Now that we’ve released the results, I’m experiencing feelings of relief and gratitude. 

Relief: that the Study is “done!” 

Gratitude: to all those whose participation and encouragement made it possible. 

The main goal of the LA FPI is to bring people together to support each other, and I really saw that happening with the Study.  I received so many e-mails from people who wanted to participate and were happy we had undertaken this, and so much help from fellow LA FPI badge-holders. 

For my parting words, I’d actually like to point you to the words chosen by participants to describe their experiences.  At the end of the survey, I asked participants to choose one word to describe either their experiences as a female playwright, or the LA theater scene as a whole.

Here’s what they had to say:

What one word would you use to describe the LA theater community?

theater companies:

passionate

Varied.

Saturated

Diverse

Energetic

Disconnected

Elitist

struggling

Struggling

Diverse

awakening

Appreciative

Brimming

mainstream

Growing

underfunded

Male

Vital

tenacious

For female playwrights: what one word comes to mind to describe the experience of being a female playwright in the 21st century?

playwrights:

Courageous

perseverance

Underappreciated

outlier

Difficult

Opportunity

challenging

Perseverance

Frustrating

empowering

wicked

driven

self-actualizing

Difficult

Frustrating

solace

Underestimated

Challenging

outsider

challenging

confusing

Sexist

open

trivialized

Challenging

OPPORTUNITY

dismissed

Undervalued

Challenging

Empowerment

undervalued

HARD

over-looked

exciting

duplicitous

competitive

challenging

challenging

Maddening

Difficult

Frustrated

Tenacity

Challenging

frustrating

innovation

passion

exciting

schizophrenic

Lonely

Condescending

Exciting.

Challenging

dream

exciting

Tough.

Vivid

exciting

challenging

challenging

limiting

collective

no comment

determination

unemployed

frustration

Lonely.

Uphill

discrimination

excellent

Voice

LIMITING

Outsider

potential

destitute

bipassed

Arduous

lonely

marginal

Threshold

Difficult

Challenging

unique

unrelenting

Regardless of your gender, being a playwright or a theatermaker is no easy task.  The experience is challenging, frightening, exciting, mercurial… at different times, it probably suits whatever words you can think of.  But perhaps the greatest aspect of theatre is that it reminds us that we are not alone.  Theater is not just about the relationships between performers and audiences, performers and performers, or audiences and audiences, or… any other partial combination of that kind.  Theater is about everyone and everyone… It brings us together.  And for that we can all be thankful.