After two wonderful years in Takoma Park, The Performing Arts Training Studio has recently relocated to the Columbia Heights/Pleasant Plains neighborhoods. Conveniently located at 733 Euclid Street NW, PATStudio is now about 1/2 block from Howard University and 6 blocks from the Shaw/Howard University metro on the Green Line. That's prime real estate in a vibrant historic community. Of course, PATStudio will continue to offer professional level acting and playwriting training for adults and youth in the D.C. metro area. "It’s really wonderful that we’re into our third year and now with a new midtown location. I feel that we’ll be able to help even more people achieve their dreams." Executive Director Denise Hart shared. To celebrate, they’re hosting an Open House this coming Saturday, January 5th from 12-2pm. Stop by to see the space, win some prizes, and FREE give-aways while they last. Before you go, be sure to register for classes and meet the team. Questions? Please contact the The Performing Arts Training Studio: Email: performingartstrainingstudio@yahoo.com Phone: 202.321.0779 Address: 733 Euclid St. NW 2nd floor WDC 20001 Website: www.performingartstrainingstudio.com In the midst of her preparations, Executive Director Denise J. Hart spoke with me about what inspired her to start The Performing Arts Training Studio and what students can expect once they enroll. Here's our conversation: JACQUELINE LAWTON: What inspired you to start the Performing Arts Training Studio? DENISE HART: Helping others achieve the skills they need to actualize their dreams is definitely a part of my life’s calling. Although, I’m a tenured professor of theatre at Howard University and have been teaching theatre for 25 years, I once had the dream of heading to LA and casting my hat in the ring of television acting. However, 20 years ago when I gave birth to my son I decided to remain here in WDC. I’ve had the pleasure of working locally as a professional actress with Wolly Mammoth, Alliance Theatre, African continuum and Arena Stage and I also play the recurring role of Miss Anna on HBO’s The Wire. So many of my mentors always told me that I was born to teach and I guess they were right. I’ve had the great privilege of studying under Vera J. Katz, Kelsie Collie, Al Freeman, Phylicia Rashad and Mike Malone. I see what I do as an instructor, playwright, director and even as the Executive Director at PATStudio as very spiritual service oriented work. People want to transform. They want to learn, grow, express and create space for people to think, laugh and just be. That’s what the theatre does for people and to people. I’m delighted for PATStudio to be a part of the long legacy of institutions providing theatrical training in Washington. JL: What excites you most about moving to the Columbia Heights community. How do you feel this move will serve your students? DH: As you know, Columbia Heights and nearby Logan Circle/Shaw are all abuzz with new restaurants, bars and a wonderful mix of historic architecture, long time residents and newcomers to the area. I purchased a condo on 14th street in 2011 and I wanted PATStudio to be connected to the wave of entrepreneurial energy impacting the area, the nearby thriving theatre district and the midtown location makes us that much more accessible to a wide range of people. As the word spreads that PATStudio is in the community, many are saying that although new restaurants and bars are nice, it’s a relief to have something different in the neighborhood. To Celebrate our move, we’re having Open House this Saturday, January 5th from 12-2pm. We welcome folks to stop by to see the space, win some prizes, FREE give-aways while they last, register for classes and meet the team. Conveniently located at 733 Euclid Street NW about 1/2 block from Howard University and 6 blocks from the Shaw greenline metro stop PATStudio will continue to offer professional level acting and playwriting training for adults and youth in the WDC metro area. JL: Who are your typical students? DH: Everyone from professional actors to newbies have benefited from our unique programs and our team of professional working Master Instructors. Our classes, workshops and camps help a wide range of people transform their craft and their career. Over the past two years we are thrilled to have served over 500 youth and adults! JL: What type of acting classes do you offer? What is your pedagogical approach to acting? DH: For the adult actor, this January we’re launching our signature training program, The Intrinsic Acting Method. A full immersion developmental program inspired by the principles of Stanislavski, Hagen an Spolin. Our philosophy is that all actors have within them the innate ability to craft characters from an intuitive space of authenticity and truth. Our unique training approach helps actors to create from this powerful imaginative space. For youth ages 5-16, we offer 3 developmental levels of acting: Acting Bonanza 5-8, Actor’s Playground 9-12 and Ready, Set, ACT! ages 13-16. We also offer two very popular musical theatre summer camps for kids ages 5-16. JL: As a professional and award winning playwright, what is your approach to playwriting classes? DH: Playwriting students also move though a developmental program from beginner to advanced classes culminating in our Playwrights Posse. A workshop style class designed to help advanced playwrights develop their plays for production, for entry into competitions and self producing at local and national festivals. JL: Have your students gone on to work professionally? DH: Many of our acting students frequently work locally and also work in New York, Atlanta and LA for projects. We pride ourselves on helping our students radically transform their ability to use imagination, intuition, body, voice and creativity in service to the world of the play both as actors and playwrights. Students who train at The Performing Arts Training Studio discover more meaning and value in their careers and craft as they learn how to better connect to themselves, their creativity, the text and the world of the stage. JL: The classes sound amazing and fun! I feel like I’d learn a lot. How much do classes cost? DH: Yes, folks will have fun as they work with our team of Master Instructors to strengthen their skills and excel in their craft. In keeping with the mission of our nonprofit organization to create accessible theatre training for the WDC metro area, our adult semester class tuition is $150 for a 5 week semester while our kids acting classes (ages 5-16) are $260 per semester. We also have payment plans available for adults who desire to complete their training in one year. JL: As someone who casts readings, workshops and productions, I’m always on the lookout for new acting talent. Will there be an opportunity to showcase your students work? DH: Definitely! Adult students can look forward to our culminating showcase production in November for invited special guests, friends and family; while youth share their growth with a free performance for family and friends at the end of each semester. DENISE J. HART, Executive Director, holds her MFA in Playwriting from Sarah Lawrence College and a BFA in Acting from Howard University and is the founder and Executive Director of The Performing Arts Training Studio, which provides professional training in acting and playwriting for youth and adults. She is also an Associate Professor in the Department of Theatre Arts at Howard University where she coordinates the Playwriting minor. She has authored and directed 16 children's musicals and authored the plays: Nothing to Lose, Sistah Girl, Masquerade Parade, Ring the Bell, My Soul is a Witness and This Joy, (former finalist in The Lark & Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights competitions). Her Directing and Dramaturgy credits include: Breath Boom, Secret Mist of Blue, Melancholy of Barbarians, The Exile & the American, Day of Absence, Zooman and the Sign, and Joe Turner’s Come and Gone. Her acting credits include the recurring role as "Miss Anna" on HBO'S The Wire, African Continuum Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, and The Theatre Alliance. Ms. Hart is also a Creativity Life Coach, a member of the Screen Actors Guild, The Dramatist Guild, The Playwrights Forum, and Theatre for Young Audiences.
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As promised, I'd like to introduce you to the Mentors of VSA's 2012 Playwrights Discovery Program! I was really quite moved and inspired by my experience working with Bradley Hildebrandt on his play, Life is Jazz. So, I wanted to reach out to the other mentors to see how the experience impacted them. They were happy to oblige and shared their thoughts with us here! NORMAN ALLEN Norman Allen’s work has been commissioned and produced by the Kennedy Center (The Light of Excalibur), the Shakespeare Theatre Company (On the Eve of Friday Morning), Olney Theatre Center (Coffee with Richelieu) and the Karlin Music Theatre in Prague, where his contemporary take on Carmen (score by Wildhorn & Murphy) recently ended a four-year run. While playwright-in-residence at Signature Theatre, Allen premiered Melville Slept Here, Nijinsky's Last Dance (Helen Hayes Award, Outstanding Play), In the Garden (Charles MacArthur Award), and Fallen from Proust, with subsequent productions throughout the United States, South Africa and Europe. He provided the concert adaptation for Encore's Sweet Adeline at New York City Center, and the libretto for the national tour of Cirque Ingenieux, later featured on PBS. Other PBS credits include documentaries on Van Gogh, Sargent, Cassatt, and Cezanne. Allen’s plays have been translated into Czech, Hungarian, and Slovenian, and will soon be heard in Japanese and Korean. His features and commentary have appeared in The Washington Post, Smithsonian and Washingtonian magazines, WAMU-FM (NPR), and other media outlets. On Mentoring I was enormously impressed with Catherine's work over the last several weeks. It's very difficult to write something you believe in deeply, than have some random guy show up in your email box with a bunch of questions and suggestions. But she was incredibly open, and very responsive - and that's a key skill for any writer. We all need the ability to listen to feedback - to really hear it - and then to discern what is actually relevant to our particular vision. Catherine had the good sense to disagree with me a few times. She also did some incredibly rich work, deepening the emotional through-line of her play, building suspense and clarifying characters. I was enormously impressed. I've experienced first-hand the amazing benefits that come from having a great mentor. I wouldn't have survived my first years as a teacher if my mentor hadn't been brilliant - and patient. In a pay-it-forward move, I've just started working with the Center for Inspired Teaching - as a mentor myself. To bring some of those same skills to a young playwright, through the Kennedy Center's program, has been especially satisfying. And the best is yet to come! After weeks of emailing back and forth, I can't wait to actually be in rehearsal with Catherine, as she sees her work come to life - and navigates that heady experience of actors, and a director, taking over the characters that she's lived with for so long. I know what a complicated moment that can be. It's going to be a very interesting - and very exciting - weekend. RENEE CALARCO Renee Calarco lives and works in Washington, DC. Her play SHORT ORDER STORIES received the 2007 Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding New Play. Other plays include THE RELIGION THING (2012 Helen Hayes Recommended), KEEPERS OF THE WESTERN DOOR, THE MATING OF ANGELA WEISS, BLEED, and IF YOU GIVE A CAT A CUPCAKE (commissioned by Adventure Theatre in 2011). Her 10-minute play WARRIORS was published by One Act Play Depot in 2010. Other short plays include SEMPER FIDELIS, POUNDS AWEIGH, and FIRST STOP: NIAGARA FALLS. Renee is an artistic associate with First Draft/Charter Theater, the program coordinator for Naked Ladies Lunch, and a proud member of both DC Area Playwrights and The Dramatists Guild of America. She teaches playwriting at George Washington University and improvisational comedy at The Theatre Lab, and is a licensed professional tour guide. www.reneecalarco.com On Mentoring ... You know, we playwrights talk a lot about what makes something theatrical or why a certain story can only be told on the stage. I learned so much about theatricality from "my" student playwright; he's amazingly inventive and has a fantastic sense of theatricality. Plus, he's a wickedly funny writer. And! To my complete and utter delight, he's done improv, which is how I started out in theater. So we had some great conversations about that. Thank heavens for the Kennedy Center and this program...mentorship is just so important. We gotta get those writers while they're young! JACQUELINE LAWTON Jacqueline Lawton is the author of Anna K; Bend and Sway, Don’t Break; Blood-bound and Tongue-tied; Deep Belly Beautiful; The Devil’s Sweet Water; The Hampton Years; Ira Aldridge: the African Roscius; Lions of Industry, Mothers of Invention; Love Brothers Serenade, and Mad Breed. Lawton’s work has been commissioned, developed and presented at the following venues: Active Cultures, Classical Theater of Harlem, Discovery Theater, Folger Shakespeare Library, theHegira, Howard University, Kennedy Center’s Page to Stage Festival, National Portrait Gallery, National Museum of American History, Rorschach Theater Company, Round House Theatre, Savannah Black Heritage Festival (Armstrong Atlantic State University), Shakespeare Theatre Company, Source Theatre Festival, Theater J, and Woolly Mammoth Theater Company. She is published in Experiments in a Jazz Aesthetic: Art, Activism, Academia, and the Austin Project (University of Texas Press). Lawton is a 2012 TCG Nathan Cummings Young Leaders of Color award recipient. She has been nominated for the Wendy Wasserstein Prize and a PONY Fellowship from the Lark New Play Development Center. She was named one of 30 of the nation's leading black playwrights by Arena Stage’s American Voices New Play Institute. On Mentoring I loved working Bradley on his remarkably beautiful play, Life is Jazz, which is abut about vision (sight), social awareness (technology obsessed world), love, and art. As soon as I read it, I wrote a note to Gregg Henry: "OHMYGOSH, I am in love with this play! Thank you for this amazing opportunity!" It just so happens that I'm currently working on a play, The Hampton Years, which is about vision (self-expression), social awareness (race politics), love, and art! In his play, the artist is blind. I have always been fascinated by sight. When I was eight years old, I was told by my optometrist that I would be blind by the time I was 30. Um, first of all, don't tell that to an 8 year old! This terrified me. I loved colors! I cried, but eventually comforted myself by saying that my memories of this vibrant world would be enough to sustain me. And while my vision decreased, it actually reversed and improved in my 30s! So there you go! Throughout the six weeks, Bradley and I were working on rewrites at the same time. In one of our exchanges, he shared that he felt stuck and was writing in circles. This happened to be at the exact same time that I felt stuck and was writing in circles! He asked me about my process to which I responded:
Somehow in the process of sharing this with him, I unlocked the script. I began to trust and rely on my own process again. What's more, Bradley and I became champions for each other! Each time I checked in with him, he never failed to check in with me! There was a mutual respect, investment, and admiration for our respective journeys and for the life of our plays. This is what I feel is so unique, wonderful and important about mentorship. GREGG MOZGALA Gregg Mozgala is a critically acclaimed actor and playwright. Gregg has been in various New York productions Off- and Off-Off Broadway with Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, The LAByrinthTheatre Company, La Mama ETC, Performance Space 122, Theater Breaking Through Barriers, The Brick Theater, The National Theatre Workshop of the Handicapped, Imua! Theatre Company, Visible Theatre and the Ensemble Studio Theatre. His plays have been presented Off-Broadway with Theatre Breaking Through Barriers and at the Ensemble Studio Theatre as well as the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and in various theatres throughout New York City. Gregg is a former member of the Obie-award winning playwriting group, Youngblood, at The Ensemble Studio Theatre. His ten-minute play, "French Twist," was presented by SHOUT LLC and Semantic Compaction, Inc. as part of the Pittsburgh Employment Conference in August 2011 and had the distinction of being the first play ever to feature assistive augmentative communicators (AAC users), speaking in real time. He has been profiled in the New York Times on several occasions, most notably for his groundbreaking work with choreographer Tamar Rogoff, which was also featured on CBS Sunday Morning and Good Morning America. Their experience is the subject of the soon to be released documentary, The Faun Experiment, currently in post-production. On Mentoring... Mentorship is an exchange. I "teach" the mentor but the mentor has also done the same for me. Samantha Brown has so much fire and passion for her art and the theatre that it reminds me why I got into this in the first place. She has carried herself with such a professional demeanor that I often forgot that she's only sixteen years old. First and foremost she has succeeded in teaching me what I already know; theatre is an amazing venue for expression and enjoyment that creates community, breaks down barriers and serves as a place of inclusion and a forum for ideas. Not bad. Not bad at all. Six weeks ago, the amazing Gregg Henry reached to professional playwrights Norman Allen, Renee Calarco, Gregg Mozgala and me to be mentors to young playwrights who had been awarded the 2012 Playwrights Discovery Award as part of The Kennedy Center's Department of VSA and Accessibility. The VSA Playwright Discovery Program is extraordinary, worthwhile and inspiring! It's an annual competition that invites middle and high school students to take a closer look at the world around them, examine how disability affects their lives and the lives of others, and express their views through the art of playwriting. Young playwrights with and without disabilities can write from their own experience or about an experience in the life of another person or a fictional character. The program began in 1984, and has continued annually since. This year’s distinquished recipients were chosen from more than 350 applications nationwide and an excerpt of their work will be presented at the Kennedy Center as part the 11th Annual Page-to-Stage Festival. In my next post, I'm going to introduce you to the mentors and share their experience and the role of mentorship! For now, here's more information about the reading and the wonderful young playwrights!!! The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts presents the 28th Annual Playwright Discovery Performance Staged readings of four award-winning student scripts Sunday, September 2, 2012 at 6:00 p.m. MILLENNIUM STAGE NORTH Excerpts from the plays--Mr. Pan & Neverland by Samantha Brown, from Brooklyn, NY; To the Beat of a Funeral March by Catherine Caffera, from Fairport, NY; Life is Jazz by Bradley Hildebrandt, from Elkhorn, NE; and Dominoes by Christian Mincks, from Colonial Heights, VA--are presented in concert reading format featuring Jessica Frances Dukes, Phillip James Brannon, Carlos Saldana, Rana Kay, Michael Willis, Michael Sazonov, John Lescault, Dana Levanovsky, and Kimberly Schraf. About the Plays and Playwrights About VSA
VSA, the international organization on arts and disability, was founded more than 35 years ago by Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith to provide arts and education opportunities for people with disabilities and increase access to the arts for all. VSA is an affiliate of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. For more information, www.vsarts.org. About Education at the Kennedy Center As the national center for the performing arts, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is committed to increasing opportunities for all people to participate in and understand the arts. To fulfill that mission, the Kennedy Center strives to commission, create, design, produce, and/or present performances and programs of the highest standard of excellence and of a diversity that reflects the world in which we live—and to make those performances and programs accessible and inclusive. From start to finish, Scenes from Historic Women Playwrights: Read by Luminaries of the Stage was an extraordinary, inspiring and beautiful night!!! After a lovely dinner, I walked into the theatre and was met with a nearly full house! And by nearly, I believe there were eight or night empty seats and those quickly filled as I made my way to the front row. Joan Wages, Director of the National Women's History Museum (NWHM), gave the Welcome Remarks. One story she shared particularly stood out. In 1921, the Suffragist Statue, which honors the contributions and efforts of suffragist pioneers Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony was dedicated in the Capitol Rotunda. The very next day the all male Congress moved it downstairs into a storage closet. As a founding board member of NWHM, she made it her mission to raise the money and pass legislation to move the Suffrage Statue into the Rotunda where it now stands. (Hearing this story was uncanny, because a few hours earlier I was at the Capitol on a tour with my campers. I'm happy to report that the Suffragists Statue is a featured highlight.) Next, Jill Dolan introduced the cast and set the tone for the evening by sharing the Notes from the Director Joan Vail Thorne: "The impetus for this event grew out of my enduring respect for the great women playwrights of the past and my increasing awareness of the possibility that the current disparity between the production of men’s and women’s plays might have something to do with the terrible neglect women’s plays of the past has suffered. The scenes selected for this program were chosen from plays that should occupy a significant place in the consciousness of all informed theatre persons, most of which have been largely forgotten. How many of us know that in the first two decades of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama four of the prizes were won by women? All of the scenes were, of course, written by women; all the characters in them are women; and all of them will be read by women. There is no hidden agenda in the selection or arrangement of the plays, only the desire to display them in their infinite variety of content and style. The casting will be color-blind and age-blind, and the actors – Kathleen Chalfant, Maryann Plunkett and Tamara Tunie - are, as you know, entirely capable of infinite variety of their own. The styles of the plays range from romantic comedy to searing realism, from high melodrama to pure farce, but what is common to them all is their excellence and humanity. The objective of the evening is meant to be, not a lament for the past or a complaint about the present, but a celebration of the excellence, humanity and appeal of plays of the past written by women." It was that and then some! The performances were captivating and illuminating. Selections included scenes from the powerful and dynamics works of celebrated playwrights Zoe Akins (THE OLD MAID), Jane Bowles (IN THE SUMMER HOUSE), Alice Childress (TROUBLE IN MIND), Rachel Crothers (THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING A WOMAN), Fay Kanin (GOODBYE MY FANCY), Angelina W. Grimke (RACHEL), Lillian Hellman (THE LITTLE FOXES), Georgia Douglas Johnson (PLUMES), and (SO HELP ME GOD) Maurine Watkins. The stories were rich, poignant and relevant. We were even treated to encore scene from HARVEY by Mary Chase. It was perfection!
I dipped in and out of so many conversations that began with "How is it I've never heard of so many of these plays and playwrights?" Followed by "We have so many powerful actresses in this town, can you imagine them in some of these roles? And ended with "Well, now it's our turn. What's the next step?"
So, what do you say DC Theater community? What's next? Everyone deserves to have their story told. I truly believe this. I make no distinction of class, race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or religion. However large or small an impact we make in this world during our lifetime, we have served a role in history. The world was made better or worse because of each individual contribution. This is significant and should not be taken for granted. Growing up, I felt voiceless, invisible and even untouchable. This is sad, terrible and lonely feeling. It wasn't until I started studying theatre at the University of Texas at Austin that I was capable of changing some part of how I felt. Stepping into the classes of Amparo Garcia Crow, Jill Dolan, Fran Dorn, Joni Jones, and Ruth Margraff, I learned how to be seen and heard through playwriting and solo performance. I began working on what would be my thesis play, Blood-bound and Tongue-tied, an adaptation of the Oedipus Rex myth that examines self-hatred in African American community as a direct result of racism, prejudice an social injustice. What's more, I created a three-part solo performance piece called Venus Stands Sublimely Nude, which follows as African America woman's journey to embrace and celebrate her body, skin color and feminine identity. Then I graduated, made my way to DC and learned that a great many theatres in America aren't too terribly interested in producing plays by women or by people of color. The truth is this hurts. It's heartbreaking to know that regardless of talent, skill, ambition, and hard work my plays may never be produced because of the perceived notion that plays by women and people of color don't sell as well as plays by white men. My hope, quite simply, is that this will change. My mission is to be a part of that change. I will continue to write. I will continue to read, attend, and recommend plays by women and people of color. This is what the women behind History Matters/Back to the Future and Women and Theatre Program are striving to do beautifully, nobly, and with such courage. After speaking with Alli, I decided to check back in with the Steering Committee. I wanted them to share a few words that might help any of you, who are on the fence about attending tonight. Here's what a few of them had to say: Jen-Scott Mobley "I think there is unprecedented momentum around women’s work right now and D.C. is one of the hubs where it is happening. The Folger Theatre recently produced Susanna Centrelivre’s The Gaming Table; Meryl Streep has just made a huge donation to get the National Women’s Museum transformed from more than a cyberspace entity to a real building on D.C.’s National Mall. D.C. is on the cutting edge with a dynamic and close-knit theatre community that is positioned to make a difference and this reading will hopefully contribute to the momentum, which will in turn, continue to ripple throughout the country." Ludovica Villar-Hauser "It seemed to us, the founders of HISTORY MATTERS - BACK TO THE FUTURE, that the most effective way of changing the lack of parity in the theatre (it is estimated that less than 20% of paying work goes to women) would be to ensure that students learn about the contribution of women theatre artists (writers in particular); that we re-instate the great women of the past into the current curriculum thus making us all less invisible. It is only by knowing our past that we can claim our present and secure a prolific future for women making a living in the theatre. The ATHE conference is an opportunity to inspire educators about the importance of teaching the great women writers of the past. It is also a way for us to learn exactly what tools teachers need and how they wish the material to be presented so that they can introduce the works of such Pulitzer-winning playwrights Susan Glaspell, Zona Gale, Mary Coyle-Chase ... In terms of why now, all we have is now and every day we put off the inevitable we will continue projecting forward the same outcome for generations to come. Lack of parity. It is as simple as that really. " Heather Violanti "There is a concerted effort now to make everyone aware of the contributions of women playwrights to American theatre--the Legacy Project initiated by Susan Jonas, 50/50 in 2020, the ongoing work of the Guerilla Girls, the DG Women's Initiative, etc. This event builds on that effort. The DC theatre community is one of the most vibrant in the nation, and its artists can be inspired by the example of these groundbreaking women. Their history also shows the history of DC theatre--I was amazed how many of them had lived, worked, or had plays performed there--including Georgia Douglas Johnson and Angelina Weld Grimke, who were vital members of DC's African-American arts community." For those who can give tonight over to the magic of theatre, I look forward to seeing you! For those who can't, I look forward to hearing about how you created similar events in your own communities.
And I can hardly wait! Major kudos go to Alli Houseworth for spreading the word about Scenes for Historic Women Playwrights: Read by Luminaries of the Stage. If it were for her, I wouldn't have known about this amazing event. So, of course, I checked in with her about it. I'm always interested in what drives people to "yes" and put their name on certain projects. Also, I wanted to know how she got involved and what she thought about some of the key issues being addressed by this reading. Here's her great interview: Jacqueline Lawton: It’s been great getting to learn more about the women behind History Matters: Back to the Future. Please tell us how got involved with them. Alli Houseworth: I know Amanda Feldman, the Creative Line Producer, from my time in New York. She was really looking to connect the DC community to this project so she reached out to me for help. JL: Your efforts to make sure the D.C. theatre community knows about Scenes by Historic Women Playwrights: Read by Luminaries of the Stage have been wonderful. What do you think DC artists and institutions can learn from this event? AH: One thing that really piqued my interest about the project in the first place is that in this current theatrical landscape - where we all seem to be talking about a deep need for new plays, a dire lack of plays by women, plays by people of color that are currently being produced, etc - we're not really talking about past success. When Amanda approached me about this project, I thought right off the bat “how interesting is it that we seem to have forgotten what came before?” I hope this event provides the DC theatre community with a new perspective that could inspire new ideas. JL: Women’s voices are essential to the American Theatre. Yet time and time again, women’s plays are overlooked on our stages. Why do you think gender parity remains such a struggle in this country? AH: This is a loaded question. I suppose an oversimplified way of putting it is history and statistics. Women are up against a long history of men running things - or at least being perceived as the ones who have run things. We’re also a country that tends to value power, struggle, success, ladder climbing, etc. and we’re not really one that seems to value empathy, care-giving, compassion and how short-sighted thoughts and actions can effect an overall landscape in the long run. I think the former tend to be traits that are more often “male” and the latter tend to be more often “female.” So who knows, maybe it’s biology. Maybe it’s history. Maybe it’s economics. Maybe it’s PR. Who knows... time will tell. JL: Do you identify as a feminist? If so, for how long and why? AH: Actually no. It’s something I’ve wondered about lately. I’ve had the fortune of having been raised by, and around, very strong women. I always thought it was normal to have a great mom also ran her own company. Turns out this is not the norm and the older I’ve gotten the more and more I’ve seen the particular struggle that women face in all areas of life. I’m starting to think that just surviving as a woman might be the hardest job on the planet. JL: What advice do you have for young feminist artists? AH: You don’t have to play their game. Make your own. ABOUT ALLI HOUSEWORTH
Alli Houseworth is the Founder and President of Method 121, a company that curates audience engagement and social media strategies for theatrical organizations. Alli has ten years of PR and marketing experience that has straddled both the non-profit and commercial worlds. Having completed an MFA in Theatre Management and Producing from Columbia University, she has established herself as one of the industry’s experts in audience engagement and social media. For the last two years she has taught service mapping and social media to MFA Theatre Management and Producing candidates at Columbia in a course called Audience Engagement: In Line and Online. In 2009 she founded the TKTS Patron Service Representative program - a program which started with initial research at the TKTS location in Times Square - and now is a massive component of Theatre Development Fund’s programming. After founding the TKTS Patron Service Representative Program, Alli worked as the Marketing and Communications Director at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company where she was able to combine her love for audiences and social media with her love for new plays, and the new play development process. On Sunday, we heard from Heather Violant about her experience researching the Plays and Playwrights for Scenes by Historic Women Playwrights: Read by Luminaries of the Stage Here's a bit more about Heather and her life work: HEATHER J. VIOLANTI is a dramaturg and playwright. She currently works in Dramaturgy and Development for the Mint Theater, an Off-Broadway Theater devoted to bringing new life to lost plays. At the Mint, Heather has dramaturged productions of Love Goes to Press, Temporal Powers, A Little Journey (nominated for a Drama Desk for Outstanding Revival) and Susan and God. As a new play development dramaturg, Heather has worked with playwrights Leslie Kramer, Ethan Sandler, Pia Wilson, Beverly Andrews, and Maureen McManus. As a playwright, Heather’s work has been developed by New Perspectives Theatre Company, terraNova Collective and MusicalFare Theatre. She has an MFA in Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism from Yale School of Drama. Also, I had the opportunity to speak with Heather about working with the History Matters/Back to the Future Steering Committee and their efforts to bring this great event to DC. Enjoy! Interview with History Matters/Back to the Future Dramaturg: Heather Violante Jacqueline Lawton: History Matters: Back to the Future is an organization committed to introducing “women’s plays of the past in colleges and universities and theatres throughout the country and encourages responses to those plays from contemporary women playwrights.” What a magnificent mission! Brilliant, bold and absolutely necessary. Tell us, what do you feel contemporary artists and audiences can learn from these stories? Heather Violanti: Contemporary artists and audiences can be inspired by each of these plays and their authors—each play tells a compelling story and packs a powerful message. Angelina Weld Grimké responded to the bigotry of Birth of a Nation by writing Rachel, a powerful anti-lynching play that was performed by schools and little theatres across the country. Each playwright overcame incredible odds to write plays and have them produced. When Broadway producers turned down Trouble in Mind, Alice Chidress’s piquant comedy about an African-American actress cast in a “progressive” play that turns out to be anything but progressive—Chidress had it produced Off-Broadway at the Greenwich Mews Theatre. Trouble in Mind by Alice Childress uses satiric humor to tackle racism in American theatre in a way that predicts Meet Vera Stark by Lynn Nottage…it would be great to see these plays in rep today. JL: The selected scenes are really wonderful and from a body of plays that are rich, diverse, and compelling. Really, these women are exceptional writers! If you had to pick a favorite which would it be and why? HV: It’s hard to pick a favorite—I love them all! My favorite is Trouble in Mind because it’s so heartbreaking and devastatingly funny all at once—I wish I had seen the recent D.C. production. JL: Why is important to have as many plays studied, commissioned and produced by women as there are by men? HV: Women are over half the world’s population—if you don’t have plays by women, you miss half the world’s story—that’s something pointed out by Melody Brooks, Artistic Director at New Perspectives Theatre, where I am a member of the Women’s Work Lab. We don’t get the whole picture without women—and women’s plays can offer a distinct point of view that might get overlooked. Take Plumes by Georgia Douglas Johnson—it begins with two women in a kitchen, sewing—a domestic scene rife with precise details that bring home the despair and poverty of the characters—and their smalltalk quickly reveals the life and death struggle at stake. JL: Why do you think gender parity remains such a struggle in this country? HV: I think it’s hard to break the centuries old “old boys’ network”—and to break the mistaken perception that plays by women just aren’t as good or interesting. JL: What advice do you have for young feminist artists? HV: Be assertive in making your art, put yourself and your work forward, and don’t be afraid. Don’t compromise your artistic vision—if you have a big, bold idea, go for it! Tomorrow's the big day and I can hardly wait! We're going to hear from Alli Houseworth, who's been working hard to spread the word about Scenes by Historic Women Playwrights: Read by Luminaries of the Stage to the greater DC area!
Then, after teaching at the Smithsonian Associates summer camp, I'll be heading over to Dupont for a dinner and drinks with few fabulous DC women and then we're cabbing it over to Georgetown! It really doesn't get much better than this! When I first learned about Scenes from Historic Women Playwrights: Read by Luminaries of the Stage, I was excited! As an artist hungry to experience the work of great artists, as a race conscious feminist playwright, and as a black women living in DC, I knew this was an event that I had to attend. When I discovered that Jill Dolan was a part of the Steering Committee, I reached out to her immediately and told her I would be there. Then, I took to Google and learned as much as I could about both History Matters/Back to the Future and ATHE's Women and Theatre Program. But it wasn't enough. The dramaturg in me wanted to know more. I wanted to know how this amazing event came together. I wanted the Behind the Scenes as it were! And as luck would have it, these lovely, brilliant, and extraordinary women were more than happy to tell me. With all they have to do on any given day, they granted me an interview and I have it here for you now! Please enjoy! Jacqueline Lawton: Scenes by Historic Women Playwrights: Read by Luminaries of the Stage is an extraordinary, timely, and important event. The title alone makes me want to be there front row center! Thank you for bringing it to DC. Now, tell me, what role did you play in making it happen? Jill Dolan: Joan Thorne was the moving force behind this event. She’s been working on “History Matters” for years; I had my first conversation with her about it several years ago when I began teaching at Princeton. I believe I put Joan in touch with Jen-Scott and the other Women and Theatre Program people, since I felt that the WTP would be an excellent venue for doing the kind of educational work to which “History Matters” is committed. It’s turned out to be a happy partnership. This panel and reading at the conference in DC is the first public collaboration; I hope there will be many more. Jann Leeming: Meetings with other Committee members discussing mission and this event and budget. I'm a big supporter of Joan Vail Thorn who has been championing this project. When Joan asks for something, I say "yes". I provided much of the money needed to support the event. Helen Mills: I am a business person by training with a love of theater. I believe my contribution has been to offer a business person’s perspective as we developed our mission and set our goals. My fellow committee members each brought their unique gifts to the project. Each meeting and round of correspondence resulted in progress and, for me, a great education and joyful collaboration. Jen-Scott Mobley: You know, I can hardly say! I am currently Vice President of the Women & Theatre Program of ATHE (association for theatre in higher education). As an organization Women & Theatre promotes women in all areas of theatre from playwriting to directing to theatre for social change, feminist theatre activism, and of course, theatre studies in higher education. We are also home to the Jane Chambers Playwriting Award for student and professional feminist playwrights and our goal there is to promote contemporary female playwrights as well as female centered plays & roles for women through holding a yearly contest, giving out awards, and making sure the winning plays are read and circulated. So the Jane Chamber is kind of the “Future” in History Matters/Back to the Future. We want to facilitate more women writing and being produced. But, back to my role… Jill Dolan, one of the founding members of WTP connected Joan Vail Thorne and Jann Leeming and Ludovica and the rest of the History Matters crew to WTP knowing that there was organic cross-pollination between the groups and that we could facilitate History matters establishing themselves as an organization. We have an annual conference in conjunction with ATHE and we decided this would be the place for an inaugural event. The members of WTP are already invested in this mission and many of us are professors of theatre and directors and thus, we are in a unique position to help circulate this material and make it happen. We want our students to be exposed to the plays by women as a matter of course that many of us were not exposed to as undergrads. Click here to learn more information about WTP and Jane Chambers. Joan Vail Thorne: Having watched distressing statistical reports on the persistent disparity between men and women playwrights come and go for decades and having heard and felt the understandable and anguished complaints from contemporary women playwrights because of that disparity, I began to wonder if it might be directly connected to the glaring neglect of women playwrights of the past. I thought that perhaps if we could change some of the complaint to celebration of the classic women’s plays we might serve both the past and the future. Thus the title: History Matter/Back to the Future. I gathered a small but remarkable group of resourceful women that included Jill Dolan of Princeton who suggested that to serve our goal we might reach out to the WTP of ATHE, and they welcomed our idea of a “celebrity” reading of scenes from some of those plays. Ludovica Villar-Hauser: While I'd like to say that I played an important role in bringing about the wonderful event on August 1st in Washington, DC - I cannot. Joan Vail Thorn has put together an amazing team and has done the bulk of the work. I think my biggest role was simply being a part of tate team Sometimes coming up with ideas - much more in the background than I would normally be on a project. JL: You’ve selected dynamic scenes from a rich, diverse, and compelling body of plays. What do you feel contemporary artists and audiences can learn from these stories? Jill: In my decades of teaching and writing about women in theatre and performance, and in thinking about feminism, I’m struck again and again by how quickly history just disappears. Generations of students don’t know what’s happened 10 years prior; their historical knowledge seems to get ever shallower. The conversation about women in theatre history was begun by feminist scholars in the late 70s, but already, when we talk about the lack of progress for women playwrights and other theatre makers, we too often forget to put this struggle in an historical context. Our hope with “History Matters: Back to the Future” is that contemporary artists, students, and audiences will be excited by work from the early 20th century, and make connections among the themes and contents historical women explored and those still being addressed by current playwrights. We have a history—it’s important that we consider it a “usable past.” Jann: Everything. The stories of life from a female perspective. Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus has become a cliche for a reason. Men and women are different in the way they approach most things in life. Jen-Scott: I think the significance of established and up-and-coming female artists seeing their history cannot be under-valued. We take for granted that what we have been taught is our American theatre history IS the history and until recently, women’s work has been almost completely absent from that. Just as it’s valuable to look at an O’Neill play and trace his influence to Sam Shephard’s work, it is valuable to look at Rachel Crothers’s work and see her influence on—or make connections between—Wendy Wasserstein or between Mary Chase and Sarah Ruhl. Women are over half the population of the country and yet the majority of those telling our stories dramatically are still men, and certainly, for some reason, the plays written by men seem to be canonized in a way that women’s plays are not. These plays are part of our cultural history and women must be recognized in it. Joan: Contemporary artists and audiences can learn that great stories never stop “telling” and that they never stop being “telling” and that there are truly great stories to be told in the plays of the great women playwrights of the past. Women artists can be proud and confident that they are standing on the shoulders of giants who have been buried in the dust of an unjust and underserved neglect. Audiences can rejoice that buried treasure has been found and is there for them to enjoy. Ludovica: Knowing one's past helps us to better understand our present and, hopefully, to create a better future. I also firmly believe that we can learn from the failures and successes of others and that it is easier for us to know who we are if we know where we come from. Wouldn't it be fascinating to learn the history of women in the theatre from the beginning of time? Perhaps we'd find a quicker way to parity! JL: Why is important to have as many plays studied, commissioned and produced by women as there are by men? Jill: To me, this is about whose stories get told and how, and to whom. It seems a cliché now to insist that “diversity matters”—it’s become an empty statement, like a bumper sticker that everyone now ignores. But in practice, it’s still true and too often is realized. If only white middle-class heterosexual men are telling stories on stage, then American theatre is representing a tiny slice of its grandly differentiated population. If we hear new stories, we learn different ways of being in the world; we learn that other people have different values and traditions; we learn how we’re different and how we’re similar to one another. This is true in any representational medium, be it theatre, performance, dance, film, or television. How is narrating the story of our lives? Whose bodies do we see enacting these stories? What do they look like? In what spaces and places do they move? Do they challenge our ways of seeing the world? Do they affirm our differences or do they humiliate us? These are some of the questions provoked, for me, by yours. Jann: Female stories deserve to be told just as men's stories deserve to be told. Otherwise, the audience gets a very biased view of the way the majority of people in the world operate. There's a huge potential audience for female written plays. Most theater attendees are women, so financially for theater producers it makes sense to have women's play on stage. There's a ready market out there! (and I, for one am sick of only seeing men on stage!). Helen: We use theater to understand the human condition, which requires both the male and female voice in equal measure. Jen-Scott: US population is over 50 percent women but so many of our extant cultural texts are written by men. Why is Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman—a play largely about a fathers and his sons, an “American Classic” that speaks to all, but Marsha Norman’s ‘Night Mother is “feminist play” because it is about a mother and daughter and therefore would only be of interest to women? How can we be half the American family but our stories are not considered universal enough to be part of the American canon? Joan: Because one can’t respect or respond to what one doesn’t know! The works of women of the past aren’t known. Ignorance is loss not bliss Ludovica: Oh, my don't get me started PLEASE. Look around. The world is a mess. Don't you think that by including ALL of humanity in ALL phases and experiences we'd stand a better chance? I believe we need to start focussing on the things we have in common and forget about causing rifts by our apparent differences. We are missing out on SO much in life but excluding women. I'm a little more extreme than most of the team and believe that it is time for AFFIRMATIVE ACTION. JL: Why do you think gender parity remains such a struggle in this country? Jill: I don’t think the feminist movement ever achieved the success that the media proclaimed. Before feminism really got off the ground in the U.S., the media was declaring it a fad, a trend that had run its course. The public debate turned into one about whether or not women could “have it all,” which was an utter bastardization of the varied, nuanced, much more radical platform that 1970s American feminism advanced. As a result, American culture has really never done more than give lip-service to gender issues. Yes, Title IV has made a huge difference; yes, affirmative action has mattered a lot, as have a bunch of different policies and legislative initiatives. But on the whole, I don’t think American culture has given up privileging white hetero men as its power base and as the arbiters of taste and narrative. So much work remains to be done. Jann: Discrimination: There is discrimination everywhere in our culture. Men support other men in every way possible. It's comfortable for them to support each other. They speak the same language and have similar values and likes and dislikes. It may even be subconscious in some cases. And men are still in the majority when it comes to leading the government and companies of all sizes. Lack of support for families: The government and companies do not support families adequately. Every organization should have childcare facilities readily available to their employees and should be encouraging both men and women to take advantage of services offered. Women do not use their financial power effectively: Statistics show that in the US women control or influence how 75 to 80% of consumer money is spent. Men think "shopping" is a women's job. Women could change anything they chose to just by buying or not buying. Unfortunately, they don't use that power to reward or punish companies selling products and services to them. Helen: Gender parity is a struggle all over the world. It involves the sharing of power and decision making which is not easily achieved. Accomplishment paves the way and I think we are doing pretty well in this country considering women couldn’t even vote a short historical time ago. I am encouraged each day. Jen-Scott: I really don’t have a good answer for that. I don’t think men are “out to get us.” I just think traditions are profoundly ingrained in us. Culturally dictated behavior is deeply embedded and we still do not questions gender assumptions as much as we should. We still teach our kids gender behavior and make assumptions about male/female including the idea that women write differently –which in some cases may be true—female playwrights such as Suzan-Lori Parks, Paula Vogel, and Sarah Ruhl are pioneers of dramatic form. But because the forms may be innovative sometimes the assumption is that they are “not as good” as men. Joan: Why indeed?! Power if precious to those who hold it, and women only began to systematically oppose the power mongers about the time St. Joan was canonized. Ask more questions! Don’t live with worn out answers! Know that you were preceded by masters who were women. Celebrate that fact. Ludovica: From what I understand, a big section of this large country is still quite conservative. People are always afraid of change - afraid that things might become worse - transition is usually bumpy - but without change we will continue as we are and for many of us that is completely unacceptable. It's like ignoring the existence of a fertile section of one's garden but continuing to starve. Do you have any idea of what incredible potential we are missing out on? JL: What advice do you have for young feminist (theatre) artists? Jill: Be an artist and an activist. Know how to advocate not just for yourself and your own work, but for the whole project of women in the arts. Stay informed. Read American Theatre Magazine and make sure you subscribe to feminist blogs, so that you’ll know what’s going on not just in theatre but in the rest of the world (and not just the U.S. either). Read read read—read history; read plays by women from other countries; read plays by people who aren’t like you; go see everything you can. Develop your own analysis, and a sense of the particular contribution your art will make to culture. What stories are you telling? To whom? How? Be self-conscious about your choices. Art doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Find community with other artists and scholars and critics; extend yourself across media, so that you’re speaking with filmmakers and video artists and dancers, as well as theatre people of all stripes. Practice speaking to fundraisers—know how to pitch not just your projects, but the larger issue of women and their place in theatre and society. Be articulate and take every opportunity to get the word out. Jann: Keep talking, keep writing, keep telling the truth. Helen: Young feminist artists should get their plays before the public in whatever venue is available, no matter how small their budget or audience, not worry about the reception and keep at it. Jen-Scott: Find your community; don’t work in a vacuum; get support. This is why it is so great that History Matters is working with WTP who also works with “50/50 in 2020” and the “Legacy Project” headed up by Susan Jonas. We all have the same goals and we have more momentum as a group than as individuals trying to reinvent the wheel on our own. Support other female artists. See their work and teach their work. Talk to each other. And keep writing, keep directing, keep questioning. I actually am very optimistic that things have improved and will continue to improve for female theatre artists. Joan: Ask more questions! Don’t live with worn out answers! Know that you were preceded by masters who were women. Celebrate that fact. Ludovica: Well, for starters I'd say tell your friends and colleagues not to be afraid of the word "feminist" (A feminist is "an advocate or supporter of the rights and equality of women") - so many young people, I have found, are super uncomfortable with the term, are unaware of the issues - hence don't believe they exist - and probably won't realize until it's too late. Young feminists might think about supporting the works of women artists (there are many ways i.e. the Womens Project, Works by Women - join organizations which advocate for women artists such as the League of Professional Theatre Women and so on and so forth. Make sure that they are receiving the same pay as their male counterparts. Most importantly - keep on doing the work!!! Scenes by Historic Women Playwrights: Read by Luminaries of the Stage takes place on Wednesday, August 1 at 7:30 p.m. at the Davis Performing Arts Center’s Gonda Theatre (Georgetown University). This exciting and not-to-be-missed event is brought to you by the combined efforts of History Matters/Back to the Future and Women and Theatre Program. History Matters/Back to the Future promotes the study and production of women’s plays of the past in colleges and universities and theatres throughout the country and encourages responses to those plays from contemporary women playwrights. Scenes by Historic Women Playwrights: Read by Luminaries of the Stage is their inaugural event and is featured as part of the 2012 Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) annual conference. The Women and Theatre Program is a self-incorporated division ATHE. Founded in 1974, their mission is to bring theater professionals together with academics and activists. Also, WTP, in collaboration with ATHE, sponsors the Jane Chambers Playwriting Award. The continuing goal of WTP is to enable feminist inquiry and to provide opportunities for discussion between those who teach, perform, and theorize about feminism, theatre, and performance. The aforementioned luminaries of the stage are acclaimed New York-based actors Kathleen Chalfant, Maryann Plunkett and Tamara Tunie. And now, without further ado, please allow me to introduce you to the Steering Committee, the dynamic, extraordinary, and generous women behind this event! JILL DOLAN is the Annan Professor of English, Professor of Theatre, and the Director of the Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies at Princeton University. She is the author of The Feminist Spectator as Critic (1988), to be released in 2012 in an anniversary edition with a new introduction; Theatre & Sexuality (2010); Utopia in Performance: Finding Hope at the Theater (2005); and many other books and articles. Her blog, The Feminist Spectator, www.feministspectator.blogspot.com, won the 2010-2011 George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism. She received the 2011 Outstanding Teacher award from the Association for Theatre in Higher Education. JANN E. LEEMING graduated from the University of Rhode Island with a degree in Psychology/Business and Babson College with an MBA. She started her professional career with 8 years in the venture capital industry, investing in high technology companies located in New England. She left the institutional world of venture capital to start her own company to specifically invest in companies owned and operated by women, and served as CEO. Presently, Jann is a full time philanthropist and uses her investing, marketing, accounting and management expertise in supporting organizations in performing arts, education and the environment. She currently serves on the following non-profit Boards: The Little Family Foundation, Women’s (theater) Project, Celebrity Series of Boston, Mint Theater, and The League of Professional Theater Women. She is a proud member: "History Matters/Back to the Future", the initiative headed by Joan Thorn to get plays written by women included on college curriculums. “I supports initiatives like "History Matters/Back to the Future" because I support intelligent, hard working, smart women. It's what I’ve been doing since the days when she invested in companies owned and operated by women in the late '80s. I love theater and working with theater professionals. I am a non-apologetic feminist who knows how important it is to support deserving, entrepreneurial women financially." HELEN J. MILLS has over 30 years experience investing and managing real estate in New York and the surrounding area and has devoted herself as a volunteer to a wide range of civic and community organizations, both in New York and her native Kentucky. A lover of business and the arts, Ms. Mills co-founded in 2005 the Helen Mills Event Space and Theater, a special event venue in New York that hosts a variety of corporate, social, non-profit and arts events. A year earlier, in 2004, Ms. Mills founded offoffonline.com, an off-off Broadway listing and review website. Prior to co-founding her real estate business in 1979, Ms. Mills, a CPA, was a senior auditor at Arthur Young & Company (now Ernst & Young) in New York. Before joining Arthur Young in 1975, Ms. Mills was an auditor for the Internal Revenue Service in New York where she acted, first, as a collection officer and, then, as a revenue agent. Ms. Mills is also a member of the Board of Trustees of New York Live Arts, a live performance arts organization, as well as a trustee of the Baruch College Fund in New York. For the past ten years, Ms. Mills has served as a Union College board member with great pride and honor. JEN-SCOTT MOBLEY is a visiting professor of theatre at Rollins College and holds an M.F.A. in dramaturgy and theatre criticism as well as a Ph.D. in theatre studies. She is Vice President of the Women & Theatre Program of ATHE. As a performer, director, and dramaturg she has worked regionally and in NYC on material ranging from Sam Shepard to Shakespeare as well as new work by women. She has acted as the student coordinator as well as finalist judge for the Jane Chambers Feminist Playwriting Contest. Areas of scholarly interest include American theatre, feminist theatre, and the theatre’s position within culture and community. More specifically, I am interested in the female body in performance and in interrogating cultural constructions of fat in representation and the ways in which that intersect with questions of gender, class, race, and cultural attitudes in America. Jen-Scott is also an associate artist and member of the NYC-based White Horse Theater Company. JOAN VAIL THORNE is a director, playwright and librettist. She has directed for The Alley of Houston, Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., Dallas Theater Center, Emelin Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theater, Florida Stage, People’s Light & Theatre Company, and Women’s Project. Her plays include The Exact Center of the Universe, starring Frances Stenhagen, nominated for an Outer Critics Circle Award; The Things You Least Expect produced by George Street Theatre; The Anatomy of a Female Pope, workshopped by New York Theatre Workshop with Kathleen Chalfant. She was written opera libretti for composer Stephen Paulus: Summer, adapted from Edith Wharton, premiered by Berkshire Opera and The Woman at Otowi Crossing, premiered by Opera Theatre of St. Louis, and texts for narrator and orchestra, Voices from the Gallery and The Five Senses. Her screenplays include High Cockalorum and The Living, adapted from Annie Dillard, commissioned by CPB. She has also written and directed two short films, Last Rites, seen on PBS and Secrets, seen on Cinemax. Ms. Thorne has taught on the faculties of The Juilliard School, Pace University, Playwrights Horizons Theatre School of NYU. She is a member the Dramatists Guild, SSDC, The League of Professional Theatre Women and Women’s Project. LUDOVICA VILLAR-HAUSER's directing highlights include: Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night in London’s West End; 3 productions at The Edinburgh Fringe Festival; the premiere of Gregory Murphy's The Countess, which ran Off-Broadway for 634 performances and in the West End; Rona Munro's Bold Girls at the 29th St. Rep.; the premiere of Duet by Otho Eskin, a new play about Sarah Bernhardt and Eleonora Duse; the North American premiere of Leaves of Glass by Philip Ridley; and as part of Origin’s First Irish Festival's production of Derek Murphy's A Short Wake; As It Is In Heaven by Arlene Hutton, produced by 3 Graces Theater Co at The Cherry Lane Theatre. For The American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Enchanted April by Matthew Barber, from the novel by Elizabeth von Arnim (2010 Company) and The Heidi Chronicles by Wendy Wasserstein (2012 Company). www.directedbyludovica.com Tomorrow, I'll post more about the brilliant and talented Playwrights being featured in this event and you'll want to check back here on Monday to read the Behind the Scenes interviews of the Steering Committee!!
Recently, I was introduced to this poem by the great mystic poet Rumi: “Forget safety. Live where you fear to live. Destroy your reputation. Be notorious." Be notorious. This missive stayed with me. It haunted, excited and scared me. It comforted, confused and annoyed me. Then suddenly it occurred to me why all of these intense and mixed emotions had hit me all at once and plagued me so immensely. Be notorious is what I’d been told to do my entire life. When I was 8 years old, I told my Mama that I wanted to sing and dance and act on the stage. To my surprise, she was none too pleased and said something to the effect of, “No, I don’t want you to do that. The world doesn’t expect Black folks to be good at anything other than singing, dancing and acting a fool for them to laugh at.” Wait a minute, what? If it’s what I want to do and the world expects me to do it, then what’s the problem?!?! Color me baffled! Flash forward to the end of 5th grade: On the last day of school, I told my beloved teacher, Mrs. Link, that I would miss her over the summer and wanted to be a teacher just like her when I grew up. I smiled waiting for some sign of blissful and inspiring approval. Instead, she kneeled down to meet me at eye level and said, “No. Don’t become a teacher. You have too much to offer the world, far more than I ever did. Don’t waste it.” Wait a minute, what? You’re an amazing teacher! You’ve taught me all kinds of really great things! You’re nice, friendly and have such a bright and colorful room! Why wouldn’t you want me to be that to some other little kid someday?!?! Color me perplexed! Obviously, when my Mama and Mrs. Link shared these pearls of wisdom, they were coming from a place of love and, more importantly, from a deeper understanding of race, class, and gender politics of the world. Unfortunately, their well-meaning words were far too grown-up for my supple young mind to comprehend. And to be honest, it wouldn’t be until I attended college and graduate school at the University of Texas (UT) at Austin that much of what they were trying to say about being a Woman, being Black, and being a Black Woman started to make sense. It was at UT, that I studied with such amazing artists, scholars, and social activists as Jill Dolan (feminist scholar), Fran Dorn (actress), Amparo Garcia-Crow (playwright, director, producer and actress), Joni Jones (playwright and performance ethnographer), and Ruth Margraff (playwright). These women cracked open my core, shook things up, and poured me back into myself. They saved my life. They taught me that the very act of embracing, developing and standing up for my voice was a simple and necessary act of notoriety. One, that the world needed much more of, if we were ever to truly see progress for women and people of color. Today, I define myself as an artist, specifically a race conscious feminist playwright. When pushed toward social specificity, I’m a Black Woman Playwright. When pressed for political identification, I'm an African American Female playwright. And when faced with some hot mess patriarchal, sexist, racist foolishness, Imma Nigress, whose word is her sword: be warned! I say all of this to prepare you for what’s ahead. On Wednesday, August 1st at 7:30pm a revolution is coming to DC: History Matter/Back to the Future presents Scenes by Historic Women Playwrights: Read by Luminaries of the Stage at Georgetown University. Over the next several days, I’m going to introduce you to the Steering Committee, the brilliant women behind this event and the great work they’re doing in support and promotion of women playwrights. You'll get to read a Behind the Scenes Interview, meet the lovely Dramaturg and learn more about the amazing playwrights whose works are being featured. So clear your calendars, folks, and stay tuned! |
My BlogI'm a playwright, dramaturg, and teaching artist. It is here where you'll find my queries and musings on life, theater and the world. My posts advocate for diversity, inclusion, and equity in the American Theatre and updates on my own work. Please enjoy!
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