black female playwright

Yesterday, there was an article in the NYTimes about three black female playwrights who have work on Broadway this season (props to Liz for posting it on facebook). While I would have read this article before, I obviously read the article more intently as a young black female writer...Who is writing a play...So I guess this makes me a playwright. Right.

My immediate thoughts on the article were: YAY! Black female playwrights on Broadway! Woo!

And then my next thoughts on the article were: UGH! It is a big deal that three black women have work on Broadway...it is sad that it is a big deal when it could be the status quo.

There have been several articles in the past few years which have highlighted the dearth of plays by women. As a theatergoer, this depresses me. I walk around Philly and look at the show line ups for the upcoming season. There is a major theater around the corner from me. They are doing seven shows. Not one is written OR directed by a woman (unless there are a lot of women named Ronald and Daniel). I don't think a theater should have a quota system or anything, but I have read great plays by women and seen great plays directed by women. Is it really that hard or undesirable to have women as writers or directors?

It was interesting, and important, for me to read this article focusing on the black female playwright experience. Regardless of the fact that "playwrights rightly bristle at being sorted into categories and resist having their works considered from the perspective of the author’s racial or ethnic background," I acknowledge that when, if, my work is produced, my race and gender will be mentioned, if not a major consideration.

Katori Hall mentions: “I’ve had frank conversations with theaters who say, ‘We love your play, but we’ve already done a play by another black person this year,’ or ‘I don’t think the kind of people you write about are the ones our audience wants to see."

When reading the article, I noticed that all three of the plays being produced are about the black experience in some way. That is awesome. But this and Hall's quote above got me thinking. The characters in the play I am working on have not been assigned a race. This may help it be produced, but if I am the "black female playwright" and am chosen to fit the "we need some color in our season" slot, would my play not be chosen? Do I have a responsibility to write about black experiences? If I am writing as a black woman, is my play, in some fashion, automatically somewhat about a black experience? I don't know. To all of the above.

When I am writing, I don't think about any of this. I don't think about the fact that I may write a great play that may never be produced. Luckily, I just write. I am sure that will change when this play is done and I have to start thinking about submitting it to festivals, trying to produce my own reading, etc. I've actually never dreamed about having my play produced on Broadway. If anything, I dreamed of acting on Broadway when I was in college, but as I learned more about Broadway, even that dream faded away. I've just dreamed of writing and having my work produced. Anywhere. So perhaps that will make my dream at least somewhat more achievable.

The article ends with this downer: “Up and coming young black female writers are still struggling to have their voices heard and have their plays produced. I may be on the mountain right now, but they are still in the trenches.”

I personally don't mind being in the trenches. The trenches can be a more exciting place, but what gets me is that this is what bell hooks, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Ntozake Shange, and tons more have written about and experienced. Years ago. I feel like something must of changed, but maybe it hasn't?

Either way, I get it. It is going to be difficult. As a writer, as a woman, as a black person...and whatever else. I get it. It is depressing, but it also exciting because if I manage to succeed (and I mean my personal understanding of success, not necessarily success in the eyes of the theater world), it will be so much sweeter.