Tuesday, October 08, 2013

Boo hoo Smurfette

Someone writes to me about the NYCPlaywrights web site:
Thanks, Nancy, for all your good work.
 But I find myself getting really ticked when I read "Opportunities" and find myself excluded because of my race, sexual preference, or gender. Do the excluded have no imaginations? Shouldn't a play be judged on its merits rather than by the profile the author fits? NYC Playwrights really shouldn't let those who exclude place notices in its listings.
It really must be difficult to be a straight white guy who believes that the reason that plays by straight white guys are far and away the most-produced, to this day, is because plays are always selected based on merit and it just so happens that the best plays are by (mostly straight) white guys. And now here are all these theater organizations having the temerity to try to include work by the non-white, non-straight and non-male. 

Clearly this seeks to deny the reality that most of the meritorious plays are by white males.

My first impulse was to advise him that if he finds himself getting ticked off when he visits, just stop visiting the web site.

Although it's absurd that it should bother him enough to write to me and inform me that I shouldn't post such things - there are plenty of calls for submissions that don't specify ethnicity or gender or sexual preferences on the NYCPlaywrights web site. 

If only some of the members of our government were straight white men, maybe this demographic wouldn't be so horribly excluded from all opportunities.

But in my guise as mild-mannered NYCPlaywrights proprietor I just wrote back "thanks for your feedback."