On Practicing what you Preach

Recent teaching work has gotten me thinking about how I talk about and model gender parity while wearing my teaching artist hat.

This is still evolving, but here are a few thoughts:

1) if a girl brings in a monologue for a male character, a boy brings in a monologue for a female character - no judgement.  If they've read and understand the circumstances of the monologue and the play it's from, and the language speaks to them - do it & work on it - understand that this may not fly elsewhere, but the boy who brought in Tilly from  Gamma Rays and the girl who brought Charlie from Perks of Being a Wallflower - go! (although technically I said bring in monologues from plays not movies)

2) when I'm assigning scenes or monologues - check myself on writer gender parity.  For a program that ended with students doing 2 and 3 person scenes from published plays, I notice that for 8 scenes, I have 3 female writers, 6 male writers (one of the pieces was co-written by two women).  So I need to do better on this one - continue to educate myself on the women writers out there, so that I can assign, share, promote women writers.

What are other ways that we can bring gender parity to our teaching work?

And, if anyone's got suggestions for plays for teens by women writers, throw those into the comments section too!

Side note: Bay Area folks, if you don't already know about it, I strongly encourage you to check out worksbywomensf.wordpress.com, like Works by Women SF on facebook, and/or join the Works by Women SF group on meetup.com - we've got a few great outings planned to attend shows and support women making theater in the region - it'd be great to see you there, Bay Area.

Counting Actors June 2013

The project counts 9 shows for the month of June, now up to a total of 281 shows since June 2011 and is now 2 years old!  For more info on the project, including what you can do to contribute a set of stats, please check the Counting Actors Page on this blog.

My apologies for a late post - the goal is to get this info out between the first and fifth of the month, but with the BART strike, my commute to direct summer camp was extra lengthy, and I'm just now catching up!

9 shows counted:
ACT/Arcadia (count for this show does not include 4 understudies, all local, 2M, 2F and 3 union, w/1M non-union)
Impact/Jukebox Stories (this show has no credited director, and 2 credited writers, 1 songs, 1 stories. The writers are also the performers)
Bigger than a Breadbox/Tis Pity She's a Whore (this production both cut and combined characters and changed a male character of Friar into a female Nun)
Cal Shakes/American Night
Crowded Fire/ 410[GONE]
MTC/Beauty Queen of Leenane
NCTC/Birds of a Feather (both genders and species crossed in this production - men played women, women played men, humans played animals of both genders!!)
Cutting Ball/Crispy Critters in the Scarlet Night
San Jose Stage/Reefer Madness (of the two male writers on this production, 1 did lyrics, the other did music and both collaborated on the book)

The stats:
6 male directors, 2 female directors
10 male writers, 1 female writer
67 total actors
38 male actors, 28 female actors
25 union actors, 42 non-union actors
17 union men, 8 union women
59 local actors, 8 non local actors

A huge thanks to the folks who've helped make this project possible for the last two years by sharing stats from shows they've seen or worked on.  From the most recent batch, thank you to Phoebe Moyer, Alisha Ehrlich, Galen Murphy-Hoffman, Ryan Courtney, Karen Thomson Hall, Colin Thomson, Paul Cello and Lily Tung Crystal. 

Please share and talk about this info and this project with your friends and with the community at large - whether it's at half-hour or at a five minute rehearsal break, this info is only worth something if we keep talking about it.

And, if you've got a show with performances in July that hasn't been counted yet, please submit statistics following the instructions on the Counting Actors Page, and help me keep this project going for another year!

Thanks!

Counting Actors May 2013

A huge thank you to DivaFest and everyone who came out for last weekend's Symposium event!  Though nothing specific is on the books, I'm sure that more events like this one will be forthcoming, and I'll share them when I have more info.

In a slightly different vein, the Union Women Actors Coalition (UWAC) is presenting a 36 Hour Playfest/Benefit on June 24th, 8pm curtain.  UWAC was formed to both draw attention to lack of gender parity for Equity women and to showcase the Equity women of the Bay Area.  The 36 Hour Playfest will feature over 30 Equity women as actors, directors and writers in new plays written specifically for the Playfest.  All proceeds from the event will benefit the extraordinary non-profit San Francisco Safehouse, a unique 18 month residential program for homeless women leaving prostitution.  There's more info here, and you can (and should!) purchase tickets here.  The event has limited seating and will probably sell out.  I'm excited to be acting in this event.

Since June 2011, the Counting Actors project has now counted 273 shows!  For more info on the  project, visit this blog's Counting Actors page.

11 shows counted:
Magic/Terminus
Indra's Net/Copenhagen
Douglas Morrison/Eurydice  (all 3 Stones played by women; usual casting is 2m, 1w)
Center REP/Pilgrims Shari and Musa in the New World
Center REP/Sweet Charity (male music director, female director, 3 credited writers - 2 men for boo & music, one woman for lyrics)
Shotgun/By and By
DivaFest/You're Going to Bleed
Butterfield 8/Salome
Central Works/Medea Hypothesis
ACT/Black Watch (all Scottish cast are counted as union actors, although not members of AEA, they are appearing with AEA's permission)
SF Playhouse/Abigail's Party
 
The stats:
7 male directors, 5 female directors
8 male writers, 5 female writers
76 total actors
41 men, 35 women
33 union, 43 non-union
23 union men, 10 union women
64 local, 12 non local

Thank you so much for those who've shared stats for May! This group includes audience and cast members like Alisha Erlich, Carol Lashof, Patricia Milton, Susan Shay, and Phoebe Moyer. 

I've got a few stats already for shows that won't open until June, given to me by folks working on them - I'm always happy to accept stats for shows happening in the future, but don't accept them for shows from the previous month.  It takes just 5 minutes to send the email - so if you're working on a show or see a show with performances in June, please visit the Counting Actors page for instructions on how to share the data.

As always, please share and talk about these numbers with others. 

When is it okay to talk about body parts?

Let's say you live in San Francisco.  And let's say you have a female friend who is a great chef.  We'll call her Josie.  She has run her own restaurant, and is currently adjunct faculty at City College in the restaurant and hospitality program.  In her course, students run a mock restaurant  - they staff every position at that restaurant from chef to line cook to host to server to busser.  And, for 3-4 weeks, their restaurant is open to the public 3 nights a week. 

Josie is really proud of the work her students have done - she uses facebook, twitter and whatever other social media she's good at to invite her extended network to come to the restaurant.
She says things like 'the food is great!' and 'the service is exceptional' and 'the men are all wearing tight pants and their butts look a-maz-ing!'

What's your reaction in this hypothetical scenario?  Is it 'Awesome! Nothing like some well formed glutes to get the ol' salivary juices flowing! I'm booking a table for tomorrow!'  or is it 'hey wait a minute - aren't you their professor?  Josie - doesn't talking about your students bodies in this way violate a code of ethics or professional conduct or something?  As your friend, you might not want to announce that tight pants/amazing butts thing on a public forum.'

I'm hoping it's something along the lines of the 2nd response.  I'm aware that parts of the first response may also cross your mind.  I know that a lot of us like looking at well formed bodies, and that we sometimes discuss those well formed bodies with our friends. 

Here's the key differences though. 1) public forum and 2) professor student relationship and 3) did I mention public forum?

Here's a real situation - there's a community college in the Bay Area, outside of San Francisco, currently running a production of a swashbuckling play with sword fights, and from what I can gather on public forums, costuming from the era of the piece, so that means women in corsets and lots of cleavage.  The director of the piece, who I don't know personally, but we've got some mutual facebook friends, is adjunct faculty at this community college.  On a facebook group, he has described his piece thusly: 'Boobs and Swords! Send me an haiku about swashbuckling and win two comps! (limit 10 pair per performance. Ten pair of what? Comps. Pervert.)'

And with this simple phrase, he's communicating to the larger community that the men are valuable for what they do (those swords and the swashbuckling) and the women are valuable for what they look like (that's the boobs part of this whole thing).  On a 1) public forum and 2) as the director (professor) describing his actors (students).

Some people have said 'so what?' to this whole thing.  Others have sent angry emails to the director's supervisors asking for him to lose his job.

Where do you fall on this spectrum?

More importantly - if your reaction to the hypothetical scenario is different from your reaction to the real scenario - why is it different? 

I'd love to hear answers to those questions in the comments.

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.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gender Parity Reading List: TACTICS, Howlround, Carey P on HuffPo

This is a great week for reading about gender parity in the blogosphere.

Check the Works by Women SF TACTICS interview series here.  I'm proud to be one of the women theatermaker/advocates included in these interviews. Each interview ends with a suggestion of a simple action that will work toward gender parity.

Howlround has a fantastic series of interviews and essays running this week, including Julia Jordan, Lydia Diamond, Lauren Gunderson and Carey Perloff.  Theatre Bay Area is the curator of this series, as a lead-up to Monday's Annual Conference.

And Carey's also on HuffPo with a response to  Sheryl Sandberg's Lean In.

I know that people are responding to these writings on their own blogs. I've seen a few of those here and here.  Anything else that people should be reading that I've missed?  Add them to the comments.

A book and a film to check out

Art and struggle/art and oppression feature prominently in both of these things, and have given me a lot to think about and reflect on in this transition from old year to new.

Thing one: Joseph Anton - Salman Rushdie's memoir, focusing heavily on his post-Satanic Verses life and experiences.  The title comes from the alias he used during that time, taken from the names of his two favorite writers. (Joseph) Conrad and (Anton) Chekhov.  I'm about 3/4 of the way through, but already felt that it was worth recommending here.

Thing two: you may or may not have read the recent New Yorker article about the Turkish women's theater company (full text only there for subscribers, unfortunately).  The article mentions a documentary about the group, and the 2 minute trailer is here.

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,

News Round-Up

International: The Guardian UK has been running a thoughtful, articulate and passionate series of articles this week on representation of women on British stages.  There are infographics, data analysis articles, a feature, an opinion piece, and a second infographic that focuses specifically on the gender breakdown in Shakespeare.  It was interesting to me to see how similar the British data was to what I've been finding with the Counting Actors project: especially at the higher budget levels, the ratio of representation male to female is roughly 2:1.

Local: Theatre Bay Area's Chatterbox blog has new content relating to last week's Diversity Symposium.  Staff member Dale Albright has a wrap-up post that includes suggestions for taking action.   And several attendees share their reactions, thoughts and reflections in this blog post (and a few mentions of the Counting Actors project there as well!).  Finally, today, there's a post from me on the TBA site as well, which should be cross-posted to the Works by Women SF site very soon as well.

Launch!! WBWSF blogsite

I'm so thrilled to be a part of this new project that has both an online presence and a real world monthly meetup event!!

Take a look at my post in the 'Perspectives' section titled 'I Believe in You'.  And join us in the MeetUp group for our December 8th 2pm meetup to see 3GirlsTheater's holiday short plays festival 3 Girls Squared!

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!

Works by Women San Francisco

I'm part of a new group that's forming here in SF.  Taking a page from a NY based group, Works by Women, we're starting regularly monthly events to see shows that feature women in writing, directing, design positions and/or have a gender equal or majority female cast.  And a blog/website rolls out very soon as well - I'll update with that info when it's available.

You can find out more about the group here.

And, if you're available on Thursday, please consider joining us for our first event, Golden Thread's ReOrient.

linkage fest - Happy Oktober!

Last Thurs Howlround had a twitter convo on gender parity and diversity.  You can read the collection of tweets here.

I highly encourage you to check out the writing of this articulate, thoughtful blogger who I learned about last week.

Here, she writes about her reactions to 'Peter and the Star-catcher' and subsequent reactions to her reaction when she discusses it with work colleages at TCG.

Here is her update a few days later - detailing reactions to her earlier post.

Here is an earlier 'angry post about gender and theater' which is so right on target and needs to be read by you.  Right now.

We Are Theatre - Sept 24th

An amazing event taking place in NYC next week Monday!

WE ARE THEATRE is described as a speakout about sexism in global theater.  Monologues, skits, songs and scenes, featuring over 20 playwrights.  There's no web page for the event, but there is a facebook page, an indiegogo campaign and a link for tickets.

50/50 in 2020 and Guerrilla Girls on Tour are two of the many groups on the planning/making/organizing side.

When I asked on their facebook page about ways for people outside of NYC to participate, I was told that the event will be livestreamed, but at this point I don't have any more info.  Will update when I find out more!

In the meantime, Counting Actors for September is just 10 days or so away.  The project as a whole is at 175 plays, and could use your contributions.  Visit the Counting Actors page on this blog for more info.

Open-Gender Casting: read about it over at HowlRound

I love this HowlRound post not just because it gives me a newer, better piece of vocabulary: open-gender casting - the idea that a character can be played by an actor of either gender as their own gender. An example from my resume: playing Toby Belch as a female character.  Another example of this would be a playwright writing characters with the intention that they can be played by either gender.

The other term I've been using as a catch all is cross-gender casting.  Moving forward, I'll be using this term to describe scenarios where a character is played by an actor of the opposite gender as the gender of the character.  An example from my resume: playing MacBeth as written, as a male character.

The post over at HowlRound by Susan Stroupe is intended as a conversation starter on this issue.  So head on over, and make some comments!

Reading Assignment

I just keep giving you homework, don't I.

Two things to read:
1) over at the NY Times, there's a feature in their opinion section called 'room for debate' - several opinion columns on the same topic from different writers.  A recent topic in this section is 'How Can Women Gain Influence in Hollywood?'  It's focused on writing/directing/producing and has lots of great thoughts and perspectives.

A couple of points I like:

I don't believe men maliciously choose men over women in employment decisions, but there is a certain laziness that has set in from habit. Why cast a female soldier when we are used to casting a male one? Why create a marketing campaign for girls when we already know how to market to boys? 

And:

When Hollywood’s business side finally and consistently matches women's storytelling prowess with a recognition of and commitment to the evolving communities that engage around their story worlds, women will rise everywhere as a result.

The entire thing is here.

2) The super fantastic Alicia Coombes has an article up on a new online magazine called Art Animal, a magazine focused on women's art.  Her article is about the Bay Area's gender parity company Symmetry Theatre, and also has a few quotes from yours truly about the Counting Actors project.  Take a look here!

your homework for the weekend

Over on the 2amtheatre blog, Travis Bedard has thrown out a challenge - what season would you program?

I've weighed in in the comments, and you can too.

Take a look here.

Likeable female protagonists & Patton Oswalt on gamechangers

Must Read #1:
Stealing the Herd by playwright Carolyn Gage over on Howlround is about 'likeability' of protagonists in Broadway musicals, and it's fantastic.


Here's a few quotes:

It would appear that there exists a significant double standard for what is deemed acceptable behavior for male protagonists and female ones.

And:

What they know, and what I am learning, is that “likeable” means feminine. Even if the protagonist is the world’s greatest sharpshooter, she must still throw a match to get her man and take a number that says “I enjoy being a girl.

Fantastic - go read it!

Must Read #2:
Patton Oswalt delivered the keynote at Montreal's Just for Laughs in Montreal a week or so ago.  If you haven't seen this yet, it's got some great thoughts for any creative art maker - just substitute what you do any time he uses the word 'comedian'

He writes 2 letters, one to the 'comedian in 2012', and one to the 'gatekeepers':

I need to decide more career stuff for myself and make it happen for myself, and I need to stop waiting to luck out and be given. I need to unlearn those muscles.

 Our careers don’t hinge on somebody in a plush office deciding to aim a little luck in our direction. There are no gates. They’re gone.

Highly inspiring - check it out 

Counting Actors, July 2012

This project began in June 2011. To date, we've counted 152 Bay Area shows.  To learn more about the project, including a link to a list of prior posts in this series, go here.

14 Shows Counted:
ACT/Scottsboro Boys (3 male writers credited on this production - book, lyrics, music)
Berkeley REP/Emotional Creatures
Mime Troupe/The Last Election (2 male writers on this production - script, music & lyrics. Also script writer and director are same person)
Shotgun Players/Truffaldino Says No
The Stage (San Jose Stage)/Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson (male director, female music director, male writer, 2nd male writer for book/lyrics. Cast includes double cast M child actors)
One Heart Productions/Angel of the Poor
TheatreWorks/Wheelhouse (3 writers on this project are also 3 performers in project)
Bay Area Childrens Theater/Click Clack Moo (adaptation from book by woman writer; 2 writer team is co on lyrics, 1 did script, other music; female director, female music director)
San Jose Rep/Bill W and Dr Bob
Thrillpeddlers/Marat/Sade
TheatreWorks/Upright Grand (one of male actors on this project has a low line load and plays the piano)
Impact/Great Zamboni (solo show written by the performer)
Marin Shakes/King John
Aurora/Salomania (writer and director same person; one female actor played both male and female characters)
Cal Shakes/Spunk (adapted from stories by F writer, male adaptor, male music writer)

The Stats:
7 male directors, 10 female directors
20 male writers, 4 female writers
141 total actors, 91 male, 50 female
61 union actors, 80 non-union actors
36 union men, 25 union women
114 local actors, 27 non-local

Giant thank yous to all who shared stats with me for July: Karen Thompson Hall, Sofia Ahmad, Megan Killian Uttam, Scott Ragle, Lily Tung Crystal and Melissa Hillman.

I'll post stats for August between September 1 and September 5.  If you see a show or are working on a show with performances in August, please go here to learn how to submit the statistics. 

Thanks for tweeting, liking or linking this post, or talking about it in the green room, dressing room, rehearsal room, or at the bar after the show.

Not Hamlet

Quick! Someone buy me this book!

An essay in the Guardian UK by Janet Suzman shows me that this 1960's LAMDA grad w/RSC & film credits as well as a Dame of the British Empire has been thinking about this topic for a long time. 

A few choice quotes from the article:

What I am struck by – as I write in my new book, Not Hamlet, about the frail position of women in drama – is that none of the women are awarded interiority in nearly the same measure as the male characters.

Women have never been, perhaps never will never be, autonomous creatures, unshackled. Even Shakespeare ducked giving their thoughts extended airtime, as if listening to women was not quite worth it.

RTWT.


And here's a description of the book.