Gender Disparity in High School Theater

“We have a lot more girls than we have boys.”
“ We have an abundance of girls, but little boys”
“There are only girls here, no boys.”

Within high school theater, this is a reoccurring problem that is common throughout the United States. Many high schools have a lot of girls but little to no boys. In college and professional theater, however, this is the opposite, they have a surplus of boys but are lacking in girls.

“There may be some gender roles at play in high school theater...Boys tend to learn to not act feminine.” said Vista del Lago senior Emily Daniels, the assistant director for the upcoming play Radium Girls, “In high school especially, it is difficult to find boys who are willing to break gender norms because it's such an awkward

stage in life”

Last year Vista del Lago put on two performances that heavily depended on having a few males. Within the fall play, four boys proudly stood on stage but were outnumbered by many other girls. These preset ideas of masculinity have kept many boys from the theater and driven them more towards something that doesn’t make them stand out or appear different, more often than not they stick with sports.

This was not the case however with Vista del Lagos spring musical ,Bye Bye Birdie, when high school senior Trent Jas stepped on stage for a major role and immersed himself in something unfamiliar to his normal interests but loving every second of this new, unfound skill. This imaginary binary that sets the arts as more feminine and sports as masculine is sadly is still present but is weakening more and more every year leaving hope for it to one day disappear altogether.

“ [I think] gender norms that hold guys back can definitely be broken. Look at Trent Jas!” said Junior Lance Padilla who was also in the spring production of Bye Bye Birdie, “He was definitely masculine: he played football and was a pretty beefy guy, and unexpectedly stole the show.”