The P.L.E.D.G.E. Project
Research Assistant 2018—2019
“Production Listing to Enhance Diversity and Gender Equity” — a collaboration between the Playwrights Guild of Canada and the Equity and Diversity in the Arts initiative at the University of Toronto Scarborough.
Organized by Rebecca Burton and Dr. Barry Freeman
From the P.L.E.D.G.E. website:
Pledge is an acronym for a “Production Listing to Enhance Diversity and Gender Equity.” The main objective of the Pledge Project is to improve the number of women playwrights produced on the mainstages of post-secondary institutions and theatre training programs in Canada.
Multiple academic studies conducted over the last three decades confirm that women are woefully underrepresented in positions of higher creative influence (Fraticelli 1982; Burton 2006; MacArthur 2015). These reports point to education – to the places theatre people are trained – as a critical place to begin to correct the imbalance. This finding is further highlighted by a 2016 study of Canadian post-secondary institutions that reveals only 18% of mainstage play productions are written by women; a number lower than the industry norm (Hanson and Elser 2016). While achieving a better balance of women playwrights is the primary aim of Pledge, the intent is to also help improve the diversity of voices reflected in settings of theatre education in Canada.
In service of this aim, the Pledge website provides a new resource that will help educators address the lack of gender equity in post-secondary theatre programs (though we envision it being of service to others as well, such as community theatres). This fully searchable database includes plays written by Canadian women that suggest a cast size of six or more performers. We have chosen this particular focus because plays produced in educational settings typically require larger cast sizes to accommodate the number of students involved.
In addition to providing a database resource, the Pledge Project invites schools, departments, professors, visiting directors, and the like to make public pledges to improve the representation of women playwrights and other marginalized communities at their institutions. Pledges of all kinds are encouraged, and they may be tailored to suit particular circumstances and situations.
Project Leads:
Rebecca Burton, Playwrights Guild of Canada
Barry Freeman, University of Toronto ScarboroughProject Coordination:
Alexa Elser, Outreach and Research Coordinator
Idil Djafer, Project CoordinatorProject Researchers:
Lisa Aikman, Centre for Drama, Theatre & Performance Studies, U of TGrace Phan, Centre for Drama, Theatre & Performance Studies, U of T
Collette Radau, School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design, York U
Sarah Robbins, Centre for Drama, Theatre & Performance Studies, U of T
John Rowntree, Theatre and Performance Studies, U of T
The PLEDGE Project is supported by the Equity and Diversity in the Arts Initiative in the Department of Arts, Culture & Media at the University of Toronto Scarborough, and by Playwrights Guild of Canada (PGC).
