In a NYT article about the lack of strong leading women roles on Broadway this year, producer Arielle Tepper Madover said she worried that the dearth of great female-centered work remains partly due to family responsibilities for women, who are reluctant to sacrifice nights and weekends to rehearsals or leave their children behind to produce or direct shows out of town or on the theater touring circuit. She was referring to the kinds of directors, women, who are attracted to plays with strong female roles and have the means to shepherd the play through developmental process and the producers who get behind the show and gather the millions of dollars required for a Broadway production.
“Going to the theater every night, standing in the back to watch how your show is coming together, and staying late to give feedback — let alone going to Chicago for a pre-Broadway try-out — is not something a lot of us can do,” said Ms. Madover, who has three young children.
I can relate. My Kid turned one shortly after we moved to New York. I didn’t audition for anything because when I did the math the equation I came up with was that paying a babysitter market rate to stay with my kid for the hours it took to ride the train into Manhattan, wait to be seen and ride the train home was a cash up front and do it again for a callback meant that for each audition I needed to be prepared to pay about one hundred dollars. I just couldn’t justify it even though I had finally made it to New York. It was frustrating, but I made peace with it. Our life as a family has been more fulfilling spending evenings and weekends together. The Husband and I are probably still married because I didn’t met him each evening, when he came home from the office, by standing at the door with my coat already on, ready to hand over the baby and dash off to rehearsal or performance only to return after they had both gone to sleep.
I was in one play when My Kid was three years old. It was the result of a developmental process of more than a year, that produced a fascinating original piece of theatre called SIX. The diverse cast of six women, three Black and three white, ranging from new mother to retired grandmother. The production was spearheaded by the mother of a toddler who had been a professional director. We rehearsed once a week late evening after the toddlers were in bed and performed in a church. Few saw it. It was never remounted.
I didn’t look for another opportunity to perform on stage until My Kid was in kindergarten.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/16/theater/theaterspecial/16women.html