The Kilroys List Features Eight Columbia Theatre Makers
The Kilroys are a collective of playwrights, directors and producers in LA and NYC who are, they say, “done talking about gender parity and are taking action.” And to take action, the Kilroys publish a list of unproduced and underproduced plays by women, trans and non-binary writers. Eight members of the Columbia Theatre program have work featured in the Kilroys 2020 List: current student A.A. Brenner, Celine Song '14, Adjunct Associate Professor Deborah Brevoort, Jillian Walker '17, Jocelyn Bioh '08, Paola Lázaro '13, Raquel Almazan '15, and Rehana Lew-Mirza '17.
The eight plays featured, respectively, are: Emily Driver's Great Race Through Time and Space (Brenner), Endlings (Song), My Lord, What a Night (Brevoort), SKinFoLK: An American Show (Walker), Nollywood Dreams (Bioh), There’s Always the Hudson (Lázaro), La Paloma Prisoner (Almazan), and Hatefuck (Lew-Mirza).
This year, the List holds particular weight as plays across the country were canceled, postponed, or closed due to COVID-19. The 2020 List honors and holds space for these new plays written by the women, trans, and non-binary writers of the American theatre. The List is “a tool for producers committed to ending the systemic underrepresentation of women, trans, and non-binary playwrights in the American theater,” writes The Kilroys. “It is our hope that...when we are allowed to gather once more as artists and audiences, the leadership of theatres large and small across the country will remember that audiences were primed and eager for risky, vital new plays by exciting and diverse voices.”
“The List 2020 similarly reflects this group of underrepresented artists but specifically lists titles for which productions were canceled or postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent theatrical shutdown,” reports The Kilroys. What distinguishes this List from those past is that this List will continue to grow over the year, to accommodate impacted productions as the year goes on.
In a comment to Playbill, The Kilroys member Christina Ham said, “What makes this year’s List different is that it is a living list...we have created a form for artists to feel free to self-report their impacted productions all the way until December 31. We will update these submissions monthly so that they are a reflection of an ever-growing list of writers who’ve suffered a blow during this pandemic.”
On Tuesday, July 14 (8 pm ET/5 pm PT) The Kilroys will host a virtual celebration on Zoom to honor the plays and playwrights featured on The List.