Chairs: Susan Bernfield, Kristin Marting, Catherine Porter
The mission of this committee is to be a policy action group in public support of the artistic and economic health of women in the performing arts. Women Stage the World is a sub-committee of the Advocacy Committee: womenstagetheworld.org. Chair: Yana Landowne
READ ABOUT THE HISTORY OF 50/50 IN 2020 IN MIRANDA JOURNAL (PUBLISHED JULY 2015):
- Part 1 featuring former LPTW Co-President Maxine Kern: Promoting Gender Equity on the American Stage (1): 50/50 in 2020
- Part 2 featuring LPTW Board Member Melody Brooks: Promoting Gender Equity on the American Stage (2): 50/50 in 2020
TEN WAYS TO ADVOCATE FOR THEATRE WOMEN:
How can we, individually and collectively, use our personal and professional networks to advance the cause of visibility and opportunity for women in the theatre?
1. Talk about plays you’ve enjoyed that are by and about women.
2. Subscribe to a theatre company that produces work by women (such as the Women’s Project, Three Graces, New Georges. Google to find others.)
3. Use your theatre-going dollars to support women artists. Join the Meet-up Group Works-by-Women. Join other women at the theatre on a group rate discount to see professional work by women writers, directors, and designers.
http://www.meetup.com/WorksbyWomen/
4. Advocate for Blind Submissions of playwrights’ work. Most major orchestras conduct blind auditions. Why not choose plays for prizes, grants, even productions, without regard to gender? Spread the word.
5. If called upon to subscribe to a theatre ask, “How many women will be directing/designing/writing/performing in plays for you this season?” Tell them you prefer to support theatres that are working toward gender parity.
6. Subscribe to NYTE to support its pledge to give parity to women in its coverage of theatre work. (It’s free!)
7. Join the DGA Women’s Initiative, New York Coalition of Professional Women in the Arts & Media, the League of Professional Theatre Women’s Advocacy Committee or 50/50 in 2020.
8. When you receive a brochure from a theatre company, count the women artists listed. Call the theatre to praise or critique them based on how close they are to parity.
9. Talk about non-traditional casting i.e. Judith Ivey as the Stage Manager in Our Town. Kathleen Chalfant as Mrs. Scrooge, Cate Blanchett as Hamlet, Fiona Shaw as Lear and Viola Davis as Gloucester. Talk, blog and use social networks to suggest plays you’d like to see in which a woman plays the lead, or in which women play the majority of the roles.
10. Amplify these actions by passing these tips to others.