Happy New Year!
Over the past year I think it was starting to become pretty clear that not only is there a growing urge amongst a lot of theatre practitioners (female and male) to help to get more work on by women; but also to recognise that a more equal theatre is a more desirable place for a number of reasons. There have been false starts before but maybe this will be the year that the trickle through becomes a flood.
I was asked to write an article for Theatre and Performance magazine late last year about the topic. I put a call-out for interviewees for the article and received many more responses than would fit into a single issue, and the article was edited down for space reasons. So, in a direct echo of the situation in theatre – there were more women with things to say who wanted to say something, but couldn’t. However, on the virtual playing field there is lots more room, and these interesting, informative and inspirational interviews can have a home.
The full interviews below which didn’t get in the magazine can be found the Close Up section and I will also add the full, unedited versions of the interviews which went in, but were cut.
- Early career playwright Leila Khan talks about procrastination and being jealous of EL James.
- Katherine Mitchell talks about society’s unintentional (or intentional) silencing of girls’ voices.
- Julia Streets talks about working in comedy and gives a unique perspective on dealing with the alpha male in the workplace. (There is also a video interview you can watch.)