@dramatistsguild @hfgerardo 

Data from The Count were unveiled during the Third National Conference of the Dramatists Guild last July, and if a sound profile were made from the audience that day, it would resemble a recorded heartbeat. Rebecca Stump began the presentation by describing the criteria for data collection and the methods by which this information was processed. This was the baseline, and when the first slides of data went up on a large projection screen in the Grande Ballroom, you could hear the acoustic hum of collective approval and anticipation. Here at last was the first empirical evidence of what most of the playwrights in attendance already knew: productions of works by male playwrights outnumbered those written by women.  

Then Julia Jordan delivered more numbers from The Count and the message was cautiously optimistic: although still in the minority, there was an improvement in the numbers of productions of plays written by women: 22% of revivals of new plays, and 29% for new plays only. We’re still a long way from parity, but the gauntlet has been laid down.  

Lisa Kron took the stage and with the steady exhortations of a gospel preacher, said that women’s stories are powerful and as proof of this, reminded us that this year’s Tony Award for Best Musical went to Fun Home, written by two women: composer Jeanine Tesori and Ms. Kron, the librettist. She ended with the cri de coeur: “Gender parity matters because it makes theatre better. Let’s just DO it.” The crowd erupted in a heart-thumping round of applause. 

Another approach to the challenge of parity is to create new opportunities for production outside mainstream theatres. During the conference, fellow Regional Representative Gab Cody and I presented a panel entitled “Immersive, Site-Informed and Virtual Realities in Theatre.” Panelists included Marike Fitzgerald, Associate Producer of the Without Walls Festival (La Jolla Playhouse), Jennifer Haley, playwright (The Nether, Froggy, Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom), Marte Roel, Artist/Researcher, and Co-Founder of BeAnotherLab (The Machine to Be Another) and Sam Turich, Director/Co-Creator, STRATA & OjO (with Bricolage Production Company). Presenters discussed ways their work is challenging conventions of traditional theatre space through new collaborative methods and/or advanced technologies. 

Another way to address gender parity is to present the work of female writers. The annual Our Voices Festival of Boston-area women playwrights is held in the Ruth Nagel Jones Theatre through the generosity of Wellesley College. Over the past ten years, this day-long event has helped well over 100 Boston area women playwrights develop stories for the stage. In addition to workshop readings of new plays by women, Our Voices presents an evening of staged readings. “It’s an opportunity for audience members to be exposed to the artistic craft of women’s stories they are not seeing produced – and a way for men and women theatre-goers to show interest in new work by women playwrights,” says founder and producer, Kelly DuMar. “Our Voices aims to give local women playwrights a nourishing, no-cost day of incubation. Many of the short plays and monologues first presented at Our Voices go on to have full productions in Boston theaters and beyond.” For more info, contact kellydumar@gmail.com or go to www.kellydumar.com.

As a Regional Representative for the Dramatists Guild since 2009, I have been honored to write these articles for The Dramatist, a publication which has evolved remarkably in the hands of its editor, Joey Stocks, and Tari Stratton, which is a reflection of the remarkable growth of the Dramatists Guild in the hands of Ralph Sevush, Gary Garrison, Roland Tec, David Faux, Deborah Murad, Caterina Bartha, the Council and staff members, and of course, my beloved fellow Regional Representatives.  

If one were to sketch the sound of the Dramatists Guild of America it would look like a heartbeat, an appropriate analogy for an organization that is all heart. My sincere thanks for the honor to work among you. Keep in touch. 

hgerado@dramatistsguild.com