Tied for the most produced play of the season are two former Broadway titles, Lucas Hnath's A Doll's House, Part 2 and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Simon Stephens.
Steve Martin and Edie Brickell's Tony-nominated bluegrass musical, Bright Star, also made the list.
5 comments:
It is very interesting to see the variation of the most produced plays for 2019 - 2020. There is also a very interesting variation between contemporary plays and classical, time old shows the people love such as the dollhouse. Regarding, some of the selections it’s very encouraging to see that shows like The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, and The Wolves are on this list because they are incredibly moving pieces in terms of the subject matter. When I saw The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time in the eighth grade, it was the first time I saw an autistic character portrayed on the stage and sparked a discussion in my class about autism and the social struggles different people experience. I first read The Wolves last year, and it I really connected to the show, especially as a high school senior at the time. This was another instance in which I had never seen this subject matter on stage, and I connected deeply with the show. Seeing more and more theatre being produced that pushes boundaries and sparks discussion is so encouraging as someone emerging into the industry. (Also this year features work by 7 women playwrights!!)
It is very interesting to see who decided to produce certain shows and to look at why they might choose them for their season. It seems like a lot of popular shows produced have been on Broadway previously (A Doll's House and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time). It is great to see shows that I have seen as well. I recently learned about Lauren Yee as a playwright when I saw Cambodian Rock Band and got to meet her in person. After the show I got to research about all the productions and other shows Lauren has written. Being able to know that she is a part of the top 10 most produced playwrights of this year is incredible. I also love the fact that more than half the playwrights mentioned in these lists are women. It is great to see these statistics lined up next to each other.
What a great list from Broadway World. I am always slightly hesitant to read these lists because I typically find myself disappointed by the lack of diversity in them. To read through and see that of the fourteen most produced plays, seven of them were written by women? And then to keep going through and see that six playwrights of color were included in the most produced playwrights was very exciting. It also is great that the first Native American playwright, Larissa FastHorse, made the list. The list is a great start in showing that our efforts to push for our voices to be heard is working. All the works seem to push to talk about difficult and subject matter and move to challenge their audience. I also notice that Cambodian Rock Band is on the list, which a few friends of mine have seen at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and all have loved it! I am hoping to catch it at City Theatre in Pittsburgh!
This list gives me so much hope! A Doll’s House, Part 2 (and 1) is such an amazing show and an important story to be told! It’s such a real, raw story and it means a lot to me. If you haven’t read it, please do! The fact that the top 2 most produced playwrights this year are women is incredible! I’m currently taking Playwriting, which is focused on female-written plays and learning about these incredible, yet suppressed playwrights makes me so angry. So, this makes me so happy! SEVEN of the fourteen most produced plays were written by women! That’s half!!! Also six of the most produced playwrights are playwrights of color! Six out of 22 isn’t exactly proportional to the number of playwrights of color, but I can only assume it’s progress from previous years! It seems like female-written plays are being produced proportionally to the population of men and women. So, this means that we really need to make progress in how often we produce plays by playwrights of color. But overall, the fact that important and diverse stories are being told all over the country is incredible and warms my heart. Also, note: I did not get to see Cambodian Rock Band and I'm upset that I missed it.
It was good to reacquaint myself with what is happening in the industry on the shows and producing side of it because frequently I feel as if I am mostly disconnected on the larger scale of seeing what shows that the industry itself is responsible for producing. Though I’m currently fully engaged in the technology and acquisition of some of the hard skills for my area of focus reading plays is something that brings me a substantial amount of joy and one of the reasons I love theatre as much as I do. The list itself and a bit of research on my part showed what I consider to be a fairly diverse showing and I think that is definitely good news. It also appeared that along with the shows and their content being diverse the playwrights themselves are a diverse group as well. Though this sampling seems to be a relatively small group to be collecting data from I really do hope that it is a sign that the industry is on a road to sustainable diversity and this “trend” is actually more than a trend and is representative of a more substantial permanent change.
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