Even though women buy the lion’s share of theatre tickets, it still seems that it is virtually impossible for women playwrights to get their shows mounted on Broadway. Usually there are great roles from women in male written shows, but this year there seemed to be a dearth of even those types of roles. And the strongest female performance in a play this year — Cate Blanchett in A Streetcar Named Desire — is not even eligible for a Tony because it was performed at BAM in Brooklyn and not on one of the Broadway stages.
The NY Times on a day in and day out basis does a disservice to women in theatre in general (ask any female playwright and she will go into a diatribe) due to their lack of employing a female reviewer with any gravitas in the business. It matters that the Times doesn’t give a shit about the fact that its theatre reviewing ranks is dominated by two white, gay males. Look at their film reviews. The diversity of opinions and experiences of the two the main reviewers A.O. Scott and Manohla Dargis make the paper better and more interesting. It matters.
So while on one page the reviewers were lamenting the sad Broadway season (and of course taking no responsibility for anything they do as the paper that can make a break a play or a career) on the next page the headline was Disappointing Season for Broadway Women which was of course written by a guy. I am wondering where the hell was Patricia Cohen who has been writing great stuff about women and theatre over the last couple of years.
The reason why I’m pissed is that even the article took on the tone that it was a bad year for women on Broadway including this quote from Tony nominated director Sheryl Kaller
Not only was this a better season for men’s roles, we had one of the most glaring gaps I can remember between the monumental men’s roles and the female characters, who are on the margins or are defined in relation to men
it still managed to get the women in the theatre to blame the women themselves for the failure.
They got producer Arielle Tepper Madover to throw women, especially those with young children, under the bus for not not having the time to be at the theatre cause they are busy raising kids.
“Going to the theater every night, standing in the back to watch how your show is coming together, and staying late to give feedback — let alone going to Chicago for a pre-Broadway try-out — is not something a lot of us can do,” said Ms. Madover, who has three young children. (Ms. Kaller, also a mother, agreed.)
It’s not the fault of the theatre! It’s the fault of women with small kids. Give me a break. There are so many women who work in the theatre each and every night as actors and directors, costumers etc and they make it happen because that is what people do. You figure it out. It’s the same bullshit I hear when people say that women can’t direct on location because they can’t leave their kids.
There is not one woman I have spoken to who would not be happy to figure it out if they got the opportunity to direct a film, and I am betting that we would all get the same answer from women working in theatre.
This regressive philosophy will not help move women writers and directors forward AT ALL. Stop blaming the women for a systemic failure of imagination.
Disappointing Season for Broadway Women (NY Times)
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