Patricia Cohen seems to be on the gender and culture beat at the NY Times. She’s written two stories this week first the one on gender discrimination against women playwrights (full post on that coming) and now one on how women are having success as theatre directors.
But even if women are doing well — three were nominated for Tony’s this year — let’s all be honest here, It’s still incredibly hard to be a female director in the theatre, especially in NY, and especially on Broadway. A playwright friend of mine has tried to have a woman director work on her plays and she can’t make it happen.
But women have been making strides and that’s awesome. I am so psyched to see different visions out on stage (and of course, I’d love to see them on film too.)
Cohen notes:
This has been something of a banner year for female directors in New York, a development that wouldn’t be worth noting if it weren’t so rare. In July alone three new Off Broadway shows directed by women (including Ms. Ivey) are beginning previews. On Broadway eight shows last season — a record — had a woman in charge, with most of them garnering outsize praise for their work.
I love the line- “with most of them garnering outside praise for their work.” This goes back to the whole conversation that because there are so few women the ones that succeed need to be exemplary. Women still need to be way better just to get half the attention.
35-year-old Leigh Silverman is making a a career for herself as a director. She’s directed on Broadway and most recently directed the adaptation of Coraline. (Tell me why that wasn’t on Broadway? The film made some serious money at the box office.) When Well flopped I’m sure it wasn’t easy for her. But she has persevered but really who else is directing as much as she is?
Silverman notes that even after a good year:
“It’s not a level playing field. There is no parity.”
Many women are so sick of all the attention paid to gender.
British director Maria Aitken said:
It is much better today, but, “it annoys me and upsets me even now that we have to be considered a special case,” she said. “I want to stop being an oddity.”
The only way women are going to stop being an oddity is to have more women. That way gender won’t matter and people will only focus on the work.
Who’s in Charge of This Show? She Is (NY Times)
“The only way women are going to stop being an oddity is to have more women. That way gender won’t matter and people will only focus on the work.”
I would go further. In theater, the stories told are dominated by men — men’s stories, men’s voices, many more roles for men than for women (even in many plays written by women!). This emphasizes, and covertly reinforces, male dominance of our society. If theater holds a mirror up to nature, why are there not as many women’s faces in that reflection as I see around me?
It is a perception issue — men are perceived as having credibility in speaking to the “human condition”; women are perceived as having credibility ONLY when addressing “women’s issues” (whatever that means).
Level the playing field by infusing women with the same credibility as men are granted. If we really want to see things change, it must begin with our storytelling — tell stories of the human condition in the female voice!
Maryanna Clarke
Founding Artistic Director
Tennessee Women’s Theater Project