Archive for the 'Theatre' Category

March is Women’s History Month, but we should be celebrating all year.  Women artists’ perceptions and stories offer a valuable contribution to society, but statistics show a lowly percentage of plays and films produced by and about women. Just to make you aware:  Only 17 % of plays produced on national non-profit stages are written by women. (Wilner, Jordan, The Dramatist,Sept.-Oct.2009)

It’s not that women aren’t writing plays and trying to get them produced.  It’s impossible without an agent, and agents rudely ignore your query or send your letter back with a note scribbled, “Not interested without a professional recommendation.” There are a lot of closed doors.

As a person who believes fervently in equality, I’ve been working with advocacy groups through the Dramatists Guild and with 50/50 in 2020 to improve opportunities for women to have our work produced in theater and in films. We need your support. Here’s how you can help:

• If you are in NY, use this listing of plays by women from NYTheatre.com.  It has committed to cover as many plays by women playwrights this year as plays by men. They will team with 50/50 in 2020 to create online profiles of women playwrights and theatre companies that specialize in work by women.
• To show our appreciation for this initiative, please opt in to receive weekly updates via email, and a listing of plays by women in NYC.
• Tell theater party organizers (in any city) that you want to see plays by and about women.
• Mention this on Facebook, tell your friends, tell a theatre manager or board member, write letters to editors, tweet, spread the word.
• When a theatre calls asking you to subscribe, ask,”How many women playwrights? How many women directors? How many roles for women? How many women designers?”  Our  support should depend on how close they are to gender parity.
• Celebrate  SWAN DAY/ Support Women Artists Now Day, Saturday, March 27,  at a woman’s art exhibit, concert, film, play, or book reading.

What about women and films?

24% of women work in a key behind-the-scenes role (directors, writers, producers, cinematographers, and editors) on independent festival films, compared with 16% for high budget studio films.  YET WE ARE IN THE MAJORITY IN THE POPULATION. The first step to change is awareness.  Here are some things you can do:

• Attend opening week-end films by and about women to boost their commercial status.
• Subscribe to this blog’s newsletter that keeps you aware of films by and about women.
• Join your local women’s film organization.  In NY, NYWIFT (New York Women in Film and Television) has 2,000 women working in different aspects of filmmaking.  Happily, I’ve found a place where I can work with other professionals to improve the pathetic statistics.
• Check out my new online column, Where are the Women? which is aimed at Tracking coverage of women in the media for NYWICI (New York Women in Communications).

Be aware, be indignant, be pro-active. Onward and upward.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Barbara Sutton Masry is a playwright, screenwriter, producer, and activist whose independent feature film, “A Wake-up Call” is in development.

Each year theatre critics from across the country nominate the best new plays that started their lives outside New York City for the Harold and Mimi Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award.  The nominees for the 2009 season are evenly divided, 3 plays by men; 3 plays by women.

The very interesting piece of this nomination is that playwright Michele Lowe is nominated for two of her plays- Inana and Victoria Musica.

According to the story this year

marks the first time a playwright has been independently nominated for two plays in one season, let alone become a finalist for both.

So not only did she write two plays, they were produced by different theatres, recognized as successful and submitted for the award and then were both good enough to make it to the final round.

So how come I never heard of her before today?

Plays are only eligible for if they don’t play in NY during the year they were nominated. I find it very interesting that two of the plays by the guys Equivocation by Bill Cain and Time Stands Still by Donald Margulies both have productions in NY right now at the Manhattan Theatre Club (one on Broadway, one off Broadway), and MTC also commissioned the third male finalist’s play, Perfect Mendacity by Jason Wells.

But none of the plays by the women, Michele Lowe with her two nominations and Karen Zacharias who is nominated for Legacy of Light have NY productions on the calendar.  Could one of the reasons be that two of the three Victoria Musica and Legacy of Light are plays about women?  Donald Margulies can write about women on Broadway as the current success of Time Stands Still which stars Laura Linney shows, but where are the female playwrights on Broadway?

Watch Michele Lowe talk about revising Inana:

Equivocation, Time Stands Still, Inana Are Among Six Finalists for Critics’ Steinberg Award (Playbill)

It’s not often that a guy stands up for the women in such a loud and important way.  But playwright and screenwriter David Hare has done just that.  He talked about how women are writing some of the best plays today, but because of the “macho” attitude of people in leadership they are missing a huge opportunity.

“There’s no doubt that the structure of the theatre is plainly male,” he said.

“The rough and tumble of the theatre is like politics to a degree – it’s a macho business.”

“There are very few women artistic directors,” he added, saying it was “ridiculous” that it had taken so long for a woman – Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker) – to win a Bafta for directing.

He does make a point saying that only recently have women been writing plays covering larger topics, I guess, like politics.  I don’t know how much I agree with that.  Maybe it’s just that nobody noticed the women before.

Women are finally writing for the theatre as if it were a completely open format in a way that the novel [already] is,” he said.

“There’s undoubtedly the beginnings of a change in what it is expected that women playwrights do.

We need more men to stand up this way.  Just because you acknowledge women’s success and competence doesn’t mean that you are against men.  This is not a competition to the top of the hill.

Theatres ‘risk ignoring talented female playwrights’ says Sir David Hare (The Telegraph)

I remember being very excited reading about this play a couple of years ago.  Bening was supposed to bring it to Broadway and, sadly, that never happened for a variety of reasons.  The play opened in 2008 in London starring Eileen Atkins and finally it is getting its US debut at the Geffen Theatre starring Annette Bening.

This is a serious feminist play.  Here’s a description:

Australian playwright Joanna Murray-Smith’s comedy about a renowned feminist author named Margot Mason and her tussles with a disgruntled student, a resentful daughter, her publisher, a cabbie and other characters combines lively debate about the evolution of feminist theory with good old meat-and-potatoes farce. Bening, of course, plays the force-of-nature feminist.

The OC Register asked Bening some questions about the play, feminism and the political context of the work.

Register: This play is a comedy but the issues being discussed – particularly the evolution of feminism and the conflict between its founders and the next generation – are quite serious, aren’t they?

Bening: No question about it. The issues were and are so serious and grave. Women had to take that kind of a stand because of what they were fighting and where we were. We’re not at that point any more. (This conflict) is what makes the play for me. All those issues are being thought about but within a context of humor. I’m so impressed with how she’s been able to get these issues in people’s mouths without it being preachy and overly earnest.

Register: Is there a meta-theme at work in the story?

Bening: The idea that the generation that comes up doesn’t fully appreciate what the older generation went through. They take for granted things that are in place that didn’t always used to be. That’s the way of the world, the ancient problem. She manages to get into all of that with this subject. We’ve come a long way in terms of our laws, but of course in many ways things haven’t changed. One thing she’s writing about is (something) that will never change: what makes men and women different.

Sounds like it will be a good second wave/ third wave exploration.  I don’t recall seeing another play that has attempted it.  It’s supposedly loosely based on an incident in Germaine Greer’s life but is not about Greer.  I really hope it gets to NY.

Annette Bening Likes Getting Theatrical (OC Register)

Enron by Lucy Prebble

The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, the most prestigious international prize awarded to a female playwright (for writing in English) has named the ten finalists for the 2010 award. The award is basically the Pulitzer for women. It raises the profile of female playwrights, and seven of the former Blackburn winners have also won the Pulitzer.

The 2010 finalists include:

The Aliens” by Annie Baker (U.S.)
“The Language Archive” by Julia Cho (U.S.)
“This” by Melissa James Gibson (U.S.)
“it felt empty when the heart went at first but it is alright now.” by Lucy
Kirkwood (U.K.)
“The Shipment” by Young Jean Lee (U.S.)
“The Nature of Love” by Rebecca Lenkiewicz (U.K.)
“East of Berlin” by Hannah Moscovitch (Canada)
“The Swallowing Dark” by Lizzie Nunnery (U.K.)
“Enron” by Lucy Prebble (U.K.)
“Strandline” by Abbie Spallen (Ireland)

The $20,000 winner will be announced in NY in early March. The judges this year included: actress Hope Davis, Tony-award winning director Doug Hughes; Mark Lawson, BBC Radio host and critic; Todd London, artistic director of New Dramatists (New York); British stage director Indhu Rubasingham: and British actress, Fiona Shaw.
Awards description from Broadway.com:

Established in 1978, The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize is the first international award created to recognize women playwrights, and remains the most important award of its kind. The Prize reflects the values and interests of Susan Smith Blackburn, noted American actress and writer who lived in London during the last 15 years of her life. She died in 1977 at the age of 42, and her sister, Emilie Kilgore, and husband, William Blackburn, established the award in her honor.

Finalists Named For 2010 Blackburn Prize For Women Playwrights (Broadwayworld.com)

Here’s the link to the radio show from this morning where we talked about women’s box office successes of 2009, can a woman get a best director nomination and win, with three amazing creative artists, playwright Theresa Rebeck, TV writer and director Nell Scovell, and feature writer and director Katherine Dieckmann. about how we shift the conversation about getting more women into creative positions on power in Hollywood (and other areas of pop culture.)

Would love to hear people’s thoughts on the conversation.

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Bios on the Guests

Theresa Rebeck is one of the most accomplished playwrights in America today.  Her newest work The Understudy is currently playing in NYC through January 17th.  She is also a novelist.  Her first book Three Sisters and Their Brother is now available in paperback and her newest novel Twelve Rooms with a View will be published in May by Random House.  She is also writing a pilot for USA TV.

Katherine Dieckmann has written and directed three feature films most recently Motherhood starring Uma Thurman.  She was also a journalist and a director of music videos.  She currently is an Assistant Professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of the Arts, where she teach screenwriting.  She also directed music videos for R.E.M., Aimee Mann, Wilco, and Everything but the Girl, among others.

Nell Scovell is a TV writer and director who created the show Sabrina the Teenage Witch.  She caused a bit of a stir with a recent piece on Vanity Fair’s website about her experience as a female writer on Late Night with David Letterman.

I saw this when I was walking down the street in NYC last week.

Do I need to say any more? God, I hate David Mamet.

I had the chance to check out Anna Deveare Smith’s play on health care issues courtesy of the folks at Second Stage Theatre.  If you have never seen Anna on stage doing her interpretations you are really missing out.  Her Ann Richards’ piece was amazing.

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“A continually engaging and engrossing collection of testimonials about life experienced at its extremes.” - The New York Times

“FASCINATING! Anna Deavere Smith’s remarkable show is a joyous celebration of human perseverance.”- Associated Press

“Thoughtful, vibrant, elegantly directed by Leonard Foglia, Let Me Down Easytraces a graceful arc from lighthearted and funny to downright philosophical.”
- New York Post

“RUN – DO NOT WALK – TO SEE THIS PLAY!”
- The Today Show

Now playing through Dec. 6!
LET ME DOWN EASY
Conceived, written and performed by
ANNA DEAVERE SMITH
Directed by LEONARD FOGLIA

“The most exciting individual in American theatre” (Newsweek) ANNA DEAVERE SMITH (“Nurse Jackie”, Twilight: Los Angeles, Fires in the Mirror) explores the power of the body, the price of health, and the resilience of the spirit. With Ms. Smith’s trademark journalistic precision, Let Me Down Easy features first person accounts from a wide variety of sources, including Lance Armstrong and former Texas governor Ann Richards.

ANNA DEAVERE SMITH has appeared on TV’s “The West Wing” (in the recurring role of Nancy McNally) and “The Practice.” (as D.A. Kate Bruner).  Her theatre work includes Twilight: Los Angeles (two Tony Award® nominations for Best Actress and Best Play) and Fires in the Mirror (which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.)  She currently stars in the new Showtime series “Nurse Jackie” alongside Edie Falco.

Check out Anna Deveare Smith on the Today Show.

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Sponsored by American Express

Marsha Norman is one of our best known female playwrights.  Her play ‘night Mother won a Pulitzer Prize in 1983, and she has also written the book for the musicals The Secret Garden and The Color Purple.

She recently went out on a limb and talked about the gender inequity in the theatre world.  This piece, Not There Yet, was published in American Theatre and is now online and must be read.

It takes a lot of guts to stand up and call a spade a spade.  While this piece might just be about theatre in particular, it reflects the wider problem.  Norman challenges the literary departments, the artistic directors, the funders, the critics, the newspapers who employ the critics and the writers themselves to do things differently, to think about this as a crisis, to make change before things get even worse.

Here’s her challenge to women writers:

As women writers, we must demand the best of ourselves. We must travel and learn and listen. And then we must claim our place on the American stage. We have to be more aggressive in this regard and help each other more than we have, and not just side with the boys because we expect them to win.

I love her call to claim our place on the American stage.

Here are some choice quotes (I could quote the whole piece it’s that good):

Discussing the status of women in the theatre feels a little like debating global warming. I mean, why are we still having this discussion? According to a report issued seven years ago by the New York State Council on the Arts, 83 percent of produced plays are written by men—a statistic that, by all indications, remains unchanged. Nobody doubts that the North Pole is melting, either—we see it on the news. These are both looming disasters produced by lazy behavior that nobody bothered to stop. End of discussion. What we have to do in both cases is commit to change before it is too late.

We have a fairness problem, and we have to fix it now. If it goes on like this, women will either quit writing plays, all start using pseudonyms, or move to musicals and TV, where the bias against women’s work is not so pervasive.

This past season, theatres around the country did six plays by men for every one by a woman, and a lot of theatres did no work by women at all, and haven’t for years. And as the writing has disappeared, so have roles for actresses and jobs for costume designers and directors. It doesn’t take an economist to draw a conclusion here. Either women can’t write, or there is some serious resistance to producing the work of women on the American stage.

The problem is not that women can’t write. (my bold)

This is my favorite part:

This brings us to the final group that has been blamed for the underrepresentation of women in the theatre—the playwrights themselves. Women’s plays are boring, people say. They have too much talk and there’s no event. They choose “soft” subjects and aren’t aggressive enough about promoting themselves and their work.

The critics have liked my “guy” plays—the ones with guns in them—and pretty much trashed the rest. Seven of the nine plays I have written go virtually unperformed. Thank God I had the sense to write for television and film and write books for big musicals, so I could get health insurance, feed my family and can now afford to teach.

Are those other seven plays of mine worse than Getting Out and ‘night, Mother? Well, how would you know? You haven’t seen them. They are perceived to be “girl plays,” concerned with loss and death, love and betrayal, friendship and family. But no guns.

Are you with me here? There’s no such thing as a girl play. But the girl’s name on the cover of the script leads the reader to expect a certain “soft” kind of play. I don’t get this. Lillian Hellman did not write girl plays. Neither did Jean Kerr or Lorraine Hansberry or Mary Chase.

The expectation of soft work from women writers comes from something way more awful in the society—the commercial romantic idea that all female stuff is soft, an advertising idea. Buy these products and you will have soft hair, soft skin and a soft voice. Unfortunately for writers, soft is perceived as playful and decorative and insignificant, not worthy of our time. We don’t like soft in this country—we like hard here. Hard guy stuff, like in guy plays.

The problem is—and I say this having seen what feels like thousands of them—plays by men are not more violent or more active or smarter or raunchier or more tragic or more anything than plays by women. But plays by men are expected to be better even before they are seen, even before they are read—even, yes, before they are written. This is bias, pure and simple. And we also don’t like bias in this country, so it’s time to stop thinking this way. Women’s plays are written by women, that is all.

To me this is the kicker.  “Plays by men are expected to be better.”

Women’s plays, ones that might not conform to the male norm of what a play is supposed to be, are deemed soft or maybe a better word for that is girly or pink.  It’s like the whole issue with the chick flick.  Women’s work, and women in general, are perceived to be “lighter.”  Lots of women do have smaller bodies but that doesn’t mean we are lighter or like pink any better than gray or green.

To me this is the fundamental issue.  How we perceive women’s and men’s experiences.  Why is a man’s experience or opinion any more important than a woman’s?  That my friends is why we fight the feminist fight day in and day out.

Not There Yet (American Theatre)

Julie White (l) and Theresa Rebeck

I am so sick and tired of all the stories about how women compete against each other (lots of them bullshit designed, I believe, to keep women from working together) that it’s important to acknowledge and celebrate when we get a good, positive story about how women work together with much success.  In the NY Times this past weekend there was a great piece on the long-time friendship and collaboration between playwright Theresa Rebeck and actress Julie White.

“Sometimes I feel that my job on earth is to put Julie White through horrible things, watch her writhe and then recover,” the playwright Theresa Rebeck said with a laugh the other day.”

Although they are theatrical alter egos, they joke about their differences. Ms. Rebeck has a doctorate in English, while Ms. White just got her bachelor’s degree recently, about 25 years after dropping out of college to work. “She’ll be up in the middle of the night watching Chris Matthews,” Ms. White said of Ms. Rebeck, “and I’ll be up watching ‘The Dog Whisperer.’ ”

This story led me to try and think of some other female creative partnerships. I came up with producer Jan Chapman and director Jane Campion and director Deborah Warner and actress Fiona Shaw.

There have got to be many others. What other female creative partnerships are there? Let’s make a list.

One Writes, the Other Acts. Sparks Fly. (NY Times)

Nora and Delia Ephron

This week I spent some time in the world of the sisters Ephron — Nora and Delia.  First, I saw their show – Love, Loss and What I Wore (which is breaking box office records at the West Side Theatre and it has been extended into 2010), and then I saw them at the More Magazine Reinvention Convention.

The sisters could be a stand-up comedy act. Nora reminds me of a female Woody Allen (from the period when he was actually making funny, interesting cultural commentaries.)  They like to talk about purses and how they are a reflection of the carrier and the color black which Nora is particular is quite fond of.  As she said: I am not a fashion person and I have been saved from a lifetime of clothing mistakes by black.”

They also talked about how good Nora’s lunches are (she is criminally skinny) and how clothes can help you reinvent yourself.

The show which was packed to the gills with menopausal and post-menopausal women (I wondered why the theatre was so cold) stars a group of rotating actresses (I saw Tyne Daly, Rosie O’Donnell, Samantha Bee, Katie Finneran and Natasha Lyonne) reading monologues about how clothes define different periods in your life.

Everyone is calling it the Vagina Monologues without the vaginas.  I think that is missing the point.  It’s all about vaginas — it’s just that they are not being raped and mutilated.

I laughed at a lot of the monologues which the sisters Ephron wrote based on the book by Ilene Beckerman and enjoyed myself but afterwards what has lingered with me is the point – why do women care so much about clothes?  Why are clothes and shoes and bags things that define so much of our female experiences?   We all buy into it.  Me included.  I can’t tell you how many horrible clothing disasters I have had.  Guys don’t think about clothes like we do, yet we are culturally conditioned to constantly think about how we look which, you know, takes up so much energy that we could be expending on many other things.

One of the quotes that has stuck with me comes directly from Delia Ephron is “I could wear heels or think, I choose think.”  I feel the same way.   One of the other things I felt was missing from the show which is probably because of the age of the women (I also need to add the the play is directed by a woman Karen Carpenter, and produced by a woman, Daryl Roth) was anything about how certain clothes like sports uniforms can be empowering.  Since the show is all about sharing clothes stories, here’s mine:

I grew up on Long Island is a crazy soccer town where girls just like boys played on teams in the 70s and 80s before it had infiltrated the nation like it has now.  We played all the time.  There were intramural teams that accepted everyone, and travel teams that you had to try out for.  The intramural uniforms were double sides — one side maroon and one side gold — and they were hideous and heavy.  I even hated the shorts and the socks.  I wanted to make the travel team not only because it meant I was better player than others, but most especially because the uniform.  The uniform became a symbol of excellence and empowerment.  I loved the socks, the shorts and the hideous polyester shirt that was both gold and maroon with the MSC (Massapequa Soccer Club) in the corner.  It took me years to make that travel team, but when I did, and put on that uniform that I coveted, I felt so good and strong that I knew I could kick anyone’s ass on the field.

I haven’t thought about that uniform for a long, long time.  So I want to thank the Ephron sisters for bringing that memory back.

Do you have an empowering story about some piece of clothing?

It’s not too often that we see one African-American woman leading a show on Broadway or Off-Broadway and this fall, we have two.  Awesome.  Need to see both of them.

Anna Deveare Smith who has lately been known as a TV and film actress (Rachel Getting Married, Nurse Jackie, The West Wing) returns to theatre for another one of her tour de force shows that are unique to her.  No one else comes close to being able to do what she does.  She was spent 8 years researching health care and just as the debate has reached its crescendo she is bringing her show, Let Me Down Easy into NYC.  Good timing.

Here are some interesting quotes about Smith from the recent NY Times profile:

But if Smith is unusually demanding, it’s for reasons that go beyond the usual psychology of a creative diva or the exceptional pressure of being both playwright and sole performer. Her drive started even before she knew she would be a performer. It’s bound up with the heavy burden that she says comes with being an educated black woman raised in the ’50s, on the cusp of the civil rights movement. “Because of the generation in which I came into the world,” Smith said one day after rehearsal, “there were expectations. Of course there were expectations. It was something having to do with being a respectable Negro woman who would make the people in Baltimore proud. It didn’t mean going off into the world — maybe you were doing it in Baltimore, probably preferably. But the journey that African-Americans were on at the time was to progress.”

“It matters a lot that I get every ‘I mean,’ ” she answered. “That’s the crux of my project. What my work is, is my approach to it. It’s the practice. And my work is about the effort that I make to get there. And I think if there’s anything artistic, it’s in that middle space.”

The show is playing at Second Stage Theatre through November 8.

Charlayne Woodard takes on parenting and motherhood in her new one woman show The Night Watcher.

From the press materials:

Simultaneously a best friend, advisor, confidant and sage to the many young people who call her “Auntie,” Charlayne Woodard is childless only by biological standards. Told with penetrating grace and candor, Woodard beautifully weaves together stories of the ordinary and extraordinary ways she’s mentored the children in her life.

The show is now playing at Primary Stages through October 31st.

It’s not enough to have clear statistics about how women are discriminated in theatre, but now a new award — The Steinberg Playwright Awards — given to “emerging” playwrights has decided that there is no woman good enough to qualify as emerging.

Bollocks.

This is a brand spanking new award and while the committee (which included several women) couldn’t decide the definition of “emerging” (is it a person right out of school, or a person who is mid-career) they easily decided that no woman qualifies.

It’s not like this award is $2,500.  There is some serious money — $25,000 and $50,000 — and prestige attached.  I don’t know how people can sit in a room and give out awards and be ok with not including a woman, especially in light of the recent statistics showing how discriminated women playwrights are.

Trust Tussles Over Playwright Award Eligibility (NY Times)

The NY Times did a look at the upcoming theatre season across the country (but honestly, most are in NY.)  Here are plays (and musicals) written by women, about women and directed by women.  All the blurbs are from the NY Times:

PLAYS BY WOMEN
AFTERMATH Actors portray Iraqi civilians who were interviewed for this documentary play about their lives in wartime Iraq and in exile. Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen, the team behind “The Exonerated,” which was based on the stories of death row inmates who were eventually freed, traveled to the Middle East last year and met with some 35 people who had fled Iraq for nearby Jordan. Ms. Blank directs. In previews. Opened Sept. 15. Closes Oct. 4. New York Theater Workshop, 79 East Fourth Street, East Village; Telecharge, nytw.org.

LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE To some of us, Melissa Gilbert will always be Laura, a k a Half Pint, the character she played as a child from 1974 to 1983 on the television show based on the books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. But time is relentless, and Ms. Gilbert is now appearing as Ma in this musical version, with a book by Rachel Sheinkin, music by Rachel Portman, lyrics by Donna di Novelli and a cast that also includes Steve Blanchard as Pa and Kara Lindsay as the young Laura. The production, conceived and directed by Francesca Zambello, had a sold-out premiere run at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis last year. After this New Jersey stop, it will embark on a national tour. In previews. Opens Sept. 20. Closes Oct. 10. Paper Mill Playhouse, 22 Brookside Drive, Millburn, N.J. (973) 376-4343; papermill.org.

LET ME DOWN EASY Fans of Anna Deavere Smith (“Fires in the Mirror”), and her solo performance style of channeling interviewees, should be pleased to see her after a long absence from the New York stage. In her latest work, an obviously timely one, she portrays doctors, patients, athletes and others as she celebrates the resilience of the human body while also examining the American health care system on which much of that resilience depends. Leonard Foglia directs. Previews begin Tuesday. Opens Oct. 7. Closes Nov. 8. Second Stage Theater, 307 West 43rd Street, Clinton. (212) 246-4422; 2st.com.

LOVE, LOSS AND WHAT I WORE It will be tough to choose which of three casts you want to see in this collection of vignettes and monologues by the sisters Nora and Delia Ephron. Rosie O’Donnell, Rhea Perlman and her daughter Lucy DeVito, Kristin Chenoweth, Tyne Daly and others are lined up to perform — but not necessarily at the same time. The subject, the sartorial side of major moments in women’s lives, is based on the book of the same title by Ilene Beckerman. Karen Carpenter is the director. Previews begin Sept. 21. Opens Oct. 1. Closes Dec 13. Westside Theater, 407 West 43rd Street. Telecharge; lovelossonstage.com.

IMELDA This portrait of Imelda Marcos, the controversial former first lady of the Philippines who amassed great wealth and an enormous wardrobe — including thousands of pairs of shoes — while her husband, Ferdinand, was in office, has a book by Sachi Oyama, music by Nathan Wang and lyrics by Aaron Coleman. Tim Dang, the producing artistic director of the East West Players in Los Angeles, will direct the production for the Pan Asian Repertory Theater. Previews begin Sept. 22. Opens Sept. 30. Closes Oct. 18. Julia Miles Theater, 424 West 55th Street, Clinton. Telecharge; panasianrep.org.

WISHFUL DRINKING Carrie Fisher, the wry offspring of Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, erstwhile wife of Paul Simon, Princess Leia of “Star Wars,” screenwriter and author of a number of books, including the novel “Postcards From the Edge” and a memoir with the same title as this solo show, tells stories involving all of the above, and recounts her experiences with alcoholism and depression besides. Tony Taccone, is the director of this Roundabout Theater Company production. Previews begin Sept. 22. Opens Oct. 4. Closes Jan. 3. Studio 54, 254 West 54th Street. (212) 719-1300; roundabouttheatre.org.

THE NIGHT WATCHER Charlayne Woodard doesn’t have children but she is a friend and maternal presence to many youngsters, as she recounts in a solo show that had its premiere last fall at the Seattle Repertory Theater. In it, she describes her own position vis-à-vis societal expectations that women should procreate. Daniel Sullivan directs. Previews begin Sept. 22. Opens Oct. 6. Closes Oct. 31. Primary Stages at 59E59 Theaters, 59 East 59th Street. Ticket Central; primarystages.org.

CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION A group of lost souls comes together in a small-town drama class in this wistful comedy by Annie Baker (“Body Awareness”). Sam Gold will direct a cast that includes Reed Birney and Deirdre O’Connell in this Playwrights Horizons production. Previews begin Sept. 24. Opens Oct. 13. Closes Nov. 1. Peter Jay Sharp Theater, 416 West 42nd Street. Ticket Central; playwrightshorizons.org.

THE UNDERSTUDY Julie White will star as a harried stage manager overseeing a tense rehearsal for a Kafka play in Theresa Rebeck’s comedy that had its premiere last summer at the Williamstown Theater Festival. Mark-Paul Gosselaar (“Raising the Bar,” on TNT) and Justin Kirk (“Weeds,” on Showtime) play actors — one of them an understudy, of course — at an important rehearsal that nearly gets derailed because of issues among the three people in attendance. The Roundabout Theater Company production is directed by Scott Ellis. Previews begin Oct. 9. Opens Nov. 5. Closes Jan. 3. Laura Pels Theater, Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theater, 111 West 46th Street, Manhattan. (212) 719-1300, roundabouttheatre.org.

NIGHTINGALE Inspired by her desire to understand the maternal grandmother she barely had a chance to know, Lynn Redgrave wrote this solo show in which she stars. Joseph Hardy is the director. Previews begin Oct. 15. Opens Nov. 3. Closes Dec. 13. Manhattan Theater Club at City Center, Stage I, 131 West 55th Street, Manhattan. (212) 581-1212; manhattantheatreclub.com.

IN THE NEXT ROOM OR THE VIBRATOR PLAY To help free his female patients from their struggles with “hysteria,” a doctor (Michael Cerveris) employs a novel cure (see title for hint). He is less adept at pleasing his wife (Laura Benanti) in this play by Sarah Ruhl (“The Clean House”). Les Waters, who directed the premiere at the Berkeley Repertory Theater, directs this Lincoln Center Theater production on Broadway. Previews begin Oct. 22. Opens Nov. 19. Lyceum Theater, 149 West 45th Street. Telecharge; lct.org.

CREATURE In this new comedy by Heidi Schreck, a medieval Englishwoman loses her mind and then regains it, crediting Jesus Christ for her recovery. She devotes herself to religion, attempts to become a saint and finds that the road to ecclesiastical greatness is tough for someone with voracious, earthly appetites. Leigh Silverman will direct the co-production of New Georges and Page 73 productions. Previews begin Oct. 27. Opens Nov. 2. Closes Nov. 21. Ohio Theater, 66 Wooster Street, SoHo. Theatermania; p73.org.

OR, The Restoration dramatist Aphra Behn was certainly unusual: she made her living as a playwright in a man’s world and was a spy for Charles II. Liz Duffy Adams has used this intriguing figure as her main character in a comedy about Behn trying to leave spying for show biz, while her crazy love life keeps getting in the way. Previews begin Oct. 29. Opens Nov. 3. Closes Nov. 22. Women’s Project, 424 West 55th Street, Clinton. Telecharge; womensproject.org.

THE FEMALE OF THE SPECIES Annette Bening portrays an author with writer’s block who is kidnapped by a rabid fan in this comedy by Joanna Murray-Smith, directed by Randall Arney. Previews begin Feb. 2. Opens Feb. 10. Closes March 14. Geffen Playhouse, 10886 Le Conte Avenue, Los Angeles. (310) 208-5454; geffenplayhouse.com.
Continue reading ‘Women On Stage This Year’

When I went to graduate school way back in the dark ages I remember that we needed to read the best plays of the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s etc before we started classes.  I remember distinctly that there were very few plays written by women in those books and actually also remember saying something about it on my first day.

While I haven’t kept track of the recent editions to the best plays series, I got a release for the best plays of 2008-2009 and was happy to read that half the plays included are by women.

Here is the list:

Becky Shaw by Gina Gionfriddo

Blasted by Sarah Kane

God of Carnage by Yasmina Reza

The Good Negro by Tracey Scott Wilson

Ruined by Lynn Nottage

The plays were picked by editor Jeffrey Eric Jenkins after consulting with an editorial board consisting of the following individuals: Misha Berson, Christine Dolen, Sylviane Gold, Robert Hurwitt, John Istel, Chris Jones, Charles McNulty, Julius Novick, Christopher Rawson, Alisa Solomon, Jeffrey Sweet, Anne Marie Welsh, Linda Winer and Charles Wright. Robert Brustein is consulting editor to the series.

The book is available in stores and on-line. The introduction can be downloaded from here.

Thank you all for coming today.    I’d like to thank 59 East 59 Theaters and Primary Stages for making this event possible, especially Elisabeth Kleinhans, Peter Tier, Andrew Lensye, Elliot Fox and Tessa La Neeve.    I’d also like to thank the Dramatists Guild, Princeton University and New Dramatists for all of their support.

Last fall, Sarah Schulman and I decided to organize a social evening for female writers at New Dramatists.  We expected a turnout of about twenty of our closest friends.  The email invitation however, went viral and a list of NY theaters that had announced all male seasons became attached to the invite.   We had over a hundred attendees and a hundred more responses from across the country and England.  At that event, the writers expressed a desire to talk directly to artistic directors about the problem.  We assembled an impressive panel of artistic directors and literary managers and held a second event at New Dramatists.

We had statistics that showed that the ratio of male to female writers being produced in New York was more than four to one.   That all male seasons were commonplace, while all female seasons were unheard of.  Primary Stages is the first theater to have programmed an all female season that I know of… that is at a theater which doesn’t have the mission to exclusively produce women.  Though the conversation at the townhall was lively and positive, not much was actually concluded.  The theaters asserted that there was a low number of female written scripts worthy of production and the writers charged discrimination pure and simple.

Emily Sands is here to address both of these claims.

Continue reading ‘Julia Jordan Introduction to Opening The Curtain of Playwright Gender’

Patricia Cohen seems to be on the gender and culture beat at the NY Times.  She’s written two stories this week first the one on gender discrimination against women playwrights (full post on that coming) and now one on how women are having success as theatre directors.

But even if women are doing well — three were nominated for Tony’s this year — let’s all be honest here, It’s still incredibly hard to be a female director in the theatre, especially in NY, and especially on Broadway.  A playwright friend of mine has tried to have a woman director work on her plays and she can’t make it happen.

But women have been making strides and that’s awesome.  I am so psyched to see different visions out on stage (and of course, I’d love to see them on film too.)

Cohen notes:

This has been something of a banner year for female directors in New York, a development that wouldn’t be worth noting if it weren’t so rare. In July alone three new Off Broadway shows directed by women (including Ms. Ivey) are beginning previews. On Broadway eight shows last season — a record — had a woman in charge, with most of them garnering outsize praise for their work.

I love the line- “with most of them garnering outside praise for their work.”  This goes back to the whole conversation that because there are so few women the ones that succeed need to be exemplary.  Women still need to be way better just to get half the attention.

35-year-old Leigh Silverman is making a a career for herself as a director.  She’s directed on Broadway and most recently directed the adaptation of Coraline.  (Tell me why that wasn’t on Broadway?  The film made some serious money at the box office.)  When Well flopped I’m sure it wasn’t easy for her.  But she has persevered but really who else is directing as much as she is?

Silverman notes that even after a good year:

“It’s not a level playing field. There is no parity.”

Many women are so sick of all the attention paid to gender.

British director Maria Aitken said:

It is much better today, but, “it annoys me and upsets me even now that we have to be considered a special case,” she said. “I want to stop being an oddity.”

The only way women are going to stop being an oddity is to have more women.  That way gender won’t matter and people will only focus on the work.

Who’s in Charge of This Show? She Is (NY Times)

You can get your fill of Helen Mirren in Phedre which is now playing in London at a bunch of movie theatres across the country this Thursday, June 25th.  Tickets are $20.  Love this idea.  Theatre on the big screen.

Here’s a description of the play:

Consumed by an uncontrollable passion for her young stepson and believing Theseus, her absent husband, to be dead, Phèdre confesses her darkest desires and enters the world of nightmare. When Theseus returns alive and well, Phèdre, fearing exposure, accuses her stepson of rape.
The result is carnage.

Here’s the list of where it will be playing.  Venues are in the following states: California, Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia.

The other evening I was fortunate enough to be invited to a special performance of Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer Prize winning play Ruined.  Equality NOW the international organization fighting for justice and rights for women all across the world put together the event which was hosted by Navanethem Pillay the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and was attended by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

The theatre was buzzing with people speaking in many languages and was full of people who worked at the UN and on international women’s issues.  When Ban Ki-moon was introduced by the chair of the Manhattan Theatre Club Board everyone applauded.

In case you don’t know Ruined tells the story of women in the Congo who have been raped and mutilated, literally “ruined” by soldiers in a decade long war.

I asked Taina Bien-Aimé the Executive Director of Equality Now to tell me why it was important to organize this event and get the folks from the UN in to see this play:

It was important to bring Lynn Nottage’s brilliant and moving play to the attention of the UN, which has the power and tools to address rape and sexual violence as a weapon of war, including securing justice for the hundreds of thousands of women and girls subjected to such brutality and egregious human rights violations.  The perpetrators of such heinous crimes must be held accountable and the UN is the key body to ensure prosecution of those responsible for systematic rape and sexual violence against women in the DRC and other conflict zones, but also ensuring that prevention mechanisms are in place so that history stops repeating itself at the
expense of countless lives. The political will of the UN to address and stop rape as a weapon of war must be in place starting today.

That is the power of art.

Since the play won the Pulitzer you know it is important and also good but the thing that made this play so good was that it was such an enjoyable evening of theatre.  I’m not saying that the play wasn’t hard to watch at times but what Nottage did is use humor and mostly hope to to show these women (and men) whose lives have been destroyed by war.

It is a brave and beautifully moving play that was so well written, well directed (by Kate Whoriskey) and well acted that at times I forgot I was seeing a play about such brutality that exists in the world.

This play should be on Broadway.  There is no excuse for it not being there.  I interviewed Nottage last week at the Women’s Media Center Awards and here’s what she said about it:

Yeah, I really do believe that if this were a play written by a white male that it would be on Broadway, but I think that we’ve demonstrated that we can sell tickets, we certainly demonstrated that it’s piece of theatre that people want to see and that people are coming in great numbers to see, so I don’t quite understand why we haven’t transferred this other than sort of the unconscious bias.

It’s a combination of the topic and her gender that have prevented its move.  But this play is so important for poeple to see and my experience upon leaving the theatre is my perfect example.

As I was walking out a white couple in their 60s were talking to each other about the show.  They understood that the show was about rape but they didn’t know what being ruined meant.  The wife said to the husband- what does ruined mean? Being the nosy body I am I injected myself and told them and they were shocked.  Mind you these people had just seen a play about multiple women being raped.

So that is why plays like Ruined need to be produced.  We need to be able to talk about these topics and educate people about these vital issues.

Here’s where you can learn more about the violence against women in the Congo.

Great news.  Rising star director Kate Whoriskey has been tapped by the Intiman Theatre in Seattle to take over as Artistic Director when current star director Barlett Sher leaves in 2010.

She will join a small club of female artistic directors in charge of major theatres in this country.

The 38-year-old’s current play, the Pulitzer Prize winning play Ruined by Lynn Nottage can currently be seen in NYC.

In an “unusual” move according to the Seattle Times, Whoriskey and Sher will work together for one year before she takes over.  That sounds like a smart plan to me.  First, it will help her with the transition from director for hire to acclimating herself to running the artistic vision of a theatre.  She’s never run a theatre before and Sher has been very successful and since he’s directing on Broadway all the time I bet he won’t be around that much.  It seems like a win-win situation to me but but terming it “unusual” it makes it seem like she needs extra help.

Her reputation is stellar and growing and according to her predecessor Sher she is “one of the best younger directors in the country.”

Congrats Kate and Seattle.

N.Y. director to replace Bartlett Sher at Intiman (Seattle Times)