The Daily Femme, Girl Drive and Gender Across Borders

We are featured on three fantastic blogs:

The Daily Femme - Check out the interview here: http://www.thedailyfemme.com/femme/2010/06/interview-with-aphra-behn-artistic-director-of-guerrilla-girls-on-tour/

Girl Drive - We are guest bloggers discussing women in theatre here: www.girl-drive.com

And we wrote an article for Gender Across Borders' Theatre’s Rape Culture series here: http://genderacrossborders.com/ Looking forward to your comments! Guerrilla Girls On Tour!

More Reports from the SPRING TOUR

March 3rd, 2010

Dear Diary,

Well, we have arrived safe and sound in Greater Licking County, Ohio. I have to say the open roads and clear sky are an incredibly refreshing break from the beautiful but incessant city chaos. I am lovin’ our company meals at Applebees and The Olive Garden – we feel like a real company. This just happens to by my maiden Guerrilla Girls On Tour voyage – (I was inducted into the group via a banana eating contest last fall!) Eating and drinking as a Guerrilla Girl On Tour feels very cool and fun and new.

We had a smashing workshop this evening with twenty or so students from Denison University. Julia Child did a rockin’ job introducing us and working with students. People are definitely jolted by our masks and wigs but once they talk to us and see that we are normal (though anonymous) human beings, they open up and feel more at ease. I love working in this medium. It really forced me to focus on the students and the issues they needed to discuss.

I think the moment I graduated from my alma mater I felt I knew more than all under-graduates. Making posters with these young adults reminded me how smart college kids are. College is this beautiful time in your life when you can focus on your brain and sort out your points of view on life and politics. Not that these POVs won’t change, but for many of us it’s the first time in our lives we develop ourselves as separate entities from our home-life and family roots. I was particularly touched by a poster series on sexual assault which addressed both men and women: it challenged men to listen and women to speak up. How great!
Ta for now, xo
MFK Fisher

March 4th, 2010

Dear Diary,

Day 2! Woke up at 8 to eat free hotel breakfast which lasted until 9. I now know that it is only food that will get me out of bed at 8 in the morning when I have time to sleep in until 11. I avoided eating bananas as we scarf several of these on stage during our performance.

After a full productive day of strong techs (and a couple of line flubs), we meet our “Tammy the Tummy” a.k.a. our student volunteer who interacts with us in the show. “Tammy The Tummy” is the name we used in rehearsal back home, before we knew who our volunteer would be. Our volunteer’s name is Tara. Which is very close to Tammy. Now Tara /Tammy The Tummy gets a pie in the face in our show. A surprise pie in the face. I was privately worried that poor Tammy might be affronted by this unsolicited pie. But on meeting Tara, who was lovely, enthusiastic and up for anything, I am confident that we can pie her without hurting her feelings or bruising her ego. Or setting off her deadly dairy allergy – (she doesn’t have one. We checked). Her hair got messed up, but that was the worst of it.

Our show goes well with a minimal amount of snafus - a great start when you consider this is the world premiere and the first time we are putting up our multi-media piece “If You Can Stand the Heat: The History of Women and Food”. The audience seemed a little shy and got a bit quiet whenever we asked for audience participation; but they laughed with us and were engaged throughout the show. I remember our audience members leaning forward in their seats with mingled interest/discomfort when we were outlining the procedure of a gastric bypass procedure (which Julia narrates in our “fat bias” section of the show). They were into it, if a little private.

After the show Aphra kindly bought us drinks, toasted to the GGOT’s (new and returning), and then drove us all back to the hotel where we collapsed our potassium rich bodies on our hotel beds.

The show was a success! Now time for rest and the plane ride back home tomorrow.
Xo
MFK Fisher

March 5th, 2010
Day 3 – a quickie. Entry. That is. A quick entry.
Today is all about travel. Our workshops and shows are complete. Aphra left for home ahead of us; Edna Julia and I share a cab to the airport. Our driver is great; she hands us all bite-size snickers and pulls over to “Caribou Café” where we pick up our respective caffeine beverages. Somehow I think she would appreciate “The Herstory of Women and Food.”

Edna, Julia and I groggily argue over Lady GaGa’s aesthetics before boarding our plane and heading back to the city. I greatly enjoy this time spent after the show. Without lines to run or pie to clean out of our Guerrilla masks, we talk about our lives outside of Guerrilla Girls On Tour and our weekend plans. A good end to a good journey.

Cheers to my Guerrilla Girl On Tour gals and the Dennison student collective.

Au revoir, xo
MFK Fisher

Reports From The SPRING TOUR!

EDNA LEWIS reports from the road - our tour to Denison University with "If You Can Stand the Heat: The History of Women and Food"
March 4th, 2010

March 3rd, 2010

Diary Dearest,

I’m not sure if I am glad or sad that I wasn’t forewarned about the size of our plane. I’ve been on bigger buses! Instead of fear, I will embrace my inner Beyonce and think of it as a private jet. We had a quick ride and a smooth landing - what more can a Diva ask for? We had an uneventful drive to Denison University. Granville, Ohio is dollhouse – aka adorable town. Remember that episode of “The Twilight Zone” where the couple wakes up in a town they can’t escape from, only to find out they are toys for a giant little girl? Well this town would fit that scenario perfectly. Our poster making workshop was fun, energetic, and informative. It mad me a little nostalgic for my college days.

Luv,
Edna Lewis

March 3rd, 2010

Diary Dearest,

Woke up at the crack of 10am feeling refreshed and ready to go. Added a shower, some food, some coffee and I am now hyped and ready to go! Practice, practice, practice, and raking the I-270 are the way to performing at Ace Morgan Theatre. Our run through and tech went swimmingly. Our volunteer “Tammy the Tummy” is prepped and ready to go.
The show was amazing. We had a fun, and a sometimes shy audience. But once they came out of their shells, it was on. I was a little nervous about my "Where'd your ass go?" line, but I was worried for nothing because it got a huge laugh. Sure, there were only two Sista's that I saw in the audience, but as far as I'm concerned we were out in full force.
There was fun, surprises, and whipped cream. What more can a Guerilla Girl On Tour ask for?

Luv,
Edna

March 4th, 2010

Diary Dearest,

Its been real Ohio. Thanks for the memories Denison University. Its time now for me to board my Bus/Jet and fly home!
Luv,
Edna

MORE REPORTS FROM MFK FISHER and JULIA CHILD coming soon!

TONY AWARD ROUND UP

15% of all 2010 TONY NOMS go to WOMEN

Number of women nominated in the following categories:

BEST PLAY 1
BEST MUSICAL 0
BEST BOOK 0
BEST SCORE 1
BEST REVIVAL PLAY 0
BEST REVIVAL MUSICAL 1
DIRECTOR OF A PLAY 1
DIRECTOR OF MUSICAL 1
CHOREOGRAPHER 2
ORCHSTRATIONS 0
SCENE DESIGN PLAY 0
SCENE DESIGN MUSICAL 2
COSTUME DESIGN PLAY 1
COSTUME DESIGN MUSICAL 1
LIGHTING DESIGN PLAY 0
LIGHTING DESIGN MUSICAL 0
SOUND DESIGN PLAY 0
SOUND DESIGN MUSCIAL 0

TOTAL NOMINATIONS 11 OUT OF 72 OR 15%

MORE BROADS ON BROADWAY PLEASE!

Going Bananas at Bluestockings

We held our annual GUERRILLA GALa last night at Bluestockings Book Store and Café on the lower east side. Bluestockings is owned by a five-person workers’ collective and is staffed by about 60 volunteers. (The staff was awesome to us all during our GALa).
The store hosts events almost every night and we were lucky to be the featured event last night.

Kudos to GGOT Anne Sexton who single handedly organized the event and arranged for a diverse bunch of about 50 of NYC’s theatre women to arrive at 7PM for the schmooze. We had young and old with both long and short resumes in attendance as well as representatives from organizations like the Women’s Project, Theatre for a New City, Dixon Place and the League of Professional Theatre Women.

I was so impressed and in awe of the women who showed up, who each gave a two minute speech about what they were currently working on and what they hoped to accomplish in the theatre in the next few years. It seemed there was much more hope at this event then there had been at past ones.

I wonder if it’s because of Emily Sands’ economic study on the state of women in theatre or perhaps the impact of the newly formed 50/50 in 20/20 group that hopes to have an equally number of plays by both women and men produced in the US by 2020? Are we theatre women more hopeful that our work will get some much needed attention in years to come?

If so, our 13 plus years of effort trying to shed light on discrimination in theater will have been worth it. But we can’t quite take our masks off yet.

Thanks to Carole Lombard, Edna Lewis, Josephine Baker and Anne Sexton for hosting and organizing the GALa. And please if you have never been you must immediately head downtown to Bluestockings - they also run a free-trade café that serves great soy lattes and organic, vegan treats!

Bluestockings – 172 Allen Street (btw. Stanton & Irvington) – 212-777-6028

From a Baboon Boy

Dear Guerrilla Girls On Tour,
When I was a Sophomore in college I had the honor of seeing your performance of "Feminists of Funny". From that point on my life was changed, so much so in fact that I added a gender/women's studies major to my degree. I recently came across a situation that required all my Guerrilla Girl power! I was commissioned to write a one act-for an evening of plays all based on the same original story. Well, I come to find out that ALL the playwrights are WHITE MEN (myself being the only gay one), and NO women were involved at all. As soon as I found out I called the producer and told him I couldn't be a part of the project unless I was able to write from a female characters point of view, as well as have a full cast of Latina women, and to top it all off, my piece would have to be directed by a female. The amazing thing is, the producers totally understood, and were even supportive of my choices once they saw their mistake. This has shown me a few things, 1) Sometimes people need to be made aware of their sexism if they ever want to change it, 2) white, gay, "males", can be feminist super-heroes sometimes, and finally 3) The Guerrilla Girls On Tour change lives wherever they go!!

Your Baboon Boy,

Jean Genet

Our Youtube Channel is Yourtube Channel

Awesomeness Alert: Guerrilla Girls On Tour!

Check out what feministing.com has to say about Guerrilla Girls On Tour!
http://www.feministing.com/cgi-bin/movabletype/mt-tb.fcgi/18952
http://www.feministing.com/archives/020700.html

If you are not familiar with the Guerrilla Girls on tour, get familiar, there work is amazing, you know, if you are into that radical art, street theatre, anti-sexism thing! Check them out in action:

SIZE 2 PANTS LYRICS

For those of you who requested the lyrics to our parody here they are. Feel free to sing them loudly all day long. L ro R Edna Lewis, Julia Child and MFK Fisher

“SIZE 2 PANTS” sung to the tune of Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance” by Guerrilla Girls On Tour!

I want some junk food
A Big Mac with cheese
I want to slip into
My Levis with ease
Fits like a glove
Glove, glove, glove
Fits like a glove

I go to Denny’s
To eat a Grand Slam
I need a waistband
That is gonna expand
Fits like a glove
Glove, glove, glove
Fits like a glove

My pants aren’t too tight
They all fit me just right
And that’s because they’re not size 2 pants

Some women starve and some women will purge
And they still can’t wear a size 2 pants
Adore the size of the body you’re in
You don’t need to wear a size 2 pants.

Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
Can’t wear a size 2 pants
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
Can’t wear a size 2 pants

Fits like a glove
I don’t want to pretend
Fits like a glove
I don’t have a rear-end?
Je veux Size Deux
Et je veux ta pretend
Je veux ton amour
I don’t have a rear-end?
Yes I have a rear-end!
Yes I have a rear-end!
Can’t wear size two pants!
Can’t wear size two pants!
Some women starve and some women will purge
And they still can’t wear a size 2 pants
J’adore the size of the body you’re in
You don’t need to wear a size 2 pants.

Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
Can’t wear size 2 pants!
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
Can’t wear size 2 pants!

Ra ra-ah-ah-ah
Roma roma-ma
GaGa Oh la-la
Can’t wear size 2 pants!

Our parody of Lady Gaga's Bad Romance

Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" is turned into "Size Two Pants" by Guerrilla Girls On Tour in our show about women and food. Here's a clip from a recent performance at Denison University in Ohio.