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Advocacy Los Angeles, CA
Random Meanderings on Theater Because Alice Asked
Women making theater. That in itself is revolutionary given the global history of male actors impersonating women. What would it mean to impersonate-to take on the persona of, to be in the person of another, for entertainment or for fraud? A fraudulent theater? A theater that commits fraud? Offering politics in the guise of entertainment? Offering entertainment in the guise of politics? Laughter as a way of getting things said and seen? What if women impersonated men? An entire theater of women acting like and as men? Lysistrata-like, becoming warlike and manly in order to get men to do our bidding? A bidding for peace? A mirror to men that they can see themselves as they seem to our eyes? Warlike and wastrel. Theater for me begins in language but then takes on the form of sight. Insight. Light. Delight.
For me these days theater is a daily act, but not as a playwright grappling with global capitalism or how to pace an act. These days I teach first graders how to read which means putting sounds together to make sense, and then putting words and sentences together to make meaning, and then putting meanings together to make a scene. I teach them to read with expression, to imagine the feelings of the characters whose words and deeds they are reproducing (feelings = . ? and ! ). After that they get up and do the actions their characters are doing. This being first grade, the characters are often deeply concerned with relations between cats and hats and bats. They tend to hop and jump and moo, and with great regularity tumble down hills. Welcome to theater, first-grade style! The kids love it. They learn to make words come alive, to bridge life and text. Slowly, haltingly, but with great joy and liberation. What is about making theater that it's liberating for children who are already such free creatures? Is it theater's sense of play, because children really just want to play all day? Or is it maybe that it helps them make the strange new world of written language into something they already know and can own? What can we grown-ups learn from them?
Provincetown, MA Enduring theater. Maybe that's where I ought to start. When I was
a student with Adrienne Kennedy, I remember her telling me that theater
is a huge endurance race -- and most people drop out in their mid-late
twenties -- that they sort of give up the ghost after that, being assaulted
by all the real life things -- having to make a living, justify oneself
to family/friends, justify oneself to oneself most particularly, maybe
-- in the sense of what am I doing? Does this make sense?
Is this a useful way to spend my life? Everyday, no matter what, early morning, I try to sit down for a period of time in front of the computer, and write. Even if its crap. Even if its hopeless. Because this keeps me from being afraid of the act of writing, and it makes writing part of my schedule, like going to work, jogging, etc. I also (less successfully) try to keep the business end of things going. One day a week, send out a script, find out about a prize, research a new theater.
These
things might take awhile to pan out, but it makes you out in the world
-- and things can unexpectedly occur, boomerang back -- once you put the
feelers out. That's how I ended up spending two years in Dublin.
I sent out a play to the Abbey Theater, didn't even think about them responding,
but they did -- and the process culminated in me going to Dublin, workshopping
my play there, and building a real relationship. Just one random
submission one Thursday night. I think lots of things happen that
way, you show up somewhere, you make yourself available, you meet people
-- and things boomerang back, maybe not in a month, but in several months,
a year, the important thing is that somehow you're in the world -- and
things can happen that way. What else keeps me sane? Friends --
other playwrights, writers, artists, whoever, anyone who knows what the
whole struggle is like. Going to artist residencies is a great way
to meet people like this -- and makes me feel less alone, like what I'm
doing isn't quite as crazy as the world says it is -- or at least if it
is crazy, I'm not the only one who's gone insane. There's other
folks out there. And to drop a note, email, show someone stuff --
can keep me going when I'm feeling tired or rejected. RUTH MALECZECHNew York, NY
Never
been to Manila. You're so lucky to be going - and with Jessica, EMILY MANNPrinceton, New Jersey
I have been ruminating about the journey for myself and other women in the theatre, but particularly on Broadway, since I am back on Broadway at the moment-- ever since you've written. (This is my third time directing on Broadway. First I wrote and directed EXECUTION OF JUSTICE in 1986, then I wrote/adapted/directed HAVING OUR SAY in 1995, and now I am directing Nilo Cruz's beautiful Pulitzer Prize winning ANNA IN THE TROPICS.) When
I graduated from college in 1974 and decided I wanted to be a director
(I did not know then I wanted to be a playwright) I was told by the head
of the Drama Center at Harvard that women did not direct professionally.
"You might be very talented," he said to me, "Why don't
you consider children's theatre?" Luckily, I was raised by
an independent mother and a father who was an early feminist. They
gave me the mistaken idea that I could do whatever I wanted to do.
By the time I found out that that was not true, it was too late.
Being told no because I was a woman simply got me mad and spurred me on.
I was the first woman to direct on every main-stage I directed
on in the 1970's and early 1980's. Sadly, however, even in 1995,
when I was nominated for a Tony award, (for playwrighting and directing
for HAVING OUR SAY) I would have been the first woman to win for directing
a straight play on Broadway in the 65 year history of the awards.
Thank God, the next year Garry Hines won it (Garry is a very talented
woman). One other woman has won the award since Garry Hines: the
brilliant Mary Zimmerman. (In 65+ years since the awards began,
only two.!) It is still not an even playing field.
When
I was leaving, a reporter asked me why I chose Nilo's play to direct and
I told her what an honor it was to work on his brilliant play. The
reporter responded by saying she had never felt so cherished or respected
at a press conference. For the first time, she was "not a second
class citizen, but an honored American." The Pulitzer Prize
and the honor of it being on Broadway meant the world to her, to the community,
and to her colleagues. I was so moved by this, naturally, but I
must tell you, this reminded me of the opening of HAVING OUR SAY on Broadway.
HAVING OUR SAY was about two African-American sisters, both over
a hundred years old. For the first time on Broadway, by the way,
the play was by and about, acted by, and produced all by women.
It is a documentary, and I had the privilege of giving voice to these
remarkable, brilliant, wise and funny women as both playwright and director.
For the first time, Black women felt they were being heard from
on Broadway (and not as whores or beleaguered Mamas on the Couch) but
as educated, smart, tart, and irreverent voices of America. (The
sisters were called our "national treasures" in the press and
the Black community came out in proud droves, often dressed in their Sunday
best.) I
salute everyone at this conference and wish them the very best on their
important work. SUSAN RUBINLos Angeles, CA
I
headed for Oakland, California, where the Black Panthers, Angela Susan Rubin: Playwright, Artistic Director, Indecent Exposure Theater Company |
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