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.
Andrew Leynse: andrew@primarystages.org
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
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.
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!)
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