REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS

Guerrilla Girls On Tour's poster,

It's Not Just About Choice Anymore,

has been selected for NCWCA's 

national juried exhibition: CHOICE.

In observance of the 40th anniversary of Roe vs Wade and in support of women’s reproductive rights in the United States, the Northern California Women’s Caucus for Art (NCWCA) is sponsoring the national juried exhibition Choice. 

Guerrilla Girls On Tour have been addressing the issue of reproductive rights since 2001.  We present each state and country we tour to a “reproductive right report card” and inform our audiences how their laws and legislators affect a woman’s right to choose. Our poster: It’s Not Just About Choice Anymore (2011), was created after extensive research for our 2010 tour and our belief that threats to Medicaid, Planned Parenthood and the Affordable Health Care Act were threats to basic human rights.

EXHIBITION DATES 

December 12, 2013 - January 12, 2014, 

Opening Artist Reception December 12, 2013 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm

Panel Discussion: January 7, 2014 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm on Inspire to Act

Panelists: Dorothy Fadiman - documentary filmmaker, Fran Johns - author, 

Ellen Shaffer - policy analyst and

Sophia Yen MD, MPH - co-founder Trust Women

Artist Talk - Last Day of exhibit: January 12, 2014 1:00 pm - 3:00 p.m.

For More Info:  http://www.ncwca.org

Malala Yousafzai

In a speech at the UN on her 16th birthday, Malala Yousafzai, called on world leaders to provide “free, compulsory education” for every child.

MORE: http://guerrillagirlsontour.tumblr.com

What 11 years was like for me - Michelle Knight

Michelle Knight, one of Ariel Castro's victims, showed up in person at his sentencing hearing yesterday shared her story of what she said happened to her and the other women held hostage by Castro for years.  This poem was created from the words in her statement.  

What 11 years was like for me
 I missed my son every day
I cried every night
I wondered
what would happen to me

Gina was my teammate
dying from his abuse
she nursed me back to health
we said we would
make it out alive
someday
we did.

I will overcome
I will not let you define me
I will live
on I will prevail
help others
be a stronger woman
know there's more good
than evil
you will die
a little every day.

after 11 years, I am
finally being heard
your hell is just beginning
my name is Michelle Knight

Complete transcript: http://www.twincities.com/national/ci_23777116/testimony-excerpts-from-ohio-kidnapper-sentencing?source=rss

Turn Your Attitude to Action WORKSHOP.

Here is a link to the workshop we presented at the Women Playwrights International Conference in Stockholm last August.  It's a step by step guide to "Turn Your Attitude to Action" by GGOT Aphra Behn. 

http://dld.bz/cGEbB

SCREAM INTO A BUCKET ALERT!

Get out your buckets, feminists!  Another New York City Theatre announces 2013/2014 season of sexism.

Q: What theatre has this mission: “We operate on the strongly held belief that the future of American theater relies on nurturing playwrights and giving them the artistic support needed to create new work”.

A: Primary Stages

Q: What theatre will produce 4 plays in their 2013/14 season – 3 by men, 1 “conceived” by a woman, and ALL directed by men?

A: Primary Stages

Primary Stages joins Lincoln Center Theatre and The Alley Theatre in Houston in announcing all male seasons (we do acknowledge that Primary Stages Production of “Bronx Bomber” has been conceived by Fran Kirmser).

On June 17 Casey Childs posted an entry on his facebook page saying that he thought that “shaming” artistic directors who refused to select plays by women and hire female directors amounted to “screaming into a bucket”.  He has since removed his post.

Letter writing is not screaming into a bucket.  It is a direct communication. The people who buy tickets to theatres have every right to express their distain at theatres that don’t support, produce, or hire women theatre artists.

So let’s “scream into a bucket” (aka fe-mail) Primary Stages and let them know what we think about their next sexist season.

Tell Casey Child, Andrew Leynse and Primary Stages that you will not purchase a ticket to any of their 2013/14 productions until they hire a female director and include another play written by a woman on their main stage.

Fe-mail Casey Childs: casey@primarystages.org

Andrew Leynse: andrew@primarystages.org

CC: info@primarystages.org and info@ggontour.com

SNAIL MAIL:

Primary Stages

307 West 38th Street

Suite 1510

New York, NY 10018

Here are some of the kick ass letters sent to Andre Bishop and Lincoln Center Theatre last week.  Thanks to all who wrote.  Keep them coming! – 

Guerrilla Girls On Tour!

Dear Andre Bishop,

I'm writing because I just saw the schedule for the 2013-2014 theater, and I was both surprised and disappointed. Not a single one of the plays is written by a female playwright. In 2013, the gender disparities in theater are absolutely shameful. Decisions like those that led to next season's lineup contribute to the ongoing devaluing of work by female playwrights, and I can't bring myself to support them. As long as no play written by a woman is featured on your mainstage, I won't be purchasing tickets to any of your productions, and I'll be encouraging my friends and colleagues to do the same.

Sincerely,

Jeremy Harper

š

Dear Mr. Bishop,

I am writing to express my disappointment that not a single play by a female playwright has been chosen for your main-stage season.  I am urging all of my friends to join me in the boycott of your theatre this season.

And please know that including women playwrights in your "development" small theatre season is not an acceptable response.

Sincerely,

Susan McCully

š

Dear Mr. Bishop,

I should start by saying that I admire the work you do in and for the theatre community. However, I was incredibly off-put when I saw your season lineup for next year. As someone who worked so closely with Wendy Wasserstein, I'm surprised to see that you programmed a season of all-male playwrights. It's programming like this that pushes theatre back to the 1950s, so to speak, and though this sounds like a childish way of putting it, it's not okay. 

With so many young audience members and theatre practitioners pushing for more female voices in the theatre, it would behoove Lincoln Center to program a play by a woman on their main stages in the 2013-14 season. I know that many -- myself included -- are sick of this tradition and will refuse to purchase a ticket at Lincoln Center until this is done. I wish you the best in these coming weeks, as I anticipate you'll be receiving a flood of emails, phone calls, and letters on this subject. 

Best,

Danielle Mohlman

Artistic Director

Field Trip Theatre

@fieldtriptc

fieldtriptheatre.tumblr.com

facebook.com/fieldtriptheatre

instagram.com/fieldtriptc

š

Dear Mr. Bishop,

I attended the wonderful performance of “Ann” this past weekend and it was so refreshing to see a performance written by a woman at Lincoln Center.  However, after seeing your announcement for an ALL MALE SEASON, I was really disappointed.  Why is it so difficult for LCT to produce plays not only by women but people of color? It would be even nice to see an African American female director or designer on one of your stages for a change. (I am an African American theatre educator and USAA lighting designer).  So it's back to the classroom this semester for me sharing with my students the continual sexism in the American Theatre, even though women dominate in terms of audience members.  Guess, I won't be coming to Lincoln Center next season, even with Ann Shapiro directing.

KP

š

Dear Andre,

It's extremely disappointing that an esteemed theatre production company as Lincoln Center does not choose to include the work of a woman playwright in next year's productions.  If you have read the news lately, you will know that men are denouncing the gender inequity in theatre, as well as women.

www.mikelew.com/3/post/2013/06/on-gender-parity.html 

and Jonathan Franzen's response to "Sexism's Puzzling Stamina," "The world most glaringly dominated by male sexism is one that Mr. Bruni neglects to mention: New York City theater."

It's up to you to provide leadership in combating this insidious bias by promoting the plays of women in equal number to those  of men.

Yours truly,

Barbara Masry,

The Women's Initiative (members of the Dramatist Guild)

The League of Professional Theatre Women 

UPDATE ON LINCOLN CENTER THEATRE

And on the ACTING front, regarding their production of MACBETH: here are the stats, from the casting call on Actors' Equity's website:

MACBETH, Lincoln Center Theater

Principal Auditions

The notice calls for 21 male actors, and 4 female actors.  (That's 84% male)

Specifically, the breakdown for the 3 witches is as follows:

"The Three Witches may all be played by men or possibly 2 men and 1 woman. Three very powerful, otherworldly and androgynous creatures ...."

So power and androgyny are clearly qualities they are expecting only male actors to be able to play!

(Thanks to Gael Schaefer for these stats!)

ACTION ALERT: Shame on LINCOLN CENTER THEATRE

Lincoln Center Theater announces a 2013-14 ALL MALE season!

1) "Domesticated" - a new play by Bruce Norris 

2) A new Broadway production of “Macbeth” starring Ethan Hawke. (Yes, we really need another "new" production of "Macbeth"!

3) James Lapine’s adaptation of Moss Hart’s autobiography “Act One,” 

4) A new play by Anthony Giardina about a political doyenne in Washington, D.C.

In the good news:

“Domesticated” will be directed by Anna D. Shapiro

To offset sexism LCT will no doubt feature female playwrights in their LCT3 program, which aims to develop new talent in the 112-seat Claire Tow Theater.

Lincoln Center Theatre has a history of producing seasons of plays by MEN.  

GIRLCOTT Lincoln Center Theatre NOW!

Write to arttistic Director, ANDRÉ BISHOP

Fe-mail: abishop@lct.org (CC a copy to info@lct.org and info@ggontour.com)

Snail Mail:

Lincoln Center Theater 
150 West 65th Street
New York, NY 10023

Call Administrative Offices: 212.362.7600

Tell Andre Bishop and Lincoln Center Theatre that you will not purchase a ticket to one of their productions until they include a play by a woman on their main stages.

WHAT I DID AT CAMP…LIT CAMP, THAT IS.

I did not make one macramé bracelet.  I did not sleep in a sleeping bag.  I did not, like I used to do at Girl Scout camp, make a torch out of kotex and kerosene to light the campfire with.  What I did was bond, brainstorm and become a more skilled and informed writer.

Even though LIT CAMP wasn’t set to start until Thursday, April 4^th, I flew into San Francisco a few days early to spend time with old friends in Napa.  It was “Bud Break” and I warmed up to the west coast with a day of Pinot tasting before heading up to Calistoga and Mayacamas Ranch, the site of the first ever LIT CAMP. 

Thursday, April 4^{th -} Arrive at 3PM. The first person I meet is my workshop leader, Janis Cooke Newman, who checks me in with a smile and a hearty, “I’ve read your work!”  At 4PM the 40 LIT CAMPERS, faculty and interns gather for a meet and greet and the first panel: Demystifying the World of Publishing with Jane Ciabattari, former president of the National Book Critics Circle, Nicole Dewey, Director of Publicity at Little Brown, Sam Barry, a bookseller with Book Passage, Caroline Paul, author of Fighting Fire and the upcoming Lost Cat, and Chris Colin, author of Blindsight.

MY DAY ONE POSTCARD TO MYSELF: Remember books are a retail business - publishers expect you to be a big part of selling your book. Pre-publication reviews are very important.  When you write a book proposal you should answer these questions:  Why this book?  Why now?  Why are you the best person to write it?

April 5^th – Wake up to pouring rain, bowls of fresh strawberries and the first workshops.  We are divided into groups of both fiction and non-fiction writers) - The Beats, The Victorians, etc., (each group had the chance to read each others work before camp began) and this morning we focus on three work samples.  Day one’s workshop leader, Janis Cooke Newman’s “Elvis has left the building” workshop style is a great formula for to-the-point, savvy and insightful commenting. 

DAY TWO POSTCARD:  All characters should exhibit bad behavior at some point.  Because we love our characters we tend to protect them but at some point we have to let them have a bit of fun.  Must read, “The Art of Subtext: Beyond Plot” by Charles Baxter.

After lunch it is an authors roundtable with Lee Kravetz, author of the upcoming,  Supersurvivors, the surprising link between suffering and success, Ethan Watters, author of Crazy Like Us and TJ Stiles, author of the Pulitzer prize winning, The First Tycoon.

MY DAY TWO POSTCARD (con’t):  Get “Freedom”! It blocks the Internet from your computer so that you can write Internet/e-mail free for as long as you set it!

After dinner it is the auction for the naming rights for the LIT CAMP COCKTAIL (2 oz of vodka, ½ oz lime juice, and ginger beer over ice).  The bidding is fierce but in the end two amazing women match each others bid. Pat Montandon and Chris Castro will be remembered at future LIT CAMPS as the mothers of the Montandon-Castro. Drink up!

April 6^th Morning workshop is led by Adam Johnson, author of The Orphan Master’s Son (just won the Pulitzer). Adam has us all describe our writing habits, distilling them into the many ways that writers get themselves to their desks.

In the afternoon Jane Ganahl, author and co-director of LitQuake and Lit Crawl and Janis Cook Newman, author of the memoir, The Russian Word for Snow and the novel, Mary, host a roundtable.

DAY THREE POSTCARD: In memoir only include events that pertain to your emotional story.  Place those events in the order where they will be the most dramatic.  Also, a book proposal should look like it is going to make a ton of $$$ and I don’t mean expensive paper and gold ink – see Day One postcard re books as retail.

The roundtable is followed by a panel: Behind the Scenes at Literary Magazines.  Andi Mudd from The Believer and McSweeney's, Oscar Villalon from Zyzyzzva, and Isaac Fitzgerald from The Rumpus.

Having just come from the very fun but very serious and sometimes jaded AWP conference in Boston, this panel is refreshing.  Andi, Oscar and Isaac are the most positive, funny and upbeat publishers/editors I have ever heard speak.  They are excited about writing and clearly love writers. I love them right back.

After dinner it is time for The LIT CAMP Talent Show - Hosted by Isaac Fitzgerald. I laugh so hard my stomach hurts.

April 7th Our last day :(  Two pieces to workshop with TJ Stiles. 

LAST POSTCARD TO MYSELF: Remember that plot is setting up expectations and then fulfilling those expectations.

And then suddenly it is over.  Everyone piles into Chaparral Lodge, picks up box lunches and says goodbye.  I am so sad as I drive down the hill as it begins to rain (again).  It was too short.  I met incredible writers.  I heard fabulous speakers.  Now something calls me back to my New York City desk.

Until we meet again, fellow LIT CAMPERS and new friends.  Thanks for the incredible memories.

Go bananas,

“Aphra Behn”

Lit camp is a joint venture between two of San Francisco's most respected literary organizations – Litquake and the SF Writers Grotto.  For more info visit http://www.litcampwriters.org

GIRLCOTT ALERT - THE ALLEY THEATRE, HOUSTON ANNOUNCES SEXIST SEASON!

Last season it was the Guthrie Theatre and the Actors Theatre of Louisville (as well as hundreds of others).

This season it's THE ALLEY THEATRE.  The HOUSTON PRESS just announced that THE ALLEY THEATRE's next mainstage season is 9 plays by WHITE MEN.

“…the Alley Theatre's 2013-14 season announced today will be dominated by American plays and give female actors a special chance to shine, according to Alley Artistic Director Gregory Boyd.”

SOURCE: Houston Press Blog

http://blogs.houstonpress.com/artattack/2013/04/alley_theatre_announces_its_20.php

GUERRILLA GIRLS ON TOUR!  CALLS FOR A GIRLCOTT OF THE ALLEY THEATRE

WRITE, TWEET, FeMAIL and FAX Artistic Director, Gregory Boyd, and tell him you are Girlcotting The Alley and will not buy a ticket until he includes a play by a woman on the main stage.

FAX THE ALLEY THEATRE:  713 222-6542

CALL THE ALLEY THEATRE: 713 228-9341 TWEET: @alleytheatre @GuerrillaGsOT  #girlcott

FeMAIL:  Gregory Boyd gboyd@alleytheatre.org

CC PR Associate Lauren Pelletier laurenp@alleytheatre.org

ALLEY THEATRE'S PRESS RELEASE:

FOR RELEASE
April 6, 2013

MEDIA CONTACT:
Rodi Franco, Director of Communications, (rodif@alleytheatre.org), 713.315.3352
Lauren Pelletier, Public Relations Associate, (laurenp@alleytheatre.org) 713.315.3364

Highlighting Alley Theatre’s Upcoming Season: The Good Woman of Setzuan by Bertolt Brecht, Never the Sinner by John Logan,Other Desert Cities by Jon Robin Baitz, Venus in Fur by David Ives, Freud’s Last Session by Mark St. Germain, and Good People by David Lindsay-Abaire
-Also featured are Alan Ayckbourn’s Communicating Doors, Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman’s You Can’t Take It With You.
-This summer, Agatha Christie’s The Hollow will be produced as the ExxonMobil Summer Chills production.

HOUSTON, Texas – Gregory Boyd, Artistic Director of the Tony Award-winning Alley Theatre, announces its thrilling new season of plays created by playwrights that include a Pulitzer-Prize winning comedy, a new play that was the Outer Critics Circle’s Outstanding, New Play winner, the first play by a Tony Award winner, a 2011 Tony Award nominee for Best Play, plus an ingenious comedy from acclaimed, award-winning playwright Alan Ayckbourn and an intriguing epic by Bertolt Brecht.

Kicking off the Alley Theatre’s 67^th season is perhaps the greatest American comedy ever written, Kaufman and Hart’s You Can’t Take It With You on the Hubbard Stage and the new sexy, provocative comedy Venus in Fur by David Ives on the Neuhaus Stage.

The season continues on the Hubbard Stage with a riveting new play by Pulitzer Prize nominee Jon Robin Baitz, Other Desert Cities, and a fascinating new play on the Neuhaus Stage where professor and author C.S. Lewis visits psychoanalyst Dr. Sigmund Freud in Freud’s Last Session by Mark St. Germain. Returning to the Alley are Tony winner John Logan, with the play that launched his career, Never the Sinner on the Hubbard Stage and award-winning acclaimed playwright Alan Ayckbourn, with his ingenious comic tour de force where Back to the Future meets Hitchcock in Communicating Doors.

The final show of the season on the Hubbard Stage is the 2011 Tony Award nominated Good People by David Lindsay-Abaire and the final show on the Neuhaus Stage is Bertolt Brecht’s The Good Woman of Setzuan.

This summer’s ExxonMobil Summer Chills production is Agatha Christie’s The Hollow. This is the first time the Alley will produce this play. Season ticket buyers can purchase tickets now with their season package. Tickets to the public will go on sale in May.

Also available now to season ticket buyers are tickets to Houston’s holiday favorite, A Christmas Carol on the Alley’s Hubbard Stage. Adapted and created by Artistic Director (and Alley Artistic Associate) Michael Wilson, the production incorporates elaborate scenic, costume, and lighting design and features a cast of over 15.

The Alley’s subscription season includes five plays on the Hubbard Stage and three plays on Neuhaus Stage, all produced in the Alley’s two-theatre complex at 615 Texas Avenue in downtown Houston.

Casting for this summer’s ExxonMobil Summer Chills production and plays in the 2013-2014 season will be announced at a later date.

ALLEY THEATRE’S 2013-2014 SEASON INCLUDES:Please note: play titles and dates are subject to change.
You Can’t Take It With YouBy Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman
Hubbard Stage
September 20 to October 20, 2013

This Pulitzer Prize-winning classic by the team of Kaufman and Hart (The Man Who Came to Dinner, 2009) is perhaps the greatest American comedy ever written. Alice Sycamore must introduce her fiancé’s straitlaced family to her rather more eccentric family. When the wildly different families meet, the worlds of the wealthy, uptight Kirbys and the off-kilter Sycamores collide. At first the Sycamores seem mad, but it is not long before we realize that if they are mad, the rest of the world is madder. Kaufman and Hart’s hilarious You Can’t Take It With You features the Alley Resident Company of Actors. Recommended for general audiences.
Venus in FurBy David Ives
Neuhaus Stage
October 18 to November 17, 2013

Theatrical mastermind David Ives’ sexy, provocative comedy, Venus in Fur, is an electrifying game of cat and mouse between a young actress and a demanding playwright-director that blurs the lines between fantasy and reality, seduction and power, love and sex. "Role-playing takes on a whole new meaning" (New York Post) in this "don’t miss" play The Wall Street Journal says is "deadly serious, madly funny … you won't see a funnier play this season, or a smarter one."Recommended for mature audiences.
Other Desert CitiesBy Jon Robin Baitz
Hubbard Stage
January 10 to February 2, 2014

A riveting new play by Pulitzer Prize nominee and creator of TV's hit drama Brothers & Sisters, Jon Robin Baitz’s Other Desert Cities was named the Outstanding Play by the Outer Critics Circle and called "the best new play on Broadway" by The New York Times. After a six-year absence, Brooke Wyeth returns home to Palm Springs to celebrate Christmas with her parents, brother and aunt. The warm desert air turns chilly when news of her upcoming memoir threatens to revive the most painful chapter of the family’s history. The New York Daily News calls this dysfunctional family drama "a winner … funny and fierce, invigorating and intelligent." Recommended for mature audiences.
Freud’s Last SessionBy Mark St. Germain
Neuhaus Stage
January 24 to February 23, 2014

Freud’s Last Session centers on legendary psychoanalyst Dr. Sigmund Freud, who invites a little-known professor C.S. Lewis, (who later wrote the children’s classic The Chronicles of Narnia), to his home in London. Lewis, expecting to be called on the carpet for satirizing Freud in a recent book, soon realizes Freud has a much more significant agenda. On the day England enters World War II, Freud and Lewis clash on the existence of God, love, sex, and the meaning of life. "The humor is plentiful" (The New York Times) in this "thrilling" (Variety) tête-à-tête. Recommended for general audiences.
Never the Sinner: The Murder Trial of the CenturyBy John Logan
Hubbard Stage
February 21 to March 16, 2014

Playwright John Logan – who received three Academy Award nominations and wrote the recent James Bond film Skyfall, and won the Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critic Circle and Drama League awards for his play Red (Alley production, 2012) – returns to the Alley with the play that launched his career. Never the Sinner is about two boys who commit a murder – not for gain, or out of passion – just to do it, just to experience the thrill. Based on the infamous 1924 trial of Leopold and Loeb, Never the Sinner is their story, and the story of one of the most famous American lawyers and civil libertarians, Clarence Darrow. In the case of a lifetime, Darrow is called in to defend the monstrous and try to win freedom for the depraved. Recommended for mature audiences.
Communicating Doors
By Alan Ayckbourn
Hubbard Stage
April 4 to April 27, 2014

Award-winning playwright Alan Ayckbourn (House & Garden, 2002) returns to the Alley in this ingenious comic tour de force where Back to the Future meets Hitchcock. In 2024 Phoebe, a "private personal services consultant," finds herself with an elderly client in a posh hotel room – she opens the wrong door and finds herself running for her life. Soon she is confronting her own past by way of a woman named Ruella, and the two join forces to prevent a murder, while Phoebe's gradual friendship with that remarkable woman changes the future for both of them. Eleven plays penned by Alan Ayckbourn have been produced by the Alley, including the American premiere of Henceforward in 1987. Alan Ayckbourn has been inducted into the American Theatre’s Hall of Fame, received the 2010 Critics’ Circle Award for Services to the Arts, became the first British playwright to receive both Olivier and Tony Special Lifetime Achievement Awards and was knighted in 1997 for services to the theatre. Recommended for adults due to language.
Good People
By David Lindsay-Abaire
Hubbard Stage
May 16 to June 8, 2014

Nominated for a 2011 Tony Award for Best Play, Good People is a funny, tough and tender story about the insurmountable class divide. When Margie Walsh loses her job at a South Boston dollar store, she reaches out to old flame Mike, a neighborhood boy who escaped and became a successful doctor. Margie's attempt to hit Mike up for a job takes on a surprising twist when she realizes the power a secret from Mike's past holds. From Pulitzer Prize winner David Lindsay-Abaire, Good People looks at the extraordinary consequences of choosing to hold on to the past or leaving it behind. "Thoroughly absorbing ... Good People is good stuff" (Variety) and one of the finest new American plays. Recommended for mature audiences.
The Good Woman of SetzuanBy Bertolt Brecht
Neuhaus Stage
May 30 to June 29, 2014

Can we practice goodness and create a world to sustain it? In Brecht’s comic, intriguing epic play, this question is raised by one of his most entertaining characters, Shen Teh, the good-hearted, penniless, prostitute who is forced to disguise herself as a savvy businessman named Shui Ta to master the ruthlessness needed to be a "good person" in a brutal world. Recommended for mature audiences.
SUMMER PRODUCTION

ExxonMobil Summer ChillsAgatha Christie’s The HollowBy Agatha Christie
Hubbard Stage
July 5 to August 4, 2013

A weekend gathering at The Hollow family estate of Lady Lucy and Sir Henry Angkatell explodes in the murder of one of their guests, physician John Cristow. When the good doctor is found shot, almost everyone is suspect with opportunity and motive including his dim but loyal wife, his current mistress, and his ex-mistress, who lives on a neighboring estate. Don’t miss this classic Christie whodunit filled with brilliantly eccentric characters. Recommended for general audiences.
HOLIDAY PRODUCTIONS:
Houston's Holiday FavoriteA Christmas Carol - A Ghost Story of ChristmasBy Charles Dickens
Adapted and Originally Directed by Michael Wilson
Directed by James Black
Hubbard Stage
November 15 – December 29, 2013

Touring through northern california and came across this....ah equality and Prop 8. 

Presidents Day Pop Theatre Quiz

GUERRILLA GIRLS ON TOUR’S PRESIDENT’S DAY

POP THEATRE QUIZ!

Q: What happens when you recognize a theatre company for producing at least 50% plays by women in 2012?

A: They produce a majority of plays by men in 2013.

The International Centre for Women Playwrights recently announced its inaugural 50/50 Applause Awards presented to five US theatre companies for seasons of plays with half or more written by women.

The winners were: Cleveland Public Theatre, Cleveland, OH; Little Colonel Theatre, Pee Wee Vally, KY; Nora Theater, Cambridge, M A; Playwrights Horizons, New York, NY; and, Symmetry Theatre, Berkeley, CA.

When I read this I was overjoyed.  Then I felt a knot in my stomach.  Was that brown banana that I had for breakfast over ripe?  Or did my gorilla intuition tell me to do the 5-minute research technique.  Here’s what I found out about these theatre companies in a 5-minute search of the internet about their current seasons.

[Trigger Alert: Sexism in theatre]

Cleveland Public Theatre

10 men 7 women

NOTE: CPT’s web site lists productions that have not been yet been chosen.  Also, several of CPT productions seem to be produced by other companies.  These productions were not counted.

Little Colonel Theatre

5 men 1 woman

Nora Theater

4 men 3 women

Playwrights Horizons

4 men 4 women

Symmetry Theatre
1 man 2 women

Three of the five recipients of the 50/50 Applause Awards are producing more plays by men than women this year.

I guess giving awards doesn’t help.

Stay tuned for the second annual speak out - “WE ARE THEATRE” – an evening of kick ass plays that stand up for gender parity September 2013.

Until then, buy tickets to shows at Playwrights Horizons and Symmetry Theatre.

In sisterhood,

Guerrilla Girls On Tour

http://www.facebook.com/wearetheatre

http://www.twitter.com/OccupyBroadway