To the Editor:
Re “Theater Needs a Gender Reckoning, Too,” by Theresa Rebeck (Opinion guest essay, Oct. 15):
Ms. Rebeck tells it like it is: Female playwrights have been passed over for male playwrights at almost every theater in the country — not because men write better plays, but because of prejudice.
Why is it that male artistic directors can understand the issue of diversity when it involves race, but not when it involves gender? Especially if it involves women who are over 50? Or 60? Or 70?
Older female playwrights are tough and wise. We have stories to tell because we have been watching and listening and writing — stories that are raw, surprising, entertaining, stories that reflect the precarious reality we live in now.
The victors write the history, but the rejected, neglected, disdained and ignored women who have the stamina to keep writing know a deeper, more profound reality, because we live it.
Elizabeth Diggs
Austerlitz, N.Y.
The writer is a playwright.
To the Editor:
Theresa Rebeck makes excellent points and uses fine examples in her piece on male playwrights dominating the American theater. I could not agree with her more.
I have been teaching writing at the New School and elsewhere for 40 years, writing books and essays even longer, and just wrote my first play, which I have started to market. The play is about family relationships, mental illness and learning to love.
The artistic directors who have accepted it are women: one at a big-city repertory theater for a Zoom reading, the other at a mid-city, in-person short-play festival at which the first two scenes were read. Audiences at both laughed and gasped more than I expected.
The many male directors and producers to whom I submitted it turned it down.
Women are the primary buyers of theater tickets, but not the primary buyers of plays. We need more female producers and directors.
I believe that my play will have many productions — even if my children and grandchildren pick me up for opening night at the assisted living home.
Nancy Davidoff Kelton
New York
To the Editor:
The fairest way for plays submitted to theaters and producers to be judged only on their merit is for the playwright’s name not to appear on the play. This is routinely done in play contests, so the judges will not be influenced by the author’s gender or race or possible relationship with the judge.
Yes, more women’s plays should be done. More minorities’ plays should be done. But neither gender nor race should elevate one play over another. Musicians auditioning for a spot in an orchestra usually play behind a screen that hides their identity.
If a producer confesses that he thinks women can’t write as well as men, let him be caught choosing a play he loves … and then finding out after he has made an offer to produce it that it was written by a woman!
Lee Kalcheim
West Stockbridge, Mass.
The author is a playwright and screenwriter.
In Theaters, Skip the Snacks and Keep Your Masks On
To the Editor:
Re “Now on Broadway: The Covid Rituals” (Arts pages, Oct. 20):
I was so happy to be in a seat at the theater for “Six” on Broadway the other night. The management very efficiently checked masks, vaccination proof and ID and got everyone into the theater on time. These protocols are great.
However, allowing audience members to take their masks down to eat candy and sip cocktails leisurely sort of makes the mask mandate pointless. No one is monitoring that situation. Is it really too much to ask people to go without eating or drinking for 80 minutes?
Debra Banerjee
Boca Raton, Fla.
‘The Attacks on Our Public Health Heroes’
To the Editor:
Reading “Public Health Crisis Grows With Distrust and Threats” (front page, Oct. 18) left me appalled and disheartened.
As a medical student who chose to pursue a career in medicine to give back to the community that raised me, I cannot fathom how individuals could abuse the selfless efforts of health care and public health professionals with death threats and political power grabs during this moment of great need.
Imagine facing a wildfire by defunding fire departments, threatening firefighters, proselytizing the right to burn and characterizing water collection as an assault on hot tub liberties.
The attacks on our public health heroes and infrastructure may be Covid-19’s greatest long-term impact. Those who are responsible should understand that their shortsighted and hate-driven actions will result in the loss of life.
We should continue to spotlight this issue until health care and public health professionals can feel properly appreciated and empowered to do their work.
Chris Kim
Philadelphia
Why Books Are Delayed
To the Editor:
Re “Supply Issues Are Causing Book Delays” (Business, Oct. 5):
It is not only shortages of printing and shipping capacity that are delaying books. Because libraries and archives were closed for months, and some are still closed or restricted, authors of nonfiction have been forced to delay completion and delivery of their manuscripts.
Much of the material at the National Archives, the Library of Congress, university libraries, and state and local historical societies is not digitized, so physical access is required, but has been unavailable.
Writers have been unable to complete their manuscripts because they can’t finish their research, so the publishers have had to delay publication — even if catalogs including the books have been prepared.
Thomas W. Lippman
Washington
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2021-10-24 15:30:07Z
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