unit, instead of merely creating a female-dominated group. In completely removing a male voice this season, the unadulterated perspectives and creations of these women will be allowed to stand on their own, thus elevating their voices even further. I look forward to hearing about the works created by this unit, and I sincerely hope the Goodman Theatre continues this effort to present minority voices and opinions to the larger public.
While I'm very excited about this, one thing that always bugs me about stories such as this (stories that cheer on a theater/movie/show with a female director/writer/actresses) is that we even have to point it out. Why should we be surprised that all these playwrights are all women? Especially because they didn't do it intentionally, why were they so surprised that all the selectees were women? If they provided the best work, OF COURSE they would all be selected. We're so normalized to accept men in positions of authority that a group of women doing something in the same vein is foreign to us. Especially in the arts, we enjoy championing women who break through the glass ceiling, which is great, but why shouldn't women doing well be just as normal as men doing well?
All in all, though, this is very cool. It's a great step for female playwrights and I'm very excited to see the work they produce.
I have been. over the last few weeks, reading many, too many, articles on the inequality faced by women (especially women of color) in Hollywood and on Broadway. To be very honest, I didn't want to see another one of those articles, because, as a woman hoping to achieve something pretty wonderful (no clue as to what exactly, though) in a performance arts field, these articles made me feel uncomfortable, and a little apprehensive about what is to come for me in my future employment in this male-dominated field.
Then comes this article, trumpeting gender parity from the heavens. I exaggerate, of course, but after reading article after article about the systematic chauvinism in theater, this article, however overdue it is, seems like a true breath of fresh air. While I do agree with Amanda, that female playwrights dominating a season should be as commonplace as their male counterparts doing the same, I can't help but feel a tad relieved. It is not impossible for a woman to succeed in high-caliber theater, as much as statistics will tell us otherwise. I truly hope this becomes more common, and more visible. Rock on, Jenni, Calamity, Sandra, and Kristiana. Rock on.
Articles like this leave me so emotionally confused. I want to be really happy that it’s all women playwrights and then I’m upset that it’s something that has to be announced. Then after I read the article and it said that it happened by chance; that’s something I really appreciate. The fact that these women were all chosen by their talent and not their gender to make a statement is the pinnacle of what women artists have been trying to do for practically all of history. The Goodman theater has a history of being blind to race and gender and still being able to churn out great theater. Other places should take them as an example. I am also really happy to hear that the program they are authoring for is a learning type experience developed to foster their creativity. The stronger they are as a unit, the stronger their work will be and the stronger their image will be for women artist all over.
I have an overflowing amount of appreciation for Tayna Palmer’s method of picking the plays for her new season. It seems like she had a perfect balance of giving attention to talent and giving attention to the underrepresented artists who submitted. She did not sit down and tell herself that she had to pick all-women, that would be setting limits for herself and that would mean that the women picked were only selected for one reason, their gender. Instead, she sat down to pick her new season with the needs of the underrepresented in mind. She made these decisions because she cares about equal representation, she cares about everyone having a voice. This way, she is able to provide a stage for voices in need. This attention to the underrepresented female writers is what is going to make her theatre so worthwhile, the article showed that they are already making a change. The dent they made in Chicago statistics can spread an inspire many other theaters to think the same way.
Post a Comment