Noooo @MomCares, Shakespeare lived in the 1500’s; surely we could do better by now!!
30% employment seems a little high for any gender in this business, @MomCares, but I agree with Calliene, more jobs for women! (But also some jobs for men!)
I don’t think it has much, if anything, to do with Shakespeare. Not every show has more roles for men than women, and I think that many more contemporary shows are much more equitable. It was one reason that production history and a willingness/encouragement to do student run productions was an important criteria back when my D applied.
I had a quick look at the company at the Stratford Festival for this year just to get an idea as to the breakdown between males and females. They don’t do Shakespeare exclusively, usually 4 or 5 plays but also a few musicals and other period productions, and usually a couple of more contemporary shows. The company this year had 68 male actors and 60 females.
As I said, this is an issue that isn’t going to change overnight but young artists who are writing new material like Susan’s and my D are going to to work on producing shows that have many female roles! I’m anxious to see these new shows next week in NY that were chosen from hundreds of submissions. It’s not easy getting new works produced.
Sorry if I was unclear. Sadly the research didn’t say that 30% of female actors are employed, but that only 30% of all employed actors are female. 
But don’t we all WISH 30% of all actors (of any type) were employed (as actors)?
I guess it depends on the time frame, doesn’t it?
This is a great thread and brava to Soozie’s daughter and people like her! I do think people are at least finally openly discussing the issue; onscreen, Patricia Arquette’s speech to Meryl Streep’s applause at the Oscar’s sent a powerful message, I thought.
Momcares, is it possible that this shocking imbalance you saw is specific to the theatre itself and the type of equity contract it has? I know in Philly, the largest two regional equities are limited to how many non equities they can hire (not many). They’re LORT D. I took a look at their current playbills just to be sure, and yes, all the leads and nearly all the ensembles are equity.
Perhaps also the women in this musical were young? If the theatre gets away with hiring 20 somethings, they will have talented regional actors at a fraction of the cost. But they can’t do that if they’re, for instance, LORT D, nor can they do that if they’re hiring experienced actresses in their 30s and 40s. I can’t imagine someone Taft-Hartley’s past around 30, but of course who knows.
Bottom line though is what you say–people are just blatant in discrimination against women in acting. So glad Soozie’s daughter and others are beginning to change things. I wonder if having more women producers and directors will really help as well.
Oh yes, I’d say that’s quite probable since I’m not aware of such a huge imbalance (12:1) being in any sense normal for the region. I assume that is unique to this theatre and hopefully even to this specific production, though of course the bigger gender gap issues are pretty universal.
@soozievt - I just had a chance to read the great (if discouraging) article you linked to… thanks!
I saw On Your Feet tonight. The very large cast breakdown is 16 females and 14 males. So, in addition to providing so many opportunities to our Latino and Latina actors, yay for the women! And there are some real gems in this show.
@alwaysamom The male lead in On Your Feet was in my D’s a cappella group at Tisch. So happy for him.
@soozievt Yes, Josh is wonderful in the role and he has had such great success in his young career.
Speaking (always) as a mom, in addition to opportunities to narrow the gap in the percentage of women being cast and what they are paid, it would also be great to diversify the types of characters written (almost exclusively by men) for females.
Looking back through D’s resume (and she’s been extremely fortunate in casting so far) so far she’s played…
Mean girls/ Bullies
Supportive girlfriends
Beauty Queens
Girls forced into arranged marriages
Spoiled rich girls
Cheerleaders
Girls who exploit men
Princesses
Singers
Girls who are raped
Strippers
Girls who are victims of incest
Hot librarians
Girls who get pregnant out of wedlock
Movie stars
Airheads and ditzes
Slutty girls
Murderesses
While all of the above are, of course, part of the human experience - and no doubt most actresses try to play these characters with nuance and honesty rather than as stereotypes - these roles barely scratch the surface of the varied roles real-life women and girls play in the stories of our world.
Bravo to all of the budding playwrights who will bring more aspects of the female experience to the MT stage!
In the hope that the infusion of newer musicals will gradually be correcting the gross gender imbalances I just looked up a few Playbills from newer musicals that sprang to mind. Here are the number of women I counted in the opening night casts out of the entire cast size.
Fun Home – 5/9 (55% female… you go, girls!)
Once – 5/13
Hamilton – 8/22
Something Rotten – 8/25 (the traditional 30% female ratio)
Aladdin – 8/28
Book of Mormon – 5/22
Newsies – 4/29 (< 14% female)
Hopefully I miscounted and/or the list of shows I looked at was not representative of most newer shows. If folks have time to look up more shows, or just to notice shows your kids are currently in, it would be interesting (and hopefully more encouraging) to see a bigger sample.
Wicked – 13/28 (46% female… but of course a couple of kickin’ female roles)
Adam Gwon/Julie Jordan have 2 musicals currently having world premieres in regional theaters (not on Broadway yet) But interesting to see what current playwrights are putting forth:
Bernice Bobs Her Hair 7/13 female majority!
Cake Off 1/3 very small cast
@MomCares, your list looks great percentage-wise, but the actual numbers are depressing–104 men versus 43 women in the shows you list. Still a long way to go!
Haha… @claire74 - True! It particularly doesn’t look all that great (holding at 30% average) considering how recent those shows are. We’ve come a long way, baby?
Is it reasonable to hope our Ds aren’t noticing this?
I wonder if non musicals the numbers are worse or better….
Let’s hope it gets better, not just in the number of female roles, but in the type of roles and stories that are told, when it comes to females.
As I indicated earlier, my D also writes/composes original musicals, besides performing on stage herself. Her shows haven’t been on Broadway of course. But at least know that some women writers are cognizant of these issues. Her first musical was produced Off Broadway several years ago and the entire cast was female and the “heroes” in the story were females, related to mythology. Very strong female types! The second musical was offered to be produced this past season and next season at a well known West Coast theater, and my D was also going to star in it, but she had to turn it down both times due to conflicts. But that musical centered on a female character. The third musical totally reversed gender roles in a well known tale, whereby the females were the “heroes.” The musical she now has under development is based on a true historical event that empowered women and so the characters in that show surely are strong females. Hopefully it will be staged, but it is in its very early stages of development at this point.
It is encouraging that more female writers and composers are being recognized and so I hope that helps with this issue. Fun Home and its awards were a bit of a breakthrough and so, I hope the momentum is there.