Friday, March 9, 2012

Diversity in the Theater - Part IV

When the study Opening the Curtain on Playwright Gender was published by Emily Sands in 2009, it caused quite a stir. The study found that:
  • Plays written by women are less likely to be produced.
  • Plays about leading female characters are less likely to be produced.
  • When the same exact play is sent to artistic directors – under a playwright name that is male and under a playwright name that is female – the female penned play is considered to be of lesser quality. 
  • And surprise, female artistic directors are the harshest critics of plays written by female playwrights. 

If we take a look at original plays which according to IBDB opened on The Great White Way between January 1st 2009 and December 31st 2011, we now find that nine (~20%) were written by women. If we adjust this slightly for solo performances, this is roughly a 2.5% increase since Ms. Sands' study.  How is that for progress?
Related Posts
Part I
Part II
Part III

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