This interview is the second in a three part series. Whitman junior Tara McCulloch is interviewing the three Instant Play Festival visiting playwrights for her independent study in Gender Studies and Playwriting. Read Part 1 of the series here. 

Following are excerpts from a conversation between Tara and visiting playwright Basil Kreimendahl. 

Tara: Is there a feminist theatre?

Basil: Well, what does it mean? What does “feminist” mean?

T: Great question—what do you think?

B: I mean, I don’t feel that I’m very well read on feminism as a theory, so I just always think about it as a consciousness about women.

T: I think that’s a great answer.

B: Yeah, I mean there definitely is feminist theatre if that’s the definition of feminism, but I don’t know what definition you’re working with.

T: I’m mainly interested in your definition. So since you think there is a feminist theatre, what does that look like or sound like?

B: I don’t think it has anything to do with necessarily who wrote it, gender wise, or the type of characters in it, gender wise. I don’t think it has as much to do with seeing a ton of women on stage and, you know, everybody’s s a woman who worked on it. I guess it’s more about content and what’s underneath that content—on a social level, what kind of secret messages is it saying or not saying, but it does feel like there’s a form that kind of does seem to repeat or happen from women writers that’s slightly different, like it’s more circular. But maybe that’s total bullshit.

T: I don’t know—it sounded good.

B: Is there anymore you want to add to that?

T: No, I’m just curious basically. I don’t know the answer.

B: What are things other people have said?

T: Last week I asked Sharon Bridgforth and she talked about circles and sound and content as well.

B: I can’t tell though if that’s like an old feminist idea.

T: Yeah, me neither.

B: Because, you know, the whole like “male plays go up and ejaculate” and like “women plays are going around in a circle.”

T: Yeah, like their menstrual cycles just going around.

B: I don’t think that’s true because I do know a lot of women who write other ways, but then some people of a certain thinking might be like “well, they’re just acting out the male version because that’s what we’ve said is the better version.” But maybe they just actually want to write like that.

T: Yeah, exactly.

B: So I don’t know.

T: I feel like that linear versus circular model sets up such a binary of essential “men” and “women” and nothing else, which is super problematic.

B: Yeah. I feel like my work tends to move in an upward but within it circle, circle, circles until its reached a peak and every time it circles there’s a lot of repetition, and that’s more what the circle is for me, and it changes and grows as it repeats a lot.

Hear Basil Kreimendahl share their work Thursday, September 17th at noon in the Acting Classroom HJT106.

Basil Kreimendahl is a Louisville-based playwright whose work has been developed by New York Theatre Workshop, About Face Theatre, Inkwell, Rattlestick, WordBRIDGE, The LARK, and The Oregon Shakespeare Festival. They are a current McKnight Fellow and member of New Dramatists in New York City. They have received an Arts Meets Activism grant for their work with the trans community in Louisville. Notable plays by Basil include Sidewinders, Orange Julius, and Remix 38.

Tara McCulloch will be interviewing the three guest playwrights visiting Whitman this fall as part of the Instant Play Festival (Sept. 26-27.) She will ask each of them the question, “is there a feminist theatre?” Each playwright visits for one week, teaches class for IPF writers, and shares a reading of their work.