I’m lying on my new acupuncturist’s table and she’s taking my pulse for the third time when she tells me, “You’re on the veranda.” How’s that? “You’re not sick, but you’re not well, either.” OH in so many ways, lady. The rejection letter that told me I scored very well with readers but not just … Continue reading
Category Archives: Features
Responding to Our Times: Making It by Harriet Slaughter
As Director of Labor Relations for the Broadway League, Producer Elizabeth McCann and I used to joke during negotiation sessions we would know we “made it” when the day came we would clinch a deal while in the ladies room! The male negotiators would always emerge from the men’s room proudly announcing they “sealed a … Continue reading
What Theatre Artists and Administrators Should Know About Sexual Harassment by Cheryl Davis
Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock (beneath the root of a tree, at the bottom of the ocean), you know that sexual harassment in the workplace has been a topic in the news lately. What performers and other theatre professionals may tend to forget is that while they are artists, they are also “acting” … Continue reading
A Brief History of the Gender Parity Movement in Theatre by Jenny Lyn Bader
In October 1978, the Feminist Theatre Study Group picketed five shows on London’s West End, handing out leaflets that began with a few questions. To wit, Did the characters in this play imply that: Blondes are dumb? Wives nag? Feminists are frustrated? Whores have hearts of gold? Mothers-in-law interfere? Lesbians are aggressive? Intellectual women are … Continue reading
What IS a Feminist Play Anyway? What Is vs. What Should Be by Catherine Castellani
What does it mean to describe a play as feminist? What are you looking for when you put out a call for feminist scripts? This is the second in a series exploring possible answers from different angles. What is: too often, women are not assessed as fully human people. What should be: our humanity and personhood should … Continue reading
Responding To Our Times: The Future Is Female by Mya Kagan
This is the thirteenth installment of the blog series Submitting Like A Man (SLAM), created by writer Mya Kagan and published on HowlRound. The project examines what happens when the author resubmits scripts to previously rejected opportunities using a man’s name. But ten weeks ago, in response to our times, she launched an offshoot of this project … Continue reading
Responding To Our Times: AFTER THE MARCH by Alexis Greene
This week we launch a new feature called RESPONDING TO OUR TIMES. In this space, theater professionals discuss how local, national, and global events are affecting their lives, their art, their thinking and their practice. Our first respondent, Alexis Greene, is a founding editor of WIT Magazine, an author and a theater journalist. She writes … Continue reading
The Creative Commons, or “Commonly Creative” by Cheryl Davis
By Cheryl Davis Any playwright or other theatre artist ought to have some familiarity with the copyright law, not only to protect their own rights to their creative work, but also to understand what kind of work they can use created by somebody else—no one works in a vacuum. Artists are constantly riffing and expanding … Continue reading
What Is a Feminist Play, Anyway? GETTING SPECIFIC
Catherine Castellani What does it mean to describe a play as feminist? What are you looking for when you put out a call for “feminist” scripts? This series is an exploration of possible answers from different angles by WIT Online, a journal of the League of Professional Theatre Women. Sylvia Milo in The Other Mozart. Photo … Continue reading
Equity in Theatre: What exactly does it mean and what would it take to actually have it?
By LPTW VP of Programming Shellen Lubin. This piece continues a partnership between HowlRound and the League of Professional Theatre Women (LPTW). In 2012, LPTW launched its journal WITOnline, and in 2015, it will become a searchable resource for the field, building a women’s history of theatre through in-depth profiles, interviews, and articles. Find all … Continue reading