A little background: A post and subsequent comments on that post introduced me to a startling fact: only 20% of plays presented on the stages of American theatres are penned by women. That's dumb.The Daily City:What is the Women Playwrights' Initiative and why does it exist?
So, I contacted someone who could not only discuss the topic, but what's being done about it in Orlando. Julia Gagne is a member of Women Playwright's Initiative and was gracious enough to do an interview with me.
Julia Gagne: The Women Playwrights’ Initiative is an advocacy group for women playwrights. Our mission statement is: to foster the development and production of plays written by women, through educational outreach, workshops, readings and productions. It exists because Lyndol Michael, a Central Florida playwright, videographer, photographer, and actor, has been focused on Women’s Projects for years. She feels passionate about making sure the voices and stories of women are heard. There is more information about our roots on our website.
The Daily City: I recently learned 20% of plays produced are by women. Why such a low number? Has it always been this way, that women playwrights are so unrepresented on stage?
Julia Gagne: Mark, there is not a lot of research about why the percentage of plays produced that are written by women is so small, but historically, it is only in the past few decades that anthologies of plays have become more diverse and inclusive, and theater history text books have increased their coverage of culturally diverse plays and playwrights.
Historically, men have played more of a role in the leadership positions in the professional theater, as producers, artistic directors, and directors. Many regional theaters, such as the Orlando Shakespeare Theater, use as their base classical dramatic literature, which is certainly dominated by male writers. We (WPI) have wondered whether fewer women are writing plays, now and/or historically, or whether they have simply not been in a position to get their scripts produced. WPI has encouraged women writers by sponsoring annual playwriting workshops for women writers facilitated by nationally produced playwrights, and also by producing plays and readings of new plays by women writers. In the future, we are focusing also on mentoring young female writers, and on encouraging local Artistic Directors to produce more plays written by women.
The Daily City: Are audiences aware of this low number, do you find?
Julia Gagne: Increasing awareness is part of our mission.
The Daily City: What goes into choosing a season? (for a theatre)
Julia Gagne: I am the Artistic Director for the theater program at Valencia Community College, and have some understanding of picking a season, although we are very fortunate in educational theater and don’t have to tie our selections so much to box office revenue. Budget, talent pool, cast size, number of set changes, commercial and ticket sale potential, name recognition, mission: these are some of the key things involved in selecting a season in most theaters. We (Valencia) also put a lot of emphasis on providing a wide variety of acting opportunities for students, but budget is still a major consideration. Quite frankly, before getting involved with WPI, I gave very little thought, if any, to the gender of the playwright!!!
The Daily City: What does WPI do to bring more women-penned work to the stage?
Julia Gagne: One of the key projects that we have been working on lately is creating a comprehensive data base of plays by women writers that we will share soon with Central Florida artistic directors, in hopes of giving them some ideas for future seasons. We will again, in partnership with Rollins College, sponsor a writing workshop in late May or early June, facilitated by playwright Deborah Breevort. We are also planning on producing a reading of a new play for PlayFest 2009, the Harriett Lake Festival of New Plays. This will be the fifth time we have been invited to participate as a guest theater.
The Daily City: Is there a national movement that mirrors WPI's initiatives?
Julia Gagne: There are other groups and theater companies across the country dedicated to producing plays written by women, but no organized national movement that I know of.
Thank you to Julia Gagne for her time and the Women Playwrights' Initiative for what they do. Please visit Women Playwright's Initiative for more information.