Accusations about a perceived ‘boy’s club’ mentality among Australia’s mainstage theatre companies have been made across a range of media in recent weeks.

Blogs have been ablaze with debate about the issue, and mainstream newspapers such as The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald have also weighed into the discussion.

Much of the debate has centered on the lack of opportunities for women directors, and to a lesser extent the opportunities for women playwrights; and both the Melbourne Theatre Company (MTC) and Sydney’s Company B Belvoir have been singled out for criticism, following the recent unveiling of their respective programs for 2010.

Of the seven mainstage productions at Company B next year, only one – That Face, by UK playwright Polly Stenham – is being directed by a woman, Lee Lewis.

In response to Company B’s program, Sydney playwright Joanna Erskine wrote on her blog [http://www.joannaerskine.com/cluster/?p=368]: “As I listened to the remainder of the 2010 line up announcements, however, my heart sank and my blood seemed to boil. For in the following 6 mainstage productions and 3 add-ons, there was no mention of female directors or playwrights … I struggle to understand how such a prominent and successful and LOVED company such as Company B Belvoir, has openly produced such a female-less season. I don’t mean actors, I mean females in integral creative roles – as playwright and director.”

In Melbourne, similar reactions met the unveiling of the 2010 MTC program, which features 12 productions, of which only one is directed by a woman: Hannie Rayson’s The Swimming Club, directed by Kate Cherry.

Lucy Freeman is the Chair of the Australian Women Directors’ Alliance, which recently wrote to the MTC to express concerns about the company’s lack of support for female directors. She says she is concerned that the situation at the MTC shows no signs of improvement.

“If we could see signs that there were professional development pathways or schemes put in place to make entry of women directors into the fold a little easier then we might imagine that the situation will be better in five to ten years. But the situation hasn’t got any better, in fact it’s got worse,” she tells ArtsHub.

“And the other concern is a more cultural one. I worry about what happens to the cultural product when the authoritative figures, the creative decision makers, are all coming from one sector of the community in what is otherwise an obviously two gendered and quite multicultural environment in Melbourne and Victoria; that perhaps our state company isn’t, in its creative leadership position, necessarily representative of the society that makes up the audience.”

“There’s no point in denying that there is an issue,” agrees MTC Artistic Director Simon Phillips.

“But I don’t specifically go out going ‘I don’t want to employ women’ or with any kind of bias. I want to find the best person to do this job. But the counter argument is that, clearly, more men’s work is being seen and they are being chosen to step up to the next mark more than women. So we need to be especially proactive to ensure that there is no insidious gender bias going on in how those decisions are being made. And I believe that that goes across the entire industry, and it isn’t something that will be solved by the major companies, the state companies, alone,” he says.

“I think the whole issue of access and the whole issue of nurturing people, finding new ways of nurturing people from when they leave drama school to their status as a working artist in the community, this is what this debate has highlighted: that we really don’t have enough mechanisms in place to assist that particular processes,” Phillips adds.

The Big Picture

As Nicholas Pickard writes on his blog Sydney Arts Journo [http://artsjournalist.blogspot.com/2009/09/where-are-women.html], to point the finger at individual companies “ignores an issue that is systemic and industry-wide”.

Just how widespread the issue is can be demonstrated by a recent analysis of the major theatre companies’ 2009 seasons conducted by Brisbane-based playwright Katherine Lyall-Watson.

In an online feature entitled ‘Gender equity in theatre’ [http://www.ourbrisbane.com/blogs/performing-arts/2009-09-07-gender-equity-theatre], Lyall-Watson examined the mainstage productions of 11 professional companies, including all state theatre companies, and companies such as La Boite (QLD), The Malthouse (VIC), and Griffin (NSW).

“Out of the companies I looked at, less than 30% of Australian plays getting a professional production in 2009 were written by women. And women directors had a 27% chance of getting a professional gig this year,” she writes.

“It’s worth bearing in mind that these figures would be far worse if it wasn’t for Western Australia. Black Swan and Perth Theatre Company both have female artistic directors and their seasons were the only ones to have more female directors than male ones. Black Swan was also the only company to have more shows written by women than by men in its season.”

Kate Cherry, Black Swan’s Artistic Director, is pleased and surprised by such findings.

“Well, I don’t intentionally go out to [recruit women], and I don’t count how many men one year, how many women another. I’m looking for talent across the board and I feel really blessed that there are so many talented people to chose from in Western Australia; and that there are a number of really strong, smart women who have come to the fore over a couple of generations,” Cherry tells ArtsHub.

Unfortunately, companies like Black Swan seem to be the exception to the rule. Across the country, most mainstage directing opportunities go predominantly towards men.

“The problem is not among administrative or management staff; there is plenty of representation of women in those sorts of roles … [and] a great deal of independent and fringe work is driven by women,” explains says Melbourne-based writer, actor and director Ming-Zhu Hii.

“I think the thing that we’re actually dealing with here is higher level creative positions: directorships, associate-ships and artistic directorships. That’s where we’re seeing the greatest level of discrepancy. And it’s mostly in the larger, fully funded companies that we’re seeing it, and largely the mainstage companies.”

Exactly why such discrepancies exist is a question that Hii thinks the major theatre companies’ Boards and senior management, including Artistic Directors, should be asking themselves.

“If, as the spokespeople for the larger companies are saying, that it’s true that the best person for the job is being hired, why, seemingly consistently, is that best person always male? And once we have identified those reasons, basically the question to ask is ‘What is it that makes female professional directors seemingly so unemployable for these positions?’

“I think we have to answer that question really clearly and really transparently, and identify whether there really is an issue there; and if there are issues with people’s employability – which I would question – then we need to work out what can be done.

“What can we do in terms of nurturing, and mentorship, and professional development so that women can be considered for these roles? And that’s not to say that these things are necessarily in place, strictly speaking, for men; but it does appear – and there’s been a lot of talk about the fact – that young men are a lot more closely nurtured than a lot of young women are,” she concludes.

Kate Cherry, who was herself mentored at the MTC, concurs.

“I think mentorships and networking are tremendously important. My experience at Melbourne Theatre Company was wonderful. I was mentored by Simon Phillips as a director, and both he and Michael Gow have continued to mentor me as an Artistic Director. I feel very supported by Simon and the Melbourne Theatre Company Board. I feel that I can call people on that Board when I need mentoring, when I have questions of artistic leadership,” Cherry says.

“I’ve been given a privileged position and many opportunities, and I’m very grateful to the people of Victoria for having invested in me and giving me the opportunity to develop both as an artist and as an artistic leader. From my personal point of view I feel really blessed. Now I would like to see that happen for other women, for the generations that follow me; and I’d like to see that happen consistently. I’d like to see other women get those kinds of opportunities, because it was fantastic for me.”

Australian Women Directors Alliance
http://australianwomendirectorsalliance.blogspot.com