First year Dramatic Arts students will take to their laptops on Sunday in the name of gender equity in the theatre industry.
Led by a team of student leaders from DART 1F93: Introduction to Drama, Dramatic Arts students will participate in the Equity in Theatre Hackathon by creating and updating the wiki pages of diverse Canadian women in the theatre industry. The event, held on International Women’s Day, aims to improve the online representation of women in theatre.
“Only 22 per cent of the plays produced in Canada in the last theatre season were written by women, and more than 70 per cent of the country’s not-for-profit theatres are run by men,” says Karen Fricker, assistant professor of Dramatic Arts at Brock. “While these numbers are improving slowly, we still have a long way to go in terms of achieving gender equity. Getting responsible information into the public sphere is something concrete we can do to raise awareness about the contributions of women to Canadian theatre — and to give students a sense of ownership and agency over that history and current activity.”
Brock’s efforts will focus on women within Niagara. Students are currently researching local theatre companies and practitioners, as well as faculty and staff within the Dramatic Arts department.
Brock will be one of a number of locations across Canada participating in the Hackathon. The main location is at the Playwrights Guild of Canada in Toronto.
In September 2014, the guild established Equity in Theatre, funded by the Canada Council for the Arts Leadership for Change program, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Ontario Trillium Foundation.
Equity in Theatre’s purpose is to “foster dialogue on an (inter)national scale, develop social actions that will help effect change, and generate greater awareness of and exposure to Canadian women in theatre, all the while drawing attention to the systemic discrimination that permeates the industry still.”
Brock’s Hackathon happens Sunday, March 8, 2 to 5 p.m., in Plaza 409. There will be live entertainment and refreshments, and all are welcome (bring a laptop or tablet if you can). For more information, please contact kgottli@brocku.ca.
