Where Are the Women? New Theater Season Announcements Signal a Troubling Setback

I’ve been writing about the lack of female representation in creative teams for at least 15 years. When I wrote a series on female playwrights a couple of years back, there was a sense that things were getting better. Indeed, when Julia Jordan handed off leadership of the Lillys in December 2023, she proudly reported that gender parity had been reached on off-Broadway stages dedicated to new plays. There was even talk of sunsetting the organization, which has been a driving force in the fight for gender parity.

But things no longer look as bright. Politically, it is a more challenging time for women, and so it is in the theater as well. Last week, my inbox was flooded with complaints after a series of season announcements were light on female representation. Playwrights Horizons has six works, only one of which is co-written by a woman, and none written solely by a woman. Of Williamstown's seven productions, one was co-created by a woman, none were written by one. Roundabout Theatre will feature no female playwrights on its Broadway stages, and only one off-Broadway. (Female directors are faring no better, each theater has one, with Williamstown having additional female rehearsal/consulting directors on one project.) Classic Stage Company, which received no ire when its season was announced, does not have any female playwrights on its 2025-2026 slate.

There is a flip side. The Vineyard Theatre has announced two of its three 2025-2026 plays and both are by women. Kudos to Vineyard Artistic Directors Douglas Aibel and Sarah Stern. If you look at Manhattan Theatre Club, a New York non-profit comparable to Roundabout, you’ll see that every post-pandemic season has had at least two plays by women. Five of those have been on Broadway, where women have always struggled to be heard. MTC has yet to announce its full 2025-2026 season, but it already has two off-Broadway plays by women scheduled. And we’re still waiting on other companies’ seasons. However, overall, it’s no surprise, especially given the erosion of women’s rights nationally, that female playwrights immediately feel a sense of regression when they’re underrepresented in the seasons of several prominent theater companies.

For comparison, when reviewing Playwrights’ seasons since the pandemic, in both the 2021-2022 season and the 2022-2023 season, the majority of Playwrights’ plays were written by women. For 2023-2024, two plays were written by women; last season at Playwrights included works by one female writer and one female co-creator. Williamstown has had fluctuating numbers of female playwrights since former Artistic Director Mandy Greenfield—a longtime advocate for works by women and Lillys board member—departed in 2021. In 2023, none of its fully staged productions were by women. The season before had one, and the season after (last season) two. Roundabout has had at least two female writers in every post-pandemic season. Of the eight shows that Classic Stage Company has presented since the reopening, two straight plays have been by women and one musical, A Man of No Importance, featured lyrics by a woman, Lynn Ahrens.

In response to the alarming trend in 2025-2026 seasons, the Lillys—founded in 2010 by Jordan, Marsha Norman, and Theresa Rebeck after a couple of town halls discussing gender parity in the theater—opted to have a town hall this week. The event was held at Playwrights, with Artistic Director Adam Greenfield in attendance. (Williamstown Creative Director Jeremy O. Harris and Roundabout’s Interim Artistic Director Scott Ellis were out of town and could not join. CSC’s Producing Artistic Director, Jill Rafson, was not specifically invited because the issues with that company’s season were not identified by the Lillys folks until shortly before the event.)

People who RSVPed jammed into Playwrights’ Main Stage on Monday evening, with many more unable to get in. Lisa Kron began the event with introductory remarks. “We’re here to mark something that appears to be amiss,” Kron said. “We’re here to galvanize our resolve, to continue to fight for parity and equity in our field.”

Kron emphasized the purpose was to “talk generally about the field and not to litigate specific programming choices” because “there are a million ways to litigate those.” She also asked attendees not to focus comments on their personal careers.

Jordan then took the stage to offer some statistics about what we’ve seen so far in the 2025-2026 season announcements of major New York non-profits. As the analysis is ever-changing as more seasons are being announced, I’m loath to use the exact numbers, but suffice it to say, so far women remain underrepresented, particularly white women. The gap is currently so large that even if you considered all the non-binary playwrights as women (and they are not—I’m simply posing this scenario for illustrative purposes), there would still be more male playwrights represented in the 2025-2026 seasons as they stand thus far.

Over the next ninety minutes, various professionals—not all playwrights—stood up to speak about the challenges they face and the representation they hope to see. Jacquelyn Reingold and Cheryl Davis (via phone), leaders of Honor Roll!, an organization advocating for women+ playwrights over 50, called on theaters to not only commit to gender parity but to include older women playwrights, “especially the ones who are not already well-known.”  

Mandy Greenfield, now a commercial producer, stressed that theater has the power to transform people for the better and women necessarily need to be a part of that conversation. She said: “We're in a time when Jewish people are being killed in the street for being Jews. There's transphobia, there's homophobia, there's sexism. We don't even have sovereignty over our own bodies. And who is in charge of this culture? Men. That is who dominate the world stage. And who is on the stages? Men. Those are correlated. Those are correlated phenomena. And our superpower is, yes, to argue for parity, but argue for parity because the voices that we need the most now should be unapologetically and forcefully female.”

Others spoke about prejudices against trans women, women with disabilities, and more. Then there were the questions to Adam Greenfield. The questions to him became so pointed that Kron had to direct him to stop answering, given that she had specifically stated the goal of the forum was not to litigate a specific season. Winter Miller had an entire plan laid out for him to make amends on the spot.

“We want equity now, which you can do by elimination or expansion,” Miller said. “No one wants contracts pulled from your writers. You need to honor your commitment to them. So to even out the season, you need to hire three women-identified playwrights to achieve gender parity. Expand your season to nine plays. If you cry poverty, impossible, you have two new choices… Create a season that includes the addition of three women-identified writers… Spread all these plays out that you've contracted over two seasons and exhibit gender parity. [Or] keep the 2026 season as is and make 26-27 an entirely female-identified season.”

To his credit, Adam Greenfield handled it all fairly well. He got in a little trouble when he said his seasons represent “underrepresented” groups, but generally he accepted that Playwrights had fallen short and vowed to do better. One attendee suggested he commit to meeting with other artistic directors once monthly to discuss diversity issues. He agreed to try.

After the event, I received a statement from Adam Greenfield and Playwrights Managing Director Casey York, which read: “At Playwrights Horizons, we believe playwrights are the great storytellers of our time, and our work as a theater is incomplete until it reflects the full diversity of our city. We passionately and unequivocally support the plays and theater-makers in our upcoming season, while acknowledging that we clearly fell short in our commitment to women+ artists, especially at a time when women’s wellbeing and careers are so vulnerable. We thank those who are holding us accountable. We can and will do better.”

Harris wasn’t present, but I spoke with a playwright who had discussed the issue with him. She said he stressed nonbinary representation in the Williamstown season, as well as the presence of women in other behind-the-scenes roles.

One day, I’d like to stop writing about the lack of women in creative leadership. We’ve seen several female directors make their Broadway debut in recent years—and I’m sure we’ll see more soon from Tony winner Danya Taymor, Sammi Cannold, Jessica Stone, and others—but men still outpace them. A couple of years ago, I wrote about a play produced by three women just because there aren’t many female lead producers either. I remember when doing an interview for that story, producer Kristin Caskey told me she hadn’t realized before producing A Doll’s House that Amy Herzog, who adapted the classic, never had a prior Broadway credit. It seemed so odd she hadn’t, Caskey just assumed she had.  

And the problem is, we keep cycling. I’m sure this town hall, and articles like this one, will help for a season or two. Whenever theaters get bad press for lack of representation there is a spike of improvement. But then that progress recedes when a new cause or issue becomes in vogue. The monthly meeting suggestion was something practical that will keep this issue on the minds of the decision makers. All decision makers need to be thinking of these issues, not just men. CSC’s Producing Artistic Director is a woman, but the season is still what it is.

Playwright Neena Beber read a statement from Rebeck, who was out of town. The statement was chock full of ridiculous things men, including male playwrights, said to her 20 years ago, while reminding the audience that 20 years currently doesn’t feel that long ago.

In closing, I’ll provide part of that statement from Rebeck, who has had more shows on Broadway than any other living female playwright at five: “Our point has always been that this will make our work and our community stronger. The act of storytelling does not belong to one gender or race. Excellence does not accrue to one type of storyteller over another. Our stages belong to everyone. Our art is better, and truth be told, our business is better when we are all in it together. We are at a crisis moment in American history. We need all hands on deck. Telling women to step aside and be quiet is not just unkind, it is dire in its lack of wisdom.”