Journal Article

Director/mother/outlaw

Katy Maudlin

2022

Overview

This article examines the practices of Australian women theatre directors as an act of resistance that de-centres conventional and historical thinking. It investigates the innovations that emerge from the powerful intersection of the creative work of directing and the creative work of mothering. As identified by Throsby and Petetskaya (2017) in Making Art Work: An Economic Study of Professional Artists in Australia, a large percentage of theatre directors in Australia function within what is a freelance or 'gig' economy. At its core, the theatre industry is a low-income-earning sector that is old-fashioned in its hierarchical and male-dominated structures. This context takes a toll on the number of women who aspire to careers as directors. However, like many sectors, the balance of family life and work affects opportunities for women directors as well. While there is growing scholarship and policy on gender equality in the theatre ecology, little research has been done on directors who are concurrently doing the work of creating theatre and mothering. This article reports on research arising from my doctoral studies. It examines the significant impacts of childbearing and rearing on the way women direct and the creative work that they produce, through two case studies,2 and it further discusses key findings for creating environments that enable women directors to flourish and that facilitate new mothers' return to rehearsal rooms across the different facets of the theatre industry.

• Publisher: Australasian Association for Theatre, Drama and Performance Studies,La Trobe University at Bundorra
• Subject: American literature / Audiences / Case studies / Creation (Literary, artistic, etc.) / Creativity / Economic aspects / Empowerment / Freelance / Gender / Gender identity in art / Motherhood in art / Mothers / Performing arts / Rich, Adrienne (1929-2012) / Theater / Theater directors & producers / Women / Women theatrical producers and directors