As the deadline for submission to our Evening of Original One Act Plays slowly approaches, I am thrilled to be able to announce that we have enlisted the talents of three incredible directors, all of whom have presented works that I respect very much. As we enter into National Women’s History Month, I am thrilled to be able to announce that all three of our enlisted directors are female. In the coming weeks, we will be sharing with you their thoughts and commentary on the current gender disparity in the theatre and other sectors of the artistic world, as well as their own reflections on past theatrical endeavors. Although many major theatre companies around the world have announced promising statistics or plans to drastically improve gender and racial representation in their programming (possibly most significantly, The National Theatre in London aiming for gender parity by the year 2020), and numbers of productions written or directed by women or persons of color are slowly on the rise, sadly, the theatre, as so many other job markets, is still dominated at all levels by white males. I have heard plenty of arguments against gender and race equality initiatives (as I’m sure many of us have), claiming that positions should go to the most qualified candidate, regardless of race or gender. These closed-minded arguments usually drone onward, citing "reverse racism" and “meninism” to argue that, with these initiatives in place, eventually white males will struggle to find work. These arguments cannot be given validity because they suggest that white males dominate the work force simply because they are the most qualified candidates for the jobs for which they apply. There are countless examples consistently presented by the media negating this idea.
In her 2014 play, Straight White Men, Young Jean Lee raises questions as to whether, in an attempt for social progress, a white male can do anything aside from stepping down and allowing a person of another gender, race, or ethnicity to take his place in power. Does the appointment of a white male to a position of power innately constitute an affirmation of dated societal structure? As a white male serving as a theatrical artistic director in today’s society, the size of the theatre company in question does not matter. If we want to see change in representation and employment in the theatre, even small companies, like Artists from Suburbia, have a responsibility to ensure that diversity is a factor assisting in determining who we enlist to work on our projects and what projects we choose to undertake. At the very heart of the theatre lies the desire to share our stories. Even as we take on works that have been presented for centuries, we approach them with a fanny pack full of our own opinions and statements about the world in which we live. It is the prerogative of the director, the designers, and the actors to serve as the intersection between playwright and audience. Why should we, as artists, serve as middle-men, taking what Euripides, Shakespeare, or Arthur Miller serve to us and regurgitating it to an audience like an over-heated clump of unchewed food; trying to spit it out of our mouths as quickly as we can? We cannot help ourselves. We naturally scrounge for connections and look for ways we can help our audience understand what we have understood in the text. Suddenly, Medea becomes a feminist icon, Henry V becomes a critic of the Vietnam Conflict, and Abigail Williams takes a stand against our reliance on social media. Although these interpretations sometimes go too far, without even trying to, any time we stage a production, we subvert the text with messages about our views on the world. In this way, the theatre has presented us with a living scrapbook, documenting snapshots of moments in the history of civilization. Artists from Suburbia’s premiere production of The Witches was an ideal snapshot of the community that came together to present it. Amongst our cast and crew were actors who continually work professionally all over the south shore, recent college graduates who have just begun their professional theatrical careers, high school students who have been involved in the theatre programs at their schools, performers who have made a second life starring in community productions, a Shakespearean actress, a banjo-playing aspiring chef, a Muppets-enthusiast, and a woman who had never been on stage before in her life. Although we set out to tell the story of a boy who, after being turned into a mouse, manages to conquer all of the witches in England, it wasn’t until I spoke to an artistic director (whose work I greatly admire), that I realized how much our production revealed about the artists who had collaborated to bring it to life. As we spoke after the closing Sunday matinee, we discussed the absolutely fascinating phenomena that was this diverse cast. An interesting story unfolded as classically trained voices were heard juxtaposed against the dance moves of a rag tag ensemble from the surrounding suburban towns. Professional quality puppets found themselves weaving amongst set pieces that had been salvaged from the side of the road. Two young men animated a grandmother puppet as an actress within the age-range to portray a motherly figure donned a pink wig and took on a villainous role. The story we told was enhanced by the diversity of the cast who presented it. Every artist brought their own voice to the work, a voice which, like it or not, is inevitably informed by the life the individual artist has lived. In our society, we cannot deny that we walk through life differently based on our race, gender, and set of beliefs. By incorporating artists who represent a variety of lifestyles and backgrounds, our productions and our art form are strengthened. We allow our stories to reach a wider audience when we allow those stories to be interpreted and retold from a wider range of viewpoints. I am thrilled that, of our three directors, none comes from the same history of experience. While one has been directing for over thirty years, another has just ventured into the world of directing, and a third will be making her directorial debut with Artists from Suburbia. Each of them will bring their fanny packs of opinions to these stories, seen through an individual lens informed by their work as artists, their training, their economic situation, their religion (or lack thereof), their race, their gender, and countless other factors that make us each individuals. Both artistic and non-artistic experiences will inform the decisions they make in interpreting local playwrights' works. It is important that theatrical productions are presented by artists who represent a wide spectrum of backgrounds because it is then that they can speak to a wider audience. Andrew Child serves as artistic director for AfS. He is currently producing our Evening of Original One Act Plays.
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AuthorBlog posts are written by various members of Artists from Suburbia's productions and staff. Archives
July 2017
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