Tag Archive for 'Theresa Rebeck'

Last night I saw someone do something very brave.  My friend, Theresa Rebeck, a very successful playwright, TV writer and novelist, got up in front of a group of theatre people and talked about gender.  She talked about how her career has been hampered because she is a woman.  She talked about how she became toxic after a bad NY Times review.  She talked about the abysmal number of plays produced by women.  She talked about the missing women’s plays.

She challenged the theatre community to acknowledge that it has a gender problem and to do something about it.

Theresa has been kind enough to share her entire speech with us.  It is funny and it is important because it is the TRUTH.  Also, if you don’t know who Theresa is please check out this introduction that playwright John Weidman wrote.

Because I am someone who believes in the power of storytelling, I am going to tell you a story.  It is the story of a play, and the story of things that happened to me, because of that play.

The play is called The Butterfly Collection.  I wrote it in 1999.   It is about a family of artists, and the tensions that rise between the father, who is a successful novelist, and his two sons, one of whom is a struggling actor, and the other who is an antiques dealer.   Tim Sanford at Playwrights Horizons fell in love with this play and said he would produce it in the fall of 2000, and he talked to the guys who run South Coast Rep and they read it and included it in the new play festival that spring, so that we had a chance to work on it out there.  The workshop was great, and we were the hit of the festival.  When the play came into New York the following fall, we had a thrilling cast—Marion Seldes and Brian Murray, in their first production together, Reed Birney, Betsey Aidem, and the young Maggie Lacy in her New York stage debut.  Bartlett Sher directed, and there was enormous excitement gathering around the production.  A lot of commercial producers came, as people felt that it could potentially move.  Nine separate regional theaters were circling to produce it.  American theater magazine called my agent to ask for the script because they were interested in publishing it (in those cool inserts I was very excited I’ve always wanted one of those).   Audiences were thrilled with the play.  Lincoln Center Library was filming it for their collection.

When the New York Times published its review it was not what anyone expected.  The reviewer, who shall remain nameless, dismissed the play—which was about art and family—as a feminist diatribe.   He accused me of having a thinly veiled man-hating agenda, and in a truly bizarre paragraph at the end of the review, he expressed sympathy to the director because he had to work with someone as hideous as me.

The review was horrible and personal and projected all sorts of terrible things on me.  I was shocked, a lot of people were shocked.  And there was real outcry in the community. A lot of letters were written to the Times—someone told me it was sixty letters, which I don’t know how anyone would know that but it made me feel better, even though none of them were published.  Apologies were made behind the scenes, none to me but to other people.  The heroic Tina Howe went to the Dramatists Guild council and read the review aloud and insisted something be done about this; she and a lot of people made the excellent point that if anyone at the Times had ever dared to publish a review as racist or homophobic or anti-Semitic as this review was, in its bigotry—well, the review would never have been published.   So there was a flurry of upset.   But with a review that bad, the play closed.  All the other productions went away.  American Theater magazine went away.   Everybody knew that that was a crazy misogynistic review.  But no one would produce the play.  Ever again.  And you should know that many people consider it my best play.  Still. Continue reading ‘Text of Theresa Rebeck Laura Pels Keynote Address’

Playwright John Weidman introduced Theresa Rebeck for the Laura Pels Keynote address at an ART/NY event in NYC.  Here’s the intro:

Theresa Rebeck and I have been friends for a very long time, and one of the first things I learned about her was also one of the most important.  When she has something to say the best thing to do is just get out of the way.

Which is what I plan to do tonight.

First, however, there are a couple of things I want to say about Theresa:

A number of years ago, somebody asked George S. Kaufman what it was like to write a play.  He said it was easy.  You simply sat down in front of a blank piece of paper and stared at it until blood began to seep through your forehead.  From my point of view, an entirely accurate description.

But what about from Theresa’s?

Since she graduated first from Notre Dame, then from Brandeis—a religious mystery I still can’t quite sort out—Theresa has produced a body of work the breadth and variety of which is genuinely breathtaking.

16 full-length plays, 23 one acts, 3 produced screenplays, 2 published novels, a book of essays, between 25 and 40 episodes of prime time television shows like L.A. Law, NYPD Blue, and Law & Order, along with a grab bag of pilot scripts, treatments, unfinished or abandoned plays, Christmas lists, to-do lists, grocery lists, and a list of people who really piss her off—a list which, believe me, you do not want to be on. Continue reading ‘John Weidman Introduction to Theresa Rebeck’

Here’s the link to the radio show from this morning where we talked about women’s box office successes of 2009, can a woman get a best director nomination and win, with three amazing creative artists, playwright Theresa Rebeck, TV writer and director Nell Scovell, and feature writer and director Katherine Dieckmann. about how we shift the conversation about getting more women into creative positions on power in Hollywood (and other areas of pop culture.)

Would love to hear people’s thoughts on the conversation.

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Bios on the Guests

Theresa Rebeck is one of the most accomplished playwrights in America today.  Her newest work The Understudy is currently playing in NYC through January 17th.  She is also a novelist.  Her first book Three Sisters and Their Brother is now available in paperback and her newest novel Twelve Rooms with a View will be published in May by Random House.  She is also writing a pilot for USA TV.

Katherine Dieckmann has written and directed three feature films most recently Motherhood starring Uma Thurman.  She was also a journalist and a director of music videos.  She currently is an Assistant Professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of the Arts, where she teach screenwriting.  She also directed music videos for R.E.M., Aimee Mann, Wilco, and Everything but the Girl, among others.

Nell Scovell is a TV writer and director who created the show Sabrina the Teenage Witch.  She caused a bit of a stir with a recent piece on Vanity Fair’s website about her experience as a female writer on Late Night with David Letterman.

Sandra Bullock started out 2009 pretty much off the Hollywood radar screen.  She hadn’t made a movie for two years, and since most people never thought a woman over 40 could score box office successes, her upcoming films weren’t taken very seriously.  Part of the reason is because her films are romantic comedies and are starring vehicles for her so they don’t get a lot of love or buzz in the blogosphere.  Nobody had really high expectations for The Proposal,  All About Steve looked terrible (and did terrible), and The Blind Side wasn’t yet registering at all.

But then The Proposal hit — and hit big — with an opening weekend of $33 million on a $40 million budget.  It has now grossed $163 which puts it at number 13 for the year.

The Blind Side has propelled Bullock into a serious power position.  The success of the film, it opened with $34 million on a budget of $29 million, made Bullock 2009’s box office star in a survey of theatre owners.  The last time a woman was at top of the list was Julia Roberts in 1999.  The film is now the 8th top grossing film for 2009.

And to to top it off according to EW: “Bullock is now the only actress ever to have a film marketed with her name solely above the title (i.e. based on her star power alone, and not a franchise or tentpoll picture) pass the $200 million mark in domestic gross.”

Congrats Sandra but it is a sad testament to how far we have to go.

Sandra Bullock is top star of ‘09 boxoffice (Yahoo)

Happy New Year!

The Women’s Media Center is piloting a radio show on WBAI in NY and Women & Hollywood has put together a progam for tomorrow morning’s edition.

It airs at 10amEST and you can stream in live here.

The first part of the show will be a conversation with me and the hosts about what happened for women in 2009 and what to look forward to in 2010.

The second part (which I am so excited about) is a conversation with three amazing creative artists, playwright Theresa Rebeck, TV writer and director Nell Scovell, and feature writer and director Katherine Dieckmann.

Bios on the women are below.

The focus of our discussion will be how to shift the conversation about parity issues in Hollywood (and other areas of pop culture) beyond the where are the women to trying to come up with solutions.

Here’s an overview:

Women as consumers are evident in all areas of the arts.  We buy 50% of the movie tickets, over 50% of the theatre tickets, the majority of books and are a desired TV audience.  Yet, there is still a great disconnect between the audiences and the work.  Statistics show that women creatives are underrepresented in all areas of theatre, film, and TV.

And the biggest problem is the numbers are not improving.

Women remain at 25% representation in TV, under 10% of directors, 10% of film writers, 31% of theatre creatives jobs (and that includes actors.)

For the last decade (if not longer) the conversation has been about asking the question where are the women?  The time has come to shift the conversation from continuing to lament the problem to finding solutions.

If you can listen live please do.  I will post the podcast when it is up.

Bios

Theresa Rebeck is one of the most accomplished playwrights in America today.  Her newest work The Understudy is currently playing in NYC through January 17th.  She is also a novelist.  Her first book Three Sisters and Their Brother is now available in paperback and her newest novel Twelve Rooms with a View will be published in May by Random House.  She is also writing a pilot for USA TV.

Katherine Dieckmann has written and directed three feature films most recently Motherhood starring Uma Thurman.  She was also a journalist and a director of music videos.  She currently is an Assistant Professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of the Arts, where she teach screenwriting.  She also directed music videos for R.E.M., Aimee Mann, Wilco, and Everything but
the Girl, among others.

Nell Scovell is a TV writer and director who created the show Sabrina the Teenage Witch.  She caused a bit of a stir with a recent piece on Vanity Fair’s website about her experience as a female writer on Late Night with David Letterman.

Julie White (l) and Theresa Rebeck

I am so sick and tired of all the stories about how women compete against each other (lots of them bullshit designed, I believe, to keep women from working together) that it’s important to acknowledge and celebrate when we get a good, positive story about how women work together with much success.  In the NY Times this past weekend there was a great piece on the long-time friendship and collaboration between playwright Theresa Rebeck and actress Julie White.

“Sometimes I feel that my job on earth is to put Julie White through horrible things, watch her writhe and then recover,” the playwright Theresa Rebeck said with a laugh the other day.”

Although they are theatrical alter egos, they joke about their differences. Ms. Rebeck has a doctorate in English, while Ms. White just got her bachelor’s degree recently, about 25 years after dropping out of college to work. “She’ll be up in the middle of the night watching Chris Matthews,” Ms. White said of Ms. Rebeck, “and I’ll be up watching ‘The Dog Whisperer.’ ”

This story led me to try and think of some other female creative partnerships. I came up with producer Jan Chapman and director Jane Campion and director Deborah Warner and actress Fiona Shaw.

There have got to be many others. What other female creative partnerships are there? Let’s make a list.

One Writes, the Other Acts. Sparks Fly. (NY Times)

The NY Times did a look at the upcoming theatre season across the country (but honestly, most are in NY.)  Here are plays (and musicals) written by women, about women and directed by women.  All the blurbs are from the NY Times:

PLAYS BY WOMEN
AFTERMATH Actors portray Iraqi civilians who were interviewed for this documentary play about their lives in wartime Iraq and in exile. Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen, the team behind “The Exonerated,” which was based on the stories of death row inmates who were eventually freed, traveled to the Middle East last year and met with some 35 people who had fled Iraq for nearby Jordan. Ms. Blank directs. In previews. Opened Sept. 15. Closes Oct. 4. New York Theater Workshop, 79 East Fourth Street, East Village; Telecharge, nytw.org.

LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE To some of us, Melissa Gilbert will always be Laura, a k a Half Pint, the character she played as a child from 1974 to 1983 on the television show based on the books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. But time is relentless, and Ms. Gilbert is now appearing as Ma in this musical version, with a book by Rachel Sheinkin, music by Rachel Portman, lyrics by Donna di Novelli and a cast that also includes Steve Blanchard as Pa and Kara Lindsay as the young Laura. The production, conceived and directed by Francesca Zambello, had a sold-out premiere run at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis last year. After this New Jersey stop, it will embark on a national tour. In previews. Opens Sept. 20. Closes Oct. 10. Paper Mill Playhouse, 22 Brookside Drive, Millburn, N.J. (973) 376-4343; papermill.org.

LET ME DOWN EASY Fans of Anna Deavere Smith (“Fires in the Mirror”), and her solo performance style of channeling interviewees, should be pleased to see her after a long absence from the New York stage. In her latest work, an obviously timely one, she portrays doctors, patients, athletes and others as she celebrates the resilience of the human body while also examining the American health care system on which much of that resilience depends. Leonard Foglia directs. Previews begin Tuesday. Opens Oct. 7. Closes Nov. 8. Second Stage Theater, 307 West 43rd Street, Clinton. (212) 246-4422; 2st.com.

LOVE, LOSS AND WHAT I WORE It will be tough to choose which of three casts you want to see in this collection of vignettes and monologues by the sisters Nora and Delia Ephron. Rosie O’Donnell, Rhea Perlman and her daughter Lucy DeVito, Kristin Chenoweth, Tyne Daly and others are lined up to perform — but not necessarily at the same time. The subject, the sartorial side of major moments in women’s lives, is based on the book of the same title by Ilene Beckerman. Karen Carpenter is the director. Previews begin Sept. 21. Opens Oct. 1. Closes Dec 13. Westside Theater, 407 West 43rd Street. Telecharge; lovelossonstage.com.

IMELDA This portrait of Imelda Marcos, the controversial former first lady of the Philippines who amassed great wealth and an enormous wardrobe — including thousands of pairs of shoes — while her husband, Ferdinand, was in office, has a book by Sachi Oyama, music by Nathan Wang and lyrics by Aaron Coleman. Tim Dang, the producing artistic director of the East West Players in Los Angeles, will direct the production for the Pan Asian Repertory Theater. Previews begin Sept. 22. Opens Sept. 30. Closes Oct. 18. Julia Miles Theater, 424 West 55th Street, Clinton. Telecharge; panasianrep.org.

WISHFUL DRINKING Carrie Fisher, the wry offspring of Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, erstwhile wife of Paul Simon, Princess Leia of “Star Wars,” screenwriter and author of a number of books, including the novel “Postcards From the Edge” and a memoir with the same title as this solo show, tells stories involving all of the above, and recounts her experiences with alcoholism and depression besides. Tony Taccone, is the director of this Roundabout Theater Company production. Previews begin Sept. 22. Opens Oct. 4. Closes Jan. 3. Studio 54, 254 West 54th Street. (212) 719-1300; roundabouttheatre.org.

THE NIGHT WATCHER Charlayne Woodard doesn’t have children but she is a friend and maternal presence to many youngsters, as she recounts in a solo show that had its premiere last fall at the Seattle Repertory Theater. In it, she describes her own position vis-à-vis societal expectations that women should procreate. Daniel Sullivan directs. Previews begin Sept. 22. Opens Oct. 6. Closes Oct. 31. Primary Stages at 59E59 Theaters, 59 East 59th Street. Ticket Central; primarystages.org.

CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION A group of lost souls comes together in a small-town drama class in this wistful comedy by Annie Baker (“Body Awareness”). Sam Gold will direct a cast that includes Reed Birney and Deirdre O’Connell in this Playwrights Horizons production. Previews begin Sept. 24. Opens Oct. 13. Closes Nov. 1. Peter Jay Sharp Theater, 416 West 42nd Street. Ticket Central; playwrightshorizons.org.

THE UNDERSTUDY Julie White will star as a harried stage manager overseeing a tense rehearsal for a Kafka play in Theresa Rebeck’s comedy that had its premiere last summer at the Williamstown Theater Festival. Mark-Paul Gosselaar (“Raising the Bar,” on TNT) and Justin Kirk (“Weeds,” on Showtime) play actors — one of them an understudy, of course — at an important rehearsal that nearly gets derailed because of issues among the three people in attendance. The Roundabout Theater Company production is directed by Scott Ellis. Previews begin Oct. 9. Opens Nov. 5. Closes Jan. 3. Laura Pels Theater, Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theater, 111 West 46th Street, Manhattan. (212) 719-1300, roundabouttheatre.org.

NIGHTINGALE Inspired by her desire to understand the maternal grandmother she barely had a chance to know, Lynn Redgrave wrote this solo show in which she stars. Joseph Hardy is the director. Previews begin Oct. 15. Opens Nov. 3. Closes Dec. 13. Manhattan Theater Club at City Center, Stage I, 131 West 55th Street, Manhattan. (212) 581-1212; manhattantheatreclub.com.

IN THE NEXT ROOM OR THE VIBRATOR PLAY To help free his female patients from their struggles with “hysteria,” a doctor (Michael Cerveris) employs a novel cure (see title for hint). He is less adept at pleasing his wife (Laura Benanti) in this play by Sarah Ruhl (“The Clean House”). Les Waters, who directed the premiere at the Berkeley Repertory Theater, directs this Lincoln Center Theater production on Broadway. Previews begin Oct. 22. Opens Nov. 19. Lyceum Theater, 149 West 45th Street. Telecharge; lct.org.

CREATURE In this new comedy by Heidi Schreck, a medieval Englishwoman loses her mind and then regains it, crediting Jesus Christ for her recovery. She devotes herself to religion, attempts to become a saint and finds that the road to ecclesiastical greatness is tough for someone with voracious, earthly appetites. Leigh Silverman will direct the co-production of New Georges and Page 73 productions. Previews begin Oct. 27. Opens Nov. 2. Closes Nov. 21. Ohio Theater, 66 Wooster Street, SoHo. Theatermania; p73.org.

OR, The Restoration dramatist Aphra Behn was certainly unusual: she made her living as a playwright in a man’s world and was a spy for Charles II. Liz Duffy Adams has used this intriguing figure as her main character in a comedy about Behn trying to leave spying for show biz, while her crazy love life keeps getting in the way. Previews begin Oct. 29. Opens Nov. 3. Closes Nov. 22. Women’s Project, 424 West 55th Street, Clinton. Telecharge; womensproject.org.

THE FEMALE OF THE SPECIES Annette Bening portrays an author with writer’s block who is kidnapped by a rabid fan in this comedy by Joanna Murray-Smith, directed by Randall Arney. Previews begin Feb. 2. Opens Feb. 10. Closes March 14. Geffen Playhouse, 10886 Le Conte Avenue, Los Angeles. (310) 208-5454; geffenplayhouse.com.
Continue reading ‘Women On Stage This Year’

Last week I attended the release of an economic study done by Princeton undergrad Emily Glassberg Sands entitled Opening the Curtain of Playwright Gender: An Integrated Economic Analysis of Discrimination in American Theatre.

Usually an undergraduate thesis does not warrant a couple of hundred people showing up to hear the results.  But this was no average thesis and Glassberg Sands is no average undergrad.  This young woman is seriously impressive and was advised by Cecilia Rouse who is now working for the Obama administration and is the co-author with Claudia Goldin of Harvard of the famous study Orchestrating Impar-tiality: The Impact of ‘Blind’ Auditions on Female Musicians about how blind auditions increases women making it out of auditions by 50%.

None of this would have happened without Julia Jordan, a playwright, who got tired of not being produced and decided to find out if there was bias.  The thing to understand about theatre is that everyone knows there is sexism and it’s a joke because nobody is willing to do anything about it.  Here’s what Jordan says:

I know that there is a lot of joking going around where people say ok we have our 4 plays and we have one slot left it’s the race/girl slot.  Everybody knows that’s how it works.  The sexism is a bit of a joke.

And playwright Theresa Rebeck said:

It’s not like the men in the system don’t know it’s happening.  It’s sort of interesting to me when you go to a new play festival everybody admits that it is happening and kind of shrugs and says what can you do.

This is not funny.  Jordan smartly used economics which everyone can understand.  No more anecdotes of discrimination.  Here are the real facts.  If you want to read Jordan’s introduction to the event, click here.

So here’s what we learned:

1- More plays written by men get produced in NY.  The figure is 82% male to 18% female.  So the overall question is: are there more plays written by men and are why are there too few female written plays in the pool?

The news is (based on a playwrighting database) that there are more male playwrights and plays written by men.  Yet scripts by men and women get produced at equal rates.  So even though there are fewer plays by women they get produced at the same rate as men.

2- Women write more plays about women and those are ones least likely to be produced.  The more female parts the less likely they are to be produced, so women write smaller plays.

3- Glassberg Sands sent out 4 plays by female playwrights and changed the names to have half female names and half male names to theatres across the country to see what happens to the same play is written by Mary and Michael.  Turns out the same play with a female moniker is treated differently than one with a male moniker.

This is called an audit study and I find the results fascinating.  When the play is purported to be written by a woman the scripts are deemed to be of overall lower quality and the characters are perceived as less likable and those plays are perceived to have poorer economic prospects including less chances for prizes.

The strange part of the audit survey is that women seem to be harder on women playwrights.  When Emily said that I knew that was going to be the lead of the story.  Women discriminate against women.  But it’s not that simple.  Here’s what Julia Jordan says about this issue:

People need to look closely at the audit study at what it does and what it doesn’t say.  What it says is that women judge the excellence of the script whether it is purported to be written by a man or woman as equal.  That’s not where the discrimination came in.  Where the discrimination really came in was with questions like do you think it will win a prize? Do you think it will be financially successful?

So let’s dig a little deeper here.  Plays by and about women get produced less.  So those plays with women characters have to be amazing in order to get through.  (Keep in mind that none of this research focused at all on the predominance of male critics)

Do I believe that women are harder on women playwrights?  Yup.  Do I believe that they do it because they don’t want women playwrights to be successful?  Nope.  Here’s what I think.  Women are harder on women.  Always are.  I am betting it’s still pretty hard to be a female leader at a theatre around the country and if the perception is that women’s plays don’t do as well as men’s.   On top of that it is harder to find women’s plays because as the study showed earlier there are more plays by men floating around.  So when you are a woman working in a theatre and want to put forward a woman’s play for consideration it had better be an amazing play because no one wants to be known as the person who championed a play that did not live up to expectations.  The standards for women’s plays are so much higher and harder.

Here’s what playwright Francine Volpe has to say:  **This quote has been changed from an earlier version where I misquoted Volpe.  I apologize to her and to the theatre companies who have worked to develop and produce her work.**

I have always known that when I write my masterpiece I’ll have something closer to career I really want in theater. But I look around at my male peers and they haven’t written their masterpiece either and in the meantime, they are more consistently produced. These productions are helping them to become better writers and deepening their relationships with other artists.

And Julia Jordan adds:

And they are learning from it.   And the are building relationships, and they are building an audience and they are paying their bills.  And it’s leading to film and tv work.

This is a vicious cycle.  More male plays get produced.  These guys make money for their agents and their agents plug them.  When women don’t get produced they get dropped by their agents and there is no one championing them and sending out their material.  The fact that women artistic directors are harder on women makes sense because it is harder for women.

But here’s the most important thing to note.  Plays with women characters, the ones that are the least likely to be produced, are the most successful financially. So with all the discrimination women are still successful.  Only 11% of the plays on Broadway over the last decade were written by women BUT those plays made more money and had higher revenue by 18%.  Yet even though those shows are doing better they don’t run longer.  Producers are actually losing money by not running these shows longer and by not producing more plays about women.

So what does this all mean?  I think that this study could be the beginning of something really big.  Why don’t we do the same study of how women’s screenplays are treated?  I’d love to see and audit study of how scripts with women characters are treated.  I think it’s going to be even worse that the theatre.  But what this study has done is finally unmasked the sexism on the part of the business that plays by and about women are not successful.  People want to see plays by women.  Women buy over 60% of all the tickets.  Theresa Rebeck said: “Women are buying all the tickets and plays by women make money.  Theatres can no longer afford to hang on to the shreds of old thinking.”

Women need to be supported and told that writing about women is OK.  That stories about women are ok cause they do make money.  You would never tell a guy that he shouldn’t write plays about men because they can’t be successful and now we can’t tell women that either.  Cause the bottom line is money and women make money.  So here’s the deal.  Anyone who says they are not producing a woman because her play won’t make money can no longer get away with it.  The argument is gone, over and should be unmasked as what it is – sexism.

Rachel Helson

Rachel Helson is an inspired young woman.  At 20 years old she’s a producer (Reasons to be Pretty), an actress and an NYU senior.  She’s also a serious kick ass activist for breast cancer and is producing a benefit on Monday, May 4th for the Susan G. Komen Foundation in honor of her four breast cancer surviving aunts.

Here are the details:

The Young Professionals Committee of Susan G. Komen for the Cure, New York City Affiliate will present The Pink Campaign on Broadway at the American Airlines Theatre (227 West 42nd St). This one-night only event will take place on Monday, May 4, 2009 and will be an inspirational Broadway benefit performance filling the stage with original music and theatre that explores the ways in which breast cancer touches people’s lives.

Tickets are $100 and $150 and are now on sale at Smarttix or by calling (212) 868-4444.

Directed by David Ruttura (White Christmas, Farragut North,) and hosted by Rachel Dratch the event will consist of musical performances of original songs by celebrated Broadway composers and artists in the music industry and short plays acted, written and directed by professionals of stage and screen; all written about various breast cancer experiences.

Performers include Susan Blackwell (title of show, Speech & Debate,) Patrick Goodwin (17 Photos of Isabel,) Seth Grugle (The Hunchback of Notredame, “American Idol,”) Rachel Helson (72 Blackeyed Virgins, The 24 Hour Plays,) Richard Kind (“Spin City,” “Mad About You,”) Terry Kinney (“Oz,” The Laramie Project,) Stephanie March (“Law & Order: SVU”), Zoe Perry (“Private Practice”), Kate Reinders (Wicked, Good Vibrations,) Sarah Ries (The 24 Hour Plays, “Grey’s Anatomy,”) Daphne Rubin-Vega (Rent, Les Miserables), James Leo Ryan (Annie, Show Boat,) Megan Sikora (Curtains, Wicked,) Mary Testa (Guys and Dolls, Xanadu,) Tamara Tunie (“Law & Order: SVU”), Steven Weber (“Wings,” “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip”), and Kit Williamson (Talk Radio).

Playwrights include Theresa Rebeck (Mauritius, Spike Heels), Harrison David Rivers (Fell), and Robert Sternin & Prudence Fraser (“The Nanny”). Directors include Andrew McCarthy (St. Elmo’s Fire, “Lipstick Jungle,” Fat Pig) and Laura Savia (10 Million Miles, Celebration and the Room.) Composers and lyricists include composer and conductor Oran Eldor (Guys & Dolls), Marcy Heisler & Zina Goldrich (Ever After, Dear Edwina, Junie B. Jones), and Jeremy Schonfeld (Drift, Ministry of Progress, Home).

HBO has long been known for its boy oriented shows.  The Sopranos, Entourage and even Big Love.  But now us girls are making headway first with the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency and now with Women’s Studies from my buddy Theresa Rebeck.

How awesome is it that a show will be called Women’s Studies?

The new feminist show will star Julie White as a former feminist “it” girl author who now teaches at a small northeastern liberal arts school. If Julie White is in it I can guarantee it will be funny.

Rebeck and Ben Karlin (The Daily Show and The Colbert Report) are executive producers and Rebeck will write the script.

Theresa Rebeck’s first novel Three Sisters and Their Brother will be out in paperback this month.

Do you hear me shouting from the rooftop?

HBO signing up for ‘Women’s Studies‘ (HR)