"Of course, there are women directing the big canonical hits, here and in the UK and beyond, but that's not my point. I'm talking about directors who, when they take on Shakespeare or Ibsen or, god help us, Lloyd Webber, generate as much fascination as the author with whom they're grappling - artists whose personal signatures and distinctive interpretations, be they text-faithful or entirely rewritten, we await with hungry anticipation, wondering, What will she do with that?"
"For years now here in the states, we've been visited by Ivo Van Hove and Thomas Ostermeier, Sam Mendes, Richard Jones, Simon Stone, and Jamie Lloyd. Homegrown, though our own tradition doesn't quite produce the auteur in the same way, we've got Sam Gold, Bartlett Sher, Kenny Leon, and Jack O'Brien. When an edgy new celebrity-driven Shakespeare heads to Broadway,"
Contemporary American theater features far fewer high-profile female adapters of classic works than male counterparts. Men repeatedly dominate major, radical productions of Shakespeare and other classics, both internationally and in the U.S. Women commonly direct new plays and are often associated with collaborative dramaturgy and actor-focused work. Persistent institutional discomfort with women as visionaries contributes to fewer women helming big-budget classic adaptations. Prominent male international and American directors regularly receive major productions. The result is a narrowed institutional imagination and recurring reliance on the same male directors for high-profile canonical revivals.
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