urban excavations: Women Without Men, the Off-Broadway offering from the Mint Theater opening Feb. 25, 2016 at New York City Center, offers an experiment among familiars: an all-female design team and all-female cast, most of whom have worked together on both prior projects and often together at the Mint. Members of the creative team — director Jenn Thompson, set designer Vicki R. Davis, sound designer Jane Shaw, costume designer Martha Hally, and dialect coach and dramaturg Amy Stoller — all offered some of their perspectives on the experience.
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It’s funny that so many entertainment productions that we see day in and day out have a team of all men/ almost all men, and no one bats an eye, but as soon as we see a production team of all women, it feels out of place and strange. A few years ago I saw a show in Boston that explored the relationships between women all under one roof, and up until then, I had never seen a show with an all- female cast. The only man in the show was one side- character who never talked, just played the piano in the “living room” of the house during certain scenes. It was strange to see a man as a supporting character amongst a cast of leading females. The default of man in our society is super duper prevalent, from our government systems to our TV and movies to the stage. The saddest part is that the lack of women working behind the scenes often goes unnoticed. An earlier article we read showed that only around 20% of theater designers are women (and that in the only design category that women dominate; costume design, men are still more likely to be hired than women). I’m so glad that there are productions like this happening that are normalizing the existence of women.
The end of Sasha’s comment on this article really hit home hard for me, that this production and those like it are “normalizing the existence of women” in theater. It’s such a strange thing to say but sadly very true. I really doubt there would be an article about this if it was an all male cast and team. Even here at CMU with shows like Anthony and Cleopatra and Milk Like Sugar that are supposed to be the stories of powerful women of color the design teams are still dominated by white males. The clearest example to me of how prevalent this issue still is in our industry is the fact that shows like this are still so noteworthy. Why is the presence of women in the entertainment industry still something we have to “normalize”? isn’t it time that we as a profession stop treating women as an anomaly rather than human beings?!
I think this article is a really neat example of what can be possible when theatre companies are more than just "open" to the idea of hiring all female teams and actually make this possibility a reality. I agree with article because it doesn't talk about putting down men in the business but kind just says 'why not?' to an all female team. They are simply providing an environment where women have the ability to be the majority. Like the article mentions,at the end of the day, Collaborators and Collaborators and the gender shouldn't really be such a big determining factor like it is today. I do think it interesting however, that Tompson observed changes in how things got done, “We stayed at the table longer, we didn’t set things in stone as quickly; we stayed in flux a little bit longer.”. Was this because of an all female team or because of the people involved? Lastly, I think the mission of the theatre to not only create work that many other neglect, but to make those works of art relevant.
Part of me is very happy that this show is happening and is a success. It makes me very happy also that the Mint helps facilitate women working with women and sees that as a good thing. But part of me is still frustrated, because part of me says, why isn't this normal?
There's a quote from Ruth Bader Ginsburg in which she is asked "How many women on the Supreme Court will be enough for you?" To which she says "Nine." The response is shock - how could she have said that, she wants women to take over, she hates men! But what she says next is the important part. She says something along the lines of "There have always been nine men on the Supreme Court, and no one ever batted an eye. Why would this be any different?"
That is my main frustration with feminism in the arts - I'm tired of waiting for this to just be normal. It's great we are celebrating this, but it also pisses me off that we have to. Why can't this be normal? Why is an all female team an anomaly? I mean, I understand why, but I'm just angry that things are the way they are. Thousands of cheers for this team and this theater. Let's make this normal.
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