Lisa Kron & Madeleine George

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NPR, for example, ina to thetheatre.At silencing isnotlimited voices ofwomen. choices thatsilencethe way peoplemake the how besttochangethe here onistodetermine plays. Ourtaskfrom not topresenttheir and answer: artistic the theatre?Thereisonesimple missing thevoices ofwomen in of thingsyou learnfromwomen. Andwhy arewe means you would have missedalot,given thekinds ever like thetheatre,four outoffive thingsyou had written by women. Thismeansthatiflife worked T Why Sadly enough, producerschoose heardwould have beensaidby men.That directors this

22% ofthoseproductionswere As you willlearnlater, only in regionaltheatresAmerica. years ofdatafromproductions for thefirsttimeusingthree Theatres?” Itispresentedhere Being ProducedInAmerican that asksthequestion,“WhoIs he Countisanongoingstudy

MARSHA NORMAN:

written by woman

written by women? Halfoflife, that’s what. It So whatdowe missifwe donothearthevoices of are fightinginourlives andinourcareerstoday. women. This20%number istherealceilingwe advent ofblindauditions,20%theplayers were is storedinthebasement.Inorchestras,until hanging onthewalls isby men.Thewomen’s work exactly 20%.Intheartmuseums, 80%oftheart interviewing orbeingthesubjectofstory–was percentage ofwomen beinginterviewed, doingthe survey much like ourCount,itwas found thatthe the experience oftheworld, butonly20%ofitis the night.Orday. Women have lived halfof ignoring thestoriesofeverything thathappensin man a Matters if thenewspapers onlypresented reported inthetheaters.Imagine

the stagetimein of themuseum, 50%of airtime, 50%ofthewalls want is50%ofthe by women. Whatwe women, andarewritten news storiesconcern guessed, that20%ofthe already, ifyou hadn’t cover. tellyou AndI’ll how much they really we canargueabout 20% ofthenews. Well, w ould belike

10/1/15 5:59PM theaters and on the movie screens. We want life in the arts to represent life as it is lived in the world. f life worked like the We want to hear the whole human chorus, not just the tenors, basses and baritones. theater, 4 out of 5 things Let’s talk about the dangers of not hearing the voices of women.There are countries where you had ever heard would the voices of women are completely silenced or drastically imperiled or threatened. Kept hidden have been said by men. and cloaked. Kept inside. And these countries, mainly in Africa and the Middle East are what? toi shame and blame those people who continue to That’s right, they are constant battlegrounds. produce only the plays of men, but to assure that the Because women are not allowed to speak or to voice of women will be heard in this land. The graph participate in the speaking, the men are just out below illustrates this problem and shows exactly there killing each other all the time. who has been produced and in what percentage over When women’s voices are silenced, the the last three years in America. And the data was so culture goes into what a UN friend of mine calls clear, we didn’t even have to use last names. testosterone poisoning. I don’t have to explain what that is, do I? It fills up the TV screens night after night. And until women’s voices are heard in those lands, they are doomed to eternal warfare. Because it is women who say, let’s try to understand people who are different from us, let’s listen to what they have to say, let’s find a way that they can live their lives and we can live ours. Let’s work it out, so the children can survive. When men’s voices are the only ones heard, the children are in grave danger. A world run by women would be a vastly different place. I am not saying the American theatre is overcome by testosterone poisoning. But I am saying that when women’s voices are silenced, it is not a safe world for anybody. Women are the safety valve on the culture. When women first began writing for the American theatre – that is what I call the modern era, when Beth Henley and I started writing, we assumed this whole fight would be over with by now. But it isn’t. So I am challenging all of you to help us hear the voices of women in the world. That is the purpose of The Count. Not to establish quotas, not

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pp17-29 Feature A TheCount .indd 19 10/1/15 5:59 PM Who’s Getting Produced in the U.S.? Methodology • Controls for Writers: › To ensure the data was not skewed toward greater gender For The COUNT imbalance by revivals of classic plays, we did not count the writers of plays or musicals who died more than 50 n order to maintain accurate and comparable years before the production being counted. data, each year, we created criteria, controls, › Transgender writers were counted by the pronoun they and rules for the theatres, productions, and used to self-identify at the time the counted production writers. Our goal is to compare apples to apples took place. each year. However, if better methodology is › Race was determined by researching how writers chose to discovered we will be able to amend our process and back-date self-identify in interviews or on their websites. I › For adapted plays or musicals we counted the adapter, data. If a new theater is suggested for the study, and it meets all criteria, we will include the theatre in future studies. not the writer/s of the original work. › For translated plays or musicals we counted the original writer/s, not the translator. Criteria for Theaters: › For plays or musicals with multiple writers we split one • count by how many writers there were. (I.E. for a musical › Not-for-profit, regional theatres that met our criteria with librettist, lyricist, and composer, each writer would were studied. This includes Off-Broadway, Off-Off be credited with one third of a percentage point.) Broadway, but not Broadway theatres. › Produced at least three plays or musicals each season. • Data Sources: › Had at least a ten-year history of professionally producing › We collected plays or musicals. data primarily THE COUNT TIMELINE › Was routinely reviewed by national or regional press. from each indi- › vidual theatre’s Must have had three productions that ran longer than 21 SEVERAL YEARS AGO FEBRUARY 2014 JUNE 2014 SEPTEMBER 2014 DEC 2014/JAN 2015 FEBRUARY 2015 MAY 2015 JULY 2015 NOV 2015 performances each season (not including previews). website. › In the rare case Marsha Norman and Julia The Lilly Awards and the DG Regional Reps, DG First round data collection Volunteers double check Work with statistician to Present information to Announce results of First Controls for Productions: the website Jordan conceive Dramatists Guild decide Ambassadors, and DG begins. Data collected by original data. review the data. DG Council. The COUNT at the annual • did not contain The COUNT. to fund a collaborative Staff make DG Regional Reps, DG DG National Conference report › A revival was any production that is produced more than all the needed project to see how many recommendations of Ambassadors, DG Staff, DG in La Jolla, CA. published. ten years after the premiere. information, women are being theaters to include in members, and DG Interns. › A new production was a play or musical that was pro- we looked at produced in the US. The COUNT. duced as a premiere, or within ten years of the original production premiere. reviews, play- › We counted each season as September 1 – August 31. wright websites, › In the event a production spanned across multiple sea- and Doolee. sons, we counted the production in the season in which › If we could the greatest number of performances took place. not pull data from these sources, we reached out to the › We did not count devised theatre productions. theater or writer/s to self-identify. • Annual Study: The › In this first incarnation of The Count, we studied three consecutive years in order to present a fuller look at the LILLY industry. Awards › Moving forward we will release the annual study which will include the data from the current year as well as data from all previous years of the study. & › The next season we report will be the 2014-2015 season. 20 | The Dramatist

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Who’s Getting Produced in the U.S.? THE KEY 62.7% American white men

14.0% American white women

theatres 10.6% foreign white men 153 2.5% foreign white women 6.0% American men of color unique authors 3.4% American women of color

1486 0.4% foreign men of color

productions 0.4% foreign women of color THE COUNT TIMELINE 2508 SEVERAL YEARS AGO FEBRUARY 2014 JUNE 2014 SEPTEMBER 2014 DEC 2014/JAN 2015 FEBRUARY 2015 MAY 2015 JULY 2015 NOV 2015 Marsha Norman and Julia The Lilly Awards and the DG Regional Reps, DG First round data collection Volunteers double check Work with statistician to Present information to Announce results of First Jordan conceive Dramatists Guild decide Ambassadors, and DG begins. Data collected by original data. review the data. DG Council. The COUNT at the annual The COUNT. to fund a collaborative Staff make DG Regional Reps, DG DG National Conference report project to see how many recommendations of Ambassadors, DG Staff, DG in La Jolla, CA. published. women are being theaters to include in members, and DG Interns. produced in the US. The COUNT.

UNIQUE WRITERS: These statistics represent each writer as one individual to be counted. Even 2011-2012 though Intimate Apparel was produced several times by several theaters, Lynn Nottage is counted as a unique writer once. UNIQUE PRODUCTIONS: These statistics repre- 2012-2013 sent each production of a specific play or musical as a distinct production. Each time Intimate Apparel was presented is counted as a separate production.

THREE SEASONS 2013-2014 November/December 2015 | 21

pp17-29 Feature A TheCount .indd 21 10/1/15 5:59 PM U.S. GENDER *GENDER DISTRIBUTION OF 2013 BACHELOR’S DEGREES

38% 50.8% 49.2% 62% men women men women

SOURCE: UNITED STATES CENSUS 2013 SOURCE: AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS & SCIENCES 2013

*The percentage of gender has been tracked and stayed steady around 60% since 1967

U.S. RACE RACE DISTRIBUTION OF 2013 BACHELOR’S DEGREES

31% 37.8% 62.2% of color 69% of color white white

SOURCE: UNITED STATES CENSUS 2013 SOURCE: AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS & SCIENCES 2013

The LILLY Awards& 22 | The Dramatist

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UNIQUE PRODUCTIONS UNIQUE PRODUCTIONS BY GENDER BY RACE & GENDER 18% 22%women white women 82% white 78%men men

UNIQUE PRODUCTIONS UNIQUE PRODUCTIONS BY RACE BY RACE & GENDER 12% of color 38% women of color 62%men of color 88%white

November/December 2015 | 23

pp17-29 Feature A TheCount .indd 23 10/2/15 10:30 AM UNIQUE WRITERS BY GENDER

20.4% women UNIQUE WRITERS by gender, race & nationality

79.6%men 0.4%foreign women of color UNIQUE WRITERS BY RACE foreign white women 10.2% 2.5% of color 3.4%American women of color 89.8% white American white women 14.0% 62.7% foreign white men American UNIQUE WRITERS OF COLOR BY GENDER 10.6% white men 6.0%American men of color 37%women of color 63%men foreign men of color of color 0.4%

Th LILLY AwardAwards& 24 | The Dramatist

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UNIQUE WRITERS by gender, race & nationality

0.4%foreign women of color 2.5%foreign white women 3.4%American women of color

American white women 14.0% 62.7% foreign white men American 10.6% white men 6.0%American men of color 0.4%foreign men of color

November/December 2015 | 25

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REGIONAL MAP pacific northwest new england 178 productions 215 rockies productions

30 30 25 20 20 20 20 15 15 10 10 10 0 2014 2015 2016 11.4% 22% great lakes 462 writers of color female writers 6.7% 74 great plains productions mid-atlantic writers of color productions 18% 727 female writers productions southwest 23% 25% 97 female writers 14.1% female writers productions 14.8% writers of color 410 writers of color 24%female writers productions 13.3% 16.7% writers of color deep south writers of color 100 productions 30%female writers 22%female writers 20%female writers writers4.6% of color 13.4%writers of color gulf coast pacific 329 7.1% 19% productions writers of color 13 female writers productions

writers7.7% of color

39%female writers

26 | The Dramatist

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REGIONAL MAP THE pacific northwest new england 178 productions 215 rockies productions

November/December 2015 | 27

pp17-29 Feature A TheCount .indd 27 10/1/15 5:59 PM Selected Cities Productions OF FEMALE WRITERS OF WRITERS OF COLOR

TOTAL PRODUCTIONS

Portland 66 18% 10.4%

Los Angeles 74 23% 17.3%

Minneapolis 82 23% 9.1%

Seattle 104 23% 4.7%

New York 234 25% 15.7%

Berkeley 63 29% 11.7%

Philadelphia 84 29% 13.1%

Kansas City 61 30% 15.6%

Washington 104 30% 18.8%

Chicago 120 36% 28.4%

Th LILLY AwardAwards& 28 | The Dramatist

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Laguna Playhouse Roundabout Theater Company THE THEATERS: Lincoln Center Theater Sacramento Theatre Company LIST OF ALL THEATERS COUNTED Long Wharf Theatre Salt Lake Acting Company Lookingglass Theatre San Diego Repertory Theatre ACT Theatre Colony Theatre Lyric Stage Company of Boston San Francisco Playhouse Actor’s Express Court Theatre Magic Theatre Seattle Children’s Theatre Actors Theatre of Louisville Curious Theatre Company Magik Theatre Seattle Repertory Theatre Alley Theatre Dallas Theater Center Maltz Jupiter Theatre Second Stage Theatre Alliance Theatre Denver Center Theatre Manhattan Theatre Club Shotgun Players American Conservatory Theatre Company Marin Theatre Company Signature Theatre American Repertory Theater Drury Lane Marriott Theatre Signature Theatre Company Arden Theatre Company Ensemble Studio Theatre MCC Theater South Coast Repertory Arena Stage Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati McCarter Theatre Southern Rep Arizona Theatre Company Everyman Theatre Meadow Brook Theatre Stages Repertory Theatre Arkansas Repertory Theatre Florida Repertory Theatre Merrimack Repertory Theatre Steppenwolf Theatre Company ArtsWest Theatre Florida Studio Theatre Milwaukee Repertory Theater Studio Theatre Asolo Repertory Theatre Ford’s Theatre MusicalFare Theatre Syracuse Stage Atlantic Theater Company Gable Stage New Group Taproot Theatre Aurora Theatre Company Geffen Playhouse New Jersey Repertory The 5th Avenue Theatre Bay Area Children’s Theatre George Street Playhouse Company The Coterie Berkeley Rep Geva Theatre Center New Repertory Theatre The Flea Theater Boston Playwrights’ Theatre Goodman Theatre New York Theatre Workshop The Irish Repertory Theatre Broward Stage Door Theatre Goodspeed Musicals North Carolina Stage The Jungle Theater Bucks County Playhouse Guthrie Theatre Northern Stage Company The Old Globe Capital Repertory Theatre Hartford Stage Northlight Theatre The Public Theater Center Stage History Theatre Olney Theatre Center The Repertory Theatre of Center Theatre Group Horizon Theatre Company Oregon Shakespeare Festival St. Louis Central Works Theater Indiana Repertory Theatre Orlando Shakespeare Theater Theater J Chicago Shakespeare Theater InterAct Theatre Palm Beach Dramaworks Theatre Three Children’s Theatre Company Kansas City Repertory Paper Mill Playhouse TheatreWorks Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park La Jolla Playhouse Park Square Theatre Toby’s Dinner Theatre City Theatre (Pittsburgh) La Mirada Theatre for the Pasadena Playhouse Triad Stage Cleveland Play House Performing Arts People’s Light & Theatre Trinity Repertory Company Company Two River Theater Perseverance Theatre Unicorn Theatre Philadelphia Theatre Company Utah Shakespeare Festival Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera Victory Gardens Theater Project Conceived by: Julia Jordan and Marsha Norman Pittsburgh Public Village Theatre Playwrights Horizons Vineyard Theatre Project Funded by: Portland Center Stage Virginia Repertory Theatre Dramatists Guild and Lilly Awards Portland Playhouse Walnut Street Theatre Research Managed and Report Written by: Portland Stage Company Westport Country Playhouse Julia Jordan and Rebecca Stump Primary Stages Williamston Theatre Statistics by: Purple Rose Theatre Company Wilma Theater Lilei Xu, PhD in Economics from Harvard Rattlestick Playwrights Theater Woolly Mammoth Graphics by: Round House Theatre ZACH Theatre Bekka Lindström Research Conducted by: Guild Staff, Regional Reps, Ambassadors, Council Members, Fellows, Members & Interns. November/December 2015 | 29

pp17-29 Feature A TheCount .indd 29 10/1/15 5:59 PM RESPONSE to The COUNT

convincing. Every- one “feels” they Rehana Lew are doing the best they can do. Mirza I’d like pon seeing the statistics from The to think Count, I turned to the person on my that upon right and asked if the Dramatists Guild seeing was handing out arsenic to swallow these with these numbers. On my left was my numbers, husband Mike Lew. We couldn’t make eye con- we as a col- U lective com- tact through the tears. Up until this moment, our semi-serious joke had been that I was a “2 for 1” as munity will a woman of color, meaning I’d be twice as likely to freak the fuck out be produced. But the facts were laid bare: female- and do more than authored productions hover at only 22%. Women of the best we can do. But I color comprise only 3.4%. Given these statistics, my was at Julia Jordan’s first town chances of production are grim. Mike has a slightly hall on gender parity in 2008, and since then female better shot; men of color comprise a whopping 6%. representation has only crept up 5%. So I wonder how In that moment, I realized how arbitrary and inef- honest we’re being with one another about actually fectual “feelings” are. Mike and I had both “felt” that wanting change, or about the role of theatre as a vital, I was more likely to be produced. But the numbers visceral window on the world. I’m not sure theatres said otherwise. And I’m sure the American theatre care that representation on their stages is increas- “feels” they are moving towards diversity and inclu- ingly disparate from their surrounding communities. sion. But the numbers say otherwise too. Millennials (18-34) make up a quarter of the country, What I take away from The Count is that theatres and of those, nearly half are minorities. But you’re are NOT producing the BEST plays; they’re merely not seeing them in our theatres. Women are half the ascribing higher value to plays that show a particu- population, and people of color are 37%. But you’re lar (hegemonic) perspective. Theatres are tacitly not seeing them being produced. What happens allowing unconscious bias to permeate the industry, when nuanced and diverse representations of these and until we find ways of holding decision- demographics are completely absent from theatre? I actually worry that instead of theatre opening us Th makers accountable for excluding women (and men of color), they will up to new experiences, we are creating an empathy LILLY have no incentive to change. After problem. We are effectively censoring alternate LILLYAwards Awards all, “feelings” are overwhelmingly perspectives to the point that instead of shining a & light on humanity, the plays we see merely confirm 30 | The Dramatist

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privileged experience. Latino, though I couldn’t tell you why), born in Chile Sometimes when I mention this stuff in public, and later “naturalized” a U.S. citizen (before that, inevitably an older white man will tell me, “If you totally unnatural). And though I look like many of the can’t take it, get out of the theatre.” The thing is, folks—the guys—in this name cloud, my life experi- according to these statistics, I’m already 96.6% out ence is probably different from that of your typical of the theatre. Ultimately, Mike and I have to believe Richard, John, or—the cloud’s big winner—David. that the value of our plays will transcend statistics. (Poor David, it’s not his fault!) Yet The Count shows that there is a toxic systemic As someone who often writes about politics, I bias at play which we cannot overcome on our own, can’t help but compare the makeup of The Count no matter how much we believe in our plays. to that most beloved of institutions, Congress. Few of us see the Congress—with its ludicrously ger- REHANA LEW MIRZA’s productions: Soldier X (Ma-Yi; Kilroy’s rymandered districts and overwhelmingly white, selection; NYSCA Commission); Lonely Leela (LPAC); and Barriers (Desipina; AATC). Awards: NNPN commission via InterAct, IAAC/ male composition—as particularly representative of Lark residency, TCG/New Georges fellowship, Tofte Lake residency, our country. And yet Congress is a veritable Electric E.S.T./Sloan commission. Affiliations: Ma-Yi Writers Lab and Primary Stages’ Dorothy Strelsin Writers Group. MFA: Columbia University. Company of diversity compared with the makeup of BFA: NYU’s Tisch. writers being produced in American theatres today. According to Pew, non-whites (including Hispanics) make up only 17% of Congress’ membership. And yet that’s still five percentage points higher than the share of productions attributable to non-white writers, according to Mario Correa The Count: 12%. The last time Congress had only 12% t’s raining men! Anglo men, to be exact. So says minority representa- the “name cloud” depicting the country’s most- tion? 2001. We’re produced dramatists, a bubble of gender and race being out-performed (oh, what a bubble!) that’s rightly stirred plenty by the Congress, of conversation. When I first saw the graphic on folks. How’s that Twitter, my mind immediately went to a very dark, I for a call to ac- very white place: The Sunday “Vows” section of The tion? New York Times. Why? Because, much like that weekly So let’s take a announcement of America’s Top Marriages, the look at one piece name cloud is oh-so-anglo. of this puzzle: I say ‘anglo’ rather than ‘white’ because race Latinos. How do we is tricky to categorize, of course, and not just in a get more works by Rachel Dolezal-kind-of-way. 37% of our country is Latino writers—women non-white, including Hispanic, according to Pew Re- and men—produced? How search Center. I’m one of those Hispanics (I prefer

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pp30-37 Feature B.indd 31 10/1/15 6:02 PM do we remind theatres and producers that our names produce the work may be funny, but our stories aren’t (unless we mean of living play- them to be.) If only we had a critically adored Broad- wrights. And way smash written and composed by one of our— most impor- d’oh! Hamilton centers on the whitest people ever, tantly, they of course—our Founding Fathers—the kind of work looked at the you might expect to be written by a Richard, a John, demographics a David. And yet it’s Lin-Manuel, smack in the heart of the se- of our culture, but nowhere to be found on the name lected theatre cloud, who’s cracked this nut wide open (ditto the cohort and great Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori, also cloud-less). found that of the The silver lining in all this? With Hamilton, with 2,605 productions Fun Home, with other successes by non-white and between 2011 and non-male writers, our industry is bound to take no- 2014, that were counted, tice, right? Right? I mean, if we can’t do better than sixty-two percent of those Congress, let’s at least do better than “Vows.” productions were plays written by white men. Twenty-two percent of the productions MARIO CORREA’s Tail! Spin!, a New York Times “Critic’s Pick,” were from plays written by women. Twelve percent played an acclaimed, extended run off-Broadway last season. His lat- est, Commander, about an openly gay candidate for President, was were written by people of color, including my unique Runner-Up for the National Latino Playwriting Award and opened the cohort: women of color, three percent. And over all, 2015 Baltimore Playwrights Festival. www.mariocorrea.com of special note, is the fact that male gender status is the most important denominator for production, with eighty-two percent of white writers being male Keep Counting and Then… and sixty-three percent of writers of color also male. Again, I commend The Lillys because we now have data. We now have a statistical baseline to use by Maxie as a reference point going forward to determine if things are getting better, worse or remain the same. We now have proof that our hunches, anecdotes, and Rockymore fears about female gender and racial inequities in American theatre are correct, validated. And we will am very happy that the Dramatists Guild and the now continue to collect, analyze, admire the prob- Lilly Awards Foundation are counting. There are lem, and report on the data longitudinally. a lot of rules, euphemisms, theories and beliefs But what then? What good is counting and track- about the importance of counting things. Then ing the data if the collective “we” do not act on it? from there as it usually goes the collective, “we” We, in the artistic or theatre world would like to Ihave conversations about what matters and what think of ourselves as being different, of being more counts. We would all agree that most of the time diverse and inclusive than other sectors of American counting something implies that there is some inher- society. And guess what? What a surprise that theatre ent value in the things that are being counted. also is a white boys club! As with any club, exclusiv- So, The Lillys counted the number ity is the key. Who gets to be in and who is kept out TheTh of theatres which met a set criteria, matters, it counts. LILLY that included: regional stature, Therefore, there need to be conversations in the Awards number of productions, a procliv- boardrooms of theatres, at donor meetings, on golf & ity to produce new work, and to courses, at lunch meetings, and in dressing rooms. 32 | The Dramatist

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The conversation needs to go something like this: women weren’t equally or more important things, “Man, did you see the data from The Count? What they just weren’t writing plays until recently. As no does that mean for us, for our theatre?” And the analysis of The Count is offered, the study is open to response should be (given that by nature I am always several interpretations. black, female and hopeful), “Yeah, I read that. Let’s One interpretation is that white men write more do something about it!” The truth of the matter is plays than women and minorities and therefore have that institutional change and inclusivity boils down more work produced. No evidence of this is offered to organizational will. The organization has to willing in The Count, and it would be useful to compare to change and that change starts with conversation. the numbers of plays written and submitted by men However, there is always one more conversation with those by women as well as the percentage of to be had, and that is in the bedroom. I challenge the each produced. If, for instance, 1000 men wrote one collective “we” to talk with their white boys, their play each and 50% of them were produced, and 500 white men, their white male partners and say, “hey women wrote one play each and 60% of them were can we talk. What are you, we, going to do about produced, women would have a smaller number of the gender and racial ethnic inequities in our local productions but a larger percentage. theater community?” I don’t know what the answer A more troubling interpretation is that there is will be, but I hope that there is meaningful and pur- bias against women and minority playwrights—or poseful conversation. Then, I hope that there is some bias in favor of white male playwrights. But there’s action. I hope someone jumps out of bed with a clear no evidence of this either. Nowhere is a commercial goal in mind to take action and make changes. If not, producer cited as saying, “This play I’m producing I hope someone is kicked out of bed and not allowed is making a lot of money but I’m closing it because a peaceful sleep of counting sheep. it’s written by a woman,” or of an artistic director of a not-for-profit saying, “I love this play but I’m not MAXIE ROCKYMORE is completing her MFA in Writing (playwrit- including it in our season because it’s by a woman.” ing) at the University of Nebraska, Omaha and will graduate August 2015. Maxie hails from Minneapolis, MN and had her one act play, Not only is there no evidence of this, it’s a tricky Straight Yellow Jacket produced at The New African Theatre, in proposition to prove logically without recalling Cleveland, Ohio, May 2014. Another of Maxie’s plays was a 2013 semi- finalist at the Eugene O’Neill Conference. Middleton’s deeply dark Jacobean drama Women Be- ware Women and claiming, as the econo- mist Emily Glassberg Sands did in Does The Count Matter? a 2009 New York Times story, that theatre women are biased against them- by Jonathan selves: more than half the not-for-profit artistic directors Reynolds in America are women, more than two-thirds of the t depends on its interpretation and what happens literary managers next. in New York are The numbers are big, but as the desired out- women, women come supported by this study was announced at make up the major- a DG Council meeting well before the research ity of the national and Iwas concluded, they’re hardly a surprise. Men have New York audience, and dominated playwriting—except recent fiction and one only need look at a Play- poetry—since the time of Euripides. It doesn’t mean

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pp30-37 Feature B.indd 33 10/1/15 6:02 PM bill or watch the Tonys to see the brigades of women commercial producers. Hard Crimson Whether Sands is right or not, what troubles me about this study is that it reduces our (ideally) imaginative and creative theatre world to the bean-count- by Velina Hasu ing universe of identity politics. The moment an art form takes into consideration any criteria for artistry other than merit—such as the race, gender, sexual Houston leaning, ethnicity, or age of the artist—it signifies the starter’s pistol for the devolution of that form “The rim/ Of the sky will be the colour of hard crimson…” – from art into the data-drive, quantifiable, and much Anna Akhmatova less inspired arenas of politics and sociology. The numbers of this study don’t concern me as ccording to the results of The Count much as what may be done in their name: the es- study, people like me currently repre- tablishment of some sort of mandated, enforceable sent a mere 3.4% of produced play- quota system based not on merit but on the gender, wrights in the U.S. But the good news race, ethnicity of the artist. This, and its flip-side, the is that I live in the Pacific region of exclusion of anyone based on these considerations, thisA country, which, out of thirteen productions, pro- should be anathema to any art form. duced 39% of plays by female writers between 2010 Subscribing to such criteria will further mar- and 2014 (a larger sampling might reduce that per- ginalize the theatre, just another victim of politi- centage). Nationally during the same period, male cal correctness. Imagine if, in a creatively parallel writers’ works represented 78% of produced plays. field, it were mandated that 51% of the inventions in According to the Center for American Progress, the country had to be conceived by women, 13% by women are about 50.8% of the U.S. population, earn blacks, 17% by Hispanics, and 1% by American Indi- about 60% of all undergraduate and master’s degrees ans. Of these, 7% from each group would have to be including about 40% of all business and management designed by LGBTQs. Usefulness and popularity of master’s degrees, and earn about 47% of law and the invention would be secondary considerations. medical degrees. They comprise 47% of the national Imagine MoMa or the Metropolitan Opera held to labor force and “59% of the college-educated, entry- these standards. level workforce.” Despite these numbers, women The word “parity,” which generally (but not trail behind men in leadership positions across most always) means equality, has been associated with industries. It seems safe to deduce that this is so in this project frequently. While I embrace equality of the dramatic arts as well. The lag is even greater when opportunity enthusiastically, I believe equality of one considers writers of color, and especially female outcome has no place in art. writers of color. In so many theatre settings, I have So…what happens next? heard white artists state that artists of color have it so easy because they are in demand and white writers JONATHAN REYNOLDS has had ten plays produced in New York, have nothing to offer racially, but the numbers are most notably Stonewall Jackson’s House, which was short-listed for the Pulitzer, and Geniuses, which wasn’t. Five screenplays produced. reflecting that talk of diversity is not playing out in He wrote a food column for The New York Times for six years and the reality of what is being produced on U.S. stages. was Treasurer of our Guild for five. He lives with the artist and set designer, Heidi Ettinger. Between them they On the other hand, I have heard the diversity tête-à- TheTh have five sons. tête, but the solution has been to draw more whites LILLY into the arena (white females), thereby bypassing the Awards need to integrate color. According to the Knowledge & Center, people of color are about 39% of the U.S. 34 | The Dramatist

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population (57% by 2060) and comprise about 34% of the labor force. Theatres that focus solely on non- white cultures are ghettoized, anti-black, or resistant Dana Levinson to diversity among their own ranks while demanding it from the white majority. The hard crimson color y first thought when looking at this of the rim of the sky is deepening. Perhaps one does study and these graphics is that we not notice it on a day-to-day basis, but it is happening need far more diverse representation nonetheless. Hearts are on fire and thunder is afoot. in theatre. I think this goes not only I exist in a multiethnic family that includes Asian, for writers, but it seems that most black, Latino, and Native American Indian heritages sub-fields of theatre, casting, directing, producing, as well as white and Jewish ethnicities. M etc. are dominated by white cis-gender men. Now Inclusivity is a human thing, that’s not to knock white cis-gender men! But where not just an idea. I also exist it becomes problematic is in terms of the kinds of in a professional field stories that are told in a commercial setting. Women, where my voice as people of color, LGBTQIA people, inherently bring a woman and as a different perspectives to their storytelling because person of color they have different life experiences. I am a big is generously believer that theatre, and the arts generally, have a underrepre- unique ability to humanize those that may otherwise sented. Still, I be seen as ‘other’ or dehumanized for their differ- listen for the ence. Elevating the voices of writers and theatre thunder and makers that are themselves part of marginalized watch the hard groups is important because it helps broaden our crimson color audience’s perspective, and perhaps forces them to in the belief that confront the collective humanity of all of us. art can be bigger, Of course, this year it was wonderful to see the more ethical, and history-making win for Jeanine Tesori and Lisa Kron more conscientiously for their wonderful work on Fun Home. expansive than other The fact that this history-making industries. Or can it? moment happened off-screen VELINA HASU HOUSTON’s career began at Manhattan Theatre is problematic, but that’s Club and expanded to notable theatres internationally including 21 another conversation. commissions, three being filled currently at Pasadena Playhouse, Los Not only was it histo- Angeles Opera, and Playwrights’ Arena-Center Theatre Group. She is creator/director MFA in Dramatic Writing, USC School of Dramatic ry-making because Arts. Archives: Library of Congress, Huntington Library. http://www. they were the first velinahasuhouston.com female writing team to win the Tony for Best Original Score, but because the show was a heavily female driven show that passed the Bechdel test, named for the real life woman that their show is based on, Ali-

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pp30-37 Feature B.indd 35 10/1/15 6:02 PM son Bechdel. There was a sense when this Tony win happened that we were somehow turning a corner in terms of representation, but upon looking at these Steven Dietz graphics, clearly we are not. Looking at the graphics, women only had a small uptick in representation in commend the Guild and The Lilly Awards for the past few years, let alone the representation for producing this troubling, potent and astonish- LGBTQIA voices and the voices of people of color. ing study. This information struck a very personal What I question is where does the disconnect chord with me. The Count asks my 30+ years of take place? Personally, I know many writers of color opportunity and access to come face-to-face with and many female writers. I am a female writer myself. the work of my students, my colleagues, and my wife. Is it that there’s simply a dearth of minority and I I see my first name in the “name cloud” but I do female theatre writers? That doesn’t seem to be my not know if I’m the “Steven” or a part of the “Steven” own experience, however my social and work circle that generated that data. I do know that I have been is hardly a scientific sampling. Or is it that produc- the recipient of actual (non-ironic) outrageous good ers and theatre companies are not taking risk on new fortune over the length of my (primarily regional) work, let alone new work written by minority groups career. This study asks me the necessary and difficult or women that address issues in these communi- question of whether a portion of that success—per- ties because they are seen as even more risky? My haps a large portion of that success—is a result of instinct is the latter. However one only needs to look being a white, male writer. as far as shows like Fun Home, and In the Heights, to The only honest answer to that question is yes. see that a story by and about women or a minority So what am I to do with this information? How group, can win both critical acclaim and commercial am I to defend my own career in this context? (I success. Regardless of the root cause, the beginning speak in the first person here with intent: I seek to of solving an issue is diagnosing it. So I applaud the represent no one’s conclusions but my own.) Dramatists Guild for releasing these graphics and Do I tell myself that the compelling new plays by studies so that we can all see how much further we women are simply not out there? I know that to be need to go. categorically wrong. In the ten years I have taught DANA LEVINSON is a composer/lyricist and orchestrator. Music and in the MFA playwriting program at UT/Austin, the Lyrics: 5th Republic, MADAME, Báthory. Arranging/Orchestra- clear majority of our writers have been women. Many tion: Gypsy of the Year: Avenue Q, Joanna Gleason: In Bloom, have seen some early career success (Frances Ya-Chu Well Strung, LUDO’s Broken Bride, San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus. Film Scoring: The Waystation in the Stars, Monica’s Mix- Cowhig, Kimber Lee, Meghan Kennedy, Diana Gri- ing Bowl. Dana is a 2014/2015 Dramatists Guild Fellow. santi); still others are growing their circle of influ- ence in the field (Jenny Connell Davis, Erica Saleh, Katie Bender, Sarah Saltwick, Gabrielle Reismann, Diana Lynn Small, among others). And yet with all the opportunities afforded graduates of select MFA programs, these women remain on the outside looking in at the “Davids,” “Marks,” “Bruces,” “Michaels” and “Johns.”

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producers, artistic directors and their theatres. However, if I believe the number of productions is essentially fixed—that the pie is not going to get bigger any time soon—then I must engage the idea of redistribution. This is the “do less of those plays and more of these plays” model. And in this model, the new and overdue productions need to come from— or at the expense of—other writers themselves. And that means me. I will be asking my agent and publishers to inform me when they are asked to license a play of mine to a LORT or NNPN theatre for a season of all (or predominantly all) white, male writers. Though I have limited clout with these theatres (I cannot make them do a play of my choosing), I will ask them to More troubling—and still more personal—to me are consider moving my play to another year, or pos- the gifted and important mid-career women play- sibly not doing it at all—so that a playwright from an wrights who don’t get the “MFA bounce” yet con- under-represented constituency can be produced in tinue to produce ambitious, engaging and impactful its place. new plays. We all have our lists but mine includes This plan is personal, inadequate and wholly im- Julie Marie Myatt, Elizabeth Heffron, Laura Schell- perfect (unlike the sweet dream of an expanded field hardt and my wife, Allison Gregory. These women with productions for all), but it costs me something. and their cohort are in an astonishingly fecund And thus, it feels real to me. I have no illusion that period of theatre-making just now, but you would it will make a dent in the data I have in front of me, barely know that from the listings in American Theatre but I hope it will let me continue to honestly look my magazine. Their access to production is simply not students, my colleagues, and my wife in the eye. commensurate with the scope, reach and power of Greater represention—however it is achieved—is the work they are making. not reparations for the inequities of the past. It is So do we have too few new plays? Or are too recognition of the diverse artistry of the present. many of our plays written by a narrow constituency of There is much more for me to learn and do here. playwrights? But I hope, with these words, to make a start. If I believe the number of productions in the field is fluid—that the pie can be made bigger—then I can STEVEN DIETZ’s recent plays include On Clover Road and Rancho continue to advocate for expansion. This “do more Mirage (both NNPN Rolling World Premieres), Bloomsday (ACT, Seattle), and The Shimmering. He teaches graduate playwriting and new plays” model implies that as we homestead more directing at UT/Austin. space on our seasons for new work there will inevitably be greater and fairer representation. In candor, I prefer this model because it costs me nothing. [Ed. Note: These responses were written based on the preliminary re- The production of under-represented playwrights port presented at the Guild’s 2015 National Conference. The full report becomes—once again, as ever—the responsibility of printed in this issue was not available until just before press time.]

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eople often ask us what it’s The numbers of The Count are useful because like being married to another they lift us above the experience of any one playwright. Answer: we talk playwright to give us a broad view of the field as a about theatre all the time. whole. Without numbers, there are only whining Over the past few years, a playwrights and their personal feelings. And the fact big topic of conversation is, every single playwright has at some point believed in our house has been the that they wrote a better play than someone else issue of gender parity and who got produced. So when playwrights who aren’t ethnic and racial diversity in white men say that they’re not getting the chances the American theatre. For they deserve, it’s easy to think, “Right, join the club. us, as throughout the theatre world, The Count has That’s what it’s like to be a playwright.” And for those catalyzed discussion on these issues. In this article inclined to dismiss claims of bias, the Annie Bakers, Pwe’d like to share some of the ideas coming out of Sarah Ruhls, Lynn Nottages, and Tarell McCraneys the think-tank known as our apartment. of the world are “proof” that white women and men and women of color are doing just fine, or even Th that they’re dominating the field in some way. But the numbers show otherwise. The numbers make LILLY it inarguably clear that these shining lights are Awards exceptions to the rule. Institutional bias is not just a & feeling; the majority of production opportunities for 38 | The Dramatist pp38-41 Feature C.indd 38 ?10/1/15 6:03 PM THE

And unless we believe that white men are inherently better playwrights than everyone else, we have to accept that the numbers are the result of an implicit, systemic bias on the part of new plays in this country are given to white men. And unless we believe that white producing organizations. men are inherently better playwrights than everyone else, we have to accept that the numbers are the result of an implicit, This bias is unfair systemic bias on the part of producing organizations. This bias is unfair and should be corrected. However. We believe that this is as and should be far as the fairness argument takes us. Theatres don’t exist to be fair to people, they exist to put up the best plays they corrected. can put up. So it’s understandable why calls for fairness, however just they may wary of fairness as a primary value in art making. be, tend to fill decision-makers at theatres with Nobody wants to see a play just because it was fear. They fear that an agenda of fairness will result that playwright’s turn to be produced. Nobody in decisions about individual plays being made by wants to work on a play chosen for that reason. committee instead of out of passion. They fear that And frankly, no writer wants to be the writer who’s they’ll be forced to choose plays of lower quality in being produced just because it’s her ups at bat. order to fulfill a social-justice mandate. They fear Everybody can agree that the plays we want to make that their audience will be alienated by work that and the plays we want to see are the plays that set an is too “specific,” not “universal” enough. We know audience on fire. that these fears are unfounded—we refer you to What sets an audience on fire? Emily Sands’ 2009 Princeton study for the numbers We suggest that the answer can be found in the on how well plays by women, for example, do at very word engendering so much anxiety: diversity. the box office. But at the same time, we’re also A diversity of perspectives is the fundamental

November/December 2015 | 39 ?pp38-41 Feature C.indd 39 10/1/15 6:03 PM requirement for dramatic action. Plays are made of We think this is a big reason why Hamilton is the inevitable, unavoidable limitation of any individual selling more tickets than anything else, and why perspective, the incompleteness of any single narrative, Deaf West’s Spring Awakening is giving people a and the dire consequences of believing your own transformative feeling they can’t get over. These narrative is sufficient or globally true. It’s the human theatre pieces make people literally vibrate with condition: From where I’m standing, I can see all kinds excitement, because they expand their audiences’ of things that you can’t see because you’re standing empathetic awareness in so many different somewhere else, and you don’t even know to wonder directions at once. You can be there in the audience about what I see, because you could only know it at Hamilton, and Busta Rhymes is also there and exists if you were standing where I’m standing. This so is Tim Geithner, and it’s not that you see your phenomenon of limited consciousness is our medium story on stage and Busta sees his and Tim sees his. as dramatists: in essence, all plays are about what It’s that everyone is crossing over multiple divides we can’t know and what it costs us. We see this play together, recognizing the humanity in strangers out in its most exquisite, terrible form at climactic and recognizing the strangers in themselves. This is dramatic moments —the tomb scene in Romeo and what lights an audience on fire. This is what breaks Juliet, for example. But all pieces of theatre turn on box office records. This is what keeps the fabulous this reality: the essential human experience of limited invalid from ever sinking into its perpetually consciousness. predicted grave. People feel ecstatic pleasure in And yet, the theatre performs a sweet, having their sphere of empathy expand. They can’t miraculous paradox: through witnessing people get enough of it. It’s like crack. stumbling around on stage trapped inside their The diversity that makes this expansion possible limited perspectives, we in the audience are isn’t only about demographics. A diversity of liberated from our own silos of isolation, if only for perspectives is inextricably connected to a diversity a moment. Theatre makes us see our separateness of styles, linguistic forms, genres, scales--a delicate, so that we may feel our connectedness. We feel internal play offers one kind of way to bridge the the joy of participating in something larger than empathetic gap, a big sweeping epic offers another. ourselves —theatre offers the unique pleasure of And yet, demographics are a really important a group process of imaginative construction, as a part of diversity. Theatre is a social art, and it play only exists in the moment of co-creation with wants to tell stories about society. The limited- an audience. And then there is the transcendent perspective experience of standing in different expansion of the soul we feel when someone else’s places in a room applies on a societal scale, too, humanity is made legible to us on stage. The more to standing in different places in the culture. If separate we as spectators think we are from that you’re a writer standing in one specific place on the character to begin with, the bigger the leap across cultural landscape, you can see things that other the empathetic divide a piece of theatre allows us to writers can’t see, no matter how open-minded they make, the more thrilled we are. are, simply because they’re not facing the same direction. They can’t even imagine the things you can see—they don’t even know to wonder about them. And part of what culture does is to tell you Th what other people see. So the more perspectives we’re allowed to occupy by proxy in our theatres, LILLY the richer our culture becomes, and the better Awards every writer has the potential to get. Ultimately, an & expanding diversity of perspectives is a corrective 40 | The Dramatist KURTZ WALTER

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to the reductive identity politics institutions fear, it appears that what Marsha Norman says is true: the because it undermines demographic generalizations way for theatres to achieve diversity is for artistic and enriches the common culture we all share. directors to choose plays by diverse writers. It’s not So, producers are afraid of the wrong thing more magic than that. And now we can see positive if they’re afraid to program a multiplicity of examples of theatres who have integrated diversity voices in their seasons. They should be afraid that seamlessly into their aesthetic ethos and who have they’re never going to make that intoxicating, not suffered, who on the contrary have experienced transformative thing happen in their theatres. They this new polyphony as an injection of vitality into should be afraid that their audiences will never the bloodstream of their organizations. know the ecstatic joy of empathetic expansion only We’re excited for this trend to continue, and theatre can offer. Everyone knows what it feels like to be sustained. Historically, heartening spikes of when a show is electric. Diversity of viewpoints is diverse representation like the one we’re in now the very soul of that electricity. have always been followed by drifts back down And now for some good news about art and into the culturally comfortable zone of 17-22% (for fairness. Because we were curious—and obsessively women playwrights), where the numbers have then speculating about it all the time over breakfast—we remained lodged for decades. We don’t want that to put together the gender numbers for the last few happen again, and we think it’s this argument about off-Broadway seasons in New York. And we found the nature and purpose of theatre that needs to be that there are a number of major not-for-profit made to keep the numbers from slipping. A push theatres that are now operating at or above parity for fairness is a quick fix—the meaning of theatre is for new plays, on average over a couple of years. So forever. That’s why parity.

Julia Jordan, Rebecca Stump, Lisa Kron & Marsha Norman after the presentation of The Count at the Guild’s 2015 National Conference in La Jolla, CA.

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