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Inspired by DC rep Gwydion Suilebhan—who for the past few years has been analyzing the demographics of the Washington theatre scene (you can find his work at http://suilebhan.com/advocacy/dc-theater-demographic-analyses/)—I began a similar project in my region. To keep myself sane, I counted only productions that opened in Baltimore City between September 2014 and August 2015 and that received at least five performances. Thank you to my ambassador, Katie Ganem, for assisting with the research. 

After months of googling, I compiled lists of dramatists and directors—categorized by gender and race/ethnicity—for 106 productions by 25 theatres and theatre companies. (I was unable to confirm data for several other companies on their websites or via email.) Of these 106 productions, two were generated by ensembles. Of the 104 productions that credited specific authors: Approximately 71% were written by men, 28% were written by women, and 1% were written by dramatists whose gender is non-binary.

 Approximately 80% had white authors, 12% had African-American authors, 5% had Latino or Hispanic authors, and 1% had Asian-American authors. (One production was written by non-white authors from England and the Caribbean.) 

Approximately 33% were either world premieres or second or third productions. 

The data for directors, in terms of gender and race/ethnicity, closely mirrored the data for dramatists. A complete breakdown is available at www.brentenglar.com. 

What does this mean? From the perspective of gender parity, at least, Baltimore is doing better than many cities, but the numbers remain woefully inadequate. The encouraging news is that many of the companies I tracked last season recognize the problem and recently took a crucial step toward solving it. 

The leaders of this effort include Alice Stanley and Brad Norris, co-founders of Cohesion Theatre Company and organizers of ParityFest 2015. For six weeks last July and August, sixteen companies from Baltimore and nearby counties produced free public readings of 38 new and underperformed plays by female writers. The plays were selected from The Kilroys’ 2014 and 2015 lists. (See http://thekilroys.org/list-2015/.) 

Like The Kilroys’ lists, ParityFest “invalidates the idea that theatres would do more works by women, if only they existed,” Stanley told me. “I was blown away by all of the scripts that I read and helped to produce. There was a huge range in terms of subject matter, cast size, tone, and storytelling methods. Anything you need for your season, you can find on this list—and should!” 

Stanley and Norris are still considering whether to produce another festival next year. According to Stanley, the ideal time would be when theatres are planning their upcoming seasons and thus are more open to influence. Meantime, Cohesion Theatre Company is doing its part; its 2015–16 season includes two Baltimore premieres written by women: Hilary Bettis’s The History of American Pornography and Kia Corthron’s Force Continuum. (Rounding out the season is a third Baltimore premiere, Neverwhere—adapted by Robert Kauzlaric from a novel by Neil Gaiman—and Hamlet, by that English dude.) 

Stanley emphasizes that diversity does not benefit only writers: “We had some fantastic panel discussions following readings. As a white actor and director, it was very interesting to hear the experiences of actors of color. They often said they rarely played their actual race; either it was ignored, or they were cast as a character with a completely different ethnicity. This was also the case for transgender actors. Similarly, many female actors felt there were better parts for them in works by female playwrights, and they were able to identify with characters in these plays more. Through empowering marginalized playwrights, we often also empower and give voice to marginalized actors and directors.” 

benglar@dramatistsguild.com