AUDIT MKE: Playwrights Produced in Milwaukee Theatre 2000-2020

“The work of the top 10 most-produced BIPOC playwrights (male & female) accounts for 44% of the produced work in their category and 4% of all the produced work from 2000-2020.”

RESEARCH PROJECT: AUDIT MKE: Playwrights Produced in Milwaukee Theatre 2000-2020

COVERAGE: 2000-2020

RESEARCH PARTNERS: Michael Cotey

The intent of this resource is to shed light on the representation of gender and race of playwright produced in Milwaukee's live theatre productions from 2000-2020.

It is a numerical analysis of 799 productions produced by Milwaukee's six Equity theatres (First Stage, Milwaukee Chamber Theatre, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Next Act Theatre, Renaissance Theatreworks, & Skylight Music Theatre) from 2000 to 2020.

Specifically, it compares the race and gender of playwrights in a number of permutations for each theatre: every five years, looking at the past 20 years, and comparing the 00/01 season to 19/20. To obtain the sample, information was complied directly from the production history pages on the websites of the representative theatres.

In the case of some of the older seasons that might not be listed on a theatre's website (especially in the early 00s), information was culled from press releases and old season announcements online.

FINDINGS: The percentage of white male playwrights from 2000-2020 is more than the combined percentage of white female playwrights, BIPOC male playwrights, and BIPOC female playwrights.

The number of BIPOC playwrights is five times larger in 2015-2020 than it was in 2000-2005 (2.95% to 16.58%), but the percentage of white playwrights over the 20 year period is nearly 10 times more than the percentage of BIPOC playwrights (90.22% vs. 9.78%).

The work of the top 10 most-produced BIPOC playwrights (male & female) accounts for 44% of the produced work in their category and 4% of all the produced work from 2000-2020.