Women of Color on Broadway

The theatre is in a moment of reckoning. The events of the summer, including the theatre shutdown, forced the industry to confront racism in our workplaces. And there has been a shift: a call to produce BIPOC artists and BIPOC stories; a call to mentor young Black theatre professionals; a wave of hiring Black artistic directors and associate artistic directors at influential institutions. And as we peel back the layer of systemic oppression when it comes to race, it opens the door for the examination of other underrepresented communities.

Of the 14 plays and four musicals that premiered on Broadway in the 2019-2020 season, women directed three of those plays and two of those musicals. According to the League of Professional Theatre Women’s most recent Women Count (published November 2018), women accounted for an average of 40 percent of Off-Broadway directors in the seasons from 2013–2018. While Off-Broadway inches towards parity, Broadway has a way to go and we don’t even have numbers for theatres across the nation.

In this “intermission,” theatres at every level have the opportunity to reevaluate, the time to more consciously consider the work of their upcoming seasons and the teams they’ve hired to do it. And yet, there is always that lingering question in the ether: I’d love to hire [insert marginalized group here], but who are they?