New Plays don’t get made in a vacuum, and with The Web, The Kilroys are celebrating the whole ecosystem that brings them to life.
By: Stephi Wild | Oct. 10, 2023
Continuing to mobilize and leverage their own power to support and amplify one another, the LA and NYC-based playwright, director, producer collective, The Kilroys are doing what they do best: shaking shit up… starting with their renowned annual List. After nearly 10 years of utilizing The List as a tool for producers committed to ending the systemic underrepresentation of women, trans, and non-binary playwrights in the American theater, the volatile climate that the industry is in called for a new approach and redesign. Reconceived as The Web, it uses the best aspects of The List and builds on them. The Web highlights the people who make new plays possible—not just its playwrights. It places a spotlight on the champions who advocate for a better, more equitable, and more expansive theatrical landscape. New Plays don’t get made in a vacuum, and with The Web, The Kilroys are celebrating the whole ecosystem that brings them to life.
“There has been a lot of talk recently about the trouble that American Theatre is in right now, and while we totally share those concerns, it’s not in our nature to abandon all hope,” says Chelsea Marcantel, writer, director, and LA-based member. “There are so many people who are a part of the collaborative process of making new American Theater—and lots of them are still fighting the good fight. We want the world to know who they are. Post-pandemic, the Kilroys started looking not toward the individual, but the collective—and The Web was born.”
How The Web Was Built:
The Kilroys invited directors, literary directors & managers, and creative theater makers from across the United States to be Champions of Plays they believe in that are underproduced (one or fewer professional productions). Champions are defined as advocates and collaborators who support The Kilroys mission: creating parity in the theater and promoting underrepresented voices of women, trans, and non-binary playwrights in the American Theater. Next, The Kilroys asked the recommended playwrights to, in turn, recommend two folks they consider Champions of their work and forces for good in the ecosystem at large. All of the playwrights, their plays, and the Champions they submitted will be laid out on an interactive Web on their website: https://thekilroys.org/web-2023/
How The Kilroys Dreamed Up The Web:
The last time The Kilroys launched The List, it was 2020 when most of the world was scared and focused on the preciousness of life. As artist-activists, The Kilroys were also pondering the future existence of theater. There was so much anxiety about what the theater would look like at the other end of the Pandemic. Would it be better or more of the same? Would producers revert back to the comfort zone of only producing plays made by white, cis male playwrights? Or would this be the pivotal moment where we burst into a new and more inclusive way of finding stories to tell? What would happen to the plays already slated to be produced? Their response was to take action. In 2020, The Kilroys created The List celebrating plays by women, trans, and non-binary writers that had been canceled or postponed due to the Pandemic. They wanted to capture the gains that had been made toward parity up to the 2020 theatrical season as a way of holding their collective and the industry accountable in the future.
In 2021, The Kilroys decided to actively listen to what the industry had to say. They reached out to various community collaborators to hear their concerns about the American Theater and worked to better understand the needs of the community in this topsy-turvy Pandemic world. The biggest thing that came out of this process was the desire for HOPE… hope for a healthier, functioning theater ecosystem for everyone, particularly historically underrepresented groups — a.k.a. the artists The Kilroys want to Champion.
Now it’s the Fall of 2023, and The Kilroys have a partial view of the long-term impact the Pandemic has had on the American Theater. Many of the beloved new play venues are on pause like the Under the Radar Festival or gone – such as new play incubators Sundance Theater Lab, The Lark, Humana Festival at Actors Theatre of Louisville, and New York Musical Theatre Festival, to name a few. This means less new work is being championed and supported. At the same time, The Kilroys have been re-evaluating how they want to operate as The Kilroys; how to invite more voices into the fold, especially those further off the beaten path. They also want to make sure that they haven’t inadvertently become a new type of gatekeeper.
So much remains uncertain, but one thing is always true – the future doesn’t just happen, it gets made. The Kilroys are committed to making the future of the American Theater more inclusive, more accepting, more compassionate, and more functional. To that end, they hope that The Web featuring its Champions and plays will build upon The Lists of the past. They hope it will amplify those theatre-makers who are doing the hard work in the trenches to ensure that the American Theatre is a healthy, inclusive ecosystem well into the future.
THE KILROYS are a collective of playwrights, directors and producers who are done talking about gender parity and are taking action. We mobilize others in our field and leverage our own power to support one another. The current cohort is Jaclyn Backhaus, Hilary Bettis, Jennifer Chambers, Claudia de Vasco, Emma Goidel, Christina Ham, Jessica Hanna, Monet Hurst-Mendoza, Hansol Jung, Chelsea Marcantel, Caroline V. McGraw, Bianca Sams, and Gina Young. https://thekilroys.org/.
