Counting Actors and the local/non-local issue

When I first envisioned the Counting Actors project, I added the question of whether actors were local or not partly because I was afraid that 'just' tracking gender wouldn't get enough people interested.

Fast forward just under two years, and it turns out many many people are interested in tracking gender of actors, writers and directors.  Theatre Bay Area magazine has even published an article about my findings, focused on the gender portion of this study.

In this post, I'm taking the exact same plays used for the TBA article, listed here, and looking at the numbers in regards to local and non-local hires.

I include 235 plays in this count, rather than the full 236.  There was one play that I couldn't find out what kind of union contract it had used, even after a conversation with the LA Equity office, who had to admit that the show had slipped through their fingers.

Here's what I found in table format, broken down by type of contract, with totals at the bottom.

Type of contract	Number of Plays (% of total)	Total actors (% of total)	Total union actors (% of total)	Total non-local actors (% of total)	Non-local actors as % of total actors	Non-local actors as % of union actors
No contract	58 (25%)	406 (22%)	0 (0%)	5 (3%)	1%	NA
BAPP	21 (9%)	122  (7%)	46 (7%)	1 (>1%)	>1%	2%
Contracts without health weeks	24 (10%)	227 (12%)	43 (6%)	6 (3%)	3%	14%
Contracts with health weeks	132 (56%)	1074 (59%)	588 (87%)	188 (94%)	18%	32%
TOTALS	235 (100%)	1829 (100%)	677 (100%)	200 (100%)	11%	29%

235 plays used 1829 actors, and 677 (37%)  of those actors were union members.  Of that same total, 200 actors or 11% of the total were non-local.  The line that probably holds the most interest for the union actors reading this is the line that breaks out contracts with health weeks.  Those 132 shows employed 1074 actors, 588 (55%) of them members of AEA.  188 of the actors working on those shows with the high level contracts were from out of town.  They made up 18% of the actors who worked on these shows, and 32% of the actors who worked on contracts with health weeks in the San Francisco Bay Area. 

Counting Actors April 2013

Before you read this month's list - a few places to get even more Counting Actors.
1) the May/June issue of Theatre Bay Area magazine - yours truly has an article on p.20, with cumulative data for over 230 shows, as well as reactions from members of the local theater community to put the whole thing in context.  No online link yet, but I'll share when I've got it.
2) DIVAFest - on May 25 from 3-6, DIVAFest hosts a two part symposium event where I'll be talking about findings and patterns in the Counting Actors project along side other artists who are looking at ways to address gender parity.  I would love to see you there!

April's Counting Actors features 15 shows and brings the total count to 262.  This project began in June 2011, and all past posts relating to the topic - the monthly totals, the posts w/aggregated information - as well as info on how to contribute info on a show you've seen or been part of can be found at the Counting Actors Page.

15 shows counted:
Shotgun/Shipwreck (actors for this piece incl. 2 boys alternating a role - both are included in the count)
TheatreWorks/Being Earnest (2 m writers included in the count - one book/lyrics, one libretto/lyrics. m director and m music director incl. in director count)
Theatre of Yugen/Sorya 2013 (show is several Japanese Kyogen pieces, which are traditionally performed by an all-male ensemble.  This company is all female, so women play both male and female characters)
Ragged Wing/Time Sensitive (writer and director for this project are same person. F actor plays M role of 'Clockmaker')
Intersection for the Arts & Campo Santo/The River (M musician not included in this count. F stage manager also came onstage and spoke about 5 lines)
Custom Made/Eurydice
ACT/Stuck Elevator (m director, f music director, m composer, m librettist, also 2m 1 f understudy who are not included in count)
Berkeley Rep/Pericles (8 actors play multiple roles in this piece, incl. women playing male characters incl. Gower)
Symmetry Theater/Language Rooms
Center REP/39 Steps (2 m actors on this piece play many roles incl. both male and female characters)
Aurora/Arsonists (1 f in 'firefighter chorus' a traditionally all male group)
San Jose Stage/Persuasion
Magic/The Happy Ones
MTC/The Whipping Man
Crowded Fire/The Bereaved

The Stats
11 male directors, 6 female directors
12 male writers, 5 female writers
112 total actors
68 male actors, 45 female actors
57 total union actors, 55 total non-union actors
36 union male actors, 21 union female actors
99 total local actors, 13 total non-local actors

Thank you to everyone who contributed statistics for this month's count.  If you are in a show or see a show with performances in May that hasn't been counted yet, please go to the Counting Actors page for directions on how to submit the info.  Contributors for this month include audience members, cast members, writers.  Thank you to Phoebe Moyer, Pidge Meade, Sheila Devitt, Annie Paladino, Amy Clare Tasker, Lily Tung Crystal, Tiiu Eva Rebane, Martha Richards, Anne Hallinan and Jenn LeBlanc. 

Thank you for sharing and talking and posting about what you're reading here - please talk in the green room, dressing room, audition room and post-show bar, and share, tweet, update, comment, like, + on any social media of your choice. #femtheatre is a great twitter hashtag to use/search as well.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Counting Actors March 2013

This month's edition of Counting Actors features 11 shows, and brings the total count to 247!   Visit the Counting Actors page for links to past posts, how to contribute, and other info relating to this project which I started in June 2011.

The March/April issue of Theatre Bay Area has an article by Velina Brown about various feminist theater companies and advocacy projects and mentions the Counting Actors project.  Look for an article by me, with some cumulative info on blog data and reactions from the community in the May/June issue of the magazine.  I'll post a link when it becomes available online.

11 shows counted:

Cutting Ball/The Chairs

ACT/Dead Metaphor (2 male and 2 female union understudies are not included in count below)

Berkeley REP/Fallaci

Mugwumpin&Z Space/The Great Big Also (no writer credited for this production - ensemble developed piece)

Central Works/The Grand Inquisitor (one male actor played multiple roles incl. F 'beggar woman' character)

Theatre Rhino/A Lady and A Woman

3 Girls Theatre/ 3 Shorts - The Things We Do for Love

3 Girls Theatre/The Couch

Theatreworks/The Mountaintop

San Jose Stage/Red

Berkeley Playhouse/Guys and Dolls (male director, male music director, writing team is 3 men - 1 composer and 2 book/lyrics; cast includes 4 children - 2 boys, 2 girls who alternate performances of 2 roles)

The Stats:

7 male directors, 5 female directors

8 male writers, 4 female writers

61 total actors

32 men, 29 women

21 equity actors, 39 non-equity actors

12 union men, 9 union women

55 local actors, 6 non-local actor

Cast members, audience members and producer/writers contributed to this month's count.  Thank you so much to: Tamar Cohn, Phoebe Moyer, Carol Lashof, Suze Allen, Patricia Milton, Amy Clare Tasker, Anne Hallinan, Kelly Ground, Lily Tung Crystal and Aaron Wilton.

As always, your continued conversation about the statistics with your friends and theater colleagues is appreciated, whether virtual or in-person.  Check the #femtheatre hashtag for discussion on this and related conversation.

Counting Actors January 2013

This project dates back to June 2011, and is very close to logging 225 shows.  For a history of the project, links to previous posts, and information on how to submit a show that you've seen or worked on, visit the Counting Actors info page.

I'm very pleased to announce that Theatre Bay Area will be running an article I wrote about the project that includes cumulative data as well as reactions from the community, so watch for that next issue!

12 shows counted:

Ross Valley Players/Pack of Lies

Marin Theater Company/Waiting for Godot (cast includes 2 boys who alternate in the role of 'Boy' and both are included below)

Theatre Rhino/Something Cloudy, Something Clear

Tides Theater/Little Foxes

Playground co-production w/Katie May and Liz Anderson/Manic Pixie Dream Girl

ACT/4000 Miles (3 local union understudies, 2M, 1F are not included below)

San Jose Rep/Next to Normal (M Director, F Music Director, 2M writers, 1 book/lyrics, 1 music)

Custom Made/Why Torture is Wrong and People Who Love Them

Role Players Ensemble/Expecting Isabel

TheatreWorks/Somewhere

Aurora Theater/Our Practical Heaven

Berkeley Rep/Troublemaker

The Stats:

6 male directors, 7 female directors

9 male writers, 4 female writers

78 total actors

42 men, 36 women

40 equity actors, 38 non-equity actors

24 union men, 18 union women

55 local actors, 23 non-local actors

Stats this month came in from cast members, directors, and audience members including: Molly Noble, Phoebe Moyer, Aaron Wilton, Liz Anderson, Carol Lashof, Anne Hallinan, Karen Thomson Hall, Katja Rivera, Alisha Erhlich, and Eva Rebane.  Thank you all so much for sharing statistics with the Counting Actors Project.

Hoping that all who read will share what they see this month with those around them.

Join the campaign!

Hey Bay Area Theater Artists - I hope you'll join me in this simple letter writing campaign asking Theatre Bay Area to prioritize gender equity in the 2013 annual conference.  The how-to steps are below.

It's quick, it's easy, and it's time that the discrepancy between the number of women who live in the region, and the number of women who work as writers, directors, actors and other theater artists in the region is addressed in a forum of this size and scope.

HOW TO PARTICIPATE:

1) Theatre Bay Area's annual conference is scheduled for April 2013, and they will begin planning in the new year. We would like to see Gender Equity as a major focus of this conference. Please help us to achieve this goal.

2) Cut and paste the letter below into an email and send to: 

brad@theatrebayarea.org (Brad Erickson, Executive Director), 

dale@theatrebayarea.org (Dale Albright, Director of Field Services), 

dana@theatrebayarea.org (Dana Harrison, Managing Director) and

tba@theatrebayarea.org (Carina Salazar, Grants and Events Coordinator). 

****Please edit this letter to reflect your personal experience and relationship w/Theatre Bay Area - see the top of the letter for three options****

3) Share your actions w/friends and artistic peers, and encourage them to email as well.  Male and female friends as well as not current members of Theatre Bay Area who are involved in local theater can and should be encouraged to email this letter.

4) Please do all of this as soon as possible!  The Theatre Bay Area offices are currently closed for a winter holiday and will re-open on Jan 3rd.  We'd love to see their inboxes full of this request.

5) Once you have completed sending the letter, please email TBAConferencecampaign@gmail.com to report your action.  Or Bcc the email address in your correspondence with TBA!!!

Thanks so much friends!!!!

And now, the letter:

****************

Dear Brad, Dana and Dale:

***I am writing as an individual member of Theatre Bay Area for (FILL IN AS APPROPRIATE) number of years. 

*****OR I am writing as a company member for  (FILL IN AS APPROPRIATE) number of years with (FILL IN NAME OF COMPANY). 

*****OR I am writing as an artist in the Bay Area theater community who is not a current member of Theatre Bay Area.

As Theatre Bay Area prepares for its annual conference, I urge TBA to prioritize including a thorough and focused conversation about gender inequity in Bay Area Theatre.  In recent months the theatre community has witnessed both a local and global groundswell of energy, passion and concern around the specific issue of gender parity, and it is long past time to give it the attention it deserves.

According to Theatre Bay Area’s own 2008 ‘Baseline Survey’, women make up 57% to 79% of individual members in every category (actors, administrators, choreographers, directors, designers, educators, funders, patrons, playwrights, and technicians). 

In addition, women are over 50% of the Actor’s Equity membership and, in some studies, over 70% of ticket buyers nationwide, (60% for TBA’s above mentioned survey).  Furthermore, plays by and about women consistently find the most success with the US. theatre box office.  Yet women still are not represented equitably on US stages, nor have any American theatre service organizations made the gender parity issue a priority for examination in their publications or conferences.

Given these numbers, a focused discussion on how to include more women in the creative aspects of theatre production and performance is not only overdue, it is crucial to defining theatre for a new generation, as well as for the audiences we are already blessed to have.  

Theatre Bay Area, as a highly regarded service organization, has a unique opportunity and obligation to its members to provide the leadership and platform for examining this issue.  Facilitating a serious and focused dialogue between individuals and companies at the upcoming TBA conference will raise awareness about the intricacies of this vital matter.

I look forward to attending this year’s conference and engaging with TBA staff, member theatres and individuals about the urgent issue facing our work. 

I hope you will seriously consider making gender inequity a primary focus of the conference.

Thank you for your time.  

Sincerely,

Panelist!

Theatre Bay Area is holding a Diversity Symposium on Monday December 3rd from 2-6 at Berkeley's Aurora Theater.

I will be on a panel discussing diversity issues and the individual artist.  I

It's a free event, but you need to RSVP in advance, which you can do here.

I hope to see you there!

#TBACON takeaways

Due to my usual juggling of jobs, I wasn't able to get to the conference until after the keynote speaker had finished, and I didn't get to stay for any programming after 4pm.  The TBA Chatterbox blog has a post with several different perspectives on the conference, and comments on many things that I wasn't able to attend. 

The first thing I was able to attend was the Season Selection and Local Acting Landscape panel.  I wasn't sure what this would really address, but it turned out to be a glimpse into the mind of people who make casting decisions.  There was some terrific discussion around how they all talk to each other ALL THE TIME.  They are constantly having conversations about 'do you know any actors who fit this specific type that I should be seeing?'.   My take-away - always go to the audition, and focus on the relationship you're building over time, not just whether or not you got this part this one time.  The other topic they really delved into was when actors are dealing with multiple offers.  My take-away here was - be as honest as you can, and involve the casting director in the conversation as early as possible.  It's much worse to drop a show when it's already in rehearsal than it is to leave prior to rehearsals starting.  Also, they're dealing with this conflicting set of emotions - some frustration and hurt because you've created more work for them in having to recast, but also a lot of excitement for the actor who is making a big leap with his or her career.  Two more takeaways - make a facebook connection to casting directors, and keep letting them know what you're doing.  Your headshot and resume may be on file in their book, but their book isn't their brain - connecting w/casting directors will keep you in their brain.

After lunch, I went to the Diversity on Purpose panel,  I'll confess to a combo of nerves about my upcoming panel and a little bit of the post-lunch spaciness.  I didn't get a lot out of this panel.  Diversity is a huuuuge topic for one hour, but the points here about diversifying the audience, not just the actors on stage was well taken.  Also, the many forms of diversity that exist - not just ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, but what about age, political affiliation, religion.

My last event of the day was my personal MAIN EVENT - the Gender Parity panel.  Panelists AJ Baker playwright and founder of 3 Girls Theater, Rebecca Ennals of San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, also an independent director and Marilyn Langbehn, another independent director who also works in the Cal Shakes marketing department were all fantastic, and I'm so grateful to them for their contributions.  After about 30 minutes, we began a group discussion with the 30-40 women and 3-4 men who were in the room.

Some takeaways for me:  How to change the perceptions in the general population so that women's stories become human stories is a big one.  Also I was surprised that a lot of people who were there weren't familiar with things like the Bechdel test and who the Guerilla Girls are.  Rebecca Ennals spoke about her experience of watching women audition at the TBA generals with monologues along the lines of 'why doesn't he like me?' or 'how can I get him to notice me?' and coming out of that with an idea to create a monologue database of empowered female characters.  Marilyn spoke about creating change from within - coming to a company as a freelancer, and then suggesting to that company plays by women and/or roles for women for future productions.


Mostly I was struck by the fact that we can all be agents for change.  We need to read women's writing, get to know the plays with roles for women, and the women directors and women actors so that moving forward we can advocate for each other when the opportunity arises.

Tom Ross responds to Carol's open letter

Still working on my TBA Conference wrap up!  In the meantime, I'm very pleased that Tom Ross of the Aurora has allowed me to post his response to playwright Carol Lashof's open letter.

Read below.


Dear Ms. Lashof,
Yes, you are right that next season we do not have any women playwrights represented in our roster of five plays. That was certainly not my aim nor is it something I am proud of.  As a playwright, I would imagine that you understand that a theatre’s seasons come together in more of an organic way than simply saying that we are going to do plays xy&z and then obtaining the rights to plays xy&z.  This is particularly true when you are a small 150-seat theatre like Aurora.  Playwrights and their agents, both woman and men alike, like to give permission to produce their work to the larger houses so they can make larger royalties.  In preparation for this season, I tried to obtain the rights to five plays written by women and in all instances was rejected.
I certainly have no prejudice against plays by women.  We recently closed the Bay Area premiere of Annie Baker’s play, “Body Awareness” to great critical and financial success.  Last season, both our world premiere of Allison Moore’s play “Collapse” and Alice Childress’ infrequently performed “Trouble in Mind” were big successes. Additionally this season, we commissioned Margret Schaefer to translate a new version of Schnitzler’s “Anatol.”
As far as Aurora theatre going backwards, that is actually incorrect.  There have been huge strides in diversity at Aurora in all ways since I became Artistic Director 8 years ago.  I am not going to get into statistics but I have produced far more plays written by women in my 8 seasons than our founding artistic director did in her 12.  Additionally, in those same 8 years, 23 Aurora productions have been directed by women and 17 by men.
Sexual diversity goes well beyond playwriting and directing here.  We hire many women set, lighting, costume designers, electricians and scenic artists who work with us regularly. Muriel Maffre, the former prima ballerina of the SF Ballet initiated, conceived and co-directed a version of Stravinsky’s “The Soldier’s Tale” here last year utilizing Mary Chun as our music director/pianist and featuring alternating female violinists who appeared onstage.
I appreciate your passion and how hard it is for anyone in theatre, whether they are playwrights, actors or designers, to have their work appear on stages.  I understand that women and racially diverse playwrights are produced less than Caucasian males.  I have devoted my life to producing and creating the best work I can and am proud of the strides we are making here at Aurora to represent a diverse group of people behind the scenes and on our stage.
I am supplying a link to an article (its 2 ½ years old)  by Robert Hurwitt in the San Francisco Chronicle about the production of female playwrights in the Bay Area Theatre you may find of interest.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/12/13/PKRL1APUD5.DTL
Sincerely,
Tom Ross
Artistic Director
PS Alas, we do not receive any state or federal funding.

Quick, name 3!

I'm getting really excited prepping for the panel at the TBA Annual Conference tomorrow.

I just had to post links to two terrific and timely articles.
1) Playwright Lauren Gunderson writing in the TBA Chatterbox blog "Women Aren't Minorities!"  It's short, simple and to the point.
2) Meghan Arnette, founder of Seattle's Live Girls theater, has a post over at Howlround, "In Defense of Supporting Work by Women" Both the article and the comments are terrific.  Her point of naming 3 female playwrights you love instead of rehashing the same tired old questions is inspiring.

Enjoy!

Hope to see you tomorrow!

#TBACON

No, it's not a delicious new breakfast meat (that was my first thought anyway), it's the Theatre Bay Area Annual Conference!

It's happening next Monday, May 14th and has speakers, a vendor faire, breakout sessions and all kinds of info for all kinds of theatermakers.  You can go for the full day, or just for the evening 'after hours' sessions.  And, if you've got the time but not the money, they still need volunteers.

I'm super excited to be moderating a breakout session on gender parity for the conference.  Here's the program description of the panel:
Research tells us that women make up the majority of ticket buyers and theatre attendees. Yet, the issue remains that work of, for and with women make up a disproportionately smaller percentage of programming field-wide. Join this discussion as we look at how this issue affects the Bay Area theatre scene and what the future might look like.
This panel happens from 3-4pm - come on by and say hi!

For info on TBACON, including registration and a preview of the conference program, go here.