BORDER theatre company HotHouse Theatre is setting the standard for gender equity in the arts.
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For the first time it gained a 2015-16 50/50 Award, which recognises theatres that produced female playwrights in at least 50 per cent of their previous season.
HotHouse Theatre artistic director Lyn Wallis said HotHouse Theatre had a strong record on supporting women in creative roles in the performing arts.
“Gender equity for women playwrights has long been identified as a major issue for the Australian theatre industry,” she said.
“HotHouse has a long history of supporting women in creative leadership, and is proud to have programmed in 2015-16 the fabulous work of Mary Rachel Brown, Justine Campbell and Sarah Hamilton, Sarah Kriegler, Julia-Rose Lewis, Emily Goddard, Kamarra Bell-Wykes, Vivienne Walsh and Jo Lancaster.”
As director of theatre for the Australia Council for the Arts for the five years until 2014, Ms Wallis found the lack of women in creative leadership was a problem in the industry.
She said research on the issue culminated in a report in 2012.
“I’m really mindful of it, to give good representation,” Ms Wallis said.
“I think the industry has been chipping away at it but it’s still a problem.
“Quotas are not the right way to go in my opinion but companies need to have an ongoing commitment to gender equity and also around vigilance.
“The problem is women are always represented in development, they’ll be developed to death, but the issue comes where the product is not getting to the stage.”
The HotHouse Studio Ensemble is also working with playwright Roslyn Oades on its 2016 show about the big dreams of Albury-Wodonga, At the Hip, which runs from November 3-19 at The Butter Factory Theatre in Wodonga.
A record 107 theatres in 10 countries and five continents this year received a 50/50 Award, now in their fifth year.
The list includes theatres in Australia, Canada, England, Italy, Kenya, the Philippines, Scotland, Singapore, Switzerland and the United States.
Almost 32 per cent of the theatres were repeat recipients, demonstrating gender parity in two or more seasons.
Recipients range from community and college theatres to internationally-renowned theatres.
