EIT Announces Dr. Michelle MacArthur as Lead Researcher

[Day, Moira]

My congratulations to Rebecca and Michelle as well.

Every year I share Rebecca's stats on gender and the Canadian theatre with the students in my Canadian theatre and Women and Theatre classes. They are always surprised and more than a little dismayed to learn that the theatre they will be graduating into and plan to pursue a career in, is still less of an even ground for women to work on than they either desired or even thought.

Moira
________________________________________
From: Canadian Theatre Research [CANDRAMA at listserv.unb.ca] on behalf of Louise Forsyth [louise.forsyth at SHAW.CA]
Sent: November 10, 2014 5:37 PM
To: CANDRAMA at LISTSERV.UNB.CA
Subject: Re: EIT Announces Dr. Michelle MacArthur as Lead Researcher

Congratulations to you, Michelle, and good job Rebecca!!

Your work is so important to all of us in keeping us actively aware of the serious and tenacious inequities in Canadian theatre. This has got to change! Let’s all speak out and work aggressively to support Michelle and Rebecca. Take a look at the seasons announced in theatres in your city, whichever one it is, just to see how institutionalised and deeply rooted are the imbalances.

Louise Forsyth

De : Canadian Theatre Research [mailto:CANDRAMA at listserv.unb.ca] De la part de Rebecca Burton
Envoyé : 10 novembre 2014 11:00
À : CANDRAMA at LISTSERV.UNB.CA
Objet : EIT Announces Dr. Michelle MacArthur as Lead Researcher


For Immediate Release

Playwrights Guild of Canada, in partnership with some of the arts industry’s most vital organizations, has proudly launched the Equity in Theatre (EIT) initiative.

Given the decline in rates of representation for women playwrights in recent years, and the trickledown effect this has in other areas (such as directing, acting, and design), EIT has been created to help redress existent gender inequities in the theatre industry.

Equity in Theatre is delighted to announce that Dr. Michelle MacArthur has been contracted to undertake a preparatory research study focused on the successes and failures of previous equity initiatives. Her final report will provide a series of “best practice” recommendations that will serve as a foundational framework for EIT as the project moves forward.

For more information, please see the press release attached here and below.
Follow us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/EquityinTheatre<http://www.facebook.com/EquityinTheatre>), Twitter (@EquityInTheatre), and/or give us a call at PGC (#416-703-0201).

Cheers,

Rebecca

Rebecca Burton
EIT Co-Organizer,
Membership and Professional Contracts Manager
Playwrights Guild of Canada

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For Immediate Release

EQUITY IN THEATRE (EIT) ANNOUNCES
RESEARCHER FOR EIT PROJECT

(TORONTO, ON – November 10, 2014) Equity in Theatre is delighted to announce that Dr. Michelle MacArthur has been contracted to undertake a preparatory research study focused on the successes and failures of previous equity initiatives.

Dr. MacArthur completed her PhD at the University of Toronto’s Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies, specializing in Canadian women’s theatre. She has published articles in alt.theatre, Canadian Theatre Review, and Theatre Research in Canada, and has twice been awarded the Canadian Association for Theatre Research Award for Theatre, Drama and Performance in French for her work on Quebec’s Théâtre Expérimental des Femmes (2012, 2014). Dr. MacArthur is currently a sessional instructor at the University of Toronto and the book review editor for Theatre Research in Canada/Recherches théâtrales au Canada.

The EIT research study will analyze past equity endeavours and related follow-up actions at home and abroad, in theatre and elsewhere, in order to create a series of “best practice” recommendations that will serve as a foundational framework for the EIT initiative as a whole. This will ensure past mistakes are not repeated or time wasted “reinventing the wheel,” while successes are capitalized on, which will maximize the overall effectiveness and impact of the Equity in Theatre project.
With this and its other activities (such as a Symposium in April 2015), Equity in Theatre hopes 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.
For more information about the study, or EIT in general, contact Rebecca Burton or Jennie Egerdie. You can also follow us on Facebook<https://www.facebook.com/EquityinTheatre> and Twitter<https://twitter.com/EquityInTheatre>. Website<http://www.eit.playwrightsguild.ca/> coming soon.

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