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?
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