“We Just Couldn’t Find Any...”
Pervasive Myths and Misconceptions
Who Gets to Do What?
Theatermakers share an artform and often little else. People of all shapes, sizes, colors, abilities, backgrounds, and training experiences crowd the field, yet there can be a narrow field of vision, a dramatic lack of range of types of individuals in the theater-making profession. On university stages, regional theater scenes, Off Broadway and Broadway, in all venues, we need to ask: whose works are produced, who directs, who designs, and who stage manages.
The lens of gender in hiring decisions informs several projects in this initiative. Efforts to analyze the status of women in theater came out of the simple observation that male voices dominated theater seasons and positions of power in theater. A 2012 article by Pia Catton observed of the 2012 Tony Awards that "there's a colossal gender gap in the honors given to the men and women who create the shows."
Our combined counting efforts track that "colossal gap" in many dimensions. Projects to count, study, analyze, and report on the status of women and people of color and individuals of varying abilities and other dimensions of humanity have emerged in the past decade or more.
To count is to acknowledge. To count is to see. To count is to value. And when we acknowledge and see and value, when we look at all the roles from writing to directing to designing to stage managing and others, when we report on who is allowed to play these roles, we hold ourselves accountable. It is our belief that when we keep track of who gets to play, who gets to be at the table, we build a more equitable future, together.
Is the Pipeline Problem a Problem?
The answer is not that simple. There are stark inequities that need to be addressed in the K-12 and Higher Education systems which impact who gets access to an arts education, as well as disparities in who gets additional training, networking, apprenticeship, and internship opportunities. In sectors such as lighting design or stage management, the impact of these pipeline issues is more evident. However, the equity problem in the theater cannot be wholly explained by “pipeline” issues.
We firmly believe and our collective research proves that there are many women, people of color, people with disabilities, and transgender or non-binary individuals “in the pipeline” who are too often overlooked and under-represented, their work inequitably funded or compensated.
A primary goal of our work together is to help make this transparent so that authentic and systemic change can occur to make the American theater more equitable, diverse, inclusive, and reflective of the world we live in.
Equity, Pay Scale and the Realities of Economic Impact.
Are BIPOC artists valued less than their White counterparts? If diverse voices are relegated to smaller spaces in non-profit theaters, what is the economic impact on underrepresented artists? How do funding and salaries help to maintain the status quo?
The studies included on this website explode the myth that equal pay and equal opportunity exist for all. For instance, AAPAC's 2017-18 Visibility Report found that NYC theatercompanies spent $1.70 on White actor's salaries for every $1 spent on BIPOC actors and found many theater companies guilty of redlining plays written by BIPOC playwrights to their smallest spaces. Even as representation on New York stages increases, the economic inequities persist across racial, gender, and ability lines.
Following the COVID-19 shutdown, SDC developed a Remote Work Contract under which compensation is negotiable and benefits are paid as a flat daily rate. Under this contract, artists of color—while filing contracts at a higher rate—have earned an average of $77.57/day and white artists have earned an average of $102.13/day.
Who Hires and Who Do They Know?
When people think about how hiring works in music and theater, the audition process is usually the first thing that comes to mind. On the surface, auditions seem like an equitable and meritocratic way to determine who gets a job, but even in arts workplaces where auditions occur, hiring decisions can be influenced by factors other than performance skill.
Personal biases, recommendations from colleagues, impressive resumes, familiar teachers, and recognizable or shared experiences can also factor into a hiring decision, creating barriers to entry for new talent, especially non-white performers.
A casting director’s job is to bring actors into the audition room, but a casting director committed to diversity will have to look outside of traditional pipelines to find performers who haven’t previously benefitted from easy access.
For Broadway musicians, the situation is even more complicated. Pit musician auditions not only aren't held, but they are actually prohibited by the musicians union. As a result, the power to give a job to a musician rests entirely in the hands of a music contractor, and the small pool of Broadway music contractors is almost entirely white and male. Addressing the power inequity between performers and the gatekeepers to their potential jobs could have a profound effect on the diversity of talent found both on and beneath our stages.
Scale Matters
No two productions, even of the same play, are identical, and the data associated with those productions can’t be analyzed in only one way. Here’s why.
From the perspective of a writer, a long run in a large theater creates a great deal more financial support. Simply put, you get paid more when more tickets are sold to more performances. In addition, larger-scale productions come with larger “soft” benefits, like critical attention and notoriety and marketing resources. As a result, some studies, like The Count, focus on “premium” productions that meet certain criteria, such as the number of performances and the operating budget of the theater, to make sure we know whether the choicest opportunities are being distributed among writers equitably.
The perspective of an audience member, however, can be quite different. An audience member may or may not distinguish between relative “sizes” when choosing which production to attend. They may simply consider all possible productions side-by-side, motivated more by whose story is being told or by which writer gets to tell the story. Therefore, some studies—particularly those that are local—attempt to capture the full range of voices we are making available to theatergoers in an attempt to measure whether we are collectively providing them with a diverse array of cultural opportunities. In addition, these more comprehensive studies, by analyzing the data from smaller productions, help us understand whether “entry-level” opportunities for writers are being distributed equitably as well.
Audience Impact
When people see themselves reflected on stage and screen, they are empowered. When people see others they thought “different” on stage and screen, they are enlightened. Lives are enriched and the audience’s increased empathy and connection changes the way they interact in the world.
This happens when theaters expand the way they approach productions. Productions like ‘The Matchmaker” at the Goodman Theatre - which took a classic play and populated it with actors of a wide range of color, size, shape, gender, trans-gender, ethnicity, and disability –transform the collective consciousness of audiences and reset their assumptions.
Having a one-legged actress play a 3-legged feline in CATS resonates the loss felt by every heart as well as the joys of resilience and survival.
When audience and artists (playwrights, performers & designers) reflect the universality of humanity, ALL thrive. When the opposite happens – when stories are appropriated by the inauthentic, there is loss, pain, misconception, misunderstanding, fear and aggression.
We know that the typical theater audience does not represent the diversity of our communities. And we know that theaters have a long way to go to be more welcoming. But we also believe that when our programming and our physical spaces - front-of-house, stage, orchestra pit, and shop- are accessible to a diverse population, everyone wins and ticket sales increase. It’s common sense. Consider the school play: always sold out, right? Because we go to see our family and friends, “our people.” The same applies to professional theater. Deaf Broadway productions, accessible to the Deaf community, attract an audience that often does not go to theater, due to the widespread lack of accessibility. If more productions were accessible, they would buy tickets to more shows!
Theater artists have a profound impact on our world (witness “Hamilton”). And audiences impact artists by showing up, supporting and responding. The more range of humanity we present, the more we succeed and survive.