Of the 284 plays produced in the 26 years before Kent Thompson was named artistic director of the Denver Center Theatre Company, only 3 percent were written by women and 5.3 percent directed by women.
The numbers for Thompson’s first season: 36.4 percent of plays written and 27.3 percent directed by women. Granted, that’s only an 11-play sample, but it’s a good start, especially when national theater surveys consistently indicate about 68 percent of all theater audiences are made up of women.
“I wanted to address that right away because I feel like finally in the last two decades, the voice of the woman has been expressed in the ways the American theater didn’t allow before then,” said Thompson, whose final four productions in his inaugural season were written by women, starting with “The Ladies of the Camellias,” opening March 23.
Thompson was speaking at a panel discussion Saturday called “New Voices for Women in Theatre,” held in conjunction with his inaugural Colorado New Play Summit.
The powerhouse group included Regina Taylor, author of “Crowns,” which opens May 18 at the Denver Center; Michele Lowe, whose “Smell of the Kill” opened Tuesday at the Avenue Theater; Wendy Goldberg, director of the DCTC’s “The Clean House,” opening March 30; Theresa Rebeck (“Omnium Gatherum”); and Seattle Times critic Misha Berson.
“I have to believe because of the people who have come before me that things are getting better,” said Goldberg, who was mentored by Paula Vogel and Wendy Wasserstein. “But I do think it’s interesting to hear about an institution like (the Denver Center), which has such an esteemed legacy despite so few women being part of it.”
Even though female playwrights are often as likely to tell stories about men as women, there is something about the female point of view that has long been underrepresented in the American theater. And now that women are emerging, they have to deal with the labeling.
“Look, we’ve all been called man-haters,” said Lowe, whose “Smell of the Kill” is about wives who get the opportunity to do in their good-for-nothing mates. “I did get to the point when I wondered, ‘Do I have to start every interview off by saying I love my husband?’ Because I do.”
Rebeck said “the dirty little secret” in discussing women’s voices in the American theater is that “the audience just doesn’t care. They are just as interested in women-centric stories as they are in stories about men. It’s just that when a woman writes about four women in a room, it’s labeled as ‘domestic’ (by journalists). But when a man writes four men in a room, it’s called ‘David Mamet.”‘
While most of today’s younger female playwrights would love to dispense with discussing their gender, Berson was among the first big group of women to be hired as theater critics at major newspapers. “I grew up in that first wave of feminism,” she said, “and frankly, I don’t want anybody to forget what it took for me to get the job I have now.
“So let’s be honest: We wouldn’t be talking about this if the playground were totally equal. We’re just getting this going.”
The real progress will be felt, panelists agreed, when more young women are steered into graduate playwriting master’s programs and come out as working writers, dramaturges and literary managers.
Until then, “I think large theaters across America are running scared,” Berson said. “They are terrified about how polarized this country is. How if they say the wrong thing, or if they put the wrong thing onstage, people are going to walk out, protest or cancel their subscriptions. That’s when you get cold feet.”
Taylor said panels such as Saturday’s are a starting point. “But I hope the next step would be to have a panel where we talk about the work itself: What are our themes, what are our passions?”
At least now Denver can take some credit for being a part of the solution rather than a glaring example of “the problem.” Thompson’s wildly successful Women’s Voices Fund is a new endowment that in less than a year has raised more than $500,000 for the development of new work by women.
Nationally there is good news, as well. Seven of the top 10 produced plays in American regional theaters last year were written by women. “Who knows if this is a trend, or if we are a blip?” said Rebeck. “But that is something that has never, ever happened before.”
Rebeck noted that while the top 10 plays were well-received in New York, including Lynn Nottage’s “Intimate Apparel,” few turned into big commercial events until they moved out into regional theater.
“What that says to me is that the regions are actually ahead of New York on this issue,” Rebeck said. “That’s exciting to me, because I think for the health of the American theater, the regions have to be an equal voice in what we want to be as a theatrical community in this nation.
“It’s very exciting to see what’s happening right here, and yes, we will go back and tell (other cities) that they have to catch up with Denver.”
Theater critic John Moore can be reached at 303-820-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com.
