Who We Are & How We Got Here

We are two women playwrights over 50 years old, who — out of passion and frustration — created this list. And now we want the world to use it.

Why a list? It goes back to 2023, after spending five years on the Honor Roll! Executive Committee challenging gendered ageism, followed by months of brainstorming with a group of organizational leaders — the two of us decided to meet with every theater in New York to advocate for women+ playwrights over 50 years old. It sounded daunting, but we hoped a face-to-face campaign with decision-makers could, finally, create real change. And we figured we had nothing to lose.

Those early meetings were bumpy. We got some appalled looks from some horrified artistic directors whom we never heard from again. Maybe we did have something to lose? We improved our approach and our table manners, and mostly we just kept going. We’re up to nearly 30 theaters now, (full list below).

We start every meeting by giving the artistic director and/or literary staff a published collection of Honor Roll! short plays, which includes Honor Roll!’s history. We explain how women+ playwrights over 50, (AKA “submerged writers”) who were once excluded by sexism are now overlooked because of ageism. We insist that “emerging” and “fresh” do not mean “young.” We remind them that women+ over 50 are often the ticket buyers, and some of those buyers just might want to hear their voices coming from the stage. We maintain that if theater isn’t intergenerational, it isn’t serving young writers, the audience, or the art form.

We do not attend these meetings unarmed. We research as best we can and present each theater the number of women+ over 50 they’ve produced, developed, commissioned, and/or included in any “emerging group” they have. We count the few “name playwrights” who are produced repeatedly and deservedly, but we focus on the vast majority who are under-recognized. The numbers, to be blunt, are horrific — as in if you didn’t become famous when you were young, odds are you’re not going to get produced when you’re older.

Reactions run the gamut: “I never thought of it that way.” “I always think about it.” “I want to help.” “I never realized how ageism affected women.” “Audiences don’t care about that.” “We don’t know any of those plays.” “We have too many groups to serve and too few slots.” “Excuse me, I have to go now.” Plus, the universal response: financial hardship, escalating costs, fewer productions. To which we always respond: how does that lead to overlooking older women+ more than any other group?

Thankfully, there are some who do “always think about it.” Any theater that consistently produces or supports women+ writers over 50, gets our special bubbly award. We celebrate them! (Photos below to prove it.)

In these meetings, we always ask for three things:

1. 1.Include more under-recognized women+ over 50 in all programming, especially productions. We all know of playwrights whose work gets lost in the black hole of "development."
2. 2.Ask agents for plays by these women+. If every theater asked for, and produced, these plays, agents would find these writers.
3. 3.Tell us 1–5 unproduced plays you like, by women+ over 50, for a "Kilroys" type list.

To our surprise, many theaters could not name even one play by a woman+ over 50. Instead they asked us, over and over, to give them a list.

So, we expanded our approach. (And here is where we get to the list.)

We invited about 180 theater artists to nominate unproduced full-length plays they were passionate about, by under-recognized women+ over 50. No playwright could suggest their own play. And the two of us did not nominate any plays. We got about 125 titles from about 60 Nominators. (Yes that means 120 people did not respond to multiple emails.) Produced plays, younger writers, and one-acts were removed. We asked every playwright if they wanted to be on a list of under-recognized writers over 50. A few never wrote back. A couple said their plays weren’t ready. Some did not want to be on the list; they believed being known to be “over 50” would hurt their careers. Some were even told not to participate.

In the end, we had 100 play titles by 93 writers. Though our original idea was a list of 50, we couldn’t bear to remove any plays, so we didn’t. There will be two lists of 50 plays, 6 months apart. We are thrilled to, finally, present the first list.

What are our goals? We hope to:

1. 1.Encourage everyone to read, develop and produce these plays.
2. 2.Illuminate the career killing, heart breaking effects of gendered ageism in theater.
3. 3.Inspire others to meet with theaters in their town, in a similar effort – which will hopefully lead to more productions of local playwrights.
4. 4.Celebrate every under-recognized woman+ playwright over 50 who is still writing despite the odds stacked against them.

We continue to meet with NY theaters, while adding foundations and commercial producers. It will take us years (it has already), but we keep at it.

And now no one can say “We don’t know any of those plays.” Because we will be armed with this list. If anyone doesn’t know the plays on it, it will be because they haven’t looked.

We’d like to acknowledge the following:

Karina Syrota, playwright member of Young Playwrights Ukraine, was our volunteer tech genius. She also volunteer designed the website. We could not have done this without her.

Jennifer Maisel, Deepa Purohit, Tracey Thorne, and Jennie Webb volunteered to collect and edit the quotes from all the writers. We are so grateful.

Archita Barot, Stony Brook MFA writer, who volunteered to help, especially with the distribution, press, social media campaign.

The writers who helped to launch the website, too many to name.

We thank every Nominator. This list could not have happened without the play titles they offered.

We thank every writer on the list for their patience.

We empathize with every writer not on the list. We know it is not complete, as we know the disappointment of not being recognized.

Honor Roll!'s 2000 members, who inspire us to keep going.

AND WE INVITE OTHERS to create the next list!!!!

Theaters and organizations we have met with since 2023:

59e59, ART/NY, Atlantic Theater, Axial Theatre, Bechdel Project, Clubbed Thumb, Colt Couer, The Dramatists Guild, Ensemble Studio Theatre, EST’s “Happy Hour,” Howard Gilman Foundation, Lincoln Center Theater, LCT3, Manhattan Theatre Club, MCC Theater, New Georges, The New Group, New York Stage and Film, New York Theatre Workshop, Paradise Factory Theater, Playwrights Horizons, Primary Stages, Public Theater, Rattlestick Theater, Roundabout Theatre, Soho Rep, The Tent, Vineyard Theatre, Working Theater, WP Theater.