Findings Report of the Irish Playography: Gender Breakdown, New Play Repertoire 2006 - 2015 Compiled by Irish Theatre Institute, June 2017 Revised August 20191 1see note pg. 9 Contents p2 ............................................................................... Executive Summary p4 ............................................................................................ Playwrights p10 .............................................................................................. Directors p14 ............................................................................................. Designers p17 .................................................................................................... Casts p20 .......................................................................... Research Parameters p21 ............................................................................................. Appendix ©2017, 2019 Irish Theatre Institute While Irish Theatre Institute has taken every care in collating information for these statistics, it does not assume and hereby disclaims any liability to any party for loss or damage caused by errors or omissions in this document. 1 Executive Summary Irish Playography catalogues the repertoire of professionally produced new Irish plays written in English since the formation of the Abbey, Ireland's National Theatre, in 1904. The research in this Findings Report focusses on the gender breakdown of Playwrights, Directors, Designers and Casts of the 737 new plays produced between 2006 and 2015. For a full description of the research parameters for this report, please see pg. 20. The highlights for each artistic category are as follows: Playwrights • 33% of single-authored new plays produced between 2006-2015 were written by female playwrights. • 9% of new plays are co-authored; 46% of the playwrights of co-authored plays are female. • Over the ten-year period, there has been little change in the proportion of new plays by female playwrights produced, averaging at 29% for the period from 2006-2010 and 31% for the period from 2011-2015. • There was on average 1 new musical produced per year, 4 new plays for young audiences produced per year and 12 new adaptations produced per year; 77% of new plays produced were original plays. ©2017, 2019 Irish Theatre Institute While Irish Theatre Institute has taken every care in collating information for these statistics, it does not assume and hereby disclaims any liability to any party for loss or damage caused by errors or omissions in this document. 2 Directors • 39% of new plays staged by a single director and premiered between 2006-2015 were directed by female directors. • 3% of new plays are co-directed; 42% of the directors of co-directed plays are female. • While in 2015, there were equal numbers of new plays directed by solo female and male directors; on average, there was a slight decrease (1%) in the numbers of new plays directed by solo female directors in the second half (2011-2015, 38%) of the 10-year period studied when compared to the first (2006-2010, 39%). Designers • The statistics on designers show that the disciplines of Costume and Sound remain gendered for female and male designers respectively, while female designers are also underrepresented for both Lighting and Set Design. • Although 82% of Costume Designers are female, only 474 or 64% of the total 737 new plays studied had a Costume Designer credited; with Lighting Designers credited on 82% of new plays, Set Designers on 77% of new plays and Sound Designers on 70% of new plays. Casts • The average cast size of new Irish plays is 5 – this is made up of 2 female (41%) and 3 male (59%) actors. • Although the average cast size of new plays dipped to 3 in 2013 and 4 in 2014, the ratio of female:male actors remains the same throughout the period. ©2017, 2019 Irish Theatre Institute While Irish Theatre Institute has taken every care in collating information for these statistics, it does not assume and hereby disclaims any liability to any party for loss or damage caused by errors or omissions in this document. 3 Playwrights Findings Report of the Irish Playography: Gender Breakdown, New Play Repertoire 2006 - 2015 ©2017, 2019 Irish Theatre Institute While Irish Theatre Institute has taken every care in collating information for these statistics, it does not assume and hereby disclaims any liability to any party for loss or damage caused by errors or omissions in this document. 4 TOTAL NEW PLAYS* 2006-2015 = 737 BY AUTHOR TYPE CO-AUTHORED MIXED All Male 20 30% Female Mixed 48% Co-Authored Single-Authored 30 67 Male 670 45% 9% 52% 91% All Female 17 25% Female Male All Female All Male Mixed Single-Authored Co-Authored *includes original plays, new adaptations, theatre for young audiences, physical/devised theatre and musical theatre ©2017, 2019 Irish Theatre Institute While Irish Theatre Institute has taken every care in collating information for these statistics, it does not assume and hereby disclaims any liability to any party for loss or damage caused by errors or omissions in this document. 5 TOTAL NEW PLAYS* 2006-2015 = 737 TOTAL SINGLE-AUTHORED PLAYS = 670 PLAYWRIGHTS FEMALE/MALE Female 223 33% Female Male Male 447 67% *includes original plays, new adaptations, theatre for young audiences, physical/devised theatre and musical theatre ©2017, 2019 Irish Theatre Institute While Irish Theatre Institute has taken every care in collating information for these statistics, it does not assume and hereby disclaims any liability to any party for loss or damage caused by errors or omissions in this document. 6 TOTAL NEW PLAYS* 2006-2015 = 737 PLAYWRIGHTS FEMALE/MALE/CO-AUTHORED BY YEAR 100 8 90 80 8 8 AUTHORED - 5 70 4 8 6 7 7 60 58 47 50 6 42 50 53 43 35 40 45 42 30 32 20 31 29 26 24 10 22 22 20 17 18 14 NO. OF NEW PLAYS BY PLAYWRIGHTS FEMALE/MALE/CO 0 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Female Male Co-Authored *includes original plays, new adaptations, theatre for young audiences, physical/devised theatre and musical theatre ©2017, 2019 Irish Theatre Institute While Irish Theatre Institute has taken every care in collating information for these statistics, it does not assume and hereby disclaims any liability to any party for loss or damage caused by errors or omissions in this document. 7 TOTAL NEW PLAYS* 2006 - 2015 = 737 PLAYWRIGHTS FEMALE/MALE/CO-AUTHORED BY PLAY TYPE PHYSICAL/DEVISED THEATRE 3 2 1 MUSICAL THEATRE 6 3 17 THEATRE FOR YOUNG AUDIENCES 24 28 ADAPTATION/TRANSLATION 75 14 177 PLAYS GENERAL 339 48 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 NO. OF PLAYS Female Male Co-Authored *includes original plays, new adaptations, theatre for young audiences, physical/devised theatre and musical theatre ©2017, 2019 Irish Theatre Institute While Irish Theatre Institute has taken every care in collating information for these statistics, it does not assume and hereby disclaims any liability to any party for loss or damage caused by errors or omissions in this document. 8 TOTAL NEW PLAYS* 2006-2015 = 737 PLAYWRIGHTS FEMALE/MALE/CO-AUTHORED BY PRODUCER** (MORE THAN 5 PLAYS PRODUCED 2006 -2015) ABBEY THEATRE AXIS: BALLYMUN BARNSTORM THEATRE COMPANY BELLTABLE BEWLEY’S CAFE THEATRE BIG TELLY THEATRE COMPANY BLUE RAINCOAT THEATRE COMPANY BRASSNECK THEATRE CIVIC THEATRE DRUID DUBLIN FRINGE FESTIVAL DUBLIN THEATRE FESTIVAL FISHAMBLE: THE NEW PLAY COMPANY FOCUS THEATRE FREGOLI THEATRE GALWAY INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL GATE THEATRE GREEN SHOOT PRODUCTIONS GÚNA NUA THEATRE COMPANY KABOSH LANDMARK PRODUCTIONS LIVIN’ DRED THEATRE COMPANY LYRIC THEATRE MERIDIAN THEATRE COMPANY ORIGIN THEATRE COMPANY Female OUT OF JOINT Male PAN PAN Co-Authored PROJECT ARTS CENTRE RANSOM PRODUCTIONS ROUGH MAGIC THEATRE COMPANY SICKLE MOON PRODUCTIONS TALL TALES THEATRE COMPANY TEAM EDUCATIONAL THEATRE COMPANY THE ARK THE CORN EXCHANGE THE DEVIOUS THEATRE COMPANY THE EVERYMAN THE NEW THEATRE THE PERFORMANCE CORPORATION THE PLAYHOUSE THE ROYAL COURT THEATRE THEATRE LOVETT THEATRE UPSTAIRS THISISPOPBABY TINDERBOX THEATRE COMPANY TRUMAN TOWN THEATRE WONDERLAND PRODUCTIONS 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 NO. OF NEW PLAYS BY PLAYWRIGHTS FEMALE/MALE/CO-AUTHORED * Includes original plays, new adaptations, theatre for young audiences, physical/devised theatre and musical theatre ** Includes Producers, Co-producers and 'Producers in association with'. Excluding plays produced under the "Show In A Bag" scheme. Show in a Bag is an artist development initiative of Dublin Fringe Festival, Fishamble: The New Play Company and Irish Theatre Institute to resource theatre makers and actors. Note re correction August 2019: number of female playwrights for Fishamble: The New Play Company corrected from 3 to 2. ©2017, 2019 Irish Theatre Institute While Irish Theatre Institute has taken every care in collating information for these statistics, it does not assume and hereby disclaims any liability to any party for loss or damage caused by errors or omissions in this document. 9 Directors Findings Report of the Irish Playography: Gender Breakdown, New Play Repertoire 2006 - 2015 ©2017, 2019 Irish Theatre Institute While Irish Theatre Institute has taken every care in collating information for these statistics, it does not assume and hereby disclaims any liability to any party for loss or damage caused by errors or omissions in this document. 10 TOTAL NEW PLAYS* 2006 - 2015 = 737 TOTAL PLAYS WITH DIRECTORS = 727 BY DIRECTOR TYPE CO-DIRECTED MIXED Co-Directed All Male 22 8 Mixed 3% 36% 10 46% Male Single Director Female 49% 705 51% 97%