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May 12, 2005
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| Director Annaliese Stuht created the piece "Common Bondage" using three Shakespearean sonnets. Her piece explores women's images of themselves, and how those images are influenced even as a child. (MPR Photo/Marianne Combs) |
Minneapolis, Minn. — It's rehearsal night at Cedar Riverside People's Center in Minneapolis. In a small black box theater, a cast runs through the play "Common Bondage." It stars three women and lasts only 5 minutes.
"Common Bondage" is just one of seven stories that make up Theatre Unbound's Women in Shakespeare project. Artistic Director Stacey Poirier says when theaters decide to stage Shakespeare - which is often - they are automatically narrowing the playing field for women actors.
"There really aren't a lot of roles for women in Shakespeare," says Poirier. "And yet the majority of people coming out of college theater departments are women. It's like two-to-one: two women to every one male actor. And yet there are very few parts in Shakespeare for women obviously because in Shakespeare's time all the parts were played by men."
Poirier says while Shakespeare can offer huge opportunities for male actors, his plays represent an artistic hurdle for women. Only a few theater companies are willing to regularly cast women in traditionally male roles.
So this year Theatre Unbound asked women directors to take one or more Shakespearean sonnets and turn them into plays that revolved around female characters. Each play can last no more than 10 minutes.
Think of it as "taking back the bard." It's what the theater company calls its annual "Directors Gym" project. Poirier says it's meant to give young women directors more practical experience to build their resumees and their skills.
"Because so often you go into a project and they just give you a script and that's what you work with," says Poirier. "This scenario is a little more creative. You get to come up with your own story, tell a story that you want to tell."
Poirier says she wants to see more women directing theater. She believes that will naturally lead to better roles for women on stage.
Director Annaliese Stuht says she stretched her imagination for this project. She says the sonnets she used made the experience fun.
"They're all kind of harsh in the language," says Stuht. "They went together really well, making fun of the betrayals of the flesh. Things like 'I don't know why I love you because you smell bad and you can't sing.' That sort of thing."
In Stuht's piece, a little girl, a teenager and a woman all look at themselves in mirrors. While the little girl delights at putting on her mother's make-up, the other two are displeased with what they see. At moments their movements synchronize, as they put on shoes, or a shirt.
"It's just their relationships with mirrors and certain items that are very feminine from shoes to make-up," says Stuht. "Kind of the rituals we go through on a daily basis preparing ourselves for the world and the criticism we bring upon ourselves before we even step outside the door."
By the end of the piece, even the little girl has learned to criticize herself. Managing Director Anne Bertram says the production is as much for the audience as it is for the directors. She says it's an opportunity for theatergoers to get a sense of what a director does. Bertram says that's often lost in other shows.
"In this case it's pretty obvious because all the directors start with the same assignment. The assignment this time is they each had sonnets of Shakespeare to work with as a text. The same assignment, but you're going to see seven very different approaches to it. It makes clear what this person brings to the creative process of theater."
Theatre Unbound presents Women in Shakespeare May 14 - 21 at the Cedar Riverside People's Center in Minneapolis. Each performance is followed by a conversation with the directors.
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