The International Centre for Women Playwrights is honoring 67 theatres in 9 countries with 50/50 Applause Awards for 2014. The awards are given to theatres that have produced 50% or more women playwrights in their season of shows.
In spring 2014, for the first time in the history of the awards, ICWP invited the public to nominate theatres that produce works by women. The result was that this year’s list of winners included theatres in Afghanistan, Australia, Canada, England, France, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, and the United States. There are fourteen repeat recipients who have demonstrated gender parity in more than one season. Some of the recipients are featured in the video below, and the full list of winning theatres is at the end of this post.
Despite this encouraging news, there is a long way to go to 50/50 status. The Australian Council for Arts 2012 Women in Theatre report cites that 21% of the productions between 2001-2011 were written by women. In June 2014 playwright Lynn Nottage wrote in the NY Times, “…not a single new Broadway play this season was written by a woman or person of color, and of the 47 book-writers/composers and lyricists represented on Broadway, only six of them were women” (Women Are Missing From Tony’s and Broadway, New York Times, 6/6/14). Likewise, there were no new plays or musicals written by women produced on London’s West End in the 2013-2014 season. The Los Angeles Female Playwrights Initiative (LAFPI) reports that 16% of the 2013-2014 shows produced in Southern California were by women playwrights.
ICWP President Karen Jeynes of South Africa says “It is a sad truth that often women are not as easily able to access platforms as men are, and there are so many stories which go untold. This award is a fantastic way to acknowledge those who are producing women’s work, and encourage those who aren’t to think about whether there are more ways to include women writers in their line-up.”
ICWP started in 1988 with a mission to support women playwrights worldwide and bring attention to their work. The 50/50 Applause Awards are now an annual event for ICWP, with nominations being stringently checked by a strong volunteer committee. More information about the awards can be found at: http://www.womenplaywrights.org/award
Congratulations to the recipients of the 2014 ICWP 50/50 Applause Awards:
| 16th Street Theater (Chicago, IL, USA) | Playwrights Horizons (New York, NY, USA) |
| AlterTheater (San Rafael, CA, USA) | Poetic Justice Project (Santa Maria, CA, USA) |
| Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company (Boulder, CO, USA) | Port City Playhouse (Alexandria, VA, USA) |
| Cabrini Repertory Theater (New York, NY, USA) | Prairie Theatre Exchange (Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada) |
| Café de la Gare (Paris, France) | Prologue Theatre Company (Chicago, IL, USA) |
| Cherry Lane Theatre (New York, NY, USA) | Salvage Vanguard Theater (Austin, TX, USA) |
| Cleveland Public Theatre (Cleveland, OH, USA) | Sarasvati Productions (Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada) |
| Company One (Boston, MA, USA) | Seattle Public Theater (Seattle, WA, USA) |
| Crowded Fire Theater (San Francisco, California, USA) | Shameless Hussy (Vancouver, BC, Canada) |
| Dargaville Little Theatre (Dargaville, New Zealand) | Simorgh Film Association of Culture & Art (Herat, Afghanistan) |
| Detroit Repertory Theatre (Detroit, MI, USA) | State Theatre Company of South Australia (Adelaide, South Australia, Australia) |
| Dreamcatcher Repertory Theatre (Summit, NJ, USA) | Steppenwolf Theatre Company (Chicago, IL, USA) |
| Factory Theatre (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) | Storycrafter Studio (Miami Beach, FL, USA) |
| Factory Space Theatre Company (Sydney, NSW, Australia) | Synchronicity Theatre (Atlanta, GA, USA) |
| Forum Theatre (Silver Springs, MD, USA) | Tennessee Women’s Theater Project (Nashville, TN, USA) |
| Furious Theatre Company (Pasadena/Los Angeles, CA, USA) | The Bush Theatre (London, England) |
| Genesis Theatrical Productions (Chicago, IL, USA) | The English Theatre of Rome (Rome, Italy) |
| Golden Thread Productions (San Francisco, CA, USA) | The Great Canadian Theatre Company (West Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) |
| HERE Arts Center (New York, New York, USA) | The Pittsburgh Playhouse (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA) |
| Hollins University (Roanoke, Virginia, USA) | The Rattlestick Playwrights Theater (New York, NY, USA) |
| Horizon Theatre Company (Atlanta, GA, USA) | The Red Brick Road theatre company (North Hollywood, CA, USA) |
| Jewish Repertory Theatre (Getzville, NY, USA) | The Theatre @ Boston Court (Boston, MA, USA) |
| Kumu Kahua Theatre (Honolulu, Hawaii, USA) | The Wilma Theater (Philadelphia, PA, USA) |
| Looking for Lilith (Louisville, KY, USA) | THEATRE MONTPARNASSE (Paris, France) |
| Los Angeles Theatre Center / Latino Theater Company (Los Angeles, CA, USA) |
Theatre Passe Muraille (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) |
| Melting Pot KC (Kansas City, MO, USA) | TheatreFIRST (Berkeley, CA, USA) |
| Mildred’s Umbrella Theater (Dallas, TX, USA) | Touchstone Theatre (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada) |
| Native Voices at the Autry (Los Angeles, CA, USA) | Tristate Actors Theater (Newton, NJ, USA) |
| Obsidian Theatre Company (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) | Tucson Alliance of Dramatic Artists (TADA!) (Tucson, AZ, USA) |
| Off the Wall Productions (Carnegie, PA, USA) | UC Santa Barbara, LaunchPad (Santa Barbara, CA, USA) |
| Papyrus Cultural Artistic Organization (Kabul, Afghanistan) | Univ. of Nebraska at Omaha Theatre Dpt. (Omaha, NE, USA) |
| Paul Robeson Theater (Buffalo, NY, USA) | Workhaus Collective (Minneapolis, MN, USA) |
| Penumbra Theatre Company (St. Paul, MO, USA) | Zwiefachen (Berlin, Germany) |
| PlayGround (San Francisco, CA, USA) |