#feminist theatre

[julescarstairs]

I think Emilia Bassano would have loved Wicked.

[ladycharles]

If any of you are in Montreal then be sure to come out to Nuit at Montreal Fringe, where you can hear a bunch of my original music soundtracking a pretty amazing blend of sketch comedy, dance, feminism and queer positivity. And I mean actually really funny and heartfelt not just some token thing.

that's one of the dance numbers 😉

check out fringemtl's site for tickets if you're in town and Def let me know 🥰

[leftistfeminista]

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This powerful performance of Feminist theatre Irán #3037 [Violencia Político Sexual En Dictadura] powerfully captures the unique struggles of women revolutionaries under repressive conditions of abuse. Irán #3037 was the address of Pinochet's torture center for women political prisoners but it was also known as Venda Sexy or the Discotheque. Sexy Blindfold and the Disco nightclub are evocative of how Junta guards treated women prisoners more as entertainment than as politicals. Women were expected to dance to loud disco club music.

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The play dramatizes the struggle of two Communist women to preserve their revolutionary dignity by staying in the plain underwear they were arrested in. Due to the nature of patriarchy, women's revolutionary battles might not be on the barricades with bullets, but in a tiny bathroom over their underwear. But both are equally important and deserve to be memorialized. The only time they get alone to talk and comfort each other is to use the bathroom.

In a perverse application of Pinochet's neoliberal Chicago Boy Fascism, the two comrades are "free to choose" in Milton Friedman's sense. Pairs of tangas hang in the bathroom, all they have to do is take off their functional underpants and put those on. "One set for each of us". A display of Junta confidence all will break. It just shows the disrespect for women that their political surrender must be in such an intimate, undignified way. The Junta guards could easily tear them off, but they sadistically want the proud Communist women to make that choice. A simple garment could end the torture sessions. While they are still embarrassed that Junta has made their underwear into their only outerwear, they find dignity in refusing to surrender it. Their drab boring underwear becomes a symbol of their old lives, when it was hidden under their clothing and they were respected as revolutionaries and for what they had to say.

It is so powerful and authentic that the bathroom background projected behind them in the show, is the actual bathroom from the Venda Sexy torture prison for women.

[thewhizzyhead]

how genderbending the warriors (2024) is done not for the sole sake of "bad-assery"

okay here we go feminist ramble time for our newest chick on the block: warriors. now i'll be honest, prior to listening to the album, when i first heard that the warriors main girls were originally dudes in the movie and the novel, i thought that the decision for the genderbending, in lmm's perspective, were from the following: 1.) girl power move in like a very basic meaning of the word "bad-ass" 2.) simply a twist on a cult movie about big gang bros loved by the film bros, and 3.) a way to have the schuyler sisters back together gjfkdfldf

but when i read more about warriors and its development and how lmm took inspiration from the gamergate controversies of 2014-2015 aka among the peak of gamerbro misogyny campaigns, that's when i realized that Oh Shit Is Serious - because adapting a story about a group being framed and targeted and harassed for something they are accused of doing without any substantial proof other than a man screaming "THE WARRIORS SHOT CYYYYRUUS" with 21st century misogyny campaigns in mind makes the theme of fighting back a lot more complicated and a lot more resonant, going beyond just marketing a cast you can call "badass"

take the hurricanes' quiet girls, for example. the hurricanes (concept album version) is the only gang that lets the warriors off the hook and with a stern warning: quiet girls don't make it home. here, the hurricanes berate the warriors for not saying shit or attempting to defend themselves from accusations they know well aren't true. THIS MESSAGE IN PARTICULAR is what stays and influences ajax, fox, and swan til the very end of their stories.

literally one song after this does ajax show how easily she resonated with the hurricanes' lesson by finally sticking with her gut and actually choosing to fight back against both the baseball furies AND against the sleazy undercover cop. the latter encounter is one of the instances that really solidifies the recontextualization of the story because in the OG movie, ajax (a dude) WAS the sleazy fuck up harassing a woman in a park - and now with the literal character switch, ajax goes from being just a rebellious gangbro dude bro into someone whose want to fight is warranted. such a want to fight is seen in fox seeing as fox is the first to comment on the quiet girls scene and that, in the concept album, she is the one that instigates the rumble against the police in union square - saying that she is sick of being afraid of them and their 'fuckin powder blue' colors (also notice how she is the only warrior that really does say fuck the cops i think that's cool BUT I'LL TALK ABOUT FOX MORE NEXT TIME)

to a less obvious extent, swan also gets the receiving end of this recurring theme - by the album's finale, the usually violence-averse caution-first interim leader becomes a lot fiercer in protecting her crew. but perhaps among what i consider to be the biggest recontextualized change in the feminist sense is MERCY and her motivations to join the warriors in the first place. according to the wiki, her attraction to swan and the warriors and um seeing the orphans as wimps is what led her to switch sides BUT IN THE CONCEPT ALBUM, mercy's motivation to become a warrior is deepened, rooted in admiration rather than attraction - wanting to be like those women who hold their head up high. and again, we see this in Sick of Runnin' when she takes part in the rumble, finding her bravery within their ranks as they fight back. here, mercy becomes less of a swan tagalong and more of someone that wants what the warriors have: pride.

of course now that i type this out i realize that warriors is not based solely on the feminist rhetoric as with their theme of hope amidst adversity, the story is more intersectional and rooted in community struggle and wanting for more than that. but nonetheless, i genuinely believe that the twt filmbros arguments on why the genders should not have been changed in the first place just for "woke" points is kinda like,,,very shortsighted because not only does the narrative of women narrowly escaping unwarranted accusations actually fucking fit, but the act of learning to fight back amidst all odds - be it that of disbelieving, predatory men or the power of oppressive pigs - stays resonant for women yesterday, today, and the days to come.

ultimately, warriors (2024) is not solely a tale of female badassery - rather, it is a tale of the need for such "female badassery" in the face of past and present realities, which is why it somehow fucking worked.

[ilredeiladri]

I can't stop thinking about the moment in the "much ado about nothing" performance at the Globe, when Beatrice shouted her iconic

'if I were a man, I'd eat his heart in the marketplace'

line after all the male characters treated Hero like shit. She spit these words out with such an energy and fury, that the crowd went wild.

Well, not the whole crowd... I nearly only heard female voices cheering and shouting. It might be obvious when thinking about it, but it never crossed my mind before, that for men, Beatrice's reaction in this situation might not be half as moving and relatable as it is for women (or let's say 'people who are not cisgender heterosexual able-bodied white men').

Because every one of us understands the frustration and helplessness and anger of not being taken seriously and not being able to act like we want to due to not being a man. Beatrice's words are an exclamation of these feelings and provide a moment of unity among all that have ever experienced this injustice. It's an outlet for the feeling of powerlessness on the one hand and the burning wish and hope for a change away from the patriarchal system on the other - and therefore empowering in a way most men might never understand.

[pumpacti0n]

[cashthecomposer]

Hey everybody! Patreon just introduced a new feature where you can gift free subscriptions to people- so starting now, I'll be gifting a random free member one month of an upgraded membership, every month!

On my Patreon, you can find my work as a composer of musical theatre. I just produced my debut show, and I'm currently editing footage for the proshot, and posting bits of that all the time, and the full thing will be available only on Patreon in April! That show is called Fantasmagoriana, and it's about the summer Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein, and it's a love letter to the gothic genre.

[thekenobee]

THE KISS by Gustav Klimt

THE DOLL'S HOUSE (1959)

[mote-historie]

1900 Sarah Bernhardt in character as Theodora the Empress of Byzantium (Empress Theodora) in "Theodora: A Drama in Five Acts and Eight Tableau" (1885) by Victorien Sardou. Premiered: Theatre de la Porte Saint-Martin in Paris, France. 

Sardou's enthusiasm for historical authenticity was shared by his star. Weeks before ordering her costumes, she journed to Ravenna and stood long hours in the Church of San Vitale studying the magnificent mosaics with their startling portraits of Theodora and Justinian staring menacingly forth from barbaric gold. She made sketches of every robe, every fold, every detail or ornamentation. When she returned to Paris she had completed in detail a dressmaker's design for each outfit, as well as those for her stage jeweller, even to that death-dealing hairpin. Her wardrobe along cost more than the average production. Her costumer figured out that toiling in her work rooms she and her assistants had sewn on by hand more than 4,500 'gems'. (x)

Her costume is a replica of the celebrated mosaic of the Byzantine Virgin in the Church of Ravenna -- her robe is yellow satin embroidered with topazes; her coiffure is ablaze with jewels, and in her hand she carries a white lily, which tradition says was Théodora's favourite flower. The Empress seats herself on a couch of tigers' skins, and gives audience to her courtiers and to ambassadors from foreign lands.

[kerryweaverlesbian]

*Taps microphone* hi, hello, sorry to disturb, ha, I'll be quick. I just wanted to say that - you can hear me alright? Yes, sorry, okay, just wanted to check, ha, alright - just wanted to say that there is misogyny in the cw's supernatural and it's not intentional and it's not hysterical women fans having only a surface level understanding of the text and it was called out in 2005 and should continue to be called out for as long as the show exists because it is pervasive, insidious, cruel and above all extremely fucking stupid and should be mocked from every rooftop. Thank you and good- goodnight, oh god, almost knocked over the microphone on my way out, haha, good thing nothing else embarrassing is going to- ahhh, uh oh, woahhhhh!!!!!! Oh no I seem to have knocked over the trays of custard pies laid out for this wedding that we are all currently attending and they're headed straight for the bridal party (and there are TWO brides because after all this is a feminist occasion as you all know!!!)!!! Somebody needs to dive across the room and eat every pie as they fly through the air before they can land!!!! No!!!!!! Not the mother of the bride's elderly diabetic old bitch (as in female dog for real)!!! She is sacrificing herself for the greater good by launching through the air and eating all the pies, but at too great a cost*!!!! Oh I've really beansed this one up!!!!!!!!!!

(*the cost is being very farty for a few days, but our hero does not know this at the time)

[callixton]

i think my issue w suffs was mostly a staging/directing thing bc i thought the music was pretty decent but also like. idk man it was just incredibly bland to me. it wasn't Bad per say but oh i think i just realized that my issue w that is the same as my issue w a lot of last year's - i have literally no idea who these people are or what their relationships to each other are and therefore what the story they're telling is. if i just wanted the history i'd learn that yknow? the rest of the show might be really great at those things but i wouldn't know based off of the performance

[doctorwormcore]

i rewatched twenty-five acts and why is barba literally so cute when they introduce him?

[leftistfeminista]

Review of THE TROJAN WOMEN by Mariana Quiles

By R. Ramos-Perea

www.institutoalejandrotapia.org

In the concentration camps of Tejas Verdes, Villa Grimaldi and Venda Sexy during the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile, the Chilean military had a custom of dividing up the women captured in the dirty war. These women, many of them young university students captured as communists or socialists, were used as sexual slaves by the military and police, and after being tortured and raped, they were thrown from helicopters into the sea. The same thing happened during the Videla dictatorship in Argentina.

Those dark concentration camps, where men, women, workers, and the elderly were detained, certainly had the worst of it. Many of them became pregnant by the soldiers; others, who had been captured while pregnant, had their children taken away from them when they were born and sold to the wealthiest families in Chile, who raised them as future slaves. And this happened very recently, between 1973 and 1990.

And it was not about exercising the dominion of one people over another, but rather of dominating one's own by terror. But the procedure was exactly the same as that which Euripides, Seneca and many other authors have brought to the theatre throughout the centuries. The Trojan Women tells us about the genocide that Greece provoked against Troy. To understand it in its true historical nature, the folkloric tale of Paris' love for Helen is not enough, but rather the serious and complex political circumstances of Athenian imperialism and its military and economic control of the entire Aegean Sea. We know that the flirtatious Helen, however beautiful she was, was not going to cost Greece so much shame in the eyes of History. The Trojan War was not a matter of offended balls or golden vaginas.

The question is: why choose The Trojan Women, if not to exemplify with it the present genocides, such as the current one in Palestine, or the one in Ukraine, or the one in Haiti, or the hundreds of genocides that, to a greater or lesser degree, are going around the world decimating civilization? For that very reason we should understand that The Trojan Women should not be content with being a metaphor for a present, but understand that, because it is a classic, its validity is imperative. And that validity screams, hurts, pains, tears, whips common sense. It is not enough to treat it as "history," but to penetrate it because it is PRESENT. Where is Puerto Rico in this box? Deduce it if you are intelligent and know, even a little, about the history of our "Puerto Rico without Puerto Ricans."

The Trojan Women is HUMAN DRAMA and must produce what the Greeks called κάθαρσις, that is, “catharsis,” which was nothing other than purging human pain through tears and moans of commiseration. But for this to happen, the interpreter of this drama—tragic because it is inevitable, not because many people die—must, above all, be DRAMATIC. Intense, violent, crude, abusive, violating, dark. Like the panic of seeing a soldier in front of a poor young girl who trembles with fear and, in her terror, dares to shout her rebellion, risking her life at the merciless blow of a soldier. This catharsis did not occur last night. We miss DRAMA in this drama.

Las Troyanas by MARIANA QUILES has been a production that has faced too many challenges. Some have been saved with enthusiasm and skill; others succumbed to the lack of resources and support, the lack of application of some actors in the Drama Department of the Sagrado Corazón, and of the dramatic mission of that university itself, which with great difficulty and despite the sacrifice of its professors who for decades —I remember the struggles of the great Maestro Edgar Quiles— have given their lives so that this university can have a theatre of which it can be proud.

[bat-gwuck]

TW: MILD BLOOD/BRUISING

quick thing for my all-time favourite play: the duchess of malfi

fly high duchess, you were the og girlboss

btw I know she was killed w a rope but I REALLY hate drawing rope so ur getting hands, deal w it

[arttheclown]

my opinion on the barbie movie was that it had aspects of it that were genuinely cute, sweet and funny, and the cast did an excellent job but it was also very um. pop feminism. which is to be expected from a toy commercial but it still made me grimace a lot ngl lol

[thrashntreasure]

Ep16 I Am Woman, Hear Me *DEATH GROWL!* w/ Jane Caro! (AUS)

In the countdown to International Women's Day, we're truly honoured to be joined by an EXTRA special guest, the iconic Australian Feminist, Author, TV Personality, and Political Activist, Jane Caro! Together, Jane and Aaron will gang up on Gareth, forcing him on a journey Into The Woods. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Gareth returns the favour with Devilskin's Red.

www.twitter.com/janecaro