The Guthrie Theatre is one of the most prestigious regional theatres in America. Next year it will be celebrating it’s 50th anniversary season. Joe Dowling, the 7th Artistic director of the theatre (which by the way has never had a female artistic director) recently announced the program for this very important upcoming season and there is not a SINGLE female playwright on the list for the main stages. (I also just consulted Wikipedia and the Guthrie also had no female playwrights in the 2011–2012 season.) And not only are there no women, there are also no plays by any people of color. So their whole celebratory season marking this seminal anniversary will be populated completely by white men.
Here’s what reporter for Minneapolis Public Radio Marianne Combs reports about the season:
Of the 12 productions slated for the Guthrie’s two large stages, the Wurtele thrust and the McGuire proscenium, not one of them was written by a woman. And only one of them (“Nice Fish”) is being co-directed by a woman (along with Mark Rylance).
In addition, the men involved in writing and staging these plays are all white — the most diverse among them is Carlo Goldoni, an Italian playwright from the 1700s.
This situation is uncceptable and the good thing is that people know it. People are talking. People are challenging. Artistic Director Joe Dowling is being held accountable. He was utterly condescending when asked about the lack of diversity responding: “This is a self-serving argument that doesn’t hold water.” He also said: “But one thing I want to be very clear about, tokenism is the worst thing you can do…I employ people because of their talent, male or female. It is a very stern task to direct on a stage of our size, and I am responsible to the board for the shows we produce.” to the Star Tribune.
So now women and people of color are tokens. Nice. With comments like this it is no wonder that American theatre is not diverse. And I also want to give a big shout out to the board members who think that staging plays by white men is the only way to pay the bills. People — who the fuck do you think buys the tickets? How many of the old white men in your theatre would be going if their wife, partner, friends etc had not bought the tickets because the statistics show that women buy 70% of the tickets.
The question for me is why do theatre and other artistic institutions still continue to believe that the work of women — whether that work is about women or just by women — is something that is not equal to the work of men. This is a fundamental question about the future of the arts and culture of our WORLD.
The Guthrie diversity issue is just one example of many of the continued marginalization of women’s voices. It goes back to whose stories counts, whose stories are valid, whose stories are worthy. This also must remind us that while many institutions across the culture portend to have diverse missions, that diversity is clearly limited, and it is up to us the public who buy tickets to say that we demand more diversity in our theatre across America.
Read this piece about the situtation: Guthrie Theater’s debt to women and diversity by Marianne Combs
Where’s the diversity in the Guthrie’s new season? (MPR)
The Guthrie’s Women/Race/Facebook Problem (MN/ST Paul Mag)
120 Seconds (2AMt)
