Theatre Development Fund – TDF: When's the last time you saw five diverse women headlining a major play? I mean a group of actresses truly heterogeneous in terms of ethnicity, age, identity and even shape? Adina Verson (of Broadway's Indecent) never had until she was cast in Jen Silverman's Collective Rage: A Play in 5 Betties, currently running at MCC Theater. "I've never been in a room where we're all so different, body-wise and background wise, and our processes are so different," she says. "That's been real exciting."
3 comments:
I really enjoyed reading this article and learning about this show. I knew nothing about Collective Rage until I read this article but now I would love to learn more. I very much agree with what Verson said about how the entertainment industry is on its way to representing women better, but that being said, it is 2018 and it is still very hard to find an even representation of women of all different backgrounds and identities, and that makes me very disappointed in this industry. But reading articles about shows like Collective Rage where different kinds of women are being represented makes me very hopeful about the future. I don't know much about Off-Broadway productions, but according to Verson there are a lot of stories of different kinds of women being told in those shows, so I really want to look harder into the shows taking place Off-Broadway. Something that really excites me about this show is like Tran says, it is about 5 very different women who all share a common desire to go outside their "patriarchy-imposed boxes." I love the idea that people who are so different from each other can all share common thoughts and goals, this really expresses the idea that we all aren't that different after all.
This show really gave me more hope for the direction the theatre community is going in, as I had never heard of this play before I saw this article. I really believe that theatre is the best way to portray messages about issues in our society, to members of our communities. People feel and relate much more to issues they watch in a theatre, than they do listening to them on the news. The only other play I know of that stars five women, is Five Lesbians Eating a Quiche -- which is not nearly as diverse as Collective Rage. I love that Collective Rage has a cast that includes members that identify with sexualities and genders, as well as a racially diverse cast. I really loved what Verson said about starting her career in musical theatre, and how she described it as a "very boxy" industry. Overall, I really want to see this show because I think it has a really important message that needs to be shared.
I think this show is something different and new and exciting that might inspire other writer's to create more stories that are real. A lot of what is currently on and off broadway seems very fake, and although it might be good, is a little hard to relate to. This show seems more real, like the characters are people you could meet in an everyday setting. I agree that the entertainment industry is getting better with representation, but the baby steps they are taking are not enough when so many marginalized groups need representation. I think the concept of having five 'Betties' is really cool. It's not something I would ever have expected, but the characters are all so vastly different that their similarities are probably what makes the show interesting. They're all human, and so are we, and their experiences are ones we can see in ourselves. I think that what Verson said about how the industry has started to explore more people's lives is a great way to put it. The industry has started to explore the lives of those that are different, but they still need to do more.
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