Stage | The Guardian: Theirs was a secret space. In the early 1970s, Molly Smith and her sister Bridget attended weekly women’s consciousness-raising sessions in a friend’s living room near Washington’s Catholic University. They read books such as Our Bodies, Ourselves, a groundbreaking text about women’s health and sexuality. Sitting on cushions, the circle of women listened to one another, laughed and cried and shared their deepest secrets.
2 comments:
The title of the article says it all: My Body, No Choice. The theatre is and has always been a place to fight back against issues and things that are unfair in the world, and the Supreme Court’s decision on Roe v Wade is certainly at the top of that list of things to fight. It is important in general for women to have space at this troubling time to speak about how they feel and what they need without feeling any shame or judgment from voices who might do so. Women have lost a lot of autonomy and there is a huge fight to get it back and it will be a long uphill battle to get to that point. Many women outside of the theatre have been sharing stories about their decisions to have abortions whether it was to save their life, it was an unwanted pregnancy, or any other number of reasons. These stories are so important and need to be shared now more than ever.
Whenever I’m angry or upset, I often think about how I could turn that into art. When I’m happy and excited, I often think about how I could turn that into art. Art is POWERFUL. I think using theatre to describe a woman’s choice to have an abortion is an amazing way to do so. It’s a way of being educated for entertainment purposes. This play is also nonfiction which I think is perfect to describe why a woman should have abortion rights. These are true stories. These are real women having real experiences. This is all happening!!! Taking this to the stage is a wakeup call for some. It’s a way to sit people down for an hour/hour and a half and show them what is happening. I also love the interactive lobby display. It’s especially meaningful for theatregoers when they can feel included in the show.
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