GuerrillaGirls On Tour performed "If You Can Stand the Heat: The History of Womenand Food" at Monmouth University on Monday, February 5, 2018. Here are
reactions from Ada Lovelace, Anne Sexton and Audre Lorde.
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| Guerrilla Girls On Tour: Audre, Ada and Anne |
February 2018
Dear Diary,
It was almost
like a dream to be honest. I found myself exhausted on our way up to the
university so I slept in the car and missed the majority of the trip to the
school. However, when I finally woke up and took the time to look around I felt
like we were in “The Notebook”. The wind was strong, like it was welcoming us
into it and the grass was incredibly green and there were geese roaming on the
front lawn! This beautiful sight set the tone for the rest of the day for me.
We were told we
would be performing for students and I immediately got nervous. What if they
were being forced to come see us? What if they are "too cool" to
participate in the audience participation!?! WHAT IF THEY ARE ON THEIR PHONESTHE WHOLE TIME!!! I started to panic a bit and had to decide whether or not to
share my worries with my fellow Guerrilla Girls On Tour. Just when I was about
to share, Anne turned to me excited. She said she loved performing for younger
people because she felt like it was more of a challenge. She liked to see the
reluctance fall from their face as we made sure they were enjoying themselves.
My Goddess, she might be a genius. She was absolutely right. I think Ada might
have been having similar thoughts as I was because we both perked up after Anne
shared her view on the matter. The three of us silently agreed to MAKE these
children love us no matter what it took.
Turns out it
didn't take much! The audience was dispersed pretty far back in the theatre
which I thought made it all the more fun! We really got to yell at them and for
them to join us with full energy and excitement. We even managed to get two audience members to come up on stage
to help knead bread with Julia Child - a young man named Michael was just so
excited he came running right on stage even though one young woman had already
volunteered! I can say with certainty that performing at Monmouth University (especially portraying the magnificent Edna Lewis) is
in my top 5 favorite performances. The crew was incredibly gentle and kind; the
audience was engaged; we were snacking on DELICIOUS food; and our view was to
die for. I hope to be invited back soon, if only to catch another glimpse of
their gorgeous geese greeting us in the morning.
Until next time,
Love,
Audre
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| Laura Keene, our fearless SM! |
Dearest Diary,
Today I went to Monmouth university. My first
impressions were: Wow, this is the middle
of nowhere. (Which was nice for this city gorilla to be able to get out and
stretch her legs in some fresh air). Also, there were geese. Gaggles and
gaggles of them! I wanted to get out of the van and play but Anne Sexton said
that was probably not the best idea. Oh well, one day I shall live my dream of
frolicking with the wild life!
We set up our show in a timely manner. Until our
equipment restarted and we had to redo every last sound cue over again in
record time. We hold the Guerrilla World Record in theatre tech time. GO US!
Everyone there was so nice, and very helpful! Someone had the bright idea to
use the cold outside as a place to store the cool whip. Genius. Pure Genius.
The students at Monmouth were very quiet and they
liked to sit way in the back! I was worried that they aren’t getting enough to
eat because their food diaries (forms they all filled out of what they ate and
drank that day) were like “Chocolate, coffee, water.” That’s it! It hurt my
heart. FEED YOURSELVES MONMOUTH!!!!!! I had TWO volunteers for my bread kneading
demonstration! One of them just popped right up on stage! Delightful! MFK
Fisher’s dough was extra sticky so Anne Sexton had clumps of dough falling off
her hands all through the show. Of course, we had a good laugh about it later
(over dinner, naturally).
T’was another fond GGOT adventure! Now on to THE
NEXT!
Peaches and Cream,
Ada Lovelace
Rehearsing at Monmouth
Dearest Diary,
Hey, hey, whaddya say? Monmouth University,
you’re OK! On Monday, the other GGOTs and myself took off to Long Branch,
NJ. We crossed the NJ state line on a mission to teach some young adults
the history of women and food. (And fling some bread dough along the way.) The
staff on campus and in the Pollack theatre were such dolls - I thoroughly
enjoyed getting the show teched and wondering what the delightful stage
manager's initials "MJ" stood for. (I later decided it must be
Magic Journeyman).
There is an abundance of audience participation
in our show, and when all the students wrote down everything they had eaten that
day, it was quite shocking. You couldn't even form a haiku with such a
limited list. Coffee and water are NOT calories, people! We must
remember to nourish our bodies as well as our minds, dear ones.
Speaking of quite shocking - a high point in the
show for me was making bread with the saucy Julia Child. My dough was a
utter sticky mess, and it was stuck between my fingers and under my fingernails
as I flung it about with wild abandon. If you haven't tried throwing dough
around, I highly recommend it as a stress relieving technique.
All in all, the Monmouth Hawks and Hawkettes were
a splendid audience. Throughout history, women of every age and ethnic
background have helped shape history through food - be it the civil rights
movement, women's suffrage (my character MFK Fisher had a struggle to even dine
alone in a nice restaurant as a woman in the 1930's, image that!) and chefs and
food personalities such as Julia Child that had to cut into the fabric of the
norm to make a name for themselves in the male-dominated chef biz. I hope
that we inspired the young women and men from Monmouth University to host a
food drive or get cookin' with some activism of their own! Anything is
possible!
Thank you again, Monmouth. See you soon.
xoxo,
Anne Sexton
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