Stepping into the Boy’s Club

So, I’ve been wrestling with this notion, silly question really, why is Sound Design for theatre such a Boy’s Club?  I honestly don’t get it.  

In that, I mean I totally get it.  Like most technical fields in the theatre industry, it’s male dominated.  Of the whole field, approximately 8-10% is made up of women (even smaller % for WOC).  

It has felt like I’ve had to prove my worth over and over again – prove my strength with equipment and loading in, prove my know-how with sound system signal flow, prove my artistic aesthetic is valid.  It gets exhausting have to carry this weight of feeling inadequate around all the time.

For this summer, I applied all over.  I applied for a supervisory role at one summer stock, where I would again be one of maybe a sparse sprinkling of women in the sound department and for this other position where I’d an assistant sound designer as well as basically the whole sound department.  I went with the assistant sound designer job.  

You wanna know why?  I’ll be assisting a female sound designer, who is a younger working professional, actually sound designing not just doing technician work.  It actually still floors me I found someone, who could potentially become a mentor to me and I really excited!!