Women theatre artists are gaining high-profile careers—not just onstage (which, of course, is not new), but behind the scenes, a traditional male bastion. Check out Garry Hynes and Julie Taymor. In 1998, they were the first women in theatre history to receive Tony Awards for Best Director and Best Director of a Musical, respectively. According to the Theatre Communications Group (TCG), among the ten most produced plays regionally (by TCG members) in the 2000-2001 season, five were by women; Yasmina Reza's "Art" headed the list. "Wit" by Margaret Edson and Claudia Shear's "Dirty Blonde" were also high up. The previous season, the top two were "Art" and "Wit." And one year earlier, the most produced play on the national scene was "How I Learned to Drive" by the Pulitzer Prize-winning Paula Vogel. "The Vagina Monologues," by Eve Ensler is in production, internationally. And in the world of blockbuster musical, what new kid on the block surpasses Susan Stroman today?
Still, the question persists. Despite the obvious inroads these women have made, do their successes suggest that women have achieved parity with men in the theatre? Or, are they (the high-scoring women) the exceptions that prove the rule?
The Theatre Program of the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) wondered about all this. Reviewing applications for state funding, they noted, not coincidentally, that despite the mega-achievers on the distaff side, generally women playwrights and directors are under-represented in mainstage productions, especially at high-end budget institutions.
In an effort to examine this phenomenon, discuss the challenges, and find solutions, NYSCA brought together approximately 135 scholars, artists, critics, producers, and sociologists from around the country to participate in a series of roundtable discussions over the course of three years. These sessions were held in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco and were hosted by NYSCA, Women's Project and Productions, New Georges, Judith Shakespeare Company, and the Theatre Communications Group.
The findings are a mixed bag. Admittedly, women have tripled their participation rate (at least regionally) from 6%-7% in the late '60s through the early '70s to roughly 20%-25%, according to the Women's Project.
Those encouraging numbers, however, are not mirrored on Broadway or in major Off-Broadway houses. In 1999, as an example, women wrote 8% of the plays and 1% of the musicals on Broadway. In 25 years, the percentage of plays by women produced in major Off-Broadway mainstages increased by 3%, and the percentage of mainstage female directors increased by 5%.
In an almost consistent finding, the number of women playwrights and directors on board inversely reflects budget: More money, fewer women; less money, more women. And when women (directors or writers) are substantively represented in high-end budget theatres, they are usually relegated to readings, workshops, second stage productions, and/or children's theatre.
Perhaps even more striking: a fair number of the panelists, if not the majority, under-estimated the absence of women in high-end theatre slots, acknowledging that stars like Wendy Wasserstein succeed in skewing the picture; in short, a kind of tokenism is misperceived as progress.
Secondly, since tracking statistics are rare and inconsistent, the numbers are just not widely known. Apparently, many theatre women find statistical analyses a form of discrimination and thus a perpetuation of the problem. Equally relevant, many women (in and outside theatrical ranks) feel that discussing sexism (real or alleged) will make them appear contentious, marginalizing them even more.
Challenges
The obstacles to women's careers in theatre run the gamut—from concerns over childcare to the more subtle considerations, like the protagonist's gender in play selection. Repeatedly, the round table playwrights (like Tina Howe and Neena Beber) recalled being told to write plays from a male point of view because they were viewed as more commercially viable. Panelists wondered would "Art" have been produced had it been about three women? The two women critics—Newsday's Linda Winer and the Village Voice's Alisa Solomon—observed that stories about men are perceived as universal, whereas those about women are specific, if not parochial. Director Pam Berlin quipped that "Wit" is viewed as a play about a woman dying, rather than a play about death, like "King Lear."
Time Out reviewer Sam Whitehead admitted how surprised he was when he saw "Wit," since he had anticipated a whining victim play.
Solomon responded, wondering if anyone considered "Oedipus Rex" a whiny victim play.
Throughout the discussions, a number of panelists observed that women as well as men tend to identify with men and in fact find their (men's) stories more appealing and interesting; cultural and psychological training leads to the sensibility.
The gender of the playwright also provokes a host of generalizations about the nature of the work, including its artistic level and form. Plays by women are frequently viewed as "risky," whether or not they are unconventional, it was said. And if they are indeed experimental, the playwrights are dismissed as "trying to do something different," noted critic Jonathan Kalb, whereas a male playwright engaging in a little experimentation is elevated to an artist "taking a risk."
The panelists concurred all of these problems are, not surprisingly, magnified in an economic downturn, with diminishing financial support for the arts in general and rising costs of maintaining a theatre in particular.
Solutions
A number of strategies were pitched to combat the pitfalls women face. Among these strategies: concerted efforts at networking and mentoring. The latter is viewed as the most influential factor in career advancement. Many participants advocated strengthening "the old girls' network" as a stepping-stone for women.
The panelists also talked about the need for a greater historical awareness, citing ignorance of precedent, such as the role Margo Jones played in launching the regional theatre movement, an achievement that is usually credited to Tryone Guthrie without even the slightest nod to Jones. Theatre textbooks, the panelists said, give little mention to such theatre pioneers as Hallie Flanagan, founder the Federal Theatre Project, Cheryl Crawford, who co-founded both the Group Theatre and The Actors Studio, and Eva LeGallienne, who produced her own translation—the first in English—of Chekhov's "Three Sisters," at her own theatre, The Civic Repertory Theatre.
And then there is the history of plays by women that have largely disappeared. The panelists advocated seeing these "lost" plays resurrected to their rightful place and incorporated into the dramatic canon.
Many panelists argued that bringing a feminist perspective to classics is a step in the right direction, citing the number of books that consider everything from stagecraft to interpretation from a woman's point of view.
In the end, the panelists largely agreed that as much as one might wish to ignore the ways in which gender affects what's on stage as well as behind-the-scene experiences, gender bias will only continue, unless acknowledged and addressed. Blindness will lead to business as usual.