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
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
