Honoring "Honor Roll!"
How Cheryl Davis and Jacquelyn Reingold are going to bat for the stories by, and often about, older women
I believe in advocating for younger women. I teach, and I do my best to support, advocate and fight for the next generation of female-identified artists. But that said…
In 2018, I went to see a play. It was a good play, and I liked it. This play was written by a woman under the age of 35, produced by a theater that mostly produces male writers. And again, this play was objectively very good, but…
I couldn’t help but think about the opportunities denied to the female playwrights of my generation. We were taught to write like men (they called it “muscular” writing), avoid anything having to do with the female body (unless it was being attacked, raped or mutilated) and feature male protagonists, because even though the stats showed women mostly bought theater tickets, these women were, I was told, buying tickets to see plays with their husbands, and their husbands couldn’t tolerate stories centered around female characters.
Yes, this was literally said to me; no, I won’t tell you by whom.
After the play, I wrote a rant on Facebook. Within hours, hundreds of women replied with their stories and their rage at having been left out of a generation of American storytelling. The rant became a Facebook group which eventually morphed into Honor Roll, an advocacy organization for female-identified playwrights over 40.
From the very beginning, playwright and television writer Jacquelyn Reingold insisted that Honor Roll be defined by action. If you see something, say something. Better still, do something that will benefit the greater good.
Recently, Jacquelyn and playwright and television writer (and lawyer) Cheryl Davis launched an initiative to meet with the artistic directors of New York City-based theaters to discuss the problem of gendered ageism in their respective seasons.
Here is our conversation, presented in honor of International Day of the Woman and all of our untold stories.
BB: What is the current state of both ageism and gendered ageism in the theater? Has our theater always been ageist or did this creep up on us?
JR: I wish I had fact-based answers. As far as I know, a study of ageism or gendered ageism in theater doesn’t exist. [So] I can only speak from personal experience and observation, which tells me that if you’re a woman playwright over 50 who didn’t become well-known when young, you will rarely get produced.
The only statistics I have are informal ones I’ve done for eighteen New York City-based theaters, and they are, mostly, horrendous. As in “this can’t be true” horrendous. As in, it sure looks like most high-profile New York City theaters are biased against not-well-known women playwrights over fifty. As in, if you’re not famous by 45, you’re fucked.
I try not to obsess on the stats, but they did lead me to write angry emails to various NYC artistic directors. I’m sure they loved my, Are you kidding?, This is discouraging, and Again no women over 50? missives. Many didn’t write back.
But theater, like any other art, needs to be inter-generational. If a season doesn’t include plays by older women, a theater isn’t serving the art or its audience. That idea, I hope, is compelling and palatable, to every theater in the country.
CD: Donning my lawyer hat for a moment, I think society has become more generally aware of—and hopefully less accepting of—ageism.
BB: Hopefully, yes! You two just did an awesome thing in speaking to artistic directors. Do you want to tell our readers about the action and how it went? What did you learn?
JR: Thank you! The wonderful, amazing Cheryl Davis and I are meeting with every New York theater to advocate for more inclusion for women playwrights over 50. We’ve had eighteen meetings, and we’re adding funders and commercial producers. It will take years, but we’re determined.
The lack of productions is astounding. Theaters often produce writers they know from “early career/emerging writer” groups, elite MFA schools, high-end agents, and prominent writer/director friends. But not-well-known older women are largely excluded.
At each meeting, we articulate “early career” doesn’t mean “young,” and “emerging” may include older women who may have been struggling for years. We remind theaters that “we” are often the ticket buyers, and “we” would like to see plays written by “us.” We ask they request “our” plays from agents, that if agents knew they would produce “us,” they would represent “us.” Many theaters, when asked, cannot name one un-produced play they like by a not-well-known woman over fifty. Many tell us they never get, or read, these plays.
CD: One interesting thing to me was the level of invisibility—not just in lack of productions, but in not even knowing who these playwrights are. That’s what prompted our plan to create a version of the Kilroys for plays written by women over fifty.
JR: We found two theaters with over 25% plays written by women over 50 and gleefully gave a Special Bubbly Award to Erin Daley at Primary Stages and Val Day at 59e59.
BB: What are you personally writing about now? And has your writing changed over the years?
JR: I’m rewriting a play, Fear Less, for an upcoming reading at Ensemble Studio Theater, which examines fear in two women’s lives over 25 years. I’m also writing a multi-generational comedy about a Jewish family called The Samovar.
What’s constant is I tackle what I love, and I’m devoted to character-driven storytelling. What’s changed is my awareness, and interest in, mortality and ageing. And my lack of interest in showing off. When I was young I liked to shock and scream for attention. Now, I really just want the extreme pleasure and challenge of writing and sharing, for as long as I can.
CD: To answer the second question first, I think yes—and no. I’ve always been interested in untold stories (and who gets to tell them—yes, even pre-Hamilton). And over time, I’m being drawn more toward the stories of older women. Right now I’m working on a take on The Tempest from Sycorax’s perspective; it’s set in a contemporary university, focusing on an aging African-American Shakespeare professor who has her academic home usurped by a younger white male professor who was once her student.
BB: You both write for TV. Do you find the same limitations and glass ceilings there?
JR: I had an unexpected TV writing career, which started in my mid 40s, after the theater lost interest in me. Maybe it was the amazing people who hired me: Warren Leight, Theresa Rebeck, Marta Kauffman, Michelle and Robert King, but they hired me, in part, because of my age and gender. I was lucky to succeed in TV, but playwriting is what I love, and I am joyously back at it. I’ve written three plays in three years. But it is harder than ever to get produced.
CD: I haven’t found TV folks to hold my age against me; in fact, one of the reasons I have my current job is because I have experience in the genre.
I’m delighted to be part of the writing team for Beyond the Gates, a new network soap that focusses on an affluent Black family. As much as you might have thought it unlikely that such a show would be greenlit, both because of the genre (soaps, which, like the theater, are purportedly dying), and the subject matter of a Black family, the audience has thus far been quite receptive. I’m hoping this will open doors for more shows, new soaps and otherwise—and hopefully more shows will mean more opportunities for writers.
BB: What inspires you?
JR: Everything.
CD: History and untold stories. They light me up.
Happy International Day of the Woman! Things may be dark right now, but we will stick together and insist our stories be part of the conversation. It’s the least we can do, right? Support a female author today. Read her work. Repost her post. Recommend her. Even better, hire her.
And if you haven’t yet watched Ramona at Midlife, seriously what are you waiting for?!
Love,
Brooke
Loved this interview, Brooke! It's good to know there are writers out there supporting writers who weren't so lucky as to get their big break at 30.