AMERICAN THEATRE: On Jan. 30, 2015, after a long day in rehearsals, Chicago actor Lori Myers posted the following on her Facebook page: “It is very discouraging to me to continuously hear stories of sexual exploitation concerning young women in our theatre community. These women were sometimes underage, manipulated, and traumatized. If your friend, sister, daughter, or coworker was working under a sexual predator—what would you do about it?”
5 comments:
It makes me disappointed that in such a creative and collaborative field and industry that is so built upon trust and comfort has problems of sexual harassment. It is great to see big names in the industry using their fame and nominal value to spread the word and create organizations in order to fight these terrible issues. Not in my House is A: An awesome name choice for this kind of organization and B: An amazingly fast growing organization doing great things and extending a greater sense of community within an already great one. By educating young actors and actresses in the new ways of the industry and keeping them safe in a completely new space. By keeping these newer actors educated in their general rights and safety keeps everyone more comfortable and safe, regardless of what the new kids think they are obliged to do. In summation, I love seeing movements like this in my industry and I can’t wait to see it keep growing.
I always say that I have a hard time thinking of a process as collaborative as theater, and anything that involves that many people inherently involves trust of the people you working for. My best friend who attends the University of Michigan for musical theater told me the other day that she had an hour long discussion in one of her classes about what she was allowed to refuse in an audition process. The fact that that conversation needs to happen at all is not only sad, but also terrifying. What is even scarier, and this is true of rape and sexual assault, is that women feel like they don't have the rights to stand up for themselves. That they have taught themselves to believe that being treated in an inappropriate way is just the way it is. I think we are moving in the right direction with this issue, and we have to teach people in power not to exploit it in any way, especially one that hurts people, but more than that we have to let victims of sexual assault know that they have the right to stand up for themselves. I love theater, but we have hidden this part of our industry for too long and it is long past time to fix it.
I think it’s so, so important for these issues to be openly discussed and addressed. You always hear about horror stories about sexism, and even blatant sexual assault, between actors and producers/ directors. In the theater industry, the implicit power dynamic between people in higher up positions vs. people auditioning/ interviewing for them is dangerous, and, I can imagine, difficult to maneuver as someone fresh out of theater school. Not to mention that so many young aspiring theater professionals simply need to find work (no matter what), so, many times, they don’t want to report an incident or speak up for themselves for fear of offending a professional, gaining a bad reputation, or going months without work. As the article says, this principle even applies to when a victim does speak up (“the stage manager walked away”); since it’s so difficult to find work, many people don’t want to risk their jobs by disrupting this delicate power dynamic. I haven’t even thought before about how union vs. non- union factors into this discussion, but the article raises many interesting points; just because an actress isn't union doesn’t mean she should be any more susceptible to being a victim. It’s a shame that we live in a society that tells women to be quiet and accept these sorts of things, but I think it’s great that there is progress being made to make a change in this epidemic.
I am so glad that this respected organization is finally putting an end to this being so hush hush. This of course will not put an end to sexual assault in the theatre world, but I really do think it will make everyone feel more safe. Safe in being close to other theatre professionals in a non assaulting way, and safe in the instance that a sexual assault does occur it can be brought to life. With some of my performing friends there is the mentality of that if I don’t do whatever this director or casting agent is telling me to do someone else will, so I better just do it. That mentality is so detrimental and I feel like it takes away from our craft. Maybe not in theatre so much, but in Hollywood so many people say “I wonder who she had to sleep with to get that role.” No one has to sleep with anyone, and everyone should feel comfortable outing anyone that demands they do.
Theatre is known for trust as someone else stated in the comments before. This does not mean that even the most minor event of sexual assault or harassment is acceptable due to the openness of the dressing rooms or backstage. Respect and professionalism is still something that needs to be present between cast mates and co-workers. I'm happy to know that there are strong efforts in stopping such acts to occur because it is scary when you can't even be comfortable in your workplace. A lot of these thoughts also come from rumors about the theatre industry, what it takes to get in, what you "have" to do to get the part. These rumors need to be absolved because it's putting false information in people's head about what is correct and what isn't. I'm very happy this organization is fighting against sexual harassment in theatre.
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