A Seat Behind the Table: Paving the Way for Female-Identifying Directors
By Gabriella Headley
Being a young, female-identifying director in an industry dominated by male creatives comes with its difficulties. Today, gender is a huge part of the global discussion, especially in the theatre world. In recent years it has been brought to people’s attention that there are more male voices than other voices represented on creative teams across the country. Before I go on to explore the relationship between gender and opportunities throughout this article, it is important to define female-identifying directors as all those who identify as female. It’s also important for us all to advocate for better representation of all gender and non-binary creatives, as well as people from diverse races, ethnicities, ages, sexualities, and walks of life working in our industry in order to reflect the important stories we are creating and telling in America today. However, since I personally identify as a young, white, cisgender female, I will predominantly be focusing on the female-identifying narrative throughout this article.
When you look at the numbers of past Tony Award winners, men tend to dominate the industry when it comes to filling spots on creative teams. Since 1947, eleven female-identifying directors have won a Tony Award for Direction of a Play or a Musical, with five female-identifying directors winning the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical and six receiving the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play. For comparison, over fifty male-identifying directors have won a Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical and Best Direction of a Play (The American Theatre Wing’s Tony Awards). In her acceptance speech, Director of Hadestown and Natasha Pierre and the Great Comet of 1912, Rachel Chavkin said, “I wish I wasn’t the only woman directing a musical on Broadway this season. There are so many women who are ready to go and so many people of color who are ready to go. This is not a pipeline issue. It is a failure of imagination by a field whose job it is to imagine the way the world could be” (Playbill).
I vividly remember the day I realized that directing and choreographing was an accessible career for me, as previously I had only been exposed to the concept of a career on the stage. My theatre teacher was one of my first mentors who really believed in me and encouraged me to pursue theatre and theatre education. I can remember so many sweet moments that we shared: her allowing me to be a student director, the moment I told her I was going to officially pursue theatre, her attending many of my college performances, and many more, but one moment in particular stands out as having the most significant impact. She asked me to help choreograph something we hadn’t gotten to the day before in rehearsal. I remember closing my eyes, listening to the music, and seeing the characters waltzing across the stage in my head. Looking back on it, I didn’t create anything groundbreaking or nuanced; but right there, dancing and figuring it all out, I realized, hey, I could actually do this forever. After this realization, I had no doubt in my mind that I could actually make directing a career! It wasn’t until later that I struggled with my own self doubt that my dreams were possible.
Now, every day, I feel like I have something to prove when it comes to creating art, like I have to create high quality work consistently without failing to be taken seriously. I have had to learn when to stand up for certain ideas in production meetings that I feel are important to the story we are telling, and when to let my thoughts go unspoken because I know they won’t be heard. I’ve gotten a lot of “You’re the director?” when meeting other artists and patrons for the first time. I’ve felt overlooked in meetings and social situations as one of the only female-identifying people in rooms full of men. These things might seem small, but over time they have equated to huge insecurities in my head. Even as I’m still on this journey, I find these situations cause me to doubt myself, my training, my experience, and my ability. I also feel this innate desire to better advocate for myself, but the fear of being seen as pushy or bossy, or other adjectives that female-identifying people are more commonly labeled as, keeps me quiet.
When speaking about her experience in the early days of her career to the New York Times, Director Patricia McGregor said, “I was in New York for 10 years and assisting everywhere, but it wasn’t until I did Hurt Village at the Signature that people were convinced. There’s infinitely more trust now, even throughout these same people have known me for a decade. There’s a tipping point happening, hopefully, and as these successes continue, more and more people will trust that we can captain these ships.” These experiences, shared by myself and others in the field, showed me how important it is for students to see someone that they identify or connect with in these leadership roles, because in my most insecure moments, I remembered the teacher that believed in me years ago.
After I wrapped one of my last projects, a cast member approached me. She shared that she had never worked with a female director before and that the experience gave her a new perspective. Another student shared with me that she wanted to go into directing, but had so few experiences working with a female director that she felt like her dreams were impossible. It took me a while to process these impactful comments, but I eventually realized how lucky I was to work with a female director in my formative years because I had continual support and never thought that it was an anomaly. It reminded me that just as my teacher was my mentor and role model for me, I am at the point where I can be that for my own students, by continuing on my path of creating art in the world today, even as I encounter self doubt and insecurity along the way.
Over the past few years, the theatre world has experienced a reckoning. Because of that, more theatre companies are hiring diverse creatives, but the problem isn’t solved yet. So how can educators show female-identifying students that they have a seat at the table?
- Provide students with a variety of opportunities.
Try to come up with many different opportunities for your students to be involved in various aspects of theatre productions! From performing to tech, and marketing to choreography, try to have as many roles available to students as possible. There are so many important jobs in our industry thatI didn’t know about until I was in college and began working professionally. If your students aren’t independently researching or are exposed to all the roles in the theatre industry, how will they know? In my experience, so many students are truly unaware of all of the performance, creative, administrative, and technical roles that go into putting on a professional production. - Expose students to works created by diverse creatives.
One activity that I have used to expose students to diverse theatre practitioners is “New Musical Friday.” Every Friday, I would project a brief clip from a musical and we would analyze it together as a class! Students would discuss parts that they enjoyed and the parts they didn’t like or were confused by, and then I would mediate discussion of the performance aspects and the technical aspects. I used that activity as an opportunity to not only expose my students to tons of different musicals, but also to stories created by or about different types of people. For example, when it was Black History Month, Hispanic Heritage Month, and other important times of the year, I would try to pick clips that would highlight those stories and point out when female-identifying directors were featured. This activity was a student favorite and I was often surprised at how thoughtful and creative their analyses were! - Share your story!
Do you have a mentor who inspired you? How did you end up where you are? What are some challenges you’ve had in your creative journey? The more you share about your love for theatre and the artistic path you are on, the more students will connect with you and your passions! Even share what you want to do in the future! I believe it is important for students to see your will, determination, and dreams so they can dream as well! Also, in the world we live in today, it is so important for students to feel human connection and the feeling that someone at school cares for them. So get to know your students, what they love and the little things that make them unique! When you have this genuine care for them as well as this connection, they can feel it and will feel safe and hopefully inspired by the joy of theatre that you share with them.
I don’t know about you, but I can’t remember all of my teachers’ names. But what I can recall is how each teacher made me feel. Whether they made me feel valued, supported, or totally done with school, it is the feelings that come back to me now. The most important thing you can do as an educator is make your students feel inspired and loved. And I think part of that is sharing your story with them, so that they can learn from you, not only about art, but about life! My theatre teacher gave me so many opportunities to learn and grow, completely changing the course of my life for the better because she shared her passion with me and believed in me. And because she believed in me, I had the courage to follow my dreams just like she did. After years go by, students may not remember all the theatre vocabulary you taught them or even your name, but they will always remember how they felt valued and encouraged by you.
Gabriella Headley (she/her) is an actor and director from Orlando, Florida, who is also proud to have spent four years as a High School Theatre Director. She received her B.F.A. in Musical Theatre from Florida Southern College and is an M.F.A. Acting Candidate at the University of Central Florida.
Works Cited
“Can You Name the 10 Trailblazing Women Who Won Tony Awards for Directing?” Playbill, https://playbill.com/article/can-you-name-the-10-trailblazing-women-who-won-tony-awards-for-directing.
Grode, Eric. “Meet the Directors.” The New York Times, 31 Jan. 2013, https://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/03/theater/female-directors-present-past-and-future.html.
“Winners.” The American Theatre Wing’s Tony Awards®, https://www.tonyawards.com/winners/.
“20 Powerhouse Women Directors Theatre Fans and Industry Pros Alike Need to Know.” Playbill, https://playbill.com/article/20-powerhouse-women-directors-theatre-fans-and-industry-pros-alike-need-to-know.
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