Friday, October 29, 2021
New gender-neutral categories announced for Off-Broadway’s Lucille Lortel Awards
DC Metro Theater Arts: The Lucille Lortel Awards, honoring outstanding achievements Off-Broadway (productions in Manhattan venues with 100-499 seats), has announced that its awards for acting will no longer be defined by gender. The actor and actress categories for both musicals and plays will instead move to Outstanding Lead Performer in a Musical, Outstanding Supporting Performer in a Musical, Outstanding Lead Performer in a Play, and Outstanding Supporting Performer in a Play.
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I hope that we see this kind of change in entertainment award shows across the board in the near future. While I don't particularly follow award shows and therefore know very little about them, I'm surprised this is a change that took so long to get to. Gender identity and fluidity has been a highly discussed topic for many many years now and especially in our industry, you tend to meet non-binary individuals, or at least take the time to acknowledge that you have (putting an emphasis on asking for pronouns, etc.), more frequently. If I would expect non-binary terms and titles to be present in any area it would be ours. We've seen the progress made with titles in the workplace as well in the last 5 or so years. With master electricians being lighting managers and seamstresses being stitchers. The transition is a good and necessary one that will hopefully pick up quickly and with little resistance.
This is an important recognition of both the changes in theatre and in society as a whole around the conversation and demolition of the gender binary. Performers are starting to reflect society as a whole in regards to gender non-conformance, and the roles depicted on stage are no longer as divided out into the social segregation of “male” and “female” roles. Rather, we have roles that transcend gender and shows that don’t reduce characters to their relationship with another gender. Right now for Love and Information queerness and gender are a part of the deeper storytelling and not just tokenized, allowing queer people to have real stories that aren’t about just “being queer”. Granted, the broader industry has a lot to work on in gender diversity and inclusivity. We cannot so quickly forget how Jagged Little Pill erased a character’s non-binary identity to adapt to Broadway then won multiple Tony Awards after that was revealed. However, a shift in culture is in the works, and this is a big step forward.
I think this is an excellent step in the right direction for the industry. As the world has progressed, almost every industry, not just theatre, has fallen behind by continuing to operate using only the gender binary. We have been fighting for change for years now, and little by little change is starting to occur. But this – an off-Broadway awards show neutralizing their award categories, is a big step in the right direction. While I cannot imagine the Tony’s adopting this right away (that would be nice though…), for a major awards show like this to adopt it will likely open the door for more smaller-scale major awards shows to follow suit, and then hopefully bigger productions (like the Tony’s). I do wonder, though, if there will only be one winner per category, or multiple. If there are still two, though, one could still make the argument that this is still encouraging the gender binary. That aside, I still commend the Lucille Lortel Awards for making this change, as it will hopefully open the door for other awards ceremonies to follow suit.
This is a wonderful but surprising headline to see. It's good to see that we are moving in a positive direction, but it is worth reflecting on the recent fiasco with the production team of Hamilton as we congratulate our industry for including categories for gender-neutral individuals.
It is definitely an important headline. Though I do wonder how long until the Tony's adopt a similar category? I feel that pop culture appeals so much to old white people and in my experience, a headline like this in regards to the Tony's would draw a lot of negative press that I doubt they would like to invite at this time. It's important to recognize that the higher echelons of our industry are very behind on the times and aren't ready or willing to be inclusive of people that are different than them. But I hope with time as those people die, retire, or are removed from their positions we will start to see more and more headlines like this.
I’m sure I will not be the first to say that this change is a long time coming. That being said, it’s also very exciting! Theater markets itself as such a welcoming and inclusive industry, especially to queer people, but has continually failed in providing support to these communities. This change, at least, is a step toward preventing the future erasure of nonbinary identities and separation of sexes in theatrical awards. This change does half the amount of people who can win awards for performance though, and I am interested to see what the reaction is from the larger community. Additionally, this article skims over the addition of an “Outstanding Ensemble” award, but I think that award deserves more discussion. Some shows ultimately fall short of an overall best award because of a lackluster lead or design, and without the mention of “best,” often an ensemble will never get recognition. I think this new award is a positive addition to the Lucille Lortel Awards.
I hope this change to a gender neutral category will lead to the same change for bigger award shows like the Tony’s. There is not really a reason for the awards to be separated by gender, other than the fact that it always seemed like an easy distinction that allowed for more awards to be given for similar roles and break up the pools of nominees. It has been made clear over the past few decades that there is no easy separation between genders and that the gender binary is a construct. I think this kind of change would make it a lot harder to pick winners for the Tony’s since the pools would suddenly be doubled. I would say it could be good to just pick two winners without a gender tied to either, but I think that would create an unspoken continuation of the gendered tradition which would make the change meaningless or maybe even more harmful.
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