RISE Series E11: Martha Steketee (Women Count)
The Women & Theatre RISE Series presents mini-interviews conducted at the Inaugural RISE Summit with network partners of RISE Theatre, all of which are organizations working to increase equity in the theatre industry. In this episode, Hayley and Amy talk with Martha Steketee from Women Count. Scroll down for episode notes and transcript!
Episode Notes
Hosts: Hayley Goldenberg and Amy Andrews
Guest: Martha Steketee, Women Count
Music: Chloe Geller
Listen to all published episodes of the Women & Theatre RISE Series here.
Many thanks to RISE Theatre, Maestra Music, Playbill, and all the amazing organizations working to increase equity in theatre!
Episode Resources:
About Women Count:
The Women Count report series looks at Off- and Off-Off-Broadway hiring patterns to inform national conversations about gender parity in the American theater. The goal of the report series is to change the conversation from anecdotes to advocacy on behalf of female and non-binary playwrights, performers, and off-stage theater workers.
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Episode Transcript
(Music)
Hayley: Hello, beautiful people, and welcome to the Women & Theatre RISE Series! We’re your hosts, Hayley Goldenberg…
Amy: …and Amy Andrews! On this series, we share mini-interviews conducted at the Inaugural RISE Summit with network partner organizations of RISE Theatre.
Hayley: We’re thrilled to uplift these amazing organizations that are working to make the theatre industry a more equitable space.
Amy: Today, we’re excited to share our interview with Martha Steketee from Women Count.
(Music)
Hayley: Hello, beautiful people! We are here at the Women & Theatre Podcast booth at the RISE Summit with Martha Steketee from Women Count. Martha, could you please share your pronouns and tell us a little bit about Women Count?
Martha: I’m she/her/hers. Hello, girl from Michigan, been in New York for about 15 years. Women Count is a passionate partnership of two people who met in a working committee of a professional organization, the League of Professional Theater Women, some years ago. And that organization published the first four of our reports, and now I publish - we publish them separately. So it’s a series of seven [reports so far.]
We share a vision of using data to inform - well, to track the story of who’s being hired off-Broadway in a clear way to inform action and, as we like to say, to move from anecdote to action. So everyone has a story about, “Oh gosh, I heard…” or “We can’t find women for this role…” And we say, “No no no, there are plenty. And let me show you where.” And also, let’s track who is doing a good job, theatre company by theatre company, and that’s the focus.
The project also - one of the contributions is its focus is on off-Broadway - Broadway stuff is relatively easy to find in summary statistics - and it’s beyond playwrights and directors. So playwrights, directors, creatives, and lyricists and composers and music directors - dramaturgs a bit, we don’t really have that consistently enough to report on yet - and stage managers. So kind of the full array of the credit list. And we’ve been doing it for ten years.
Amy: That’s fantastic! Thank you so much for sharing. Martha, can you tell us about something in your work that’s lighting you up right now?
Martha: So the project continues to grow. And that’s lovely, there’s a continued need for it. My work with the American Theater Critics and Journalists Association is exciting me recently, partly because of our continuing effort to diversify and build this almost 50-year-old organization into the future, as many organizations are trying to do that.
And I’m the chair of the Drama Desk Nominating Committee and have been for a number of years, which partly informs my ability to maintain the database that our project is, because I see - I literally see and have in hand the Playbills for the 250 shows that we’re tracking every year to report on. That’s our - Playbills are our final, perfect, the gold standard for what the data are, right?
And this year, I’ve been working a lot with playwrights - I’m a dramaturg, so people working on new plays. So you know, on all those dimensions - they’re all exciting me right now!
Hayley: Amazing! Martha, can you tell us - what is one of the biggest challenges that you see facing the theatre industry right now?
Martha: You know, it’s consistent with what I just said. I think it’s keeping the door of opportunity open to the widest range of creative minds and voices. Especially in our times of scarce resources and the social change we’re going through. So just keeping the doors open and allowing folks to come in, ‘cause the talent is huge. Allow people in.
Amy: Yeah, we agree! Martha, what is one step that listeners can take to make the theatre industry more equitable?
Martha: This is beautiful, and this is something my colleague Judy - who’s not really the data person, but had the original idea for Women Count - said. It’s kind of like, Ask the next question and make sure that you’re keeping the door open.
So if you have a voice in season selection, speak up for a play by a woman or a nonbinary person or a global majority person - you know, somebody else that you know about, just to make sure that’s in the room. If you have a role in selecting teams, speak up for the folks who aren’t being discussed as contenders for jobs. And finally, look for diversity and celebrate it.
Hayley: I love that, thank you.
Amy: Yes, we’re big fans of speaking names into rooms that we want to be there, so that’s great!
Martha: Great!
Hayley: Martha, before we run, could you tell our listeners where they can find Women Count and find yourself on the internet?
Martha: Well, the easiest place - if you search for Women Count [and RISE], you’ll probably get it. We’re one of the affiliate partners of RISE, so if you go to the RISE website, you will find us.
Hayley: Amazing, thanks Martha.
Amy: Thank you so much for being with us, Martha, and thank you all for listening to our conversation with Martha Steketee from Women Count!
Hayley: Bye!
(Music)
Amy: Women & Theatre is a proud network partner of RISE Theatre.
Hayley: Thank you so much to RISE, Maestra, Playbill, and RISE Program Manager Victoria Detres for collaborating with us on this series. Thank you for listening to the Women & Theatre Podcast. We’re your hosts, Hayley Goldenberg…
Amy: …and Amy Andrews! If you like what you heard, subscribe and give us a 5-star review wherever you listen.
Hayley: You can also follow us on social @womenandtheatreproject to make sure you never miss an episode.
Amy: The music for this show was written by talented Women & Theatre community member Chloe Geller.
Hayley: Thanks again for listening, everyone. See you next time!
Amy: Bye!
