Playwrights and directors have occupied half of the programming of 17 theaters since 2021. And women in theater have won the lion’s share of prizes and grants awarded since 2018. But access to artistic directions remains difficult for them ; and the presence of racialized directors remains rare. This emerges from The Sentinel #2. For the futureresearch commissioned by Espace Go.
The research, conducted by Morald Jeldi, testifies to an evolution of equity between men and women in theatrical programming. There is even a clear change between the 2018-2019 season and the following two – 2021-2022 and 2022-2023, the year of the pandemic not having been counted since the theaters were then closed.
Thus, in 2018-2019, 35% of plays were directed by women. In 2021-2022, there are 55%, and for the following year, 46%. As for the authors, the change is less remarkable, and the equity more constant: they accounted for 46% of the texts played in 2018-2019, and 53% then 52% for the following two seasons studied.
“The sample is taken over a very short time”, observed for The duty feminist studies researcher Isabelle Boisclair, from the University of Sherbrooke. “It makes the statistics difficult to interpret. For the productions, is it the 35% by women that is the anomaly, or the 55%? she gives as an example.
The 17 theaters studied are all located in Quebec or Montreal. They vary in size, and include two youth theatres, the Maison Théâtre and the Gros Becs. Mme Boisclair wonders if the results would have been different if regional broadcasters had been included in the research.
Is the #MeToo wave of 2020 and the resulting awareness one of the factors explaining the changes? “It cannot not have had effects, answers M.me Clear wood. But this potential effect is not measurable. »
While the majority of statistics reported by The Sentinel #2 seems to be good news in the eyes of the researcher, since the 45% presence of women which marks parity for her is often found there, she is however concerned about the data on the staging and the texts worked on in the schools, during the training of tomorrow’s artistic talents.
“It’s scary! “ she exclaims in front of the curves which indicate that during the 2017 to 2023 seasons, the texts of authors constituted 63% to 85% of those chosen for the training shows. Their stagings were 54% to 83% made by men.
“We know that schools are supposed to be a place of innovation. There, we see that we are educating the next generation of theater artists in an environment that is even more conservative than what the milieu is, when we should expect the opposite. How will these young people react when they leave school and begin to receive instructions from female directors? asks Isabelle Boisclair.
Artistic direction, symbolic value of a theater
In terms of prizes and scholarships, women are in the lead. They represent 54% to 100% of the winners, and win 66% to 100% of the amounts awarded. “This was shown in the study What place for women in the literary field and in the world of books in Quebec? commissioned by the Union of Quebec Writers and Writers,” which Ms.me Boisclair had directed. “Apart from prejudices and biases, women are as good as men,” says the specialist.
In the management bodies, the boards of directors are fairly equal. “We know that this is the place for volunteering,” smiles Mme Clear wood. On the general management side, the picture also seems fairly fair. But in artistic direction, only 37.9% of women were found in the theaters studied in the 1er September 2022.
“Artistic direction is the signature of a theater”, analyzes Mme Clear wood. “This is where the symbolic value comes into play. And men dominate”, occupying 62.1% of these positions. And from the table where we can observe in the longer term, since 1993-1994, equity in management bodies shows “resistance. We are still below the 45% mark, which for me indicates parity”.
Isabelle Boisclair welcomes the fact that the research focused on the difficulties of access of racialized directors, who are too absent. “There must be, there must be more; we must attract them to the schools. And we have to think differently about the links and the gaps between the community milieus and what we perceive to be the professional artistic milieu. »
The research also offers possible solutions, which will be presented, along with the statistical results, on Wednesday evening. The whole thing will inaugurate a process of reflection which will seek, until February 3, “ How to deploy the leadership of women in theatre? ».