tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1355462829909877447.post7376170416540640352..comments2023-10-29T07:42:47.775-07:00Comments on Eric & Andy's Reviews You Can Iews!: The Guerilla Girls Annual Girlcott List, or, Please Get Back In The KitchenEric T. Roachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14277422149229298741noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1355462829909877447.post-30888203186783473022010-12-16T14:41:15.750-08:002010-12-16T14:41:15.750-08:00Yeah, this is not cool. Here's the comment I ...Yeah, this is not cool. Here's the comment I posted on their blog:<br /><br />As a female director and theatre artist I've got to defend a few of these Chicago theatre companies that I've worked with. I've personally worked with Oracle Theatre Company and Strawdog Theatre Company and found them to be incredibly supportive of empowering female artists at every position in a performance and production team.<br /><br />Oracle Theatre produced a show I created and directed 3 years ago, Show Game Live: from the Milky Way!, that was my original concept, my baby. I workshopped a partially improvised script with a group of actors and I directed. The cast was half female, the assistant director and costume designer were female. Currently, Oracle is in talks with my sketch group, SizeEight.net to be the Oracle "house team" for a regular late night spot. We are a sketch group of 3 women who write, direct, produce and perform all our own work.<br /><br />As you mentioned in another comment, nearly all of Oracle's scripts are by "(dead)" authors - if the writers of the scripts they are producing are dead, why does it matter what sex they are? It's not like a woman is being denied a script writing job. Polling the sex of dead members of the creative team seems a silly way to measure gender equality of live, employed artists in a particular season. Especially when there are so many live female artists actively involved in the very productions you are advocating a boycott of.<br /><br />I applaud your focus on pushing for gender equality in theatre - I agree that we aren't there yet - but I think you are picking the wrong point of measurement. A script author, especially dead ones, should not be the be all, end all measurement of a company's commitment to equality and should certainly not be the basis for something as extreme as a call to boycott.<br /><br />Thank you for starting this conversation and for your consideration of reevaluating your point of measurement.<br /><br />Katie Hawkey Swindler<br />Director, Size Eight Sketch ComedyKatie Swindlerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15176387606903887414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1355462829909877447.post-13705036126493001502010-12-16T13:00:25.844-08:002010-12-16T13:00:25.844-08:00Hank Boland Says:
Being a male playwright myself,...Hank Boland Says:<br /><br />Being a male playwright myself, I’ve made a huge sacrifice for female playwrights by not writing anything in the last five years or so. I was forgoing my livelihood to create an opportunity for their sake. I was trying to create a vacuum. <br /><br />Sadly, Tracy Letts filled the vacuum with AUGUST and DONUTS . To add insult to injury, he wrote a play about DONUTS! And if there is one way to get a guy to produce a show written by another guy, put DONUTS in the title. However, we may all take comfort in the fact <br />that he has a girl’s name, and that is a step in the right direction!<br /><br />I am sure they have their own reasons why they are an "anonymous theatre collective" where "each member performs under the name of a dead woman artist, and wears a gorilla mask to conceal her true identity". (God knows there are times I wished I had.) <br /><br />I am sure that every estate of each ‘dead woman artist’ has signed off on having their matron’s name co-opted into the collective so that living artists don’t have use their real names while they perform in Gorilla Masks. (Guerilla Girls, could you forward the transcripts of the negotiation with the estate of Ayn Rand, this is so up her alley.)<br /><br />Guerilla Girls, I don’t know if you’ve chosen the most 'transparent' or legitimate way to get a political statement across about something that is a real and critical issue in American and Global Theatre. But you’ve gotten our attention, whoever you are. <br /><br />I’d suggest that instead of writing lists, that this "anonymous theatre collective" write some kick-ass plays. Then submit them to the theatres on the list. Flood the market with works so good that they just have to be produced. It’s hard work, but you to have a collective, so you can split up the writing among all of you. <br /><br />Of course, being an ‘anonymous theatre collective’, you can’t take individual credit for the plays. Tricky. Because of that, no one would know that the plays were written by women. <br /><br />Because they are anonymous submissions, that means that the plays would be chosen by their artistic merit; or how they fit into the values and missions of each theatre; or if have the right casting for each company. <br /><br />So really, your kick-ass play… that just has to be produced… that I’m dying to read…I don’t care who wrote it, or what gender the playwright is.hanknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1355462829909877447.post-45604473497505026272010-12-16T10:28:26.579-08:002010-12-16T10:28:26.579-08:00Being a male playwright myself, I’ve made a huge s...Being a male playwright myself, I’ve made a huge sacrifice for female playwrights by not writing anything in the last five years or so. I was forgoing my livelihood to create an opportunity for their sake. I was trying to create a vacuum. <br /><br />Sadly, Tracy Letts filled the vacuum with AUGUST and DONUTS . To add insult to injury, he wrote a play about DONUTS! And if there is one way to get a guy to produce a show written by another guy, put DONUTS in the title. However, we may all take comfort in the fact that he has a girl’s name, and that is a step in the right direction!<br /><br />I am sure they have their own reasons why they are an "anonymous theatre collective" where "each member performs under the name of a dead woman artist, and wears a gorilla mask to conceal her true identity". (God knows there are times I wished I had.) <br /><br />I am sure that every estate of each ‘dead woman artist’ has signed off on having their matron’s name co-opted into the collective so that living artists don’t have use their real names while they perform in Gorilla Masks. (Guerilla Girls, could you forward the transcripts of the negotiation with the estate of Ayn Rand, this is so up her alley.)<br /><br />Guerilla Girls, I don’t know if you’ve chosen the most 'transparent' or legitimate way to get a political statement across about something that is a real and critical issue in American and Global Theatre. But you’ve gotten our attention, whoever you are. <br /><br />I’d suggest that instead of writing lists, that this "anonymous theatre collective" write some kick-ass plays. Then submit them to the theatres on the list. Flood the market with works so good that they just have to be produced. It’s hard work, but you to have a collective, so you can split up the writing among all of you. <br /><br />Of course, being an ‘anonymous theatre collective’, you can’t take individual credit for the plays. Tricky. Because of that, no one would know that the plays were written by women. <br /><br />Because they are anonymous submissions, that means that the plays would be chosen by their artistic merit; or how they fit into the values and missions of each theatre; or if have the right casting for each company. <br /><br />So really, your kick-ass play… that just has to be produced… that I’m dying to read…I don’t care who wrote it, or what gender the playwright is.Hanknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1355462829909877447.post-19702461860576297282010-12-16T10:06:54.121-08:002010-12-16T10:06:54.121-08:00Being a male playwright myself, I’ve made a huge s...Being a male playwright myself, I’ve made a huge sacrifice for female playwrights by not writing anything in the last five years or so. I was forgoing my livelihood to create an opportunity for their sake. I was trying to create a vacuum. <br /><br />Sadly, Tracy Letts filled the vacuum with AUGUST and DONUTS . To add insult to injury, he wrote a play about DONUTS! And if there is one way to get a guy to produce a show written by another guy, put DONUTS in the title. However, we may all take comfort in the fact that he has a girl’s name, and that is a step in the right direction!<br /><br />I am sure they have their own reasons why they are an "anonymous theatre collective" where "each member performs under the name of a dead woman artist, and wears a gorilla mask to conceal her true identity". (God knows there are times I wished I had.) <br /><br />I am sure that every estate of each ‘dead woman artist’ has signed off on having their matron’s name co-opted into the collective so that living artists don’t have use their real names while they perform in Gorilla Masks. (Guerilla Girls, could you forward the transcripts of the negotiation with the estate of Ayn Rand, this is so up her alley.)<br /><br />Guerilla Girls, I don’t know if you’ve chosen the most 'transparent' or legitimate way to get a political statement across about something that is a real and critical issue in American and Global Theatre. But you’ve gotten our attention, whoever you are. <br /><br />I’d suggest that instead of writing lists, that this "anonymous theatre collective" write some kick-ass plays. Then submit them to the theatres on the list. Flood the market with works so good that they just have to be produced. It’s hard work, but you to have a collective, so you can split up the writing among all of you. <br /><br />Of course, being an ‘anonymous theatre collective’, you can’t take individual credit for the plays. Tricky. Because of that, no one would know that the plays were written by women. <br /><br />Because they are anonymous submissions, that means that the plays would be chosen by their artistic merit; or how they fit into the values and missions of each theatre; or if have the right casting for each company. <br /><br />So really, your kick-ass play… that just has to be produced… that I’m dying to read…I don’t care who wrote it, or what gender the playwright is.Hank Bolandnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1355462829909877447.post-30879599675319071202010-12-16T10:00:32.843-08:002010-12-16T10:00:32.843-08:00And has anyone told them that Chicago Shakespeare ...And has anyone told them that Chicago Shakespeare is run by a woman?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1355462829909877447.post-17579013927596775712010-12-16T08:58:00.042-08:002010-12-16T08:58:00.042-08:00Wow, the Chicago Shakespeare Theater made it onto ...Wow, the Chicago Shakespeare Theater made it onto the same list twice!Joe Thttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02086602511733052207noreply@blogger.com