NEW PERSPECTIVES THEATRE COMPANY NEWSLETTER

"WOMEN MATTER" EDITION

What Gender Parity Means

Women are 51% of the U.S. Population. They buy 67% of theatre tickets.

In 2009, NPTC was a co-founder of 50/50 in 2020: Parity for Women Theatre Artists, which advocated for gender parity (half of plays each season produced at commercial and large non-profit theatres should be written by women) by the centennial of women's suffrage (2020). With our partners The League of Professional Women and The Women's Project, we convened a panel and town hall on the last Tuesday in August of 2009, a time when NYC is traditionally pretty empty. Almost 200 people gathered at what was then the Women's Project theatre space to address the issue. A grassroots effort, 50/50 in 2020 was nonetheless successful in bringing awareness to the lack of representation and generating a number of initiatives to change both the present situation, and to reclaim the substantial history and heritage of women theatre artists.

ON HER SHOULDERS, our program that researches and celebrates women writing plays for the last 1,000 years, was one of those initiatives. The creation of The Lilly Awards in 2010 to honor women in American Theatre was another. The Lilys have been instrumental in tracking progress toward parity through their research publication The Count, and they declared in 2023 that, at least Off Broadway, the City’s playwriting lineups roughly paralleled the gender and racial distribution of the country at large.

And then, 2025-2026 seasons were announced, and three prominent companies had NO WOMEN PLAYWRIGHTS at all (one has a female co-writer.) This backsliding was met with shock and dismay, and once again a town hall was convened. Playwrights Horizons, one of the companies being called out for their season, hosted the gathering (to their credit.) The New Yorker, Broadway World, and Women In Theatre have published articles documenting the conversation and we invite our friends and colleagues to read them (links below).

This is a time when enormous damage has been done to women's rights, and women are being disappeared from the historical narrative of a range of institutions (the military, science and technoloogy, social reform, etc.) And whenever women in general are targeted, women of color always fare even worse. The theatre industry is working to be more gender expansive, and while of course we want to give opportunities to everyone and hear their stories, it seems that whenever “space” is needed for a previously under-served population, it always comes from the women’s side of the equation.

At the 50/50 in 2020 gathering in 2009, one phrase emerged as a guiding principle for the work that needed to be done. "Put your money where your mouth is" was and remains imperative. Donate, buy tickets, and promote those companies and productions that ARE giving women at least their fair share of the opportunities!

Broadway World | The New Yorker | Women In Theatre Online

Come and see 6 new short plays by women!

We have reached the milstone of 86 plays developed and produced in the Women's Work Short Play LAB!

PROGRAM A: https://tinyurl.com/WWFEST-A

PROGRAM B: https://tinyurl.com/WWFEST-B

Seating is extremely limited. Guarantee your ticket with advance purchase via Eventbrite.

If you wish to pay cash at the box office, RSVP to newper37@gmail.com with your information & the date/time of the performance you wish to attend.

PROGRAM A:

CUSTOMS by Erin Moughon, directed by Melody Brooks
Featuring: Penelope Deen, Bess Miller*, Regina Renee Russell*

A LAUGH TOO FAR by by Yekta Khaghani, directed by Kristen Kelso
Featuring: Shiva Kiani, Marie Eléna O’Brien*, Anuj Parikh*

THE FUTURE IS FEMALE by Melissa Maney, directed by Jennie Reich Litzky
Featuring: Sophia Aranda*, Antonyio Artis, Ryan Cooper, Harmony Harris,
Annabella Pritchard, Samuel James Pygatt*