It's gonna be a happy new year....

New Year's Resolutions are not really my thing but I wouldn't mind getting in the habit of writing more. I'm 30 now. I think I know something. Or at least I'm trying to figure more things out. So I think that's worth keeping track of on the internet. Not with the intention of anyone really reading it but just for the sack of writing it and if someone happens to see it and wants to have a discussion then woho!

I'm mid school year so there's that. Loved directing The Clean House. I think it's the single piece of theatre I've directed that I'm most proud of. Probably up there in the pieces-of-theatre-I've-been-a-part-of too. It just seems like a blessing to have wonderful students, a beautiful play, great support from parent volunteers and incredible student designers and then bam see it come to life on stage and people really love it as much as you do.

It also got me thinking about what I can do to change theatre through the students I teach. I already teach plays and give scenes to students written by woman playwrights but I'm kinda on a mission now to make that a real thing. After directing Ruhl (and reading her amazing book of essays she doesn't have time to write) I want to expose my students to more female playwrights and tell them why that's important. I want them to know about the Bechdel test. I want them to challenge what they are seeing in the theatre and what they traditionally think of as important theatre. I am in the remarkable position to be able to tell young people that are as passionate about theatre as I am, that they are the ones that are going to make a difference and they are gonna do that by changing the work, demanding female playwrights voices are heard, that women of color have their voices heard. My kids are the ones who can do that and I can encourage them to do it. That's maybe the most important part about teaching I've come up with so far.

So as far as I'm able I want to direct shows written by women. Since I have choice and I can make that happen. Where I don't have choice (musicals cough cough) I can at least be vocal with my students about the future and what we should be looking at and what they can be working toward.

As if they could hear me, Shotgun Players in Berkeley are doing a season of only female playwrights. I'm going to support that initiative of change by buying season tickets (which I never do anywhere because I'm one of those flighty busy 30 somethings now). In case you're interested, check out their website: https://shotgunplayers.org/online/2015season

Anyway. That's where I am at the start of 2015. And as I have ideas I'd like to keep sharing them here. So here's hoping I can keep up with that.

Cheers.

Pins.

There's always a woman

Ok- So I don't have a plan yet. But here are some thoughts:

1) A Women's Musical Theatre Workshop- that would somehow entail women writing/directing/performing/creating new works of musical theatre- there is a history of women being delegated to the backseat of this art and I think it's time to do something about it. I was noticing all these women who had the original ideas for shows and then get co-credit for writing the book only...ok so I really just noticed that it was Dorothy Fields idea to write Annie Get Your Gun, and Bella Spewack's idea to write Kiss Me Kate... and oh apparently Mary Martin was the one who was working on a project about Maria Von Trapp before it became the Sound of Music- and we really only ever think about the men who wrote them- not to mention True...and on that subject...

2)Trude Rittmann- at least the wikipedia page! Even if there is no book in my immediate future (and I really still need to send my thesis to Bruce) there is still no Wikipedia entry for her- and I could really do that guys. And I should get on it. I was just rewatching this Richard Rodgers documentary that I first watched before I had even heard of Trude. First off they don't even begin to talk about Robert Russell Bennett let alone Trude so that peeves me. But then they go on talking about the ballets and the Twin Soliloquies moment as if that's Rodgers music and it just makes me boil. Which is why I wrote a thesis which I should not just let get dusty in my room. I should make it known. That is all....

3) Which brings me to something else I've always been meaning to do....so if I actually got my act together to create a Wiki page for Trude I might as well go in there and fix all those stub pages for musicals I know way more about. That would keep me busy and happy. And then I could post them here and people could see them. Maybe that would be a good calling.

So those are my ideas- more to come I hope

Pins.