What are the trends for Trans/Non-binary artists?

For the purposes of Counting Actors, any artist using a pronoun other than he or she is counted in the ‘Trans/Non-Binary’ category.  As pronouns have become more common as part of artist bios in programs, identifying these artists has become easier.  In some cases where I wasn’t sure if an artist identified in this group, I also did internet searches for interviews and other writing where a playwright or director might have discussed their pronouns. I fully acknowledge that Counting Actors did not have the resources to ask artists how they self-identify.  As mentioned in the introduction, this is one of the reasons that I’ve chosen to stop counting.

Here is the data that the project has collected for shows with Trans/Non-Binary playwrights, directors and actors.

• The project counted no Trans/Non-Binary union actors
• There was 1 Trans/Non-Binary director
• There were 4 Trans/Non-Binary playwrights
• There were 25 Trans/Non-Binary non-union actors

The Trans-Non-Binary actor count trended upwards from 2015-2018 from one actor in the 14-15 season to ten actors in the first half of the 2018 season.  (See Table 3).

All of the Trans/Non-Binary playwrights were in the ‘Millennial’ group, of writers from 2000-2018. They were MJ Kaufman (Sagittarius Ponderosa), and Nick Hadikwa Mwaluko (Waafrika 123, Participants, and Shifting Spaces). It’s significant to note that Participants and Shifting Spaces were both short play evenings featuring multiple writers.

In terms of budget, all four of these productions were in the Non-Union/Union Code category. Sixteen of the Trans/Non-Binary actors worked on shows in this category, three worked on shows in the Union Contract without Health Weeks category, and six worked in the Union Contract with Health Weeks category (see Table 6).

Waafrika 123 was also the only show with a Trans/Non-Binary director.  Of the other 3 shows with Trans/Non-Binary writers, two had female directors, and one had a male director.

The twenty-five Trans/Non-Binary actors worked in twenty-two different shows, and were not the majority in any cast. Those shows were more likely to be directed by women and written by men, and featured male and female actors in almost equal numbers.

Shows with Trans/Non-Binary Actors 22 shows, 64% Non-Union, Union Code 36% Union Contract
	Women	Men	Trans/Non-Binary
Playwrights	38% 20 artists	55% 29 artists	8% 4 artists
Directors	60% 25 artists	38% 16 artists	2% 1 artist
Actors	43% 97 artists	46% 104 artists	11% 25 artists

Table 13: Shows with Trans/Non-Binary Actors

I have a lot of questions about representation of Trans/Non-Binary artists. For me and for many others, advocating for female/male gender parity in theater has always been couched in the fact that women and men are each roughly 50% of the general population, as well as additional numbers about percentages of women and men who are members of Actors’ Equity, graduates of college arts programs, etc.

So my first question was: How many trans/non-binary people are there, followed immediately by how many trans/non-binary folks are making theater in the SF Bay Area?

As additional research for this report, I’ve found data that suggests that LGBT people make up 4.5% of the US population and that .6% of those are trans/non-binary people, as well as additional data that California has a .76% trans/non-binary population and that San Francisco is 15.4% LGBT. This data comes from a 2017 Gallup poll, and a 2016 Williams Institute survey.

Actors’ Equity’s most recent report that includes member demographic data is from 2017, and has no numbers for trans/non-binary people.  Member demographic data is self-reported by roughly 85% of membership, and didn’t have an option to self-identify as trans/non-binary until after the 2017 report was compiled.  Anecdotally, I’ve heard that we do have some trans/non-binary members in the SF Bay Area region, but that they may not be publicly identifying as trans/non-binary because they fear it will limit their casting. Theatre Bay Area does not keep gender related data of members, but has shared with me some data from a gender audit of the TBA Awards, which shows that 25 awards participants or .64% were counted as ‘other’ and an additional 222 or 5.7% were counted as ‘prefer not to say’.

This lack of clear information about trans/non-binary representation in theater suggests to me that more accurate counting and study of playwright, director and actor gender identity is a much needed piece of research.