“In some ways, I think it's important that the founding Kilroys don’t have a vision for what success will look like for the next generation...“ writes Meg Miroshnik, award-winning playwright and member of the infamous collective of Gender Parity Warriors, the Kilroys. "We want to be surprised. We're not looking for assistants to execute our vision, we're seeking out independent activists who will see through our blind spots and dream bigger than we would [have] ever thought possible.”
In 2013, a group of playwright activists (wearing many additional hats – TV and video game writers, filmmakers, performers, dramaturgs, agents, literary associates, strategists, librettists, novelists, producers, etc.) banded together to create a brand and force actively working towards gender parity with an abundance mentality in the national theatre scene. The Kilroys exemplify the power of grassroots action - of communion based in savvy know-how and commitment effecting positive change with radical joy. Since their inception five years ago, the Kilroys have built structures (the list, The Cake Drop), and an explosive viral brand that they are now passing on to a "new group of activists" based in and around southern California.
The current members of the Kilroys– Zakiyyah Alexander, Bekah Brunstetter, Sheila Callaghan, Carla Ching, Annah Feinberg, Sarah Gubbins, Laura Jacqmin, Joy Meads, Kelly Miller, Meg Miroshnik, Daria Polatin, Tanya Saracho, and Marisa Wegrzyn -- are legendary, and are now moving to pass the baton. This is part of enacting their inclusive and forward-facing concept of evolving the national theatre landscape. Though the members are working collectively to effect change, they emphasize that the Kilroys are more an ideology than an organization. They are careful to emphasize, in Zakiyah Alexander's words, that the Kilroys “are not and will never be an institution.” In a conversation at the 42nd annual Humana Festival, Alexander, Meads, Miller, and Miroshnik specifically invited the audience to refocus their lens when it comes to supporting work by women. They also offered tools for improving collective action in the theatre community – promoting and demanding work by female and trans bodies onstage and off. While guerilla tactics like these do not have easily quantifiable results, their impact is often more expansive and profound than their more highly mechanized institutional counterparts.