AMERICAN THEATRE: When we tallied this season’s Top 10 and Top 20 Most-Produced lists, we were heartened by the percentages: 8 of the 11 most-produced plays in the coming season are written by women, while 11 of the 20 most-produced playwrights are women. These are by far the best numbers in terms of gender parity we’ve ever seen on these lists, which each year offer a telling snapshot of the U.S. theatre field’s priorities and tastes. There are also a historic number of people of color on the playwrights’ list, making this a year in which we feel like we can genuinely report good news of positive trends toward better and fairer representation of the nation’s demographics on our stages.
2 comments:
It’s really refreshing to read an article like this. I normally find myself reading articles on gender inequality, sexism, racism, and other issues in the workplace, but this is the first article I have read that has something positive to say about the workplace. While reading, I found out that the amount of female playwrights has gone up by 21 percent from the year 2015 to 2016. The statistics that were presented in this article were ones that truly excited me and made me look forward for the progression of theater in the future. Although these number are exciting, it still is not equal. With the improvement from 2015 to 2016, there was no improvement the next year. There is still a high demand for more women in the workplace that is not being met. Something else that’s positive and changing in the theater world is the way they address genders, “We also distinguished gender from era: Any work with more than one credited author, including an adaptor or translator, of different genders was considered “co-written” in our gender tally”. This was really exciting to read because there was a scarce amount of focus in terms of gender issues. It’s really important to make sure that everyone in the workplace feels supported and welcome and I feel like this is one of many steps that need to be taken.
I love that this article explains how American Theater got the results. Often times articles skip right to the results which leaves the readers unsure of the methodology. Personally if I can’t understand where the research came from I am more likely to doubt the source. Knowing that American Theater separated out new plays, revivals and classics by 2008 and 1968 respectively is important information when understanding the results. Also, knowing that they neglected Shakespeare, as he would skew the results, is an important part of the study. Obviously for classic plays, there will always be more male playwrights. We would be lying to ourselves to think otherwise. However the numbers in modern female playwrights is extremely encouraging. Hopefully people are becoming more aware of the need for diverse playwrights and will be more conscience when choosing there season. Hopefully the number of female and genderqueer playwrights whose work is produced will continue to climb.
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