Contributors are Ileana Azor, Dalia Basiouny, Kate Bredeson, Mirenka Cechová, Marié-Heleen Coetzee, May Farnsworth, Anne Fliotsos, Laura Ginters, Iris Hsin-chun Tuan, Maria Ignatieva, Adam J. Ledger, Roberta Levitow, Jiangyue Li, Lliane Loots, Diana Manole, Karin Maresh, Gordon McCall, Erin B. Mee, Ursula Neuerburg-Denzer, Claire Pamment, Magda Romanska, Avra Sidiropoulou, Margaretta Swigert-Gacheru, Alessandra Vannucci, Wendy Vierow, Vessela S. Warner, and Brenda Werth.
Contributors are Ileana Azor, Dalia Basiouny, Kate Bredeson, Mirenka Cechová, Marié-Heleen Coetzee, May Farnsworth, Anne Fliotsos, Laura Ginters, Iris Hsin-chun Tuan, Maria Ignatieva, Adam J. Ledger, Roberta Levitow, Jiangyue Li, Lliane Loots, Diana Manole, Karin Maresh, Gordon McCall, Erin B. Mee, Ursula Neuerburg-Denzer, Claire Pamment, Magda Romanska, Avra Sidiropoulou, Margaretta Swigert-Gacheru, Alessandra Vannucci, Wendy Vierow, Vessela S. Warner, and Brenda Werth.
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Contributors are Ileana Azor, Dalia Basiouny, Kate Bredeson, Mirenka Cechová, Marié-Heleen Coetzee, May Farnsworth, Anne Fliotsos, Laura Ginters, Iris Hsin-chun Tuan, Maria Ignatieva, Adam J. Ledger, Roberta Levitow, Jiangyue Li, Lliane Loots, Diana Manole, Karin Maresh, Gordon McCall, Erin B. Mee, Ursula Neuerburg-Denzer, Claire Pamment, Magda Romanska, Avra Sidiropoulou, Margaretta Swigert-Gacheru, Alessandra Vannucci, Wendy Vierow, Vessela S. Warner, and Brenda Werth.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780252037818 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | University of Illinois Press |
| Publication date: | 10/16/2013 |
| Edition description: | 1st Edition |
| Pages: | 344 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.30(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.00(d) |
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Read an Excerpt
International Women Stage Directors
By Anne Fliotsos, Wendy Vierow
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS PRESS
Copyright © 2013 Board of Trustees of the University of IllinoisAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-252-03781-8
CHAPTER 1
Argentina
May Summer Farnsworth and Brenda Werth
Women gained visibility as stage directors in Argentina during the 1980s and 1990s, in the aftermath of a repressive military dictatorship. Prior to that time, women's participation in the theatre was mostly limited to acting, though a few pioneering women worked as stage directors as early as the 1920s. In the twenty-first century, Argentine women directors work in diverse theatrical arenas, from small experimental theatres to main-stage, big-budget productions. The national economic crisis of 2001 had widespread destabilizing effects on Argentina's social, political, and cultural life. As a result, many contemporary Argentine artists, including some women directors, struggle to find adequate funding and suitable facilities for their projects.
Women's Rights: Historical Context
The women's rights movement in Argentina began to take shape in the first decades of the twentieth century at a time when women lacked voting rights, divorce was illegal, and women were considered minors in the civil code. Married women could neither hold property nor work without their husbands' permission. Unmarried women remained under the legal authority of their fathers, even after reaching adulthood. Mothers, regardless of marital status, were denied full legal custody of their children (Lavrin 194–96, 228). Between 1900 and 1910, a series of feminist organizations emerged that challenged the nation's paternalistic attitude toward women. Groups such as the Women's Socialist Center (Centro Socialista Femenino), the Anarchist Women's Center (Centro Femenino Anarquista), the National League of Freethinking Women (Liga Nacional de Mujeres Librepensadores), and the National Women's Council (El Consejo Nacional de Mujeres) worked to promote the inclusion of women in the cultural and political life of Argentina. In addition, early feminist activists, including anarchist journalist María Abella Ramírez; Argentina's first woman physician, Dr. Cecilia Grierson; and socialist political campaigner Dr. Alicia Moreau, maintained close ties to feminist activists in Europe and North America. Buenos Aires became the site of the 1910 International Feminist Congress (Congreso Feminista Internacional) through the collective efforts of national feminists and their international allies. Among the subjects of greatest interest were the legalization of divorce, women's suffrage, female education, and the treatment of women in the national civil code.
In 1919 one bold woman activist, Dr. Julieta Lanteri Renshaw, created the Feminist Party (Partido Feminista) and ran for public office. (Although women could not vote, no prohibition existed against women running for public office.) Lanteri campaigned in public parks, on street corners, and at movie theatres but ultimately lost the election (Dreier 225–26). In the years following, the Feminist Union (La Unión Feminista) and the Women's Pro-Suffrage Committee (El Comité Pro-Sufragio de la Mujer), headed by Moreau, staged "mock elections" for women wishing to publicly protest their lack of suffrage (Lavrin 270, Moreau de Justo 164). These organizations worked in tandem with Lanteri's Feminist Party, using public forums to raise awareness about women's political and social marginalization. The 1926 Law of Women's Civil Rights represented the first legislative victory for feminists. This law gave women citizens full adult status, allowed married women to manage their own incomes, and freed wives from their husbands' debts. It also officially recognized the unwed mother's authority over her children (Lavrin 210).
In the 1930s women entered the labor force in greater numbers and, by the early 1940s, one quarter of the country's workforce was female; meanwhile, however, the government moved increasingly to the right and became ever more hostile toward the women's movement (Carlson 185–86). In 1943 a military regime took power and began censoring theatre, tango lyrics, the arts, and the press through its campaign of "moral purity" (184). Censorship in the arts continued after the 1946 democratic election of populist leader Juan Perón, a cabinet member in the former military regime (Mogliani 78–79). In 1947 Argentina finally granted women the right to vote, after Perón and his wife Eva (Evita) Duarte took over the campaign for women's suffrage. Also during Perón's presidency, divorce was legalized and women gained more visibility in politics, public life, and the workforce. Despite these events, Evita and Juan Perón considered woman's role in society to be, above all, that of nurturer and mother to a new generation of Peronist citizens (Zink 17–18). Evita died in 1952, and a right-wing coup ousted Juan Perón in 1955. Perón returned to power in 1973—after a long period of political upheaval—with his third wife, Isabel, serving as vice president. Isabel Perón became the country's first woman president when Perón died in 1974. However, just two years later, a military junta under General Jorge Videla seized power in a coup (Taylor 53–54).
The junta terrorized civilians between 1976 and 1983 in what became known as the "Dirty War." Military forces abducted, imprisoned, tortured, and frequently assassinated individuals suspected of government opposition, though most of the persons they detained were not actually involved in subversive activity (Taylor 130). Female prisoners, who made up about one-third of the detainees, were routinely subjected to rape and other forms of brutal sexual violence. Babies born in prison were often forcibly taken from their mothers and given to military families (84). According to human rights organizations, between ten thousand and thirty thousand civilians were killed or "disappeared" during this time (Project of the Disappeared). Surprisingly, the most visible and vocal opponents of this repressive and violent regime were a group of previously nonpolitical women. The Association of Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo (La Asociación de las Madres de la Plaza de Mayo) started with a group of fourteen mothers who met while searching for the whereabouts of their missing children. As early as 1977, these women began staging weekly protests in front of the presidential palace, La Casa Rosada, in the Plaza de Mayo. Over time, their membership grew and their protests continued despite the government's attempts to silence and intimidate them by threatening, attacking, and "disappearing" individuals in the group (186–87). In a series of protests and marches, the Association of Mothers displayed photos of their missing children and demanded their safe return, bringing international attention to the human rights abuses of the "Dirty War." In the years following the return to democracy, the Association of Mothers has continued to stage weekly protests in the Plaza de Mayo and to hold perpetrators accountable for human rights abuses (189).
In the twenty-first century Argentine women participate significantly in politics, the professional workforce, and public life. Balanced election slates ensure that one-third of the seats in both houses of Congress are held by women. In 2007 Cristina Fernández de Kirchner became the second female president of Argentina and the first woman to win a presidential election. Goals of feminist organizations include decriminalizing abortion, eradicating violence against women, and closing the gender wage gap.
Early Women Directors
In the 1920s and 1930s women playwrights occasionally acted as stage directors. Feminist dramatist Lola Pita Martínez, for example, directed two plays in 1924 for a nonprofessional theatre company, run by women, called the Argentine Women's Theatre Club (Compañía de Comedias del Club Argentino de Mujeres): The Mother (La Madre), by Santiago Rusiñol, and Arms and the Man, by George Bernard Shaw (Seibel, History of the Argentine Theatre: From Its Rituals Until 1930 644). As another example, Alfonsina Storni directed a children's theatre troupe in the 1930s (Nalé Roxlo 126). Nevertheless, the women who exerted the most influence in the theatre industry of this period were undoubtedly the lead actresses. The popularity of divas like Camila Quiroga, María Gámez, Angelina Pagano, Blanca Podestá, Iris Marga, and Mecha Ortiz earned them prominent positions in the theatre industry. It was not uncommon for women celebrities to manage their own theatre companies, despite the fact that women were underrepresented in other areas of the Argentine labor force. In the 1940s María Herminia Avellaneda and Eugenia de Oro made names for themselves as radio theatre directors, and celebrated actor Gloria Ferrandíz headed her own theatre company and began directing for the stage (Sosa de Newton 46, 458; Seibel, The History of Argentine Theatre, 1930–1956: Crisis and Changes II 588).
Alejandra Boero (1918–2006) paved the way for women directors currently working in Argentina. Actor, director, and teacher, Boero was a key figure in promoting independent theatre in Argentina and provided a role model for women working in theatre from the 1940s onward. Her theatre training began at La Máscara Theatre in Buenos Aires. She co-founded the company Nuevo Teatro with Pedro Asquini, and she founded a number of theatres in Buenos Aires, among them La Lorange, El Planeta, and Andamio 90 (Geirola 23).
Working Climate in the Twenty-First Century
The end of the military dictatorship in 1983 ushered in the recovery of artistic freedom and an outpouring of creative expression. Theatre flourished in this newfound climate, and women directors began to have more opportunities available to them in a variety of theatrical venues, including the commercial theatres on Corrientes Avenue, the National Cervantes Theatre (Teatro Nacional Cervantes), the city-subsidized Buenos Aires Theatre Complex (Complejo Teatral de Buenos Aires), and low-budget, more experimental spaces, commonly referred to in Argentina as "under" or "off" venues. Under the direction of Kive Staiff at the San Martín Theatre, Laura Yusem, Vivi Tellas, Ana Alvarado, and Cristina Banegas, among others, found support as directors.
In the wake of Argentina's debilitating economic crisis of 2001, artists have found it increasingly difficult to support themselves exclusively with their creative work. Women directors, like their male counterparts, often teach acting and directing classes in order to stay afloat financially. Many contemporary artists in Argentina, including directors, depend on international funding to carry out their projects. All of the women directors featured in this chapter have received international support and have toured extensively with their work.
Profiles of Contemporary Directors
Laura Yusem
Laura Yusem has employed a range of styles and techniques in the direction of more than forty productions staged in independent, commercial, and national theatre venues since 1970. Though Yusem is first and foremost a director, she also writes and acts, and her earliest training was in dance and literature (Yusem). She was five years old when she started dance classes and twelve when she began to study with Ana Itelman, a pioneer of contemporary dance in Argentina. Itelman taught her choreography and played an instrumental role in steering her toward theatrical direction. Yusem began studying literature at the University of Buenos Aires but left after three years to pursue theatre. In addition to writing and directing theatre, Yusem currently holds acting and directing workshops out of the Actors' Patio (Patio de Actores) in Buenos Aires, which she founded jointly with director Clara Pizarro.
The first play Yusem directed, A Slightly Fat Gray Bird with a Short Beak (Un pájaro gris medio gordo, de pico corto), premiered at the Teatro del Centro in Buenos Aires in 1970. Based on a short story written by her friend and collaborator Hebe Uhart, this first production received very little critical attention. Yusem spent the next ten years learning and polishing her technique, except during the period between 1974 and 1978 when Yusem was forced into internal exile because of state repression surrounding the dictatorship (Yusem).
In 1980 Yusem directed the play White Wedding, written by the Polish author Tadeusz Rozewicz and staged at the Teatro Planeta in Buenos Aires. This production was a great success and marks a turning point in Yusem's career because of the visibility she received as a director. Yusem relates that White Wedding, which won a Molière Prize for best direction, caught the attention of Staiff and the distinguished Argentine playwrights Griselda Gambaro and Eduardo Pavlovsky, who saw the play and subsequently asked Yusem to direct their work (Yusem).
In 1982 Yusem directed Bad Blood (La malasangre), written by Gambaro and staged at the Teatro Olimpia in Buenos Aires. Yusem has continued to collaborate with Gambaro consistently, and though Yusem cites a wide range of European artistic influences, including Pina Bausch, Samuel Beckett, Anton Chekhov, and Tadeusz Kantor, she maintains that Gambaro remains her true dramaturgical voice. Yusem finds Gambaro's Bad Blood particularly fulfilling to direct because it features strong female characters in lead roles (Yusem). The main character in the play, Dolores, defies her father and attempts to escape an oppressive patriarchal system, actions that at the time of the premiere were read metaphorically as resistance to the military dictatorship. One of Yusem's most political stagings, Bad Blood generated a particularly heated response; in one of the first performances, Yusem relates that a group of national revisionists upset with the portrayal of a polemical nineteenth-century leader (Juan Manuel de Rosas) stormed the stage with guns, though tensions were ultimately defused and nobody was hurt (Puga 168).
Continuing in a political vein, Yusem collaborated with the playwright Roberto Cossa to direct The Crazy Uncle (El tío loco) for the groundbreaking theatre movement Teatro Abierto (Open Theatre) in 1982. Teatro Abierto brought together theatre practitioners and human rights activists in a collective act of resistance against the dictatorship, which was still in power when the movement was founded in 1981 (Graham-Jones 89–122). Yusem relates that she inherited her interest in political engagement through theatre from her parents, and specifically from her mother, who was particularly politically minded (Yusem).
In the middle of the 1980s Yusem asked Gambaro to write a version of Antigone as homage to Argentina's Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, and Gambaro wrote Furious Antigone (Antígona furiosa), based on Sophocles's tragedy. Premiered at the Goethe Institute in Buenos Aires in 1986, Antigone was played by the classically trained dancer Bettina Muraña. Yusem and Muraña rehearsed for two full years before the play's premiere. The goal of the director was to envision an Antigone through a fusion of theatre and dance. Stage designer Graciela Galán, also a longtime collaborator of Yusem's, created a pyramid-like structure consisting of crisscrossing bars that framed Antigone's movement throughout the play. In his review of the play, critic Osvaldo Quiroga observed that each movement in space was also a movement in the spectator's mind (10). The scene in which Antigone performs the burial rites for her brother Polynices held particular resonance at the time of the premiere in the early post-dictatorship period, when the whereabouts of many of the country's thirty thousand disappeared were still unknown. 10 May Summer Farnsworth and Brenda Werth
Susana Torres Molina
Susana Torres Molina first became involved in theatre as an actor in the play Liberty and Other Toxins (Libertad y otras intoxicaciones), written by Mario Trejo and staged at the Torcuato di Tella Institute, one of the most significant venues of avant-garde experimentation in Latin America in the sixties. From 1971 to 1975 she studied with actor and director Beatriz Matar, and toward the end of this training she wrote the dramatic text Strange Game (Extraño juguete), which she then premiered as her first authored play in 1977 under the direction of Lito Cruz at the Payró Theatre in Buenos Aires. From 1974 to 1975 she studied stage design with Alberto Ure, and from 1978 to 1981, while exiled in Madrid during the military dictatorship, she participated in a workshop on performance with Lindsay Kemp and in a dramatic seminar with Roberto Villanueva. Since returning to Buenos Aires, Torres Molina has studied directing with David Amitin, Eugenio Barba, and Augusto Fernándes (Torres Molina).
(Continues...)
Excerpted from International Women Stage Directors by Anne Fliotsos, Wendy Vierow. Copyright © 2013 Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. Excerpted by permission of UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS PRESS.
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Table of Contents
Contents
Foreword Roberta Levitow, vii,Acknowledgments, xi,
Introduction Anne Fliotsos, 1,
Argentina May Summer Farnsworth and Brenda Werth, 5,
Australia Laura Ginters, 18,
Brazil Alessandra Vannucci, 30,
Bulgaria Vessela S. Warner, 43,
Canada Gordon McCall, 56,
China Jiangyue Li, 70,
Cuba Ileana Azor, 83,
Czech Republic Mirenka Cechová, 95,
Egypt Dalia Basiouny, 109,
France Kate Bredeson, 122,
Germany Ursula Neuerburg-Denzer, 136,
Great Britain Adam J. Ledger, 148,
Greece Avra Sidiropoulou, 161,
India Erin B. Mee, 174,
Ireland Karin Maresh, 187,
Kenya Margaretta Swigert-Gacheru, 198,
Mexico Ileana Azor, 211,
Pakistan Claire Pamment, 223,
Poland Magda Romanska, 237,
Romania Diana Manole, 251,
Russia Maria Ignatieva, 264,
South Africa Marié-Heleen Coetzee and Lliane Loots, 277,
Taiwan Iris Hsin-chun Tuan, 291,
United States of America Anne Fliotsos and Wendy Vierow, 303,
Contributors, 317,
Index, 321,