“Is it a feminist play? … Yes, it is.” —Maria Irene Fornés 

Whitman junior Tara McCullogh, gender studies/film and media studies major, is doing an independent study this semester in Gender Studies and Playwriting with Assistant Professor of Theater, Kristen Kosmas. The independent study includes, among other things, readings of sections from Aristotle’s The Poetics, Gertrude Stein’s essays “Plays” and “Composition as Explanation,” and a number of plays by Maria Irene Fornés. 

“María Irene Fornés (born May 14, 1930) is a Cuban-American avant-garde playwright and director who was a leading figure of the Off-Off Broadway movement in the 1960s. Fornés’ themes focused on poverty and feminism. Moreover, on personal and artistic levels, her lesbian identity has been central to her art.” (from Wikipedia)

Following are excerpts from a conversation between Tara and visiting playwright Sharon Bridgforth.

Tara: Is there a feminist theatre?

Sharon: That’s such a good question. I think there is. I guess one of the first things that question begs to mind is “What is feminism?”

T: Yeah.

S: Right? And I think that just in the fewest words possible it’s women’s power, you know, women’s power and agency, and I think that that looks different across geographies, races, ethnicities, time periods, bodies. So I think it’s really broad and exciting, and I think that there is theatre whether it’s storytelling circles in small towns or villages or it’s the stage as the place of story, I think that feminist theatre is continuously being made. And do you know Jill Dolan’s work?

T: I don’t.

S: Ooo, you’re gonna love her. Google “Jill Dolan Feminist Spectator.” She has a blog. So she’s a professor at Princeton, and she has a wonderful blog and is a just awesome scholar of exactly what it is that you’re writing about. And so I think there you’ll see, like she could name, like I don’t know that I could necessarily do a lot of name giving, but I think in her blog you’ll see a lot of concrete information and names.

T: Great. Thank you. Since you think there is a feminist theatre, what does it look like?

S: I think it is expansive and ever unfolding. I think in a lot of communities of color, for instance, we may not use the word feminist in the same way that in other communities that word is used or maybe some of us use the word but we understand that even, so say like my mother wouldn’t use the word that she is a feminist in fact and so, you know, in terms of the self-determining fight and insistence for dignity and human rights and power and better lives for everyone, I think we find that women all over the world are leaders in that and in some communities, like it just may be unnamed but it’s still in existence, so I think that I for instance think that in non-theatre spaces and in a lot of these communities the feminist theatre might be songs in the round, you know, songs in a circle that are meant to encourage and uplift and inspire individuals from the community. It might be, I think, you know, you’ll find a lot of the spoken word artists, a lot of the slam artists, a lot of the performance poets particularly that are women, you know, like it’s in how they make space through their work for other women for the realities of their lives. And so I guess what I’m trying to say is I think that the quote unquote theatre itself can’t contain it, so I think it looks like a lot of different things depending on the community and the realities of the communities’ lives that are living it, so I just think it’s really expansive. And then I think that there are some people that are, you know, intentionally, mindfully saying “I’m making feminist theatre” and they’re doing that. I think we need all of it.

Hear Sharon Bridgforth share her work Thursday, September 10th at noon in the Acting Classroom HJT106.

Sharon Bridgforth is a an american playwright and theatrical jazz artist. She has been a touring artist since 1993 and has taught as an artist in-residence at various institutions across the country. Sharon has been the resident playwright at New Dramatists since 2009.  Her non-linear works draw from her healing journey and Black performance traditions. 

Tara McCullogh 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.