A return to two towns…Brockport and Scranton

February into March 2018

It is homecoming month for me, Aphra Behn, Guerrilla Girl On Tour and on my way back to two places which have been very important to me – so important that I write about them both in my memoir UN/MASKED, Memoirs of a Guerrilla Girl On Tour.

Back to Brockport! 

On February 20^th I returned to my alma mater – SUNY Brockport where I received my undergraduate degree in theatre. I wrote extensively about my college days in my book - mostly about the fact that I was sexually assaulted by a professor in the theatre department.

With Dr. Panning and Dr. LaSavoy 

I was a bit nervous about my return the Brockport so I contacted the coordinator of Brockport’s Writers Forum, Dr. Anne Panning, to discuss with her how I could maximize my impact on campus. I should not have been worried for Anne Panning completely understood how important it might be for me to talk about sexual assault to the current student body on the very grounds where it happened. She was completely with me when I told her this was an important moment for me and talked about how I might make the most of my return to Brockport. We decided to take advantage of time and she scheduled a full two days for me to mingle and talk with as many students and faculty as time would allow. 

Women's and Gender Studies Rock Star Students at SUNY BROCKPORT 

I flew into Rochester and rented a car.  So many times I had taken the road to Brockport but since it had been about 35 years since I had been to Brockport I found myself driving on new roads and unfamiliar routes. No wonder I made a stop at the Brockport Diner as soon as I found it in the same spot I left it.  My first waitressing job was at the Diner – the graveyard shift from midnight to 7AM. 

Back at the Brockport Diner

SUNY Brockport’s campus is twice the size it once was but the main road through campus was the same. It was raining when I parked illegally in the faculty parking lot at the Fine Arts Building and dashed inside for a quick look at the theatre department. It was deserted – none of the bustle and noise of the days when the department boasted 200 majors. I found the main stage open – a half painted set in the middle of the stage.  A floodgate of memoires opened and washed over me. Everything was eerily familiar. I knew my next stop would be the creepy predator professor’s old office. I had to laugh when I found it was now a janitors closet.  Revenge is sweet.

Creepy Professor B's former office. 

After that all apprehensions melted away. My return to Brockport turned into one big love fest.

Lucky me - I got to speak to students at a Women’s and Gender Studies class (with Dr. Barb LeSavoy), a theatre class (with P. Gibson Ralph and Dr. Davida Bloom). The smiling face of Dr. Oh-Kon Cho appeared – he came to Brockport just as I was graduating and gave me a very warm welcome back. We reminisced about the days I was a student and there were 17 full time theatre faculty on staff.

With Dr. Oh-Kon Cho

Interviewed by Barb and Anne for Writers Forum Brockport

During my visit I was interviewed by Dr. Panning and Dr. LeSavoy for the Writers Forum archives which date back to 1968 and include interviews with major authors including (Guerrilla Girl) Anne Sexton. I had lunch and got to chat with some amazing Women’s Studies students. I fielded smart, funny questions from an English creative writing class (who had all ready my book). And I had the chance to make a trip back to the Lift Bridge Bookstore – the site of my feminist awakening. (See UN/MASKED and the story of finding a copy of “Our Bodies Ourselves” there circa 1974.)  Of course it was kismet that they had a used copy of Our Bodies Ourselves which I snapped up for a giveaway at my reading that night.

With the winner of "Our Bodies, Ourselves"

What can I say about the Brockport audience that won’t sound mushy except to report that they sure knew how to welcome me home. As I walked onto the stage they held hand made gorilla masks to their faces and laughed. What a welcome. Even the awesome Brockport President, Dr. Heidi Macpherson, was there. I signed many books and left with my heart full of a tremendous feeling of gratitude at how far my journey has come.  Thank you, Brockport.

Decorated Gorilla Masks 

The crowd at Brocport 

Onwards to kick off Women’s History Month at another town full of memories - Scranton Pa – the city which hosted the world premiere of my play, JOAN, in 1999 (which won a Jason Miller Prize from the Scranton Times for best production).  In Scranton, I was artistic director of the now defunct TNT theatre for two years.

At U of Scranton 

I am in Scranton at the invitation of the University of Scranton (and Dr. Jamie Trnka) which is the home of many super savvy feminist students. 17 of them participated in my poster making workshop the evening I arrived, creating 4 provocative posters (which now grace the walls of the women’s center).

U of Scranton Workshop Artists! 

The following evening I presented “PUSH/PUSHBACK, 9 steps to make a difference withart and activism” that night as part of U of Scranton’s Schemel Forum. A mix of students and Scrantonites filled the audience, mostly the back rows.  One audience member explained it this way, “We’re catholic. We like to sit in the back!”

The U of Scranton Audience 

With Peggy Lee of local Chanel 16

The local news showed up and so did the campus paper.  While the Jesuits were a more subdued crowd then Brockport they nonetheless offered crisp attention, spurts of laughter and many nods of support for the feminist issues I raised. And of course they had some of the smartest questions I have ever received during the ending Q and A.

U of Scranton POSTER by Workshop Participants 

It was pouring rain as I left both Brockport and Scranton.  But my spirits were as high as they have ever been. As I drive home from Scranton, I recall the strong poster on racism a group of students created during the poster workshop - expressions of pain rain down on women of color. I have shared some of my own pain as a survivor of sexual assault and domestic violence and it feels right. I have shared some of the tactics of the Girls with the hopes that that others may now utilize them to push against our predator president and patriarchy. These past few days remind me how lucky and grateful I am to have had the opportunity to go back and meet new people from the places where I have so much herstory.

With much love,

Aphra

Full Circle - Back at the Lift Bridge Book Store where a Book inspired me to be a feminist. 

OPED: The Broadway League, Casting Directors and the Tony Awards

Broadway is gearing up to celebrate the best of the season by handing out Tony Awards to directors, designers and performers. Many have argued that casting directors, those savvy women and men who find the talent for Broadway plays and musicals, should be recognized in a new Tony category – Best Casting.  But casting directors are currently seeking another kind of acknowledgment – the right to unionize.

Workers on Broadway have long been member of unions. Actors, stage manager, directors, choreographers, technicians, ushers, and even press agents are represented by 17 Broadway unions. The inspiration for many of these unions came from exploited workers wishing to prevent producers from taking advantage of them. There are now limits to the number of hours an actor can rehearse and who owns the rights to a play or musical a producer helps to develop, all because actors and playwrights are represented by strong unions and guilds.

Casting directors who work in film and television have only recently been provided protection by the Teamsters union which negotiates contracts for them. When a casting director casts a movie they receive benefits like health care coverage, pension plans and a decent wage. About a year ago, 40 Broadway casting directors took a nod from their film and television counterparts to become members of Theatrical Teamsters Local 817. They asked the Broadway League, the bargaining organization that recognizes all of Broadway’s unions, to recognize them. The League declined, stating in a letter that casting directors were “…independent contractors…separate businesses with their own employees and typically work on more than one show at a time within and outside our industry.”

Yet, the Broadway League depends heavily on casting directors who usually become involved in plays and musicals at the critical early stage, when a shows development rests on getting the best actors on the team. Casting directors are the conduit between producers and celebrities, those unionized stars who can guarantee the financial backing of a production.

During the 2016/17 season almost 13 million people attended Broadway shows which grossed almost a billion and a half dollars. It was the highest grossing season in Broadway history and the second-best attended season on record. So why is the Broadway League pushing back against adding the all-important casting directors to the list of unions the League negotiates with?  

  

Right now only 12% of the musicals on Broadway are directed by women - members of the stage directors union. There is just one women out of the eight nominations for a Tony for Scenic Design and two women out of the eight nominations for Best Lighting Design. Broadway designers are represented by United Scenic Artists. There are zero women nominated for Best Orchestrations whose nominees are all members of the Musicians Union. About half of the 40 or so Broadway casting directors seeking recognition from the League are women. In an industry notorious for its lack of women in top positions, it makes sense that the occupation with no benefits and low wages, the casting director, would have 50% women employed. When you think about it, these casting directors are presenting producers with an opportunity to creep towards greater gender parity on Broadway.

The Tony Awards are co-produced by the Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing. As you watch the actors, directors and designers accept their Tony Awards on Sunday night, remember they all have a strong labor association behind them. Perhaps there has never been a Tony for casting because it would force producers to acknowledge the value and input casting directors have on their continued success and, like the other nominees, recognize and negotiate with the union which represents them.   

To support Broadway Casting Directors #fairnessforcasting 

-       

THE HERSTORIC 2015 TONY AWARDS

Occupy Broadway

I loved the metaphor Lisa Kron used in her Tony acceptance speech for best book of a musical. She said that the house we all occupy has many rooms but that we seem to just stay in the living room.  Cheerfully egging us on she declared, “Wouldn’t it be great if after this season we didn’t just all go back into the living room?”  

Guerrilla Girls On Tour used to use similar imagery whenever someone asked us why we were demanding more plays by women be produced.  We would smile and throw our hands on our gorilla-masked faces and exclaim, “You can eat strawberry ice cream all your life but we are here to tell you that there are many other interesting flavors available!”

Along with so many other theatre artists and fans I am thrilled at Kron’s win as well as Jeanine Tesori and Lisa Kron’s Tony for best score, making them the first all female musical writing team to win. But waking up the morning after the awards I had to drag myself out of bed because I know what is coming and it exhausts me.

I fear that instead of a steady increase of women writers on Broadway, everything will go back to the same-old, same-old next season.  And by same-old I mean that women and people of color will be tokenized – there will be one of us working at any one time so that when Broadway is accused of being sexist and racist they can point to that one woman or artist of color in any category to “prove” that women and artists of color are indeed thriving on Broadway.

This year it was reported that Broadway would see an “explosion” of women with shows by three female composers, five female lyricists, two female bookwriters, four women directors and two female playwrights. Yet, for the 2015 Tony Awards, women were shut out of nominations for direction of a musical, choreography, costume design of a play and orchestrations. Only three acting nominees were non-white and those comprised the total number of people of color nominated in any category.  Yes, you read that correctly, there were only three people of color nominated across all Tony categories including the special Tony awards.

Guerrilla Girls On Tour launched several sticker campaigns at the turn of the century aimed at theatres that did not produce any plays by women.  We would head into the bathrooms during intermission and place these stickers in the toilet stalls.

After stickering these theatres for few months they would announce that their next seasons would include one play by a woman at which we would rejoice (and take full credit for the change). But we noticed a pattern.  After producing a season that included women these theatres would go back to seasons of plays by white men, pointing to their previous season as proof of their dedication to diversity.  In fact, there are many theatres in New York and across the US that still do not include one single play by a woman or writer of color in their entire mainstage seasons. (The Roundabout is one with a consistent track record for seasons by all white male playwrights.)

Presenting one play by a woman or a person of color in a 5 or 6 play season is not enough. One or two Tony’s to women composers, playwrights, directors, bookwriters is not enough.  Without the vision of women and artists of color, the theatre is like a musical without a second act.  The solution to the static face of theatre and the slow pace of change on Broadway could be very simple.

So yes, Lisa Kron, you are absolutely right and I thank you for mentioning the many rooms in the mansion known as Broadway where creativity lives. Let us all now rise from our comfy sofas, love seats and easy chairs and explore the mansion, shall we?

Guide to the latest additions to the sexual misconduct and harassment code for the theatre (abridged)

In light of the recent offstage violent actions between a past Tony Award nominee and fellow theater star who were dating each other and performing as the title lovers in a Shakespearean tragedy, the sexual misconduct and harassment code of the theatre has added the following clarifications.  (Keep in mind that we are in the business of make believe and there may be special circumstances by which sexual misconduct and harassment are tolerated so that the intent of the playwright and the vision of the director remains intact.) These additional, unenforceable codes apply to all members of the professional theatre community as of today. 

CASTING:
If you are asked to take off your clothes at an audition you must be given a reason i.e. the production is a bare bones version of the play; the producer is considering doing the play in repertory with “Oh, Calcutta”; the director wants to see you naked.

REHEARSALS:
Make out scene rehearsals shall follow these guidelines:
(1) There shall be a five-minute break after 55 minutes of making out or a 10-minute break at the conclusion of 80 minutes of a make out rehearsal.
(2) Actors shall not rehearse making out more than five consecutive hours without a meal break of at least one hour.  
(3) There shall be a 12-hour recovery period between the end of a make out rehearsal on one day and the beginning of a make out rehearsal on the next day.

PERFORMANCES:
The following acts must be performed a maximum of 8 times a week if written into the script:
flirting
kissing
arguing
fighting
groping
stripping
having sex*
*may be simulated

NOTE: Highly sexualized musicals such as “Cabaret” may also include the following:
ass slapping
nipple tweaking
after hours dating

If weaponry is used in any of the above a qualified fight captain must be present. A qualified fight captain is any person trained in weaponry, experienced in weaponry, knows what the word weaponry means, or is a former boyfriend of the stage manager.

PROTOCOLS FOR REGISTERING GRIEVANCES

If you think you have experienced sexual misconduct and/or harassment (please refer to the guidelines entitled “Complete Guide to the sexual misconduct and harassment code for the theatre (abridged)” you may report infringements as follows:

If you are an actor notify the stage manager.
If you are the stage manager notify the producer
If you are the producer notify the dialect coach
If you are the dialect coach notify the orchestrator
If you are the orchestrator notify the dance captain
If you are the dance captain notify the director
If you are the director assemble the cast together and discuss the claims of the person who has filed the grievance. Moderate a 45 minute session focusing on what should be done. Listen to everyone’s ideas and thank them all for sharing.  Then, inform whoever it is who complained (if you don’t remember it is usually the person with the black eye) that they are free to leave the production asap.
Take everyone out for drinks.**

** This is the only circumstance under which it is permissible for actors to perform drunk.

For more information see: "Sex and Violence, Beyond the Script
http://nyti.ms/18NyLkg

FANNY MENDELSSOHN TAKES ON THE COLLEGE OF STATEN ISLAND

10/21/14

Dear Diary, 

Why, hello!  Long time no see.  It was great fun to rise up out of the grave again after a little hiatus to visit The College of Staten Island with Azucena, Isadora, and Aphra on October 21^st. 

The day started early with the journey across land and see to that far and distant borough.  We kicked off our visit with a poster-making workshop.  The group, all students in an acting class, were very engaged and got fired up about a wide variety of issues to make posters about: the Ebola media craze, parking issues at their school, domestic violence, misconceptions of feminism, animal abuse, and more.  I think my favorite poster was one made about misrepresentations of feminism, and how gendered language – like, “you throw like a girl” or “man up!” - affects men AND women.

Azucena, Isadora, and me during the workshop

A group works on a poster about “sexy” Halloween costumes

After the workshop, we had lunch and explored the College of Staten Island campus a little.  Apparently, there is a law banning smoking anywhere on all CUNY campuses city-wide – and CSI will not have you forget it!  There were so many foreboding signs reminding us that smoking was illegal, we ended up throwing some jokes about it into our performance later that evening.  We also may have sneaked a photo or two of a student blatantly smoking a cigarette in front of one of those signs…but he’ll never know it was us!  Mwahaha…the benefits of anonymity.

After lunch, we rehearsed in the beautiful theater at CSI and met our student volunteer, Crystal, who would be making her performance debut (first EVER!) with GGOT.  I love working on “Silence is Violence” because in addition to interacting with the audience and dancing and singing like the feminist fools we are, we also get to play around with scenes and play characters in our segments depicting tactics for fighting date rape.  I think Azucena’s performance of a frat boy is one of the most hilarious things I’ve ever seen – even Crystal had trouble keeping it together in rehearsal.

The performance was a hit.  We and the audience all had great energy, and they were with us every step of the way.  There was definitely a variety of opinions in the audience in response to our feminist spin - we could tell by their responses during the show as well as by their questions  afterwards – but it was all in good spirits and overall, they were engaged and responsive and that’s the best we could ask for as performers.  

After the show, one student even came up and interviewed us so she could include us in a project she’s doing for a class.  Cool!

Thanks College of Staten Island – it was a great day!

Lots o love,

Fanny Mendelssohn

We Came! We Saw! We Threw Bananas! WE WERE THEATRE!

Check out Aphra Behn's guest blog post on the Women and Hollywood blog:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/womenandhollywood/guest-post-we-came-we-saw-we-threw-bananas-we-were-theatre

PHOTOS of WE ARE THEATRE by Miriam Berkley

Dana Berger performs "Who’s The Man" by Mary Steelsmith 

 

Alysia Reiner performs "Chopping Cabbage" by Sophia Romma  

Yvette X performs her own "Bridge to Baraka" 

Drae Campbell in "A Rejection in Full" by Mila Golubuv

Gael Schaefer performs "She" by Caridad Svich

Honor Molloy performs her own work "Not Published, Not Produced" 

Annie-Sage Whitehurst performs "I Am Estonia" by Jyl Lynn Felman 

 

Sarah M. Duncan performs her own "PSA"

Taifa Harris performs Theresa Rebeck's "Why Can't We Do That In The Theatre?"

Guerrilla Girl On Tour Anne Sexton as Machoswine in "Oh, the joys of being a woman playwright"

WE ARE THEATRE CURTAIN CALL 

ACTION CALL - BLITZ THE ROUNDABOUT THEATRE!

WE ARE THEATRE ACTION CALL:

BLITZ THE ROUNDABOUT!

The Roundabout Theatre has announced their 2012/2013 mainstage season - a season that contains ZERO plays by women and ZERO female directors. Artistic Director Todd Haimes recently wrote on the Roundabout blog: It is very exciting to put together a season with such variety...and consistently offers the audience the kind of enduring themes and stories that have come to define Roundabout.

http://www.myroundaboutblog.com/?p=6920

INUNDATE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR TODD HAIMES WITH messages, faxes, stickers and tweets telling him what you think about his ALL WHITE MALE MAINSTAGE SEASON

CALL (212) 719-9393 ext 311

FAX (212) 869-8817

Fe-MAIL artisticoffice@roundabouttheatre.org

AND/OR info@roundabouttheatre.org

STICKER THE TOILET STALLS: Be a volunteer USHER (aka undercover WE ARE THEATRE agent) for the Roundabout

call their VOLUNTEER HOTLINE:

(212) 719-9393, ext. 523

DOWNLOAD STICKERS HERE:

http://guerrillagirlsontour.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Inthistheatresticker.pdf 

TWEET IT NOW! mention the Roundabout @RTC_NYC and We Are Theatre @OccupyBroadway

Tomorrow night at 7PM women will occupy The Cherry Lane.  We will write, direct, act, design, promote, manage and produce theatre.  We are theatre. 

See you there or watch it live http://www.livestream.com/ggontour