To date, MTC has announced that its 2015-16 season will feature Sam Shepard's Fool For Love, David Lindsay-Abaire's Ripcord, Nick Jones' Important Hats of the Twentieth Century, Richard Greenberg's Our Mother's Brief Affair, John Patrick Shanley's Prodigal Son and Nick Payne's Incognito.
The news may help appease some artists in the theatre community who were not impressed by the previously announced slate which did not feature any female playwrights or playwrights of color.
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paula Vogel tweeted the following appeal to artistic director Lynne Meadow on Aug. 18.
Lynne M/MTC w/respect: for a woman in theatre who attended Bryn Mawr, where is your sisterhood? playwrightsofcolormatter&women's plays now
— Paula Vogel (@VogelPaula)
August 18, 2015
Playwright Kristofer Diaz also brought the public's attention to the issue via Twitter.
My issue:
@MTC_NYC's mission is to produce works "as diverse as NYC itself." Would love to discuss strategies for approaching this goal.
— Kristoffer Diaz (@kristofferdiaz)
August 19, 2015
Both Meadow and Vogel were interviewed by The New York Times in regards to these concerns.
Hope my chat w/NYT conveys my respect &excitement over my colleagues and younger peers but theatre can no longer be a club.
— Paula Vogel (@VogelPaula)
August 20, 2015
Meadow told the Times that she was "very upset to think of the artistic community being upset."
"I don’t deny the fact that this season is anomalous in terms of the percentages of diversity on our stages," she continued. "It’s just how the season came together."
As reported in the Times, there is talk that Lila Neugebauer will direct Skinner's play, to which Meadow added: "Penny feels very strongly, as did we, about having a woman direct the play."
Last year, four of MTC’s eight-play season were written by women, including Lisa D’Amour’s Airline Highway, the first play on Broadway written by a woman in over 3 years. In the last four seasons, MTC has produced 43% of plays women and people of color on their three stages.
In the last four years, 57% of playwrights who passed through their commissioning programs were female and/or Non-White (28 of 49 writers).
For more information on the upcoming MTC season visit MTC.
