Counting Actors: the 2nd 100 shows writers+gender+time stats

To see how this post compares to the same data for the first 100 shows, please take a look here.

So, if you're following along, you'll recall that the 2nd hundred plays had 99 male writers and 32 female writers (or 76% and 24%) and that the number is higher than 100 because of co-author situations, multiple one-acts on the same bill, and including writers of lyrics, book, music for musicals in the writers category.

In this post, I'm looking at how the writer's gender varies depending on when the play was written.  If the play was written prior to 1960, I'm labeling it a classic play.  If after 1960, I'm calling it a contemporary play.  And, within the contemporary play category, I'm calling plays written since 2000 new plays.

Of shows 101-200, 22 fell into the classic category and 80 fell into the contemporary category.  Two of the shows counted had 1 play/author from before 1960 and 1 or more plays/authors from after, so ended up getting counted 2 times (ACT's Endgame/Play has publishing dates of 1957 and 1963, and Golden Thread's ReOrient Series A included Egyptian playwright Tawfiq Al Haqim's War and Peace, from 1944, along with several new pieces).  With in the contemporary category, 69 plays were new.

The classic pieces had 22 writers total, breaking down to 22 male writers and no female writers.  No one co-authored here, and no musicals were in this category.

The contemporary pieces were written by 101 writers, and include multi-writer shows like the Best of Playground and the previously mentioned ReOrient series, as well as co-written shows and musicals.  Of the 101 writers, 78 were male and 32 female, or 71% and 29% respectively.

Within the contempory category, I did pull out 69 new plays, written by 96 writers, 66 male and 30 female, or 69% and 31% respectively.

More data to come - in regards to who is working with which union contract, and also putting all two hundred shows into some useable, shareable infographics.  Stay tuned!!