Datebook: The profession of acting hasn’t always treated women well: fewer roles, less interesting roles, less pay for similar work. But in the theater world, that might be changing. Take the 15 performers in ACT’s main-stage season thus far, in “Top Girls” and “Testmatch.” All the actors were women or nonbinary, and they all played female characters. It’s hard to imagine that, 10 or even five years ago, a major company would have opened its season with so many women.
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It is no secret that in the entertainment industry, those who identify as female are at a disadvantage in all aspects. From opportunities for roles, and opportunities for technical theater and design it is extremely important for people to recognize that sexism in the entertainment industry exists. This article covers the ways in which this particular awards ceremony removed the best female and best male categories, and replaced them with tiers based off of the budget size of the show. This is a very interesting way to look at this issue. As the article brings up, one thing that prompted this change was that it shut out a large community of people who identify as nonbinary. This article also mentions that the two categories mask the problem of gender inequality in the theatre because it frames them as equal, when they, in fact, are not. I encourage other award ceremonies to follow in the footsteps of the TBA awards in order to address this extremely prominent issue.
It can be hard to make people who are blind to gender disparities listen, which is why I am really happy to see that production companies and awards ceremonies are gathering data on the breakdowns of their winners and nominees. I've noticed that even in the awards ceremonies at my high school there were many more awards given to males than females for their work in leading or supporting roles, even though in some instances there were twice as many female actors in those categories. Not only does removing the separation between male and female awards make theater more inclusive for people identifying outside of binary genders, it reveals these deeper issues in how men and women are viewed in performance. At least at the level of theater that I have worked in, people often give men more credit for just showing up and doing an ok job while women have to do every performance out perfectly to get the same recognition.
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