Female Playwrights in the Age of Trump

Former SWP Writers-in-Residence Kristin Slaney,

Annette Storckman, and Elle Anhorn

We reached out to our past Spicy Witch Writers-In-Residence to discuss their thoughts on what it's like to be a female playwright in our current political climate. It came as no surprise to us that these talented women were extremely articulate and insightful regarding the complex mix of rage and hope that fuels their work. Below are their collected reflections, we hope you enjoy and invite you to continue the conversation with us this April 6-15th, when our 2018 Writer-In-Residence Iris Dauterman brings her perceptive voice to the Spicy Stage. 

Tickets are available here!

“Since the 2016 election I’ve gotten a lot angrier, which has for sure factored into my work. I have a tendency to write about the things that bother me, and (regrettably) it’s been a year full of those things. In terms of considering how theatre can effect change, I think theatre always has the ability to connect people on a human level. Lately I’ve also noticed theatres collecting money for causes other than themselves-- Youngblood, a playwriting group I’m a part of through EST, regularly hosts monthly short play events, and the tip jar from the bar is then donated to a particular cause that month. I’ve also encountered several theatres who collected donations for Puerto Rico hurricane relief, so I feel like there are also ways that theatres have been also considering how theatre can effect change aside from just the content onstage.”

- Kristin Slaney, SWP Writer-In-Residence 2017

“When Trump was elected, I heard a lot of artists, including artists I really respected and admired say, “Well, at least the art will be great.”

My blood still boils when I think about this. The death of children at the hands of nut-jobs who have no business owning an AR-15 is not worth that really good punk song, Debra. A desperate woman douching with bleach to try and induce a miscarriage because there are no abortion clinics within 300 miles of her is not worth that biting piece of satire, Brenda. A policeman who walks free after outright murdering a black teenager for no other reason than s/he was born black is not worth that stunning novel, Steve. It’s not. It’s not worth it. 

I understand why people said this. There’s this pervasive idea (which I do not subscribe to) that great art can only be made in the burdensome, hot kiln of adversity. People who said this think masterpieces will be made because artists will suffer. One does not need to suffer in order to create beauty, but, when we suffer we need beauty. As my Dad said to me the day after the election, “it’s so important, now more than ever, that we are artists. Because we are truth-tellers.”  As artists, we have a responsibility to other people to tell stories, and tell the truth the only way we know how. 

I always knew that the comedy in my plays was the most truthful thing about them. Comedy topples regimes. If you can laugh at the Dictator, you’ve taken his power away. I know that as long as we critique responsibly, and laugh loudly, we will ultimately make it through this. And now, producing art that gives relief has given me purpose. That’s my skill: I can make people smile. But even more specifically than bringing lightness into the world, I realize I have to make the angry ladies who self-identify as witches laugh. My backlash against this wanna-be-authoritarian was to realize that my stories are other women’s stories, and they have value. So, as long as people let me, I have a duty to tell them.” 

- Annette Storckman, SWP Writer-In-Residence 2016

‘I think that the silver lining to this current political climate – if there is, in fact, a silver lining to be found under this extremely dark, scary, life-ruining storm cloud – is that we the theatre-makers have been gifted a sense of urgency. Extreme urgency.
To be driven to create something good enough to show other people, there must be a ticking clock beside you as you write (at least for me). When it feels like you need to say something now rather than later, that’s when creating something new and honest feels easy.
            As a female; as an immigrant (albeit one from a very solid “backup country”); as a queer, and as an artist, I feel that with every headline and every attack, every insult and injury, our resolve is only strengthened. It is up to us to project a different message than the one being broadcast to the country right now by this administration. It has been inspiring at a time when inspiration is hard to come by to see my friends and fellow artists, my oh-so-talented peers from marginalized communities use this moment as a chance to define (or redefine) their identities and perspectives with more passion and specificity than they might have done before.
“No, actually, this is what’s important. This is my experience, and this is a story that deserves to be told – now, not later.
This is who I am.
This is what I’m worth.”’

-Elle Anhorn, SWP Writer-In-Residence 2015

Q&A with 2017 Writer-in-Residence, Kristin Slaney!

Season Director and Spicy Witch, Phoebe Brooks sat down (virtually) with Spicy Witch 2017 Writer-in-Residence, Kristin Slaney to chat about inspiring ladies, imaginary fights, and more!

1. Which famous artist would you prefer to paint your portrait?

My first thought was Shia LeBoeuf, and I’m sticking with that answer. #thebeef

2. What does "Witchiness" mean to you?

My friends and I have essentially been referring to ourselves as witches since we were teens. I think it was largely because we were considered weirdos and witch-ness spoke to that, in addition to our all-the-time obsession/interest in magic. To me, witchiness means a bond between ladies (covens always appreciated), a sense of community, a sense of love, a sense of anger, a sense of aggression, a sense of agency.

3. In the cage match of Schiller vs. Slaney, who would win?

I’m at least a hundred percent more alive than him, so I assume me. Also because I’m actually very tough. *flexes in order to demonstrate*

4. As a Canadian, you're more familiar with Queens than we are. How would you explain royal sovereignty to an ignorant American?

In England there have been these different families, and somehow these families have convinced other people that they were divinely chosen to rule. Which has had interesting setbacks, like: inbreeding! And war! And now their faces appear on Canadian money, along with such prominent figures as “a loon” or “two polar bears”. 

British monarchs also own these very short dogs. Upon googling “british royalty and corgis” just now I learned that Queen Elizabeth received her first corgi in 1933, and that corgi’s name was Dookie. 

5. Who is a Glass-Ceiling Smashing Lady whom you admire?

Lynn Nottage just won the Pulitzer Prize for the second time, so I’m going to go ahead and say her. She’s the first woman to win the Pulitzer twice and the first playwright of colour to win twice. Lynn was one of my playwriting teachers at Columbia and also my thesis mentor, and generally I just learned so much from her about being a playwright and also just a human who is more than just theatre.

6. If you were trapped on a desert island, which three office supplies would you take with you?

I would construct a raft made purely of scotch tape, pencils, and those yellow legal pads.

7. It's been a particularly hard year to be female. What music/art has been helping you through? 

I’ve been listening to Patti Smith's Horses album a lot. I’ve been going through a two-year long love affair with Riot Grrrl music, so that’s really only strengthened since certain “people” started running the country. Lemonade (From “Hold Up” to “Sorry”) has also been a go-to of late. I’ve also just been reading a lot of nonfiction these days.

8. Could this meeting have been an email?

Or should this EMAIL have been a MEETING…???


Want to hear more of Kristin's wonderful words? Buy tickets to her play, COULD THIS MEETING HAVE BEEN AN EMAIL here ($20. April 21-30 at the Clemente). Want to see her play along with Mary Stuart, the classic from which is adapted? Season passes are available here for just $30!

Who Is The One Who Sets The Bones?

Spicy Witch Productions is thrilled to welcome aboard a new directorial face this spring, the talented Anaïs Koivisto! Before Anaïs jumps into auditions for Annette Storckman's Bonesetter: A Tragislasher, the Witches tracked her down to find the essential ingredients in the magical cauldron that is her brain. Here are a few of our favorite tidbits. Here are a few of our favorite tidbits!

Q: What is the first show you remember seeing?

A: The Tempest. My dad's an actor (or was, he's mostly retired now). One of my very earliest memories is watching him in The Tempest at intermission. The director's concept had Prospero summoning a volcano during intermission. I remember him standing on stage with robes and a staff and theatre-magic lava flowing behind him. There was definitely a point in my life when I legitimately thought my dad could summon volcanoes. I was  a pretty well-behaved child.

Q: Whom would you like to throw a tomato at?

A: Oh God. Can I say Trump? Is that too political? Can it be monkey poop instead of a tomato?

Q: What would be a No-No in Noh Theater (We know you've studied it bunches)?

A: This is so exciting! No one has ever asked me about Noh before and it's just been sitting there on my resume forever waiting for someone to notice. Serious answer: movement without purpose. Less serious answer: wearing your mask out in public and freaking out the locals and/or tripping over your kimono when you're performing as a Kōken.

Q: Which planet (other than earth) would be your ideal setting for Hamlet?

A: Obviously Pluto, right? In that Pluto used to think it was a planet but now it's not. Just like Hamlet used to think he was going to be a king but now his mom is almost certainly going to get knocked up again if he doesn't go ahead and kill everyone else before it happens?

Q: What is your favorite spice?

A: Allspice. Why pick one when you can have all of them? (I can almost guarantee I'm copying someone else's answer here, but I'm going for it anyway.)

Spicy Witch Production's Spring Season pairs Bonesetter: A Tragislasher (World Premiere) directed by Anaïs Koivisto with Thomas Middleton's The Revenger's Tragedy as newly imagined by Spicy Witch Artistic Director, Becca Weiss. Auditions are coming up the first weekend in March and the shows run together in Repertory this May 2016!

Want to know more about this awesome lady? Here's a blurb:

Anaïs Koivisto is absolutely thrilled to get this chance to work with Spicy Witch Productions (and can't wait to get started figuring out how to scare the $%&# out of our audiences). Previous directing credits include The Dispute, The Roaring Girl, Heart of Oak, A Map to Somewhere Else,Something Wicked, Briar Rose & the Thirteenth Fairy, It’s Just the Radio, and Erik Ehn’s The Saint Plays. She has directed for Seiche Productions, Looking Glass Theatre, 3V, and CORE Artists' Ensemble. Anaïs is the Artistic Director and co-founder of Everyday Inferno Theatre Company, holds a BFA from Boston University and has studied at LAMDA and ACT, is a New York Affiliate member of Seiche Productions, and has served as a member of (Re:) Directions Theatre Company and the Theatre Artists’ Conspiracy. www.anaiskoivisto.com

Q&A with 2016 Writer-in-Residence, Annette Storckman

To ring in the new year, Spicy Witch Productions sat down for a little Q&A with our 2016 Writer-in-Residence, Annette Storckman, to chat about her upcoming play, Bonesetter: A Tragislasher, adapted for Spicy Witch Productions from The Revenger's Tragedy. Read on to learn about Annette's decision to adapt The Revenger's Tragedy; her creative opinions on blood; and her historical marry, boff, kill.

Q: Bonesetter is part Tragedy, part Slasher play. In your opinion, what is the most theatrical Classic Slasher Flick?

Oof, hard question right out of the gate. I'd say, Hellraiser 3. Sorry-- the Hellraiser movies are not technically slasher movies.
Okay, classic slasher movie.... the most theatrical would be Nightmare on Elmstreet. The Spicy Witch girls know I have a thing about this movie, but between the claws, the getting lifted into the air and slashed to death, and just the larger-than-life attitude of the film, I'd say it's the most theatric.

But ...... Hellraiser 3. 

Q: We love your mature writing but we all started somewhere. Have you ever written something you're not proud of, something that could be deemed "tragic"-ally bad?

Oh, yes definitely. When I first decided I was going to focus on playwriting in college, I was working closely with this one professor on researching "black masking" (mainly black face minstrelsy, with a focus on the relationship between the Irish and the Black community between the US and England). As part of this research, we were workshopping little scenes about the Lower East Side, which we were also trying to do with the Tenement Museum. Anyway, my writing at that time was far from mature (the internalized knowledge of how to tell a story, for example, was nonexistent), and in writing a small race relations play like that made me go pretty saccharine. It was about this Irish family doing their laundry with a family from the Indies. We rehearsed and filmed some of it with professional actors, and I'm amazed any of them still speak to me because that scene was amazingly terrible. I was going for "laundry = learned tolerance", what I got was vomit inducing babble. 

Q: What is a TV show you plan to start watching?

Fargo! I hear it's awesome!

Q: If blood weren't red, what new color would you change it to?

Blue. Blood should always be a primary color, and if blood were blue we might be able to dismantle our bloated class structure. Right?? RIGHT??? [yes, I know the phrase "blue blood" probably wouldn't exist if people already had blue blood. What do you want from me? PERFECTION? I guess they'd say "red blood" for royals, and it would be crazy. You ever seen that Doctor Who episode about parallel universes???.... *babbles for days*]

Also blue blood would just LOOK good. 

Q: Who is a playwright you admire?

So many! Tom Stoppard was a big influence for me when I first got very into playwriting (he's also the reason my fiancé and I ever really spoke to each other, so thanks Tom!). But I'm in love with Martin McDonagh. I don't want to shock you, but I love humor and horror in the same piece. I think he's hilarious and a darn good yarn-spinner. "The Pillow Man" should be a bible for anyone who wants to know how to construct a story. But all of my favorite new plays are by Annie Baker (who made me feel okay about being a slow writer), Amy Herzog, Anne Washburn and Sarah Ruhl (the heavy hitters). 

Q: How did you first come across The Revenger's Tragedy ?

Funny enough, I came across it when trying to decide what piece to adapt for Spicy Witch. I knew I wanted to explore horror in Jacobean tragedies, but I didn't know which tragedy. So, I started listening to Oxford lectures on Jacobean theatre, and came across The Revenger's Tragedy that way. I got both a synopsis and an academic breakdown of the story before I'd even read it. Once I did [read it], and put the whole synopsis>analysis>personal reading together, I knew it was perfect. It's such a weird play!

Q: If you had to remake Nightmare On Elm Street as a children's story, how would you do so?

Definitely something like a Grimm's Fairy Tale, because of all the dream sequences. Though pretty much everyone would still die, Nancy would be able to save Johnny Depp, and they would live happily ever after. Total huntsman and red riding hood style.

Q: Boff, Marry, Kill: Thomas Middleton, William Shakespeare, John Fletcher?

Boff Thomas Middleton, Marry Shakespeare (duh-- honestly I wish I could justify kill, just to be original), and Kill Fletcher. Sorry Johnny.

Q: Which Spice do you most identify with?

Cinnamon. It's hard to swallow raw, but add some food, tea or booze and it goes down real smooth.

Q: Have you ever attended a Witches Sabbath?

No. There were a couple Wiccan things I wanted to attend when I worked at the New York Renaissance Faire in high school, but I wasn't allowed because I was but a babeh. I did, however, believe I was a witch when I was 13, and thought I could hex people, fly, and talk to the dead, so does that count?

Q: What can people look forward to at SWP Staged Reading of Bonesetter on January 8th @ 7pm?

The look on my face as I anxiously await their approval. 

Just kidding-- you can expect blood and yuks! And also the anxious look on my face.

Q: What would Bonesetter's New Years Resolution be?

Revenge. Duh. 

Spicy Witch Productions is hosting a developmental reading and fundraiser for Bonesetter: A Tragislasher on January 8th at 7pm! Join us to see this work in its development, participate in an exclusive Q&A with Annette, and enjoy complimentary drinks and hors d'oeuvres with The Witches. Tickets are $20 and going fast, grab yours here today!

Masculine Women! Feminine Men!: Exploring fluidity in a sex farce - by Phoebe Brooks

I find one of the most confounding and exciting conceits in William Wycherley’s The Country Wife to be when the over-protective Mr. Pinchwife dresses his wife, Margery, in menswear in an attempt to shield her from the advances of his rival, the rakish and dashing Mr. Horner. Horner, undeterred, takes the opportunity to make out with Margery in front of her husband, undermining Pinchwife’s plan. I was struck by how Queer this scene is. Two “men” kissing onstage multiple times in front of voyeurs? A woman considered more attractive when she is cross-dressing? Smooching a character whose very manhood is in question, and LOVING IT? Through this scene the play began to crystalize for me as the genderqueer relationship-spoofing droll Restoration equivalent to Wet Hot American Summer that it is.

The central conceit of the show was the only hang-up I found in envisioning this 1675 classic as a sex positive farce palatable for a modern audience. Traditionally, Horner spreads a rumor hinting at his own impotence as a result of contracting a venereal disease in France. He is then referred to as a “eunuch” and uses the theoretical castration as a smokescreen for his many trysts. In my personal adaptation of Wycherley’s original script for The Country Wife, Horner has just come out to his social circles as a genderqueer person, or an androgyne. Because Horner’s society is ill-equipped to understand how gender performance can be distinct from sexual preference, Horner is wrongly assumed to have turned asexual. I believe that this change allows us to cheer on Horner’s sexual misadventures without the contemporary guilt I feel while watching the original Horner dupe women into his bedroom through an elaborate lie. Horner comes out as an androgyne and is rewarded by more admirers than ever before. The only people getting duped in our version are the Pinchwifes of the world, the people who aggressively require others to conform to an arbitrary set of definitions regarding sexuality and gender.

As a further step in exploring the gender politics of this piece, I chose to set our production in Edwardian England (circa 1905). The Restoration is a surprisingly gender fluid period, typified by the advent of The Fop, a fashion plate flamboyantly flaunting his luxurious wardrobe and periwig in reaction to the artistic repression of the recent Interregnum. I wanted to place the characters of The Country Wife in a more restrictive culture while also bringing the play closer into our relatable past. At the turn of the 20th century, gender roles were prescribed in a fashion so exacting that we still feel the effects of it today. Because the face of the aristocracy drastically changed with the advent of “New Money” and the “Self Made Man,” social conduct became codified in a way it had never been before. “Polite Society” began to refer to the manner in which people comported themselves rather than the inherent privilege of those born into nobility. Anyone could learn to act like a gentleman or a lady. It’s due to his irreproachable manners that Ernest (of The Importance of Being... fame) is able to wheedle his way into an engagement despite (initially) tracing his lineage to a handbag. Chekhov and Shaw explore this same performance of breeding in plays such as The Cherry Orchard and Pygmalion. In America, Godey’s Lady’s Book had been circulating the gospel of ladylike behavior like wildfire. Over the following decade, Emily Post would write the definitive tome Etiquette, a book that still haunts young fiancées to this day. Gender distinction is endemic to these societal constructs, the performance of masculinity and femininity is synonymous with the expectations of “civilization.” In this world of strict gender binaries, Horner’s refusal to conform appears all the more striking.

Through rehearsals and dramaturgical research, we have actually uncovered a fair amount of genderqueer precedence in turn of the century England. In the Music Halls of London, Vesta Tilley was the most famous male impersonator and in New York, Julian Eltinge the most popular female impersonator. In the political sphere, Millicent Fawcett’s NUWSS and Emmeline Pankhurst’s WSPU were fighting for Women’s Suffrage with increasing militancy. Edith Garrud gained a reputation for her experience with Jiu jitsu and her tendency to beat police officers with clubs she concealed in her accessories. A contemporary touchstone would be Downton Abbey’s fictional Lady Sybil debuting her new pants suit to her utterly scandalized family. All of these exceptions, however, only go to further emphasize the rules that governed the presentation of gender in Edwardian society.

At our current moment in history, exactly one hundred and ten years later, our understanding of gender is undoubtedly in flux. What began with a few articles coining the concept of “metrosexuality” swelled into a deluge of think pieces about skinny jeans, man buns, pixie cuts and the mystique of Tilda Swinton. If feels like the tide of representation is slowly starting to trickle in; in film, we’ve recently had the lauded premiere of Tangerine, on television it seems to be the age of Laverne Cox and on stage, the award winning Hedwig and the Angry Inch is drawing to a close just as the amazing Taylor Mac’s Hir is about to make its New York debut. I’m excited to be making genderqueer theater at this particular moment in history, especially through the seemingly innocent and irrepressibly fun lens of a good old-fashioned bedroom farce. I hope you’ll swing by the Flamboyán Theater at the Clemente to see both The Country Wife and Elle Anhorn’s The Cunt (an original play inspired by Wycherley’s), running in repertory from 9/16 to 9/27. Tickets on sale here: https://www.artful.ly/spicy-witch-productions. Let’s keep the conversation going!

If You Want My Future, Forget My Past

By Phoebe Brooks - Director of Becky Shaw

We’re a few weeks into rehearsals for Becky Shaw by Gina Gionfriddo, the contemporary half of Spicy Witch’s second season. A large part of why we selected this play is the exciting counterpoint it poses to the romantic relationships in Two Gentlemen Of Verona. Both plays contain the archetypal character of the jilted ex. I’m fascinated by how many stories of “twue wuv” spill so much ink on the boyfriend or girlfriend that the love interest will eventually ditch for their soul mate. Structurally, I understand it. If Harry and Sally got together when they met, we would have no movie. A story needs a source of conflict to lend drama to its resolution. Cyrano’s battle against his own low self-esteem is not inherently dramatic, but personify his insecurities in the handsome figure of Christian and suddenly we have a classic play! However these imperfect suitors who serve only as foils to emphasize the perfection of the romantic hero often get a bad rap. But when these ex’s are viable characters, the conflict surrounding the love story gains in dramatic traction. Both Julia in Two Gents and Max in Becky Shaw are passed up by their beloved for a newer models and they spend their respective plays on a quest to win their lovers back. In some ways, they are each an angry ex girl/boyfriend, but because we are privy to their side of the story, suddenly they take center stage. It’s sort of like My Best Friend’s Wedding but with much more woe and much less Rupert Everett.

These are not clean cut moral situations, it’s not as though they’re striving to rescue their princess from an obviously evil king or abusive husband. The plot is driven by the romantic hero’s conviction that they are the best option for their beloved’s affection. We, the audience, end up rooting for the perceived distinction between the True Love our hero could provide and the Convenient Affection the beloved currently has. Our sympathies lie with the romantic hero, and we view their opponent in the battle for the girl as the interloper. However,  from the interloper’s point of view, we are cheering for the Other Woman (or Man) and their impending home-wreckitude. In real life, if your friend told you that she was off to “win back” her ex from his new fiancee, you would likely hand her a chill pill and politely suggest she dust off the old OkCupid profile and find somebody new. This leads me to wonder about that adage: all’s fair in love and war. The implied metaphor (love is a battlefield) means that each relationship has an aggressor who successfully conquers the opposing party and absorbs them. I’ll stop before all that saccharine phrasing grosses you out. If love is something you have to win, logic states that there must also be a loser.

So, perhaps noble love is always one-sided, at least at first. The much needed conflict lies in convincing your chosen soul mate to love you over and above someone else. Like a knight in a jousting tournament, or a lady with a rose on the Bachelor, the prize has to be earned. We are taught, time and again, not to give up on the one we love. Unrequited love is a universal touchstone, whether we’re watching Varya wait fruitlessly for a proposal from Lopahkin, or Charlie Brown pining after the little Red-Haired Girl, it breaks our hearts. We empathize so much, we urge these characters to have success so that we might be given a shred of hope regarding our own long-sustaining passions. However, in our more stalker conscious society, these stories of patient passion are starting to lose some of their romance. Suddenly it’s not so cute when Peter Parker’s computer background is a photo of Mary Jane, or Edward watches Bella while she sleeps. The line between passion and obsession has always been a thin one, but as our awareness of the concept of consent increases, these stories of long-suffering devotion lose some of their clout. After all, Menelaus may have sacked Troy to get Helen back, but did they then live happily ever after?

Max and Julia in these two plays illustrate just how far we are willing to debase ourselves in order to win back affection. They go to some pretty extreme lengths but they do have their limits. None of Helena begging to be beaten like 50 shades of spaniels in these plays; when Julia finally confronts Proteus, she lectures him for forcing her into disguise (“It is a lesser blot, modesty finds,/Women to change their shapes than men their minds”). Max, in turn, demands accountability from Suzanna (“Were you waiting for me to walk through the door? This isn’t Jane Austen’s England, Susie. You could’ve walked through it, too”). Despite their abject affection for their ex-lovers, these characters want to retain a measure of pride. They are contenders for affection, not beggars for it. Whether or not their quests are successful remains to be seen (HINT: COME SEE THE SHOWS TO FIND OUT!), but the poignancy of their struggles adds a layer of complexity that grounds these occasionally flighty stories in an emotional reality.

Enough is Enough

I would tell people that of the top five reasons I left New York City, one of them was that I couldn’t commute outside of my home to work, to play, to anywhere, without feeling or hearing some sort of harassment from men.  Obviously my experience was not exclusive; you can read articles all over the internet of women admitting the same thing.  Our private battles fought daily are finally becoming news for everyone to hear and acknowledge.  The news comes late, by thousands of years, I’d say, that women are not possessions to be coveted or claimed, and certainly, nor are men.

Since leaving New York, it’s been hard for me to stay quite as connected with what’s happening for my own theatre company.  I’ve been feeling like I’m on vacation since my move seven months ago—drinking cheap beers and not feeling the daily stress of, “Will this yoga apparel I’m wearing get me too many looks on the subway?”  But with the events in the last week, I was reminded of just how important the work Spicy Witch Productions is.  We were founded because six women truly believed that we deserved not only equal opportunity, but to be treated equally to the men in our field.  We had had enough of being told to “be sexier” as an acting direction.  We needed to provide a place for all people to have a voice and be recognized as valued, and we wanted performances that would make people question and think about their own views on gender and identity. 

The shows we have picked for the season feel alarmingly perfect and relevant for where we are right now.  Reasons to be Pretty gives us both male and female characters to love and loathe.  It is driven by our societal obsession with looks; characters place so much value on physical characteristics that it drives them in and out of relationships with serious force.  Steph is in a place of, “I’m trying to look pretty, all right?!  I’m trying to make myself feel better because my former boyfriend—this guy that I gave a whole lot of my heart to—couldn’t find me attractive and now it keeps me awake at night, wondering what’s wrong with me.”  And Carly, beautiful and pregnant with her first daughter, “I really hope she’s no more than pretty, that’s my wish.  That she’s not some beauty queen that people can’t stop staring at because I’d hate that for her.. to be this object, some thing that people can’t help gawking at.” 

I know you already know: in today’s world of tinder, facebook, airbrushed models, digital everything, we make it almost impossible to feel physically “enough” because we are constantly on display and constantly compared.  I don’t think that we will ever do away completely with a narcissistic or shallow outlook, but we can give it less importance and set an example of power beyond the physical.  

In this play we also get #everydaysexism.  “Pussy.”  “Suck my dick.”  The eye roll accompanying  the one word statement, “Women.”  Casual phrases that get tossed around in this play that make my stomach turn, and then turn again when I realize how many of my own friends and peers subscribe to this vernacular.  Language is powerful, and how far do we propagate this sexism by being so casual around belittling the female sex?

The pairing of Reasons to be Pretty with Two Gentlemen of Verona will painfully demonstrate how far we have not come when it comes to this issue.  The women of the play, Silvia and Julia, become tokens of friendship for the men to pass between themselves.  Proteus attempts to rape Silvia, and then she is given to him anyway as gift by the other Gentleman and Silvia’s courtier, Valentine.  It seems insane until you think about the women who were actually shot for refusing sex this past weekend.

The work SWP is doing is a call to action.  It must be.  We need everyone to say, “This has to stop.”  As women, we need to be on each other’s sides to protect and not to judge, and to tell ourselves and our friends to stop making jokes, remarks, and catcalls at the life-threatening expense of respect.  Men, the internet is telling you loud and clear, and here is one more voice, if you do nothing and say nothing, you are accountable.  We are all accountable now.  Let’s make a fucking a change already; a few thousand years is long enough.

Sarah Lemanski

Artistic Director, Spicy Witch Productions

Two Gentlemen of Verona and Reasons to be Pretty will be performed by SWP in repertory this December in the Lower East Side.