Welcome to Equity in Theatre

Photo (Left to Right): Lois Fine, Rebecca Burton, and Alicia Payne.
Photo credit: Rachel Kennedy.

For Immediate Release

(TORONTO, ON – Tuesday, January 19 2016) On Monday January 18th, Playwrights Guild of Canada’s Bra D’Or award was presented to Rebecca Burton before the EIT Play Reading Series featuring Lois Fine and Donna-Michelle St. Bernard at No One Writes to the Colonel in Toronto, ON.

Caroline Russell-King: "I nominate Rebecca Burton for the award for heading up the Equity in Theatre (EIT) initiative. EIT is an inclusive, multi-faceted, and multi-partnered initiative designed to remedy existent inequities in the cultural sector. EIT focuses on the under-representation of women in theatre in key creative positions, which is a systemic and ongoing problem. Even though women form the majority of Playwrights Guild of Canada’s membership, they did not account for even 25% of the plays produced on our nation’s stages last year. This kind of severe imbalance has a trickle-down effect; women directors, actors, and designers suffer similar inequalities.

EIT is a multi-stakeholder initiative aiming to remedy existing gender inequities in the theatre industry. Through a multi-pronged and inclusive response that involves the community as a whole (artists, stakeholders, and audiences), promoting dialogue, generating greater awareness of and exposure to women theatre practitioners, and developing community-based action plans to help fix industry imbalances.

EIT is run out of Playwrights Guild of Canada and is partnered with Artists Driving Holistic Organizational Change, Associated Designers of Canada, Canadian Actors’ Equity Association, Cultural Pluralism in the Arts Movement Ontario, Indigenous Performing Arts Alliance, Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (Canada), Pat the Dog Theatre Creation, Playwrights Theatre Centre, and the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres.

With this initiative, the EIT team fosters dialogue on an (inter)national scale, develops social actions that help effect change, and generates greater awareness of, and exposure to, Canadian women in theatre, all the while drawing attention to the systemic discrimination that permeates the industry still.

Basically we love her."

Every year, the Women's Caucus presents an individual in the Canadian theatre community with the Bra D'Or Award in recognition of their efforts in supporting and promoting the work of Canadian women playwrights. Past recipients of the Bra D'Or are Philip Akin, Eric Coates, Rachel Ditor, Katrina Dunn, Hope McIntyre, Andy McKim, Robert Metcalfe, Brian Quirt, and Mary Vingoe.