The List contains 53 recommended plays by female and transgender playwrights which have only been produced one time at the most. Its release is an effort to encourage more productions of works by female playwrights.
The 2015 release marks the second List by the Kilroys, who are named after the graffiti left by World War II soldiers and others to make their presence known. The New York Times reports that it was compiled by asking more than 300 artistic directors, literary managers, academics and producers to recommend works.
Productions on The List include The Tiger Among Us by Lauren Yee; The Insurgents by Lucy Thurber; Cocked by Sarah Gubbins; and Miller, Ms by Boo Killebrew, among others.
"We wanted to make something direct, accessible, easy to use," Daria Polatin told Playbill.com in a previous interview about The List. "We wanted to make a streamlined tool for artistic directors, literary managers, any theatre professional. And we put a lot of thought into how to make it something that is easy to use and that people have access to at a wide range."
Read Playbill.com's interview with members of The Kilroys here. Addressing gender parity in the theatre has been an ongoing conversation in the theatre community. The 2014-15 Broadway season featured two new plays by women: Airline Highway, by Lisa D'Amour, and Wolf Hall, Parts One & Two, by Hilary Mantel and Mike Poulton. The previous season featured two dramas by women, and both were revivals: Machinal, by Sophie Treadwell; and A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry.
Read Playbill.com's exclusive interview with D'Amour, about bringing Airline Highway to Broadway, here.
History was made for women in theatre when Jeanine Tesori and Lisa Kron were awarded the Tony Awards for Best Score and Book for the musical Fun Home: the first all-female writing team to win a Tony Award for a musical's score. Fun Home also won the Tony Award for Best Musical. Read more about Tesori and Kron's historic win.
Since the release of the first annual List, the New York Times reports that, of the 46 plays cited, 28 have been produced.
To read the list of recommended plays, visit thekilroys.org.
