does work primarily by men. Yet again.
Have a look at this :
BBC report about the National’s upcoming programme
And then have a quick count. How many of those plays are by women?
Yes, that’s right, one out of ten. NINE plays by men. NINE! And actually, the Tori Amos musical is based on a story by a chap anyway. And she’s doing the music, not the book.
Oh and I know it’s not just the National. I know it’s most of them. And maybe the National are doing loads of other plays by women, but clearly they’re not the ones that have got the press fired up, or they’d be at the top of this list. Or they’d be on this list at all.
The thing is, it hurts. It hurts me. I hurt when I feel ignored, anyone does, and when I see men’s work CONSTANTLY outnumbering the work of women at this massive, major, internationally renowned PUBLICLY FUNDED building, it hurts me. And it pisses me off. (Do I not pay taxes? If you force the Inland Revenue on me, do I not return to them in kind?)
And yes, of course men can write brilliantly about and for women. Just as women can write brilliantly about and for men. But bloody hell, give us a chance to show that? And you know what really upsets me? It’s that I’m fairly certain that most of my lovely, generous, kind, clever, smart men writer friends don’t look at that list and see what I see. See what all the women I know see. See what is missing. See that WE are missing.
Well, that’s me ready for DandD6 then.
Not Writing But Blogging 
welcome to the club – it’s the same in business: top leaders are usually male and the ratio is even worse!
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of course, but most businesses aren’t funded by public money (ie, paid for by tax payers of which 50% are women), nor do they, as theatre likes to do, pride themselves on being cutting-edge, speaking for society, telling the ‘truth’!
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These lovely ladies Stateside http://www.guerrillagirls.com/posters/index.shtml offer printable stickers you can put on any available surface of your local theatre if (as is likely to be the case) their writing output is predominantly male and if (as is hopefully the case) you wish to make your upset at this fact known to fellow audience members and management. If it works – or if there is any story to tell – please do let them know: these gals and this project are great.
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