Up the Sisterhood!
Mon, 6 Dec 1999, 03:51 pmWalter Plinge9 posts in thread
Up the Sisterhood!
Mon, 6 Dec 1999, 03:51 pmOK I have a question, one I hope will lead to intellegent discussion and not nasty fingerpointing and intellectual skullduggery.
If men are in such short supply in ameteur theatre, why don't more companies do plays for women? Indeed with the ratio of men to women you would think almost all of the plays out there would be predominantly female and yet they're not.
And before I hear the cries of "There are no plays written for women!!" how come Kim Shaw has managed to find brilliant ones for Blak Yak every year since our inception?
Riddle me that Batman!!
LEAH
If men are in such short supply in ameteur theatre, why don't more companies do plays for women? Indeed with the ratio of men to women you would think almost all of the plays out there would be predominantly female and yet they're not.
And before I hear the cries of "There are no plays written for women!!" how come Kim Shaw has managed to find brilliant ones for Blak Yak every year since our inception?
Riddle me that Batman!!
LEAH
Walter PlingeMon, 6 Dec 1999, 03:51 pm
OK I have a question, one I hope will lead to intellegent discussion and not nasty fingerpointing and intellectual skullduggery.
If men are in such short supply in ameteur theatre, why don't more companies do plays for women? Indeed with the ratio of men to women you would think almost all of the plays out there would be predominantly female and yet they're not.
And before I hear the cries of "There are no plays written for women!!" how come Kim Shaw has managed to find brilliant ones for Blak Yak every year since our inception?
Riddle me that Batman!!
LEAH
If men are in such short supply in ameteur theatre, why don't more companies do plays for women? Indeed with the ratio of men to women you would think almost all of the plays out there would be predominantly female and yet they're not.
And before I hear the cries of "There are no plays written for women!!" how come Kim Shaw has managed to find brilliant ones for Blak Yak every year since our inception?
Riddle me that Batman!!
LEAH
Grant MalcolmMon, 6 Dec 1999, 11:07 pm
RE: Up the Sisterhood!
Hi Leah
> And before I hear the cries of "There are no plays written for women!!" how come
> Kim Shaw has managed to find brilliant ones for Blak Yak every year since our
> inception?
As Kim and several others are proving on a regular basis, there are plenty of excellent plays with a surfeit of roles for women. In fact, a quick search of the ITA library shows that there are no less than 372 plays in the catalogue with roles for four women... and that's not counting plays with roles for 5 or more!
However, we all know that historically women have been under-represented on the stage. While there may be a growing collection of plays offering truly magnificent roles for women, there's still a very much larger group of very worthwhile plays that don't present much in the way of female roles.
I think personally it comes down to committment. Kim is clearly committed to searching out these new plays to take advantage of the pool of strong female talent present in her "community". This must require determination and focus; a focus on plays with strong female casts. Other directors will choose to focus on other priorities when looking at a script.
I've rarely based a choice of play on the ratio of gender opportunities presented. I'm not suggesting that Kim does, but i imagine it rates more highly as a priority for her than for me. I certainly consider the likelihood of being able to cast the major roles from the pool of available people - and this might sometimes sway me away from some of the testes fest's towards a strong female cast.
Another factor is undoubtedly a lack of familiarity with more recent plays providing more and better opportunities for women. The stories may be apocryphal, but how many directors do you know that choose to do a play because they have seen it done before? Like the proverbial chicken and egg, these plays might be performed more if people got to see them more often!
Cheers
Grant
> And before I hear the cries of "There are no plays written for women!!" how come
> Kim Shaw has managed to find brilliant ones for Blak Yak every year since our
> inception?
As Kim and several others are proving on a regular basis, there are plenty of excellent plays with a surfeit of roles for women. In fact, a quick search of the ITA library shows that there are no less than 372 plays in the catalogue with roles for four women... and that's not counting plays with roles for 5 or more!
However, we all know that historically women have been under-represented on the stage. While there may be a growing collection of plays offering truly magnificent roles for women, there's still a very much larger group of very worthwhile plays that don't present much in the way of female roles.
I think personally it comes down to committment. Kim is clearly committed to searching out these new plays to take advantage of the pool of strong female talent present in her "community". This must require determination and focus; a focus on plays with strong female casts. Other directors will choose to focus on other priorities when looking at a script.
I've rarely based a choice of play on the ratio of gender opportunities presented. I'm not suggesting that Kim does, but i imagine it rates more highly as a priority for her than for me. I certainly consider the likelihood of being able to cast the major roles from the pool of available people - and this might sometimes sway me away from some of the testes fest's towards a strong female cast.
Another factor is undoubtedly a lack of familiarity with more recent plays providing more and better opportunities for women. The stories may be apocryphal, but how many directors do you know that choose to do a play because they have seen it done before? Like the proverbial chicken and egg, these plays might be performed more if people got to see them more often!
Cheers
Grant
KimberleyMon, 6 Dec 1999, 11:43 pm
RE: Up the Sisterhood!
Finding good women's roles is one of the priorities for me, when I am looking for plays, but it is by no means the only one - I'm not going to propose "Mrs Smiggins and her Friends Enjoy Murder Over A Nice Cup of Coffee" just because it happens to feature twelve women....
The major reason that Women's roles are one of my higher priorities is because the "average" play has more roles for men - despite the fact that there seem to be more women in community theatre, and SOMEONE has to tip back the balance.
I am sitting here with this year's Finley Entries in front of me and at quick count the 'boys' are doing a lot better, roles wise, despite the fact that it was one of the best 'girls' years for a while.
(Good Plays for Women Actors this year including - Little Women, Jigsaws, Stepping Out, Five Women Wearing The Same Dress and Nunsence).
Another way to look it is, despite five plays with 80% female cast or higher, the men still were offered more roles in 1999, even though the pool of male actors is smaller.
Writing for Stage Whispers I see a heap of theatre and quite often I am asked if I can think of an actor who could fill a role that has gone uncast at rehearsal. In the past fifteen months I would have been asked for one woman's role (which was very specific) and maybe twelve or more men.
The true goddess of Theatre For Women Actors in Perth is Terry Hackett who after a plethora of strong women's plays is directing Dinkum Assorted which opens at KADS in February with FIFTEEN good roles for women !
Kimberley
(Acting in Dinkum and directing a 10 Woman Show for Blak Yak - July 2000)
.
The major reason that Women's roles are one of my higher priorities is because the "average" play has more roles for men - despite the fact that there seem to be more women in community theatre, and SOMEONE has to tip back the balance.
I am sitting here with this year's Finley Entries in front of me and at quick count the 'boys' are doing a lot better, roles wise, despite the fact that it was one of the best 'girls' years for a while.
(Good Plays for Women Actors this year including - Little Women, Jigsaws, Stepping Out, Five Women Wearing The Same Dress and Nunsence).
Another way to look it is, despite five plays with 80% female cast or higher, the men still were offered more roles in 1999, even though the pool of male actors is smaller.
Writing for Stage Whispers I see a heap of theatre and quite often I am asked if I can think of an actor who could fill a role that has gone uncast at rehearsal. In the past fifteen months I would have been asked for one woman's role (which was very specific) and maybe twelve or more men.
The true goddess of Theatre For Women Actors in Perth is Terry Hackett who after a plethora of strong women's plays is directing Dinkum Assorted which opens at KADS in February with FIFTEEN good roles for women !
Kimberley
(Acting in Dinkum and directing a 10 Woman Show for Blak Yak - July 2000)
.
Walter PlingeTue, 7 Dec 1999, 07:34 pm
RE: Up the Sisterhood!
Before I make my spurious contribution in this debate, let me first put
forward my credentials in this area...
Of the roughly ten plays that I have directed over the years, I think only
one of them had a female to male ratio of less than 40%, and that was
1female ,2male.
The rest have been roughly fifty/fifty, except Clare Boothe's "The Women",
with a cast of 22 female actors onstage.
This includes "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead".
Ros&Guil a play with a roughly equal cast I hear you say in derision?
Well, it is when you have a female Guildenstern, female Player King, female
Hamlet, female Alfred, and half the rest of the players female as well.
What I'm basically going on about is...
As far as I am concerned, any good actor can make a good showing at playing
someone of the opposite gender.
So why do directors contiually turn down really good female actors for male
parts in favour of moderately acceptable male actors?
Admittedly in some plays it could not really be done (a female Stanley
Kowalski?!)
But for most plays it doesn't really matter, so why not?
To pick some obvious examples... Linda Hunt in "The Year of Living
Dangerously", Quentin Crisp in "Orlando", Jay Davidson in "The Crying
Game"...
Need I say more!
If more directors were willing to take that leap of faith beyond their own
internal sexism (both male and female) I think they would be pleasantly
surprised.
I can still remember one of my favourite personal moments in theatre, about
ten years ago, playing the Countess in "The Marriage of Figaro", and
hearing from the foyer during interval...
"God, that woman playing the countess is ugly, isn't she!"
This would certainly go some small way to alleviating the dearth of parts
for female actors, and the dearth of male actors for parts.
Even then, its no replacement for directors just getting off their butts to
find NEW and DIFFERENT plays, is it!
Paul Treasure
forward my credentials in this area...
Of the roughly ten plays that I have directed over the years, I think only
one of them had a female to male ratio of less than 40%, and that was
1female ,2male.
The rest have been roughly fifty/fifty, except Clare Boothe's "The Women",
with a cast of 22 female actors onstage.
This includes "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead".
Ros&Guil a play with a roughly equal cast I hear you say in derision?
Well, it is when you have a female Guildenstern, female Player King, female
Hamlet, female Alfred, and half the rest of the players female as well.
What I'm basically going on about is...
As far as I am concerned, any good actor can make a good showing at playing
someone of the opposite gender.
So why do directors contiually turn down really good female actors for male
parts in favour of moderately acceptable male actors?
Admittedly in some plays it could not really be done (a female Stanley
Kowalski?!)
But for most plays it doesn't really matter, so why not?
To pick some obvious examples... Linda Hunt in "The Year of Living
Dangerously", Quentin Crisp in "Orlando", Jay Davidson in "The Crying
Game"...
Need I say more!
If more directors were willing to take that leap of faith beyond their own
internal sexism (both male and female) I think they would be pleasantly
surprised.
I can still remember one of my favourite personal moments in theatre, about
ten years ago, playing the Countess in "The Marriage of Figaro", and
hearing from the foyer during interval...
"God, that woman playing the countess is ugly, isn't she!"
This would certainly go some small way to alleviating the dearth of parts
for female actors, and the dearth of male actors for parts.
Even then, its no replacement for directors just getting off their butts to
find NEW and DIFFERENT plays, is it!
Paul Treasure
Walter PlingeTue, 7 Dec 1999, 11:52 pm
Speaking of Blak Yak
Where is Blak Yaks Web Site? There dosen't seem to be a link on the links page?
Jeff Asselin
Jeff Asselin
KimberleyWed, 8 Dec 1999, 08:39 am
RE: Speaking of Blak Yak
As you may have read Blak Yak have been more than usually busy lately and a little preoccupied.
One of the casualties has been our web site. Hopefully this will be rectified soon.
If you would like any specific information, I'm sure that we can email it to you.
Kim
One of the casualties has been our web site. Hopefully this will be rectified soon.
If you would like any specific information, I'm sure that we can email it to you.
Kim
Jeff AsselinWed, 8 Dec 1999, 09:16 am
RE: Speaking of Blak Yak
I mentioned to Leah if you get stuck with your web site please dont hesitate to contact me, I would be happy to assist (for free of course). Im on break at the moment and have a bit of time up my sleeve. Here are the last two sites I designed.http://auosa.qgl.org/
http://bajoran.upnaway.com/~comwize/
Jeff Asselin
http://bajoran.upnaway.com/~comwize/
Jeff Asselin
Jeff AsselinWed, 8 Dec 1999, 09:24 am
oops
If I confused you with those urls, here they are again....
http://auosa.qgl.org
http://bajoran.upnaway.com/~comwize
Looks like Grant has disabled the html for this phorum....
Cheers Jeff
http://auosa.qgl.org
http://bajoran.upnaway.com/~comwize
Looks like Grant has disabled the html for this phorum....
Cheers Jeff
Walter PlingeWed, 8 Dec 1999, 08:25 pm
RE: Up the Sisterhood!
Well what I'm about to say doesn't really have a heap to do with what everyone else is talking about..however...i went and saw Social Climbers the other night...it was fantastic...and cast of all females...twas fantabulous to see.
* * * * stars from me
Skybe
* * * * stars from me
Skybe