Women's Voices - ? Do we want to hear and see women on our 'stages' in the South West?

Natalie McGrath, 17 July 2012

Natalie McGrath, Josie Sutcliffe, Robert Miles, Kelly Smith, Bethany Pitts, Petra, Wilmer, Hannah Silva, Roman Bloodworth, Marion Macbeth, Ruth Mitchell

Yes.

Then we decided that this maybe wasn't the question we could be asking.

Is this the wrong question and why?

How can we present more roles for women in theatre?

What can we do?

Awareness of the gender imbalance is often going unnoticed.

How do women want to be represented?

More representation across the fabric of theatre-making industry is essential.

Women are not a minority!

But are marginalised.

Not about being exclusive.

Are the roles not being written?

Are the plays/shows with women's stories being produced or even considered for production?

Why is the work not being programmed?

Do women have a responsibility to write women's stories?

We are missing out on so much (women and men) in not sharing the experience of women's stories more.

About visibility of women on our stages - why are we so frightened of it?

Since the 1990's it feels like the stage has been left by women and that notion of collaborative work that many women centered companies brought to our theatre ecology.

Could be such a great platform for addressing issues around gender inequality in our contemporary society.

Feminism has been highjacked as something wholly negative and its values have been misunderstood, so when women's work is mentioned we are very bound up in these perceptions rather than talking about the content of the work itself.

We want to celebrate our difference rather than be held up by it.

This is an ongoing debate.

An issued that mustn't be silenced as it is fundamental to the fabric of our society as a whole.

So - what are you going to do about it?

Tags:

Access, Careers, equality, gender, access, feminism, sexism, representation, balance, careers, women

Comments: 2

x x, 18 July 2012

Just an additional thought - what about the representation of transgendered and gender variant people? Now that would be an interesting debate and conversation.

They really have no or very inaccurate representation whether that's transgender stories, characters, performers, writers, etc. Although I know Channel 4 have made an ongoing commitment for a greater positive representation of the transgender community within their programming and recruitment.

Maybe a theatre could programme a season or have a quota of theatre that better represented women? But just to stir up more trouble - I'd absolutely hate that and wouldn't go! And that's a pretty strong statement coming from me because I'll go to pretty much everything and anything.

x x, 18 July 2012

Apparently used too many characters!

Continued….

I can't speak for other people but I really, really, really don't want to hear about the struggle the women. It seems to me that your genders are not holding you back in anyway and I can't help but think that this is just an illusion perpetuated by society, yes, but more so by yourselves!

I'm all for female stories, characters, performers, writers, etc. and the greater / more positive representation of women but not in order to celebrate or promote the female gender. I find that, frankly, repulsive.

I really don't want to be frank and confrontational and I realise I'm a bit of an odd one out here! But I think my opinion as a female theatre producer and audience member is a valid one, considering the original question!

I'm disgruntled - forgive me!!