What do Hamlet, The Death of a Salesman and Bram Stoker's Dracula have in common? They are all plays (yes, Bram Stoker's Dracula is also a stage play) with a male character in the title and as the lead. William Shakespeare is actually quite notorious for including more male than female characters in his plays and there were probably contextual reasons for this - women were not allowed on stage in the Bard's time period. Still, even today it seems that although the majority of theatre-goers are women, only a minority of roles go to female actors in English-language theatre, at least in the UK and the US.
In amateur theatre it's not uncommon for most of the available actors to be women. I have also been part of many fun, witty and moving productions. I, like most of my female co-actors, have played a daughter, a girlfriend, a wife, the third girl from right as well as some gender-neutral and originally-male characters. And there's nothing wrong with any of these individually - they were fun to play and I learned a lot - but at the same time it has become obvious just how scarce strong female characters are.
In amateur theatre it's not uncommon for most of the available actors to be women. I have also been part of many fun, witty and moving productions. I, like most of my female co-actors, have played a daughter, a girlfriend, a wife, the third girl from right as well as some gender-neutral and originally-male characters. And there's nothing wrong with any of these individually - they were fun to play and I learned a lot - but at the same time it has become obvious just how scarce strong female characters are.