Brooklyn Bowl

Brooklyn Bowl is known for emo nights, jam bands, fried chicken fare and 16 lanes for spares, strikes and gutter balls. What patrons might not know is that it is also one of the few music venues run by women.
Less than half of the 72,000 managers employed in the entertainment and recreation industries in the United States last year were women, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. However, at Brooklyn Bowl — launched in 2009 by live music impresario Peter Shapiro — women make up 75% of the full-time salaried staff running the show.

General manager Anna Ayers leads the original Brooklyn-based Bowl, and her majority female staff have plenty of company across Shapiro’s venues. Sara Barnett serves as the general manager of the Brooklyn Bowl Nashville; Alyssa Kitchen is the general manager of The Capitol Theatre, where 60% of managers are women; and the head of venue operations for the chain of Brooklyn Bowls and The Capitol Theatre is Rachel Baron.

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Anna Ayers, General Manager, Brooklyn Bowl.

Diane Bondareff

“I don’t think this happens at a lot of venues,” says Ayers, general manager of the Bowl in Williamsburg, which celebrated its 15th anniversary last July. “Operationally, being a woman on the floor is not the norm. And it’s challenging running it because it’s not what people typically see.”

The majority of the jobs in the music industry in production, distribution, retail, management or promotion are held by men, particularly upper management roles, according to data from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). For example, the number of women among the top ranks of major music companies took a hit last year after a wave of retirements and company restructuring.

The percentage of women employed by establishments that organize, promote or manage concerts has been increasing in the past 15 years, from 36% in 2008 to 43% in 2013 to 46% in 2018, according to data from the BLS. The percentage has held steady at between 44% and 46% since 2018. (The BLS also includes sports management, promotion and agent jobs in this category.)

Sarah Barnett

Mitzi Rose

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Ayers says the Bowl’s operations managers — who are often the last people to leave at night — were mostly men. Today, all four of the Bowl’s operations managers are women who have risen through the ranks, such as Beatriz Gonzalez, a 15-year Bowl veteran who started as a busser.

Shapiro created the Brooklyn Bowl venue chain — which also operates venues in Philadelphia, Las Vegas and Nashville — and owns The Capitol Theatre, the Bearsville Theater and Garcia’s clubs, a restaurant and venue chain that pays tribute to the Grateful Dead frontman. Managed under the umbrella of Dayglo Presents, Shapiro says the leadership across Dayglo took shape without planning or hiring initiatives.

“It just happened organically because these are the best people for the roles,” says Shapiro, who also owns Relix Magazine. “Women are often really well suited to run music venues.”

Rachel Baron

dayglo Presents

Shapiro says the Brooklyn Bowls’ concert hall-bowling alley-restaurant concept with their brick and wood aesthetic aim to create a warm environment and high-touch experience.

“We are just looking for the right people, and it just so happens that they ended up being women in a lot of key roles,” Shapiro says, pointing to other women leaders at his companies, including Brooklyn Bowl Nashville’s general manager Barnett and Baron, the head of venue operations for the four Brooklyn Bowls and The Capitol Theatre.

Kitchen, general manager at The Capitol Theatre, says she thinks women holding top roles at her company is reflective of a shift she has seen in other industries.

Alyssa Kitchen

Amanda Brandl

“Specifically, in the Dayglo companies I think that’s happened very fast,” says Kitchen, a former accountant whose staff includes women managers who handle oversight of cash operations, accounting, artist contracts, the box office and more. “We are a collaborative group.”

Amid the backdrop of economic uncertainty and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives falling out of favor at many institutions since the Trump administration took power, Shapiro says his venues have seen measurable success as women have made up a greater percentage of their workforce.

“There’s something about the touch that women leaders have that is unmatched,” Shapiro says. “I think it’s an important to running a music venue in 2025.”