THE OTHER SIDE OF FIFTY: THE CRONES AMONG US

by

Bonnie M. Benson

A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of

The Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and letters

in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of

Doctor of Philosophy

Florida Atlantic University

Boca Raton, Florida

August2003 Copyright by Bonnie M. Benson 2003

ii The Other Side of Fifty: The Crones Among Us

By

Bonnie M. Benson

This dissertation was prepared under the direction of the candidate's dissertation advisor, Dr. Susan Love Brown, Department of Anthropology, and has been approved by the members of her supervisory committee. It has been submitted to the faculty of the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters and was accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

SUPERVISORY COMMITTEE:

ean, The Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts & Letters

iii Abstract

Author: Bonnie M. Benson

Title: The Other Side of Fifty: The Crones Among Us

Institution: Florida Atlantic University

Dissertation Advisor: Dr. Susan Love Brown

Degree: Doctor of Philosophy

Year: 2003

The playwright can be both a public intellectual and an agent for social

· change. In this creative dissertation, consisting of a series of essays and a full­

length play, I demonstrate an alternative view of aging women to combat the

pejorative images now current. Drawing on dramatic portrayals from the past

100 years and current information on aging in the United States, I explore the

dominant viewpoint on aging women.

Combining the structures of spiritual quest and rite of passage with an

appreciation for the ritual that celebrates such events, I have written a play, The

Crones Among Us, from a female viewpoint. Presenting female characters as

subjects rather than objects, the play provides an alternative view of women on

the other side of fifty. Using the archetype of the crone, the play affords a more

empowering view of women as they age in a society which has privileged youth

and beauty.

iv To all the Crones

becoming ... Table of Contents

Introduction ••••••.•••••••.•....•.•..•.•.•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••.•• 1

Chapter I Playwright as Public Intellectual .•.....••....••••••..••••••..••••..••.•••.• 5

Chapter 2 Aging in the United States ••.•••••••••••.••••.•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 19

Chapter 3 The Crone as Archetype ...•..•...... •...••.••••.••••••••.•..•••••.•••••29

Chapter 4 Theatre, Women and Aging •••..••.•••..•••..•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 37

Chapter 5 Creating an Alternative Vision ...... •...••••••.•.••••••••••••••••••••••••.• 57

Chapter 6 The Crones Among Us••.••••••••.••••••••.•••••••••••••••••••••••••••.•.••. 68

References

Appendix I - Development History of The Crones Among Us •••.•.••••••.•..•••.••• 163

Bibliography •.••••••••••.•••.••••••••.•••••.•••••..•.•...•••••••••.••.••••••••••••.••••••••••••••. 165

Curriculum Vitae •.••...•..•.••.•.••.•.•••••.•..•••••••••••..••••••••••.••••••••••••.••••••••••••• 172

v Introduction

"The Other Side of Fifty: The Crones Among US' is a creative

dissertation, consisting of a play and several supporting essays. This non­

traditional, inter-disciplinary approach has been employed by various scholars

(Vought 1994, Levenherz 1996, Eddins 2001 ). Using a creative medium such as

playwrighting, I have created an alternate view of women and aging in the United

States to combat the largely pejorative images I have seen, both on stage and in

society. The essays that precede the play record my artistic and intellectual journey to The Crones Among Us.

Exploring the functions of a playwright as public intellectual caused me to

look more clearly at the medium within which I am working -the limitations of theatre, the limitations of playwrights and the images projected on stage.

Beginning with the study of playwrights who focused on social issues, I eventually narrowed my view to images of aging women. Using the archetype of the crone, I searched for signs of her emergence. When I found the images wanting or altogether absent, I used my knowledge of the craft of playwrighting to create new ones. Using a variety of dramatic conventions and methods and subverting their customary usage, I have written a play, The Crones Among Us, from a female viewpoint. Presenting female characters as subjects rather than objects, the play provides an alternative view of women on the other side of fifty.

I Drawing on the crone archetype, the play affords an empowering view of women

as they age in a society that has privileged youth and beauty.

My work in theatre is based on my roles as a spectator, a writer and a

feminist. These three roles affect how I view theatre and how I write for it. This

creative dissertation draws on all three roles.

As a spectator, I am a member of the audience, one of those people

sitting in the dark watching the performance on stage. As such, I am an integral

part of theatre. Peter Brook has said: "The only thing that all forms of theatre

have in common is the need for an audience. This is more than a truism: In the

theatre the audience completes the steps of creation" ( qtd. in Brockett with Ball

8). Unlike a poem or a novel, a script is not theatre until it is performed.

And yet, I have often left performances feeling vaguely discontented.

While others were delighted with performances, I found myself wondering what was missing - why the piece hadn't touched me, why I found it somewhat hollow.

It was clarified for me when I read Jill Dolan's The Feminist Spectator as Critic

(1988). In this pioneering work, Dolan explains that all the material aspects of theatre are designed so that "the performance's meanings are intelligible to a particular spectator ... [h]istorically, in North American culture, this spectator has been assumed to be white, middle-class, heterosexual, and male" (Dolan16).

Dolan notes that this ideal spectator is a reflection of the dominant culture whose ideology he represents. Perhaps I'd been sitting in the wrong seat.

But, wasn't theatre a mirror, holding up a view of life? Robert Brustein, in his discussion of the theatre of social critique in The Theatre of Revolt (1962),

2 sees theatre as mirror, echoing Hamlet's words to the Players that the purpose of acting, "both at the first and now, was and is to hold as 'twere the mirror up to nature." This has been an enduring image in theatre, albeit a somewhat limited one. For a mirror can reflect only that which appears to it and this means a representation of the status quo, because a mirror also requires a certain fidelity to the image reflected. However, this does not discount satire or farce, which might be viewed as refractions distorted by a fun-house mirror. Nor does it prevent the presentation of some of the uglier aspects of life. But seeing theatre merely as a mirror denies the power to critique inherent in theatre.

According to Dolan, theatre is not simple mimesis; it is not really a mirror of reality. "A mirror implies passivity and noninvolvement, an object used but never changed by the variety of people who hold it up and look into it. The theatre has in fact been much more active as an ideological force" (Dolan 16).

Roszika Parker and Griselda Pollock agree: "Art is not a mirror. It mediates and re-presents social relations in a schema of signs which require a receptive and preconditioned reader in order to be meaningful" (Parker and Pollock 119). What is presented on stage or seen in a gallery is one person's worldview, shaped by the experiences and society in which that person lived.

As a creative writer, I come to theatre from poetry. I bring my love of the word with me, using it to explore the dark side, the unexplained, my discontents.

Writing is an attempt to make sense of that which is unintelligible, to answer questions, to come to terms with that which is both feared and wanted. Writing for the theatre requires the writer to speak in multiple voices, showing the

3 interaction of people and ideas. It was the danger, the possibility of theatre that

intrigued me. As Hallie Flanagan of the Federal Theatre Project said: "The

theatre, when it is potent enough to deserve its ancestry, is always dangerous"

(Flanagan, Dynamo 46). Art is the creation of a new vision. Theatre is an

opportunity to present the vision to a larger public.

As a feminist member of the Boomer generation which is crossing into its fifties, I have looked for visions of myself and my future as an older woman and found them missing. The models from the past do not fit, the solutions of previous generations do not seem applicable. However, the transition, the inevitable aging, is the same. It is how those transitions are dealt with that creates new opportunities, new visions, new futures in the artistic realm.

4 Chapter 1 Playwright as Public Intellectual

Drama is made up of what people most fear and deny in themselves. The taboos. The secrets. The devils and the demons. The only reason they let us live, I suppose, is because somebody has to confront what those things are like and tell other people about them. Elizabeth Ashley1

There is no better indication of what the people of any period are like than the plays they go to see. Edith Hamilton2

The theatre, when it is potent enough to deserve its ancestry, is always dangerous. Hallie Flanagan3

Playwrights and public intellectuals have much in common. Their roles

have often overlapped, and at various times in history an individual has

performed both roles. A short list of such individuals might include Machiavelli,

Clare Booth Luce, George Bernard Shaw, Federico Garcia Lorca, Lillian

Hellman, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Vaclav Havel.

Both playwrights and public intellectuals trace their beginnings back to ancient Greece. Aristotle's earliest manuals for the two arts, Rhetoric for orators and The Poetics for playwrights, date from this time (330 B.C. E.). While orators were working the public sphere of the marketplace, playwrights were offering their social critique in the amphitheatres of the day. For example, the plays of

Aristophanes come down to us as sharp critiques of the society of the day.

5 Lysistrata, his comedy about women from opposing states who unite to end the

Peloponnesian War, is as timely today as it was in the fourth century B.C.4

During the same period, the orator lsocrates was teaching a form of applied

intellectualism and advocating for a pan-Hellenism (Bizzell & Herzberg 25).

While their forums may differ, a look at some definitions of the public

intellectual may show some of their similarities. In Civility and Subversion

( 1998), Jeffrey Goldfarb defines intellectuals as:

special kinds of strangers, who pay special attention to their critical

faculties, who act autonomously of the centers of power and address a

general public, playing the specialized role in democratic societies of

fostering informed discussion about pressing societal issues. (37)

Edward Said in Representations of the Intellectual (1996) argues that intellectuals are individuals "with a faculty for representing, embodying, articulating a message, a view ... to, as well as for, a public. . . someone whose place it is to raise embarrassing questions" (11 ). This representing can occur through talking, writing, teaching, appearing on television, or by writing for the stage. His emphasis on raising questions echoes the Norwegian playwright

Henrik Ibsen who believed that the artist's purpose was "to make clear to himself, and thereby to others, the temporal and eternal questions which are astir in the age and in the community to which he belongs" (Ibsen Speeches 50). The sociologist Edward Shils defines intellectuals as "persons with an unusual sensitivity to the sacred, an uncommon reflectiveness about the nature of their universe, and the rules which govern their society" (Shils 21 ). He sees them as

6 individuals who use a variety of mediums: written discourse, plastic expression, ritual performance, to name a few. Regardless of the medium, they are all attempting to "penetrate (beyond] the screen of immediate concrete experience"

(22).

Drawing from these various definitions, one sees that the intellectual is characterized by a certain deepness of thought, a looking beyond surfaces to an examination of issues that affect one's society. This reflectiveness can set the intellectual in a place often occupied by the artist, a place "between loneliness and alignment" (Said 22). However, Robert Spiller reminds us that the artist, whether rising above his time or alienating himself from his society,

is nevertheless the specific product of his times and of his society, and

probably their most profound expression. Literature, therefore, has a

relationship to social and intellectual history, not as documentation, but as

symbolic illumination. (ix)

Whether an artist denies his country and becomes an expatriate, lashes out against it with satire, or escapes from it into fantasies and dreams, the artist is still relating to the world from which he comes, still operating in the public sphere. This applies even to those artists who straddle the public sphere and the academy.

The scholarly aspect of the intellectual is very much at home in the academy, the research institute and the think tank. However, it is the move out of such an environment into the wider world that exemplifies the work of the public intellectual. This transition itself is fraught with tensions.

7 Although both academic intellectual life and public intellectual life require critical analysis of issues, their presentation differs. Within the scholarly life, the intellectual can feel confident that she is addressing her peers when writing for a scholarly joumal. There is usually the time and space available for a full treatment of a subject. As Jean Bethke Elshtain describes it, one can "embed a conviction in its appropriate context with all the nuance intact" (qtd. in Donatich

28). However, when addressing the lay public, the public intellectual must be aware of the constraints of the situation. While attempting to write or speak in clear, precise language in the hopes of reaching a wider public, the public intellectual runs the danger of being considered a "popularizer" by her academic colleagues. At the same time, not all intellectuals have a facility for expressing their ideas clearly to a general public. Intellectuals coming from disciplines with very specialized vocabularies often have a difficult time translating their writing into a clear prose style.

For the intellectual as playwright, there are even greater constraints. She is working in a medium as old as humankind. From its earliest days, theatre has been a forum in which the hopes and dreams of a people have been played out.

It "responds to the unique world view of differing human communities and develops forms of expression that reflect specific community concems and community aesthetics" (Amold 21). At the same time, there is no place for the didactic on stage. Brecht reminds us that "[f]rom the first it has been the theatre's business to entertain people"(qtd. in Willett 180). While the playwright may have a certain ideas in mind in creating a work, her first responsibility is to entertain

8 her audience. If the entertainment aspect is missing, she has failed in her

primary aim.

Despite their different forums, both playwrights and public intellectuals,

traffic in ideology. Ideology has several definitions. According to Terry Eagleton

in Ideology: An Introduction (1991), it runs the gamut from "the general material

process of production of ideas, beliefs and values in social life" (28), to the ideas

and beliefs (whether true or false) of a specific group, to "the promotion and legitimation of the interests of such groups in the face of opposing interests" (29).

Ideology plays out in books, films and theatre as the artist shapes her work to reflect her views.

Theatre has often been considered a tool of ideology. Janelle Reinelt writes that "[t]heater and performance, seen as an institution whose chief function is the production of the social imaginary, can play a potentially vital role in shaping social change"(289). She would like to see theatre reconceived as a place of democratic struggle where antagonisms are presented and considered.

Reinelt sees theatres as spaces:

patronized by a consensual community of citizen-spectators who come

together at stagings of the social imaginary in order to consider and

experience affirmation, contestation, and reworking of various material

and discoursive practices pertinent to the constitution of a democratic

society. (286)

It is just this power of theatre that leads Augusto Boal to believe that theatre is a weapon. And it is for that reason that "the ruling classes strive to

9 take permanent hold of the theatre and utilize it as a tool for domination" (Boat ix). Dolan echoes this in her belief that "[t)he theatre has in fact been much more active as an ideological force" (Dolan 16). Parker and Pollock agree: "Art is not a mirror. It mediates and re-presents social relations in a schema of signs which require a receptive and preconditioned reader in order to be meaningful" (Parker and Pollock 119). A brief survey of the plays on mainstream theatres in the

United States bears this out. A much higher percentage of men's stories by male playwrights are being staged, reflecting the dominant position of men, primarily those who are white, middle-class and heterosexual, in the United States.

Playwrights and theatre theorists have often looked keenly at society, bringing their skills to the analysis of its problems. In her essay, "Rehearsing

Democracy," Dolan suggests that we "teach our students (and consider ourselves) to be public intellectuals with an expertise in performance" (4). She reminds us that "the binary of entertainment versus politics is insidious in our culture. These are the very conflicts the artist as public intellectual could mediate and ameliorate. Art is profoundly political" (5). As the print and broadcast media attempt to control and manipulate our views of ourselves and the world, witness the War on Iraq, theatre and performance scholars bring a unique perspective.

Dolan reminds us that:

[t)hose of us actually trained to look critically at performance, to study its

links to ideology and culture, can offer ourselves as experts who study the

election and the debates through a performative lens . . . one that looks at

gesture, narrative manipulations, contexts, and "spin" with an eye toward

10 the politics they convey. (6)

Deconstructing these political"performances" with an eye to the rhetoric employed can provide a clearer look at the ideology behind them.

Carol Becker, dean of the faculty of the School of the Art Institute of

Chicago, argues that as the public political forums degrade into spectacle, "now is a crucial time to ... take one's life as a public citizen quite seriously" (237).

She feels that being an artist means developing a creative approach to the complexities of our modern world. Whether through one's work or one's networking, an artist can and should have an impact on the world in which she works.

Jane Alexander, during her tenure as Chair of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), attempted to forge links with members of the Clinton cabinet.

Her account of her years at the NEA, Command Performance: An Actress in the

Theatre of Politics (2000), shows that the arts and artists are not really taken seriously as a source of ideas for social or political critique. Rather the arts are something to be contained and constrained as demonstrated by the cuts in funding. This lack of financial support reflects the devalued position of art, as something peripheral rather than central to the society. I believe that this devaluation is an attempt to subvert theatre's power to arouse radical participation in democracy and to serve as an avenue for public dissent. This has been a consistent pattern of government, going back to the Federal Theatre

Project of the 1930s.

11 Both playwrights and public intellectuals in the U.S., especially in their role as social critics, have had an uneven history. Intellectuals have been trying to sort out their role since Ralph Waldo Emerson delivered his lecture "The

American Scholar" to the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Harvard University in 1837.

While describing the duties of the scholar as "to cheer, to raise, and to guide men by showing them facts amidst appearances," Emerson also warned about "the state of virtual hostility in which he seems to stand to society, and especially to educated society." This paradox of trying to lead in the face of hostility, exacerbated in a democracy with its belief in the equality of all members, is with us still. Playwrights often face a similar hostility when they attempt to put uncomfortable issues, ones that society would prefer not to deal with, on the stage. And yet, the public intellectual is bound to action. As Emerson stated:

"Action is with the scholar subordinate, but it is essential. Without it, he is not a man. Without it, thought can never ripen into truth." That action, however, can take many forms. One such form in U.S. history is the tradition of the activist intellectual.

Throughout the Progressive Era in the United States (1900 -1930), activist intellectuals attempted to move the mass of citizens, usually working class and/or newly-arrived immigrant, through a series of political and social reforms. In the

1920's, John Dewey worked with the Americanization campaign which sought to remake the "adult student immigrant into a 100 percent American" (Fink 253). At the same time, literacy campaigns in the southern states, such as Wil Lou Gray's work in South Carolina, attempted to teach both literacy and citizenship. While

12 Dewey was working with newly-arrived immigrants in New York City, Gray was

working with mill workers in South Carolina.

Activist playwrights, especially those concerned with social change,

parallel the goals of activist intellectuals. For example, at the turn of the last

century, venereal disease was a major social problem. And it was handled by

Henrik Ibsen (Ghosts 1881), Arthur Schnitzler (The Blue Room 1900) and

Eugene Brieux (Damaged Goods 1901 ). These plays, in their turn, scandalized people and often resulted in obscenity trials. Ibsen's Ghosts generated a lot of

hostility toward both the play and Ibsen; few copies of the play were sold and it was not staged in Norway until 1890. Brieux's Damaged Goods with its frank

medical discussions of syphilis was denied by the censor in France. It was not produced in the United States until 1913. The audience for the opening performance in the United States was composed of members of Congress, the

Supreme Court and leaders of various regional and national religious groups. All were concerned about the effect of venereal disease on the population.

However, there were a variety of approaches- moral, educational, penal. The play presented one enlightened approach to the problem, stressing education.

In the 1920s, theatre in the United States had come into its own. Amateur art and community theatres started appearing around 1915. Most produced both native playwrights and European plays in translation, creating a stimulating environment for playwrights. More venues were available and "serious ideas about life in America and life in general could now find immediate expression on the stage in new and flexible dramatic forms" (Spiller 177). Eugene O'Neill and

13 Susan Glaspell both began at the Wharf Theater in Provincetown,

Massachusetts, creating works that would later move to New York.

By 1925-1935, when Eugene O'Neill, Maxwell Anderson, Robert E.

Sherwood, and Sidney Howard were at the crest of their careers, "American plays and playwrights were known and respected throughout the world" (Spiller

177). This also marked one of the most fertile periods for playwrights involved with social change. Elmer Rice's We the People (1933) was a bitter attack on the Depression, portraying the collapse of a proletarian family and calling for a return to democratic ideals. His Judgment Day (1934) attacked Nazi fascism. In

1935, Clifford Odets had four plays on Broadway. He was an actor, playwright and a charter member of the Group Theatre formed in 1931.4 Odets' Waiting for Lefty (1935) militant agitprop (agitation and propaganda) which told the story of a group of taxi drivers waiting for their leader, Lefty, to discuss a strike. Odets believed that theatre was at its best when it expressed on stage the plight of the audience.

Hallie Flanagan, scholar and director from Vassar, who directed the

Federal Theatre Project (FTP), an arm of the Works Project Administration

(WPA) in the late 1930s agreed. With the Living Newspaper productions,

Flanagan went to the people, listened to their stories and then put them on stage.

Such work resulted in millions of people being both exposed to and becoming a part of theatre. It was the most dynamic period of theatre in the U.S., reaching into 40 states, taking theatre into rural communities, in some cases, for the first time. It was the largest national theatre project ever carried out in any country.

14 Its social plays depicted "the struggle of many different kinds of people to understand the natural, social and economic forces around them and to achieve through these forces a better life for more people" (Flanagan Arena 183-4).

Unfortunately, it only survived a short four-year period. The FTP came under increasing attack by conservatives who were alarmed at the political content of many of the performances. Flanagan was branded in the press as a "WPA Red" and despite her valiant battles against the infamous House Un-American

Activities Committee, funding for the FTP was terminated (Barlow 11 ). Many attribute its demise to the power that theatre demonstrated, thus foreshadowing the NEA cuts of later decades.

By the end of World War II, the sociologist, C. Wright Mills saw American intellectuals as suffering from a "political failure of nerve" (qtd. in Jacoby 271 ).

One example of this failure could be seen in the elitist attacks on "kitsch" and the battle between high and low culture. In "Post-war American Intellectuals,

Acceptance and Mass Culture" (1997), George Catkin described how status and subject were linked with the result that "to be a serious intellectual in America required that one be opposed to the insidious, leveling forces of mass culture; showing too much respect for mass culture (except as a threat) could even bring forth doubts about one's own intellectual credentials" (250).

According to Russell Jacoby in "The Decline of American Intellectuals"

(1989), this period following World War II also marked the beginning of the intellectuals retreat to the universities in search of "salaries, security, [and) summers." Giving up the bohemian lifestyle and the uncertainty of freelance

15 writing, intellectuals flocked to the universities, which were expanding at a

prodigious rate in response to the flood of students subsidized by the G. I. Bill and

the need for scientific research. Once there, they were further confined by the

realities of academic life - the need to publish scholarly articles in academic journals generally unread by the educated public.

This retreat was paralleled in U.S. theatre as playwrights moved away from dealing with social issues to more personal issues. Theatre had narrowed

its view, moving out of the street and into the home. The family and its

relationships became the focus; the tensions between men and women and more often, between father and son, were being explored. On one hand, this was a

reflection of the refocusing in general following the war. During the war, certain

restraints had been loosened; women and blacks, for example, had been recruited from their traditional spaces on the periphery and become full members of society as part of the war effort. The war won, it was now expected that they return to their "place." The relentless images of the 1950s sought to recapture a nuclear family with traditional roles for mother and father. Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman (1949) played out against the traditional nuclear family. John Mason

Brown called it a "tragedy modern and personal, not classic and heroic.... a little man sentenced to discover his smallness rather than a big man undone by his greatness"(qtd. in Bordman 192). This smallness of vision became a staple of theatre.

While theatre's vision narrowed, its themes fractured. No longer were playwrights looking at that huge social experiment called the United States.

16 Rather they were looking at its disparate pieces, manifesting in a sea of identity

issues. Feminist, black, Asian-American, Latino/a and gay and lesbian theatre

groups were creating plays that reflected their distinctive issues but few seemed

to be looking at social issues, such as housing or health care, that effected the

whole. Another disquieting aspect of U.S. theatre was the popularity of revivals.

The plethora of revivals on Broadway today suggests two things. First,

some of the stories bear retelling, such is the power of the playwright's vision.

Some issues are still with us, the state vs. the individual, for one. Second, these

revivals may be an attempt to hold on to familiar stories, hoping that the world will

return to the time of those stories. The family dramas of Miller and O'Neill harken

back to a simpler time, when families had a symmetry that was comforting, even

if it didn't work. These were stories where father and son worked out their

rivalries while mother alternated from worrying in the background to stepping in

to mediate, her concern always other-directed. The persistence of revivals shows

a certain desire for nostalgia, perhaps a desire for the comfort that the familiar

brings. It also shows an unwillingness to face the social issues of the 21st century, where society has become more complex, lifestyles are changing and people are living longer.

It is time for new stories, with new viewpoints for the new century. Our world has changed. Shouldn't the stories of that world change as well? One major social issue that needs to be discussed is aging and within it, the portrayals of aging women in the theatre. Before examining these portrayals, it is important to examine current attitudes on aging in the United States.

17 NOTES

1Ashley, Elizabeth with Ross Firestone. Actress: postcards from the road. (New York: M. Evans, 1978), 84.

2Hamilton, Edith. The Roman Way. (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1932), 15.

3Fianagan, Hallie. Dynamo. (New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1943), 76.

4 So timely, in fact, that it served as the vehicle for the first ever worldwide theatre event for peace. Lysistrata was performed on Sunday, 3 March 2003, by more than 1,000 groups in 57 countries around the world. At Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, FL, the Crones Counsel, a student club dedicating to fighting ageism, produced a staged reading for the community, which I produced and directed.

5 The Group Theatre, started by Harold Clurman, Cheryl Crawford and Lee Strasberg, sought to produce plays focusing on "contemporary moral and social problems and to develop serious playwrights for a permanent acting company." (Meserve 320)

18 Chapter2 Aging in the United States

Of all the self-fulfilling prophecies in our culture, the assumption that aging means decline and poor health is probably the deadliest. Marilyn Ferguson 1

The great thing about getting older is that you don't lose all the other ages you've been. Madeleine L'Engle2

In the United States, society is graying. At the beginning of the 20th century, the average life expectancy was 47 years; as the century closed, the average life expectancy had soared to 76. As life expectancy climbed, the number of Americans who were 65 and older increased from 3 million to 33 million during the same time period. By 2035, the United States Census Bureau projects that 70 million people will be age 65 and older (Dychtwald 2). This phenomenon is also occurring in other industrialized nations. According to the

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), by 2030, one in four people in the industrialized world will be 65 or older (Peterson 13). At the same time, fertility rates in the industrialized nations are falling. In the U.S. the total fertility rate dropped from 3. 7 in 1957 to 1. 7 in 1976 before stabilizing at 2.0 in the 1990s. Peter Peterson explains the dip and rebound as a result of later marriages and women bearing children at older ages (Peterson 247, note 20).

19 This combination of expanded life expectancy and lower fertility rates has

resulted in an overall "graying" of American society.

As industrialized society in general and American society in particular is

aging, time seems to be speeding up. Postmodemists, such as David Harvey,

write of the "time-space compression" with its "speed-up of communication,

transportation, fashion cycles, commodity life-spans, and the associated

shrinking of distances and space" (Hall 571 ); others, such as Anthony Giddens,

speak of "time-space distanciation" with its "profound reordering of time and

space in social life" (Hall 471 ). In both cases, it is the present that is

emphasized, the past that is disregarded. This attitude towards the past extends

to those who embody it: the aged and aging. However, this disregard,

exemplified as ageism, is not new.

Ageism has been defined as the "systematic stereotyping of and

discrimination against people because they are old" (Butler 243). Like racism

and sexism, it can be considered a social construct (Bond 60), a social

phenomenon that has a coercive effect on the individual. Although it may have

originated as the result of some human action, it develops an autonomy and

confronts humans as something outside themselves, something with a veneer of

"objectivity'' (Edgar 362). Ageism is a body-based ideology, like racism and

sexism, rooted in difference.

In the United States, Ken Dychtwald traces ageism to two important forces: industrialization and medicalization. As the United States shifted to an

industrial economy in the late 19th century, workers were prized for their energy

20 and stamina, youthful qualities that would move the young nation forward.

Experience and wisdom, so vital in apprenticeship systems, were liabilities.

Youth came to "symbolize the regenerative power of a nation on the economic

rise" (Basting 11 ). Aging was associated with disability and loss. Concurrently, the medical profession was taking a more scientific turn. It viewed the body as a system of interlocking parts, akin to a machine; the diseased patient was merely damaged equipment and like a machine, would eventually wear out. Dr. Ignatz

Nascher's book, Geriatrics (1914), became the standard for the study of old age diseases and disease was considered the norm for old age. "New scientific theories and economic realities convinced Americans that individuals declined in old age as human existence marched on," stated historian Andrew Achenbaum

(51).

Thomas Fischer, however, believes that the declining status of the aged stems from the "change in cultural values after the American Revolution" ( qtd. in

McPherson 45). He sees this as leading to an emphasis on equality based on performance and income, and westward migration away from the control and influence of parents. This also resulted in elderly who were left to fend for themselves, often in poverty.

Today's emphasis on youth to the detriment of the old can be seen as a result of the American future-oriented world view. Alan Dundes, in his exploration of American folklore, sees this future-orientation in our greeting and leave-taking rituals, in our constant anticipation of the new. "It is not only the past which is sacrificed to the future; it is also the present" (Dundes 60). In a

21 society where everyone is looking to the future, those with little future ahead of them, will be pushed aside.

This combination of factors has resulted in a view of aging which Margaret

Morganroth Gullette in Declining to Decline ( 1997) calls the "mid life decline narrative." She sees this narrative played out in a constant barrage of ageist propaganda in film, 1V and books. It is somewhat ameliorated in the women's progress novels, books by Margaret Drabble, Alice Walker, May Sarton, Barbara

Kingsolver, Doris Lessing and Nadine Gordimer. Contradicting F. Scott

Fitzgerald's dictum that "There are no second acts in American lives," Gullette discusses midlife heroines who have survived the past and are living on into the present. These novels enable the reader to discover that "midlife aging is a set of personal fears that society teaches us to internalize" (93). Unfortunately, men receive fewer positive messages about midlife and many more negative ones about decline. Gullette thinks this explains why ''women sometimes feel that they are living in some other decade than the men in their lives, or that the men are acting as if they were years older than their chronological age" (89). The negative messages that men receive about decline are echoed in the theatre.

Theatre seems to reinforce this "midlife decline narrative" of aging with its critics falling prey to the ageist prejudices of our time. One such view on aging can be found in Robert Brustein's The Theatre of Revolt, in which he divides the theatre of social critique and revolt into three interestingly gendered aspects of life: the messianic, the social and the existential. He parallels these to the ages of man's life: youth, middle age and old age. For Brustein the existential aspect

22 is likened to the old age of the modem drama. And the old age he presents is

not pretty. He sees the existential dramatist as one who "hating the present,

fearing the future, he withdraws into the past, and writes his plays on the theme

of time and memory" (Brustein 30). When women are portrayed on stage, they

are assumed to embrace the idea of decline as readily as men.

Complicating this disparity is what Susan Sontag calls "the double

standard of aging." She believes that "[t]he great advantage men have is that our

culture allows two standards of male beauty: the boy and the man ... There is

no equivalent of this second standard for women" (Sontag 32). Therefore, while

a boy will look forward to becoming a man, a woman, locked into a girlish

standard of beauty, must perpetually attempt to maintain a young girl's beauty as

defined by clear, unlined skin, tight breasts, and a slim body.

This double standard of aging can also be seen in the greater

medicalization of aging women. Menopause, once considered a normal

occurrence in a woman's life cycle, has now become a disease, specifically,

"estrogen deficiency syndrome" (Coney 19). No longer can women blissfully

enjoy the post-menopausal zest (PMZ) that Margaret Mead celebrated. Rather, they are advised to subject themselves to a regime of treatments, usually

hormone replacement therapy (HRT), in search of lost youth.

Betty Friedan has looked at the discrepancies in the way men and women age in U.S. society. Women are currently outliving men in U.S. society by seven years. To combat these discrepancies, Dychtwald suggests the development of health-related "affirmative action" programs for men. He encourages men to

23 follow the steps of the women's health movement which fought to increase public

education on health issues. He also wants to motivate men to take better care of

themselves (Dychtwald 170). Friedan, however, goes deeper in questioning how

women's very lifestyles may have inadvertently prepared them for longevity.

Beginning with Ruth Benedict's belief that women's greater psychological

impairment was a result of discontinuities in their lives, Friedan examines studies

done since 1960 and finds some surprises. Bernice Neugarten's studies on

menopause concluded: "we found no evidence to support a crisis view of the

climaterium" (Friedan 142). Later studies on the "empty nest" showed that

women reported a somewhat higher level of satisfaction than before the nest

emptied. Friedan also found many studies that showed that women who

experienced the most change and discontinuity were often the most vital in later

life. The gerontologist Nancy Datan, in an address at a conference in France,

proposed that a woman's life cycle can be "a continuous series of careers which

come to an end followed by new careers; that childbearing and childrearing,

rather than locking women into traditional roles, force them to consider and

reconsider new beginnings." These discontinuities teach flexibility and create a

"constant stimulus to enlarged horizons" (qtd. in Friedan 153).

An interesting twist on the way men and women view aging has also been explored by Carolyn Bird in Uves of Our Own (1995), her book on women over

55. Bird writes that men and women inhabit the same categories but at different times of their lives. 'What single post menopausal women seem to want from a man is remarkably like what single young men want from a woman: sex now and

24 then with a younger, live-out partner who makes very few demands" (Bird 232).

It seems that loneliness is not quite the bane of existence for older women that it

is for older men.

While women are especially discriminated against in ageist societies, the

general view of aging has negative repercussions for everyone over 65. In her

research in gerontology, Friedan found a steadfast focus on Alzheimer's disease

and nursing homes. Despite the fact that fewer than 5 % of the population over

65 is in nursing homes and fewer than 10% ever will be, the image of aging so

prevalent in the media and hence, in people's minds, is the idea of a feeble end

of life strapped into a wheelchair in a substandard nursing home. The same

distorted picture arises when discussing Alzheimer's. Research shows that fewer than 5% of the over 65 population will fall prey to this disease and it does strike those under 65; Alzheimer's is a disease, not an inevitable aspect of aging.

However, the image for most people is an inevitable slide into Alzheimer's as they age. These warped views of aging intensify the urge to stay young, to hold off aging as long as possible and at any cost.

This urge to stay young is both supported and encouraged by the field of human enhancement and life extension. While there have always been seekers of immortality, notably alchemists such as Roger Bacon in the 13th century and

Paracelsus in the 16th, today's scientists are focusing on anti-aging sciences such as super-nutrition, hormone replacement, gene therapy and manipulation of cellular aging, bionics and organ cloning, and other spare parts (Dychtwald 37).

Iterating a view of the body as akin to a machine, a whole medical industry has

25 developed to supply replacement parts, be they hearts, kidneys, livers, hip joints

or knees. In the past, organs were usually provided by willing donors such as relatives who donate a kidney or the dead who have willed their organs to science. Now, the science of cloning offers new possibilities. Hip joints have been manufactured using a variety of new materials and the science of bionics is creating "intelligenr limbs, fully electronic prostheses controlled by microprocessors and powered by rechargeable battery packs. While many of these enhancements are welcome, they bring up bio-ethical issues whose repercussions are only now being explored.

Despite the ageism infecting society, or perhaps because of it, some, notably Carl Jung and Erick Erickson, have attempted to see age in a different light. Jung in his studies of individuation believed that the second half of life was for developing one's personality, the first half having been consumed with the more single-minded pursuit of career and providing for family. At the midlife, one can shift one's focus to personal development. Jung believed that "[t]he decisive question for a man is: is he related to something infinite or nor (Jung 300).

Aging, for Jung, was not a process of inexorable decline but a time for the progressive refinement of what is essential (Stevens 28).

Erickson, building on Jung's studies, felt that each life stage was a series of adjustments. In the final stage, the individual attempts to overcome despair by integration. By integrating both one's past and the inevitability of death, one reaches wisdom. That wisdom creates a "generativity'' as the promise beyond stagnation (Friedan 614). While Kathleen Woodward feels that Erickson

26 universalizes across gender, race and class, his work does provide a model for

finding meaning and purpose in old age and for presenting a view of aging as

both positive and negative (Basting 15). Helen Kivnick has taken Erickson's

eighth stage a step further. She argues that "the notion of old age as a time to sit

back and reap the psychosocial fruit of earlier efforts must yield to a more

realistic view of ongoing, always dynamic reinvolvement, reviewing, renewing, and reworking" (Kivnick 15). These are the same developmental possibilities which Friedan argues for in her advocacy of age as a unique period of human life

(Friedan 84). Battling this time against the "age" mystique, in which age is perceived only as a "decline or deterioration from youth" (Friedan 41 ), she encourages readers to break through the mystique and find ways to express wholeness in society. She sees the lack of rigidly proscribed roles for the aged as creating a freedom and an opportunity to express the generativity that

Erickson espouses. She hopes it may preview for future generations new values and directions.

Drawing on the possibilities that Kivnick and Friedan envision, one can began to see alternatives for creating new images of aging. One of the most powerful images for aging women will be explored in the next chapter.

27 NOTES

1Maggio, Rosalie. The New Beacon Book of Quotations by Women. (Boston: Beacon Press, 1996), 19.

21bid, 14.

28 Chapter3 The Crone as Archetype

Do not deprive me of my age. I have earned it. May Sarton1

My grandmothers were strong. Why am I not as they'? Margaret Walker2

Time and trouble will tame an advanced young woman, but an advanced old woman is uncontrollable by any earthly force. Dorothy L.Sayers3

In searching for positive images of aging women, I discovered the

archetype of the crone. Archetypes, according to Jung, are "typical forms of

behavior which, once they become conscious, naturally present themselves as

ideas and images, like everything else that becomes a content of consciousness"

(Jung CW 8, par.435). He likens archetypes to river beds, which although dry,

can be filled at any time by the return of water. Archetypes reside in the

collective unconscious, a morphic field where the cumulative memory of a

species is stored. Rupert Sheldrake, the theoretical biologist, believes that we

resonate with the morphic field, both influencing and being influenced by it (Bolen

96-97). By tapping into this field, we draw on images from the past, images that

can provide models for the present day. The crone is one such image.

The crone is the third aspect of the goddess (Walker, B. 29). The two other aspects are the maiden and the mother. The crone figure has been

29 present in many cultures through time. Shakti, Sophia, Shekina, Hag were

manifestations of the crone as wise woman, midwife, healer. Women of power

and wisdom appeared in various cultures; among some Native American and

Celtic tribes, councils of elder women chose the chiefs. Hecate, Kali, Medusa

were the terrible crones, carrying out the end of the life cycle where destruction

precedes creation. Baubo and her Japanese counterpart, the Alarming Female, were clown crones who through laughter brought light to the world. Mirroring these aspects of the crone, women were there at the portals of life, ushering in

new life and releasing the old.

Mary Daly in her Wickedary (1987) provides a contemporary definition of the crone as:

the Great Hag of History, long-lasting one; Survivor of the perpetual

witchcraze of patriarchy, whose status is determined not merely by

chronological age, but by Crone-logical considerations; one who has

Survived early stages of the Otherworldly Joumey and who therefore has

Dis-covered depths of Courage, Strength, and Wisdom in her Self. (114)

One of the truly powerful aspects of the crone is that she is woman transcending the "eternal feminine" which tends to reduce women to their child-bearing role.

She represents woman transcending the personal in that the limited role of mother is no longer an option.

At the same time, the crone has been subjected to "mythic defamation,"

Joseph Campbell's term for the means by which one symbolic system gains ascendancy over another through the undermining, subversion and suppression

30 of its mythic images (Masland 37). Christianity supplanted the goddess religions with the male concept of the Trinity with God as father, son and holy spirit, replacing the mother, virgin and crone. Interestingly, the qualities of the crone were split; the father was generally portrayed as having the crone's age and power of anger while the ephemeral holy spirit had her wisdom. The crone as a person was reduced to a witch. This portrayal of old women as witches has been a constant in children's fairy tales and in the plays of Shakespeare. Throughout the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, women were tortured and burned as witches by the followers of Christianity. Often their only crime was being a wealthy widow who refused to remarry thus controlling her own resources. Others were mid-wives and herbalists. All seemed to have an unacceptable level of independence in common (Walker, B. 121 ).

According to Barbara Walker, the crone is of value as an indication of the

"power of women's nay-saying," hence their best hope of exerting control in a male-dominated world where they are expected always to say yes. This nay· saying is one of the powers of the ancient tribal matriarch who made the moral and legal decisions for her subjects and descendents. It is also a power which women are reclaiming today. The crone is being rediscovered by women who feel that the patriarchal world system is pushing the planet towards the brink of disaster. It has been said before that archetypes suppressed by any culture will tend to arise again and again, threatening the establishment that suppressed them (Walker, B. 14). Expanding on this view, Caputi states that the archetype

31 of the crone reappears when the planet is out of balance (Caputi 222). It is then

that her powers are especially needed.

Others are currently rediscovering the crone. Wiccans, writers and poets

have all drawn on the archetype of the crone as an image that speaks to a great

need. Wiccans or pagan spirituality groups often have ties to the goddess

groups, especially those influenced by Starhawk and her book, The Spiral

Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess ( 1979). A key

point with such groups is the idea of power and spirituality as being immanent,

rather than transcendent. Through their ritual, they seek to end the alienation

from both nature and self that modem society tends to foster.

Writers such as Ursula LeGuin have also explored the archetype of the

crone. In her article, "The Space Crone," Leguin reminds us "[t]here are things

the Old Woman can do, say, and think that the Woman cannot do, say or think.

The Woman has to give up more than her menstrual periods before she can do,

say, or think them. She has got to change her life" (4). Just as a woman moved

from virgin to mother in her youth, she now moves to crone. Le Guin sees the

transition from virgin to mother as a transition from the sacred to the profane.

The change to crone is an opportunity to regain the sacred. She notes that "the virgin must be celibate, but the crone need nof' (4). This brings up an aspect of the crone which is not often discussed - her sexuality. While much of the

literature discusses her powers after menopause, few mention her sexuality. But as Maggie Kuhn of the Gray Panthers4 reminds us, women are still sexually active into their 70s, 80s and 90s. She was concerned that such sexually active

32 women would have difficulties finding partners, especially since women have been outliving men. She suggests that we face the fact that such women will be sleeping with younger men, married men, other women or masturbating (Friedan

24-25).

Sexuality is most often considered an expression of the erotic. Audre

Lorde, however, sees sexuality as only one aspect of the erotic. For Lorde, the erotic is "a resource within each of us that lies in a deeply female and spiritual plane, firmly rooted in the power of our unexpressed or unrecognized feeling"

(Lorde 53). She believes that women have been taught to distrust the power that rises from this deepest and nonrational knowledge - "born of Chaos, and personifying creative power and harmony" (55). And yet, it is the power that enables one to feel deeply in all aspects of her life. Lorde believes that once this power is tapped, "we begin to demand from ourselves and from our life-pursuits that they feel in accordance with that joy which we know ourselves to be capable or (57). Erotic knowledge is empowering and forces us to evaluate our lives honestly, demanding that we not settle for the safe or the convenient.

For the purpose of this dissertation, I will define the crone as a woman past the child-bearing age, medically defined as "post-menopausal." Despite the range of ages at which menopause can occur, I have selected 50 as the starting point for a woman moving into the crone stage. This stage parallels Jung's category of "midlife." It is at midlife that one starts to look deeper into one's life.

Jung focuses on men, discussing how the first 50 years have been devoted to a man's career and building his status, or cultural capital in the world. Using this

33 more traditional frame, I see women as using the first 50 years as a time for child-bearing and child-rearing. These societal demands met, a woman faces the rest of her life with an array of options. This field of options is expanded by the very fact that there are few or no role models for older women (Friedan 614) and little or no expectations for women in a society where women's primary contribution has been confined to child-bearing, child-rearing and maintaining the family and whose most valued assets are youth and beauty.

Drawing on the images of the crone, I see the following characteristics as exemplifying the emerging crone.

1. An ability to say no.

2. A willingness to experiment with the new.

3. A willingness to leave behind that which no longer functions, whether

children, spouse, job, house, etc.

4. A dissociation from the traditional role of mother in the sense of

outgrowing it; while a great deal of the portrayals of older woman are

as grandmothers, especially in Native American traditions, 1believe

that a crone does not see herself as primarily a grandmother. Such

emphasis on the grandmother role can be seen as an attempt to keep

women forever bound to the maternal role, whether directly or

indirectly.

5. A willingness to question the assumptions that guided the first half of

her life. This can result in a pragmatism at odds with the romantic

34 view of woman as other-directed and self-sacrificing. It can also create

deep insight into one's life.

6. A sense of connectedness to the community, especially in the sense of

a desire for and a view to the general good.

Studying the crone is particularly appropriate today as the percentage of women over 50 in the United States is growing. People are taking different approaches to aging. Both men and women in 21st century American society are facing issues of ageism, at a time when people are living longer and remaining productive, contributing members of society for longer periods of time.

Women bear more of the brunt of ageism in a society where women are valued by their looks and their reproductive capacities. When looks and ovaries age, women's value plummets. In the next chapter, we will examine how these views of women are played out on the stage.

35 NOTES

1Sarton, May. The Poet and the Donkey. (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1969) 90.

~alker, Margaret. "Lineage." No More Masks. Ed. Florence Howe. (New York: HarperPerennial, 1993) 94.

3Heilbrun, Carolyn G. Writing a Woman's Ufe. (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1988), 124.

+rhe Gray Panthers, founded in 1970, is a multi-issue, intergenerational organization dedicated to challenging the status quo from a progressive, even radical point of view.

36 Chapter4 Theatre, Women and Aging

Here were blood, lust, love, passion. Here were warmth, enchantment, laughter, music. It was Anodyne. It was Lethe. It was Escape. It was the Theatre. Edna Ferber1

I seek less to display any theme or thought and more to bring you into the atmosphere of the theme or thought -there to pursue your own flight. Walt Whitman2

Theatre is a verb before it is a noun, an act before it is a place. Martha Graham3

Throughout history, theatre "responds to the unique world view of differing human communities and develops forms of expression that reflect specific community concerns and community aesthetics" (Arnold 21 ). This can be theatre's strength as well as its limitation. This reflecting of community concerns provides a plethora of views when one looks at the variations in theatre as it is practiced around the world. However at the community level, the function of theatre as a reflection of the society has often made it one of the most conservative and traditional of the arts. This can be seen in women's position in theatre.

Woman as character has always been present on stage. From the

Greeks, through the medieval mystery cycles through Shakespeare, the woman

37 character has graced the stage. But the role of this woman character as

historically represented by male playwrights tends to be formulaic and restrictive.

It is further compromised by the fact that until the English Restoration, women

characters were always played by men on the English stage. So we are faced

with the interesting picture of a woman character, created and written from a

male perspective and portrayed by a male actor.

At the same time, any power that the woman character might exercise is

generally portrayed as usurped or evil. When a woman is portrayed in a strong

role such as Medea or Clytemnestra, she is usually presented as a monster;

when she assumes a male role, she is demonized. As a mother, the woman

character does not fare much better. From Medea to Gertrude, a recurrent

theme in the work of male playwrights is the inadequacy of the mother whether

through insensitivity, search for power, etc. Mother is either the support with a

tendency towards smothering or insensitive and cruel, placing her own desires

before those of others (usually the ultimate sin}. While these views of women

can hardly be considered flattering, at least, the woman character is allotted a

certain time and space on stage. When the position of the older woman is

examined, especially in the plays by Shaw and Brieux, the allotment of time and

space decreases.

In examining portrayals of older women, I focused on George Bemard

Shaw's The Devil's Disciple (1897), Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts (1881}, Eugene

Brieux's Damaged Goods (1901}, Lillian Hellman's The Uttle Foxes (1939},and

Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage and her Children (1940), all written between

38 1881 and 1941. While the playwrights were attempting to address social is$ues,

their portrayals of older women revealed certain attitudes towards aging and the

societal position of aging women. They also reveal certain behavior that

demonstrates the resurfacing of the crone archetype, i.e. nay-saying, questioning

assumptions, developing insight into self, experimenting with the new, leaving

behind that which no longer functions, traditional role dissociation, and a sense of

community.

Four of the plays fall within the realm of realism. Beginning with Ibsen,

realism soon developed its own conventions: a domestic setting, with ordinary

people speaking in everyday language. Their motivations are clearly delineated,

the action in general is linear (chronological) and causal (based on actions with

predictable results) and often entails a secret from the past. What made it so

controversial in the 1880s was that, unlike romanticism and farce, realism dealt with serious social issues and their repercussions on private lives. "Furthermore,

in depicting middle-class reality, realism often implicitly criticized the accepted pieties of bourgeois life, thereby outraging those who had the most to gain by keeping accepted social conventions intact'' (Murphy 32). In exploring the plays,

I will begin with a short sketch on the playwright, attempting to show what attitudes he or she might have brought to the creation of the play.

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) was a member of the Fabian Society and considered a supporter of women's rights. In his essay on "The Womanly

Woman," Shaw states that "Woman has to repudiate duty altogether. In that repudiation lies her freedom" (Shaw lbsenism 56). He later states that "the

39 destroyer of ideals, though denounced as an enemy of society, is in fact

sweeping the world clear of lies." Although he probably had Ibsen in mind, the

Crone performs the same function.

Set in the New England of 1777, The Devil's Disciple ( 1897) dramatizes

the British attempt to squelch the American Revolution by hanging scapegoats in

each town to discourage would-be rebels. They have picked out Rev. Anthony

Anderson for hanging in the village of Westerbridge, but they take Dick Dudgeon

instead when Dick allows himself to be mistaken for Anderson so that Anderson

can escape. Anderson is really a man of action underneath the clerical garb, and

he gallops off to join the American resistance. Dick meanwhile undergoes a trial for sedition and prepares himself for hanging, but at the last minute Anderson

rides up with a safe-conduct pass and rescues Dick from the gallows.

His portrayal of Mrs. Dudgeon in The Devil's Disciple, however, makes

one reconsider his sympathy for women. The viciousness of Shaw's description of Mrs. Dudgeon in his stage directions (3) makes her the exemplar of "dead

Puritanism," while he makes her the repository of every negative trait he wishes to associate with Christianity.

According to Shaw's preface:

Dick Dudgeon, the devil's disciple, is a Puritan of the Puritans. He is

brought up in a household where the Puritan religion has died, and

become, in its corruption, an excuse for his mother's master passion of

hatred in all its phases of cruelty and envy . . . In such a home the young

Puritan finds himself starved of religion, which is the most clamorous need

40 of his nature. With all his mother's indomitable selffulness, but with pity

instead of hatred as his master passion, he pities the devil; takes his side;

and champions him, like a true Covenanter, against the world. He ...

becomes, like all religious men, a reprobate and an outcaste. (ix)

Shaw shows that where "virtue" (Dick's mother) is mean-spirited, uncharitable, and sanctimonious, and "vice" (Dick) is not only witty and joyful but kind and generous, cruel only to dishonesty and hypocrisy, then obviously goodness and badness have gotten mixed up. In such a backward world, the only moral thing to do is to become a "devil's disciple."

However, in reading the play, this virtue/vice switch is barely developed.

The mother is portrayed as harsh and mean. Before the reading of her husband's will, in her conversation with Anderson, we find out that the previous minister had convinced her to marry Timothy, a God fearing man, instead of his brother, Peter, whom she loved. When Anderson asks her when he lost his influence over her, she says "when you married for love." Her bitterness at having done the "righr thing in following her minister's advice is intensified upon learning that her husband changed his will at the last moment, giving her an annuity of 52 pounds a year for life to be paid out of the interest on her own money. When Anderson says that he couldn't prevent him from giving the money to the son, she retorts "He had nothing of his own. His money was the money I brought him as my marriage portion." Her son Dick receives the house and land, effectively dispossessing her. When she ask the lawyer Hawkins if it's a proper will, he tells her the courts will sustain it against an earlier one. "The

41 courts will sustain the claim of a man - and that man the oldest son - against any woman, if they can" (Shaw Plays 24).

Although she is treated very cruelly, in Shaw's hands it becomes her just due with none of the other characters the least bit sympathetic to her. She departs saying "My curse on you! My dying curse!" Her son Dick merely laughs at her. She exhibits the powerlessness of women of her time, faced with unfair laws. However, she has questioned her obedience to the former minister in marrying a man she did not love. Her departing curses are an attempt to say no both to the inequity of the law which dispossesses her of her home and to a son who laughs at her misfortune. Although she has been shoved aside, forced to the fringes, she demonstrates a certain impotent power. While Shaw's Mrs.

Dudgeon plays a peripheral role, Ibsen's Mrs. Alving is very much the central character.

Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906), the so-called "father of Modern Drama," won this title in part by creating dramatic portraits of middle-class women confronting the social, legal, and psychological limits of gender roles -the same roles being challenged by women activists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries." However, he dismissed the adoption of his plays by the women's movement insisting upon their "larger'' scope. Speaking at a seventieth birthday banquet given in his honor by the Norwegian Women's Rights League, he clarified his position:

I thank you for the toast, but must disclaim the honor of having

consciously worked for the women's rights movement. ... True enough, it

42 is desirable to solve the woman problem, along with all the others; but that

has not been the whole purpose. My task has been the description of

humanity. (Ibsen, Letters, 337)

In Ghosts (1881), Ibsen deals with a number of forbidden topics: illegitimate children, syphilis, infidelity, incest and euthanasia. Mrs. Alving has stayed with her husband, after an early attempt to leave him, thus doing her duty despite his lifestyle of carousing. Her son, who she had sent away at an early age to keep him away from the father's influence, returns just as Mrs. Alving is having an orphanage built to "honor" the memory of her late husband.

She is presented as a very competent woman who had worked to build the family estate, as well as keep her sanity in her terrible marriage. One reason behind the Orphanage is to use Alving's money so that she will not feel as though she or her son, Oswald, are connected to him. Ironically, if Engstrand, the handyman and Regina's father, has his way, the interest that would have supported the burned down Orphanage might now be used to finance the "Alving

Soldiers' Home." As he describes it to his daughter, Regina, the "Soldiers' Home" bears more resemblance to a bar.

Manders, who she had fled to early in her marriage and who sent her back to her husband telling her it was her duty, now tells her that she has failed her son by sending him away so young. Exasperated with him, she tells him the truth of her life with her husband. She speaks of her husband as a fallen man and draws a parallel between her marriage to Alving and Regina's mother's

43 marriage to Engstrand after being impregnated by Alving. The only difference is

in the price paid.

At one point, Mrs. Alving tells Manders that if she weren't such a coward,

she would tell her son Oswald to marry Regina or make any arrangement with

her as long as there was no deceit in the matter. Mrs. Alving is tired of the deceit

that made her create a false image of her husband for her son. It is the same

deceit that has Oswald blaming himself for syphilis when it was contracted at

birth.

After the orphanage bums down, she tells Oswald that his father had a joy

of life but the second-rate town he settled in gave him no options and she was so

duty-bound that she "brought no holiday spirit in his home." (Ibsen Plays 164)

She seems to be taking on some of the responsibility for his dissolution. And

perhaps as a final punishment, she is now left with her son who has come home

to die; in fact, the son asks her to give him an overdose of morphia when he has

another attack.

Mrs. Alving parallels Mrs. Dudgeon in having sacrificed herself to duty.

Mrs. Dudgeon dutifully married a man she didn't love for his God-fearing

qualities. Mrs. Alving, on the advice of her minister, stayed with a man she

detested once she discovered his baser qualities. However, Mrs. Alving demonstrates some insight in questioning her former assumptions. Her disgust with the lies that dutifulness had required has empowered her to be honest.

Where earlier she had condemned herself as a coward, at the end, she speaks the truth. Where another woman might have sacrificed Regina (not admitting

44 her parentage and encouraging her to marry Oswald so that her son might be

happy in his last days), Mrs. Alving tells the truth. As a result, Regina leaves,

refusing to take care of a sick man and condemning Mrs. Alving for not treating

her better. Her insight into her life has enabled her to speak the truth but at a

cost. One sees the days of her son's dying stretching ahead of her, followed by

a lonely old age. Again, she has paid the price of age and solitude. Ibsen does

not hold out the hope that Brieux offers Mme. Dupont.

Eugene Brieux (1858-1932), now virtually unknown, was considered by

George Bernard Shaw to be "the greatest writer France has produced since

Moliere. . . . He was as scientific, as conscientious, as unflinching as Zola without

being in the least morbid .... When he sees human nature in conflict with a

political abuse he does not blame human nature, knowing that such blame is the

favorite trick of those who wish to perpetuate the abuse without being able to

defend it. He does not even blame the abuse: he exposes it, and then leaves

human nature to tackle it with its eyes open" (Brieux xviii).

In Damaged Goods (1901), his play about syphilis, Brieux treats "the

question in a frank manner, showing that the most dangerous phase of venereal

disease is ignorance and fear, and that if treated openly and intelligently, it is perfectly curable" (Goldman 148). Brieux's doctor is a very sympathetic character who emphasizes the importance of kindness and consideration for those who contract the affliction. His interactions with both the son and the father-in-law are devoid of any moral crusading; the doctor is intent on eradicating the disease, not chastising those who contract it.

45 Mme. Dupont first appears as one of the reasons that George, the

syphilitic young man of the story, can not delay his marriage. According to him,

his mother wants to see him settled. "The only thing in the world she wants is to

see her baby grandchildren, and she wonders twenty times a day whether she

will live long enough. Since the question first came up she simply hasn't thought

of anything else: it's the dream of her life .... If I draw back now my mother

would die of grief' (Brieux 196).

In the next scene we learn that George has married and he and his wife

have a baby, Germaine. As is the custom, Germaine is out in the country with

the wet nurse. When the nurse sends a letter about the child's poor health to

George, it is Mme. Dupont who rushes to the grandchild on whom she dotes. By the time Mme. Dupont returns with baby and nurse in tow, she has already had the child seen by a specialist, the same doctor who had advised her son to delay

his marriage so that he might be cured. George requests that his wife not be told. The doctor agrees and when George inquires about his mother, the doctor states "Your mother knows the truth."

When the doctor says that the child must be bottle-fed to prevent the nurse from being contaminated with syphilis, Mme. Dupont states "you will realize that between the life of the child and the health of a nurse I have no choice." While George sobs, she coldly plans. She considers the nurse "too stupid" to think of suing them and "too poor" to pay for a lawyer. When the doctor advises her that other cases have ruled against the parents, she responds: "If we had to fight an action, we should retain the very best lawyer on our side.

46 Thank heaven we are rich enough. No doubt he would make it appear doubtful

whether the child had not caught this disease from the nurse, rather than the

nurse from the child." When the doctor says that such conduct would be

atrocious, Mme. Dupont cavalierly states: "Oh, it is a lawyer's business to do

such things. I should not have to say anything. In any case you may be sure

that he would win our suit" (221).

At the mention of scandal, Mme. Dupont attempts to buy the nurse's

silence and services. She is portrayed as scheming and willing to go to any

extreme to save the life of her grandchild. She bemoans the fact that she would

not be able to nurse the child herself, willing to face the disease so that the child

might live. Her treatment of the nurse is typically high-handed in regard to the

peasant class.

At first I was appalled at Mme. Dupont, feeling that somewhat like Shaw,

Brieux was using his older female character as the portrayer of all that was

negative. A second look showed that Mme. Dupont was the only dynamic

character in the second act. Her son sits sniveling through most of the act,

unable to move beyond his own self-pity and remorse. She, however, drawing

on her experience of life, begins considering options, any options, that might

save her grandchild. She is clear about her goal and prepared to achieve it in any means possible. But she is still bound by the culture of her time, worried about scandal, elitist in her dealings with the nurse, but through it all, she speaks honestly. Although she disappears from the play after this act, I don't expect her

47 to give up. Mme. Dupont's agency and energy is a marked contrast to Hellman's

Birdie.

Lillian Hellman (1905-1984) wrote in An Unfinished Woman (1969): "By the time I grew up the right for the emancipation of women, their rights under the law, in the office, in bed, was stale stuff' (36). She was concerned, however, with money. "I don't think it's of any great moment who carries out the garbage.

I think it is important that people be economically equal. So that if somebody feels like walking out, there's a way for her to earn a living rather than suffering through a whole lifetime because she can't" (Bryer 205).

The utt/e Foxes (1939) is Hellman's play about grasping Southerners in

1900 who are trying to get cotton mills built in the town. They need money from

Horace, Regina's husband, so that the ownership will stay in the family. He refuses and Oscar's son, leo, steals the bonds from his safety deposit box.

When Horace finds ou~ he is going to let it ride, changing his will to state that the bonds he bequeathed to Regina and everything else to his daughter. He has an attack and Regina fails to help him until the last minute, knowing that if he dies, she can accuse her brothers of stealing. In the end, Regina manages to get 75% of the mills by threatening to turn in her brothers.

Birdie, wife of Oscar, is the daughter of failed plantation owners. The

Hubbards, through sharp business practice, i.e. cheating everyone, have bought the plantation and attempted to buy their way to the top. In the opening scene with the visitor, they openly ridicule her as a member of the Southern aristocracy which can "adapt himself to nothing. Too high-tone to try" (Hellman Plays 157).

48 She is further denigrated when Ben, her brother-in-law, says "Twenty years ago we took over their land, their cotton, and their daughter" (158). Beaten down by the family she has married into, Birdie has taken to drink which she calls

"headaches" and has virtually stopped playing the piano. Her sole ad of courage is in warning Zan, her niece, that she mustn't become like her.

"Don't love me. Because in twenty years you'll just be like me. They'll do

all the same things to you. You know what? In twenty-two years I haven't

had a whole day of happiness.... And that's the way you'll be. And you'll

trail after them, just like me, hoping they won't be so mean that day or say

something to make you feel so bad. (206)

Although there is a self-pitying aspect to her advice, it still demonstrates an insight into self. Birdie does not like who she has become but at least, she recognizes her weaknesses. Her attempt to warn Zan parallels Brecht's Mother

Courage and her relationship with her daughter, Kattrin.

Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) was a poet and playwright best known for his development of "epic" theatre. With "epic" theatre he attempted to depart from the convention of theatrical illusion and to develop the drama as a social and ideological forum for leftist causes. The structure of his plays was episodic and narrative, more like a narrative poem than a well-made play. With his concept of

"alienation" - a "jarring of the audience out of its sympathetic feelings for what is happening on stage," he sought to make his audience think (Barranger 121 ). He believed that such thinking audiences would absorb his social criticism and act

49 on it outside the theatre. By using historical settings, he hoped to show that the

past was different thus creating the possibility for change in the present.

Mother Courage and her Children ( 1940) is set in the 17th century during

the Thirty Years War (1618-48). Mother Courage is a tradeswoman named Anna

Fierling, who follows the troops, selling supplies from her wagon. She has three

children by three different men: her two sons, Eilif and Swiss Cheese, who pull

the wagon and her mute daughter, Kattrin. As she follows the different regiments

over the course of twelve years of the war from 1624 to 1636, she loses her

children, two to death, and forms temporary relationships with a prostitute, a

chaplain and a cook. The play ends with Mother Courage calling to a passing

regiment "Hey! Take me with you!" as she pulls the wagon herself (Brecht 81 ).

We know that she will endure.

Despite the war setting, there is a great deal of comedy in Mother

Courage. In fact, it is her ironic sense of humor that enables her to survive the

horrors of war. When she is asked for papers by the sergeant in the opening

scene, she produces a Bible, a map and "a document saying my horse hasn't got

foot and mouth disease - pity he died on us, he cost fifteen guilders, thank God I

didn't pay it" (5). This humorous tone surfaces constantly throughout the play.

This humor weaves in and out of the cynicism she displays about the war.

For Courage, the war is a business and peace can be a calamity. "Don't tell me

peace has broken out- when I've just gone and bought all these supplies" (57).

When the chaplain calls her a "hyena of the battlefield" who values the "junk in your wagon", she reminds him: "My goods are not junk. I live off them. You've

50 been living off them" (60). The same cynicism can be seen in her relationships

with the chaplain and the cook. Once the chaplain calls her a hyena, she tells

him that they'll part company. Yvette, the prostitute, appears and tells Courage

that the cook was the man who ruined her. Courage is unconcerned, telling the

cook: "Hasn't done you any harm in my eyes. Just the opposite. Where there's

smoke, there's fire, they say" (66). She doesn't waste time making moral

judgments of herself or others. She just keeps moving to the next battle site.

Courage sells goods to both sides in order to keep herself going and is

equipped with flags from both sides of the conflict. She is a woman who will

sacrifice almost anything to survive. Ever the businesswoman she haggles over

the price of her son's release, representing as it does a trade-off between his life

and her livelihood and ability to take care of her daughter, Kattrin. "She's twenty­

five and still no husband. I have her to think of (38). She haggles too long and

Swiss Cheese is executed. Afterwards, his body is brought to her and she

denies knowing him. To claim him would jeopardize both her life and Kattrin's.

Throughout the play, she attempts to protect Kattrin. During the surprise

attack by the Catholics, she rubs ashes on Kattrin's face to make her less

attractive to the soldiers. Later, when the cook invites Courage to run an inn with

him but without Kattrin, Courage turns him down. Despite having her eye on the

money, she refuses to abandon her daughter. Even so, Courage tells Kattrin,

"And don't think I've sent him packing on your account. It was the wagon" (72).

This rough fayade is finally broken at the end when Courage returns from town to find Kattrin dead. Kattrin had climbed onto the roof of the peasant house and,

51 beating a drum, had warned the town of an impending attack. The soldiers fired

at her, killing her. Courage sits by her wagon singing a lullaby to Kattrin, telling

herself that Kattrin's fallen asleep. The peasants tell Courage they will give

Kattrin a proper burial and that she must get away. After covering Kattrin's body

with a cloth, Courage leaves, pulling the wagon behind her.

Despite the loss of her children, Courage demonstrates a remarkable

resilience, forging ahead. She has minimal time for sorrow. She has learned

how to survive on the outskirts of battle. The Fraternization Song, sung by

Yvette, explains how women are seduced by soldiers and end up becoming

prostitutes and camp followers. It fills in the blanks of Courage's early history

with the three different fathers for her children. It is also explains her constant

attempts to protect Kattrin, knowing how vulnerable young women are.

These older women exist in a series of liminal zones, "being on the

threshold" as Turner describes it. All except Birdie are widowed, Mrs. Dudgeon

newly so and just dispossessed of her house. Widowhood can be seen as a

liminal zone between marriages. It also represents the threshold of a new state,

of singleness and a certain level of financial independence in the case of Mme.

Dupont and Mrs. Alving, or near destitution as in Mrs. Dudgeon's case. The

liminal zone is often called the crossroads, domain of Hecate, another

manifestation of the crone. From this place, these women, ripened by

experience, can look at the past and see where their choices led them. In choosing to follow duty as did Mrs. Dudgeon and Mrs. Alving, they look back on a

life of frustration, one where the dutiful path was wanting. Mrs. Dudgeon has

52 turned bitter; in closing off her heart in the belief that it could not be trusted and

therefore she should follow her minister's advice to marry a God-fearing man,

she has closed her heart to love. Her bitterness is manifested in her anger at

Anderson who has followed his heart and thus, found love.

Mrs. Alving too regrets the past. But it hasn't all been wasted. She has

thrown herself into work, building up the estate so that at least she has the

comfort of feeling that she is economically independent of her husband. But her

economic independence falls short of filling a life without love. Her attempt to

safeguard her husband's image with her son has resulted in personal anguish for

the son. The fact that she mentions the conflict between her husband's love of

life and her commitment to duty, shows an understanding of their differences and

a certain tolerance for him. Somewhat on a dissident note, she is distressed that

her son is not more sympathetic to his father's failure and that he seems to have

no affection for his father. The son retorts, "When the child has nothing to thank

his father for? When he has never known him? Do you really cling to that

antiquated superstition -you, who are so broadminded in other things" (Ibsen

167). This can be seen as a step back into the world of duty, however temporarily.

Mme. Dupont is a rather one-dimensional character whose sole focus is her grand-daughter. There is no indication of what her previous life was like, no mention of her husband, just her wealth and widowhood. The power with which she fights for the child is admirable.

53 Birdie, despite her entanglement through marriage with the Hubbards,

exists in an isolation zone, never completely accepted for herself, just a symbol

of the plantation that she brought to the marriage. Her awareness of this

empowers her to speak, to say no to the possibility of her son marrying Zan. She

warns Zan to get out before she becomes like Birdie herself. While Birdie has

the insight and awareness to see what is happening about her, she is powerless

to change her own situation. The best she can do is warn Zan.

Mother Courage resides in a zone removed from the other women

discussed. Her liminal zone exists on the outskirts of battle, where loyalties shift

and quick thinking is the difference from life and death. What might be called

normal behavior is suspended. Denying one's child might be the only way to

stay alive; refusing to be charitable may be the only safeguard that one will be

able to survive the next day. The ability to say no which Courage demonstrates

is an act of self-preservation in a ruthless place.

These women can be seen as the slowly emerging archetype of the crone.

Each in her way possesses the insight that comes from experience. Each has progressed through the stage of motherhood; two don't particularly care for their sons and are honest enough to admit it. Except for Birdie, the husbands are absent and in one sense, peripheral to the stories. The plays end with the women still haunting the liminal zone, although they are now empowered by the insights developed through the unfolding of the play. The playwrights have left them on the fringes, where old women who speak the truth reside.

54 And yet, there is a certain freedom that life on the fringes provides. The solitude and separateness that these women demonstrate can be viewed as a prelude to new possibilities, the open space where a new stage of life can begin.

In the next chapter, we will explore the creation of one alternative vision.

55 NOTES 1Ferber, Edna. Showboat. (New York: Fawcett Crest, 1954), 12.

2Jones, Robert Edmond. The Dramatic Imagination. (New York: Theatre Arts Books, 1941 ), 136.

3Croce, Arlene. Afterimages. (New York: Knopf, 1977), 223.

56 ChapterS Creating an Alternative Vision

It's time for us old women to rip to shreds the veil of invisibility that has encased us. We have to fight the societal stereotype that keeps us on the periphery, outside the mainstream. We have experience to offer, judgment, wisdom, balance and charm. Miriam Reibold1

Women may be the one group that grows more radical with age. Gloria Steinem2

A woman writing thinks back through her mothers. Virginia WoolF

To paraphrase the poet Muriel Rukeyser, "yes, I am a she-playwright.

Anything I bring to this is because I am a woman" (Levi 287). I see, feel, think and experience this world through the body of a woman. When I look at the majority of works on the stage, I see the stories of men. When I read surveys and studies of theatre, I find almost exclusively the works of men. And I find this wanting.

Where are the women and where are our stories? I am uncovering them slowly, in out-of-print texts, used books, and anthologies of "losr women: Susan

Glaspell and the Providence Players, Sophie Treadwell and her experiments with expressionism, Rachel Crothers and her nineteenth century feminism. But in the meantime, I continue to write, using the tools and observing the conventions

57 (more or less) of the men who preceded me. I study their work to team what I

can of structure, plot, dialogue, pacing, and character development. There are

aspects of the craft that should apply regardless of the story or the teller. But

even a detached study soon leads to irritation and builds to anger at the

depictions of women, especially older women. And then I catch myself.

Is the playwright merely reflecting the world he sees, blinded by the limitation of a

he-playwright in a world where he-vision is privileged? What does he see that I

missed? What do I see that he missed? And I take another look. And from that

looking, I wrote The Crones Among Us. This play reflects the world I see. And

that world is filled with women living very different lives from the ones I see on

stage. Rather they are middle-aged women, female characters as subjects

rather than objects, standing on the threshold, moving into the liminal zone, for

their own unique rite of passage.

In examining where women stand and what they are searching for, I drew

on the quest images described by Carol Christ in her book, Diving Deep and

Surfacing: Women Writers on Spiritual Quest (1980) and Victor Turner's work on

social drama. Christ sees women as progressing through experiences of

nothingness, awakening, insight, and new naming on their journeys to self-hood.

She believes that patriarchal society teaches women to question their own worth;

thus, women's experiences of nothingness are unavoidable. Embracing the

prescribed models of female behavior teaches self-negation and creates a feeling of intense powerlessness. Conversely, women who don't conform suffer

both exclusion and self-doubt because they are perceived by society, and see

58 themselves, as failures. Awakening designates the change in consciousness

which occurs when women "come face to face with the nothingness they know as

lack of self, lack of power, and lack of value for women in a male-centered world"

(Christ 18). Understanding the patriarchal image of woman to be a construct whose influence they can change, awakened women present a challenge to male

definitions of reality. The insight is an experience of seeing within, during which women recognize the split between the strong "real" self inside and the passive

"other'' self they must enact within the repressive patriarchal structures of family and society. New naming is the radical act of self-affirmation women engage in when they record their experiences through language. "[A]s women begin to name the world for themselves, not only will they create new life possibilities for women, they will also upset the world order that has been taken for granted for centuries" (Christ 24). Christ's four steps of nothingness, awakening, insight and new naming have parallels with Turner's view of social drama.

For Turner, a social drama is initiated when the regular pattern of social life is interrupted by a breach, which leads to a crisis. In an effort to prevent a split in the community, redressive actions are taken. The redressive actions, which can take a variety of forms, lead to one of two results. There is either reconciliation or consensual recognition of irremediable breach. (Turner 92)

Both Christ and Turner move beyond the traditional quest of separation, initiation and reincorporation (Downing Menopause 6). Reincorporation is the final stage of the traditional quest, bringing with it the assumption that the quester, albeit changed by the quest, returns to her home society. Christ's new naming and

59 Turner's recognition of irremediable breach open a new path, one that does not

lead back home but to a new space with new knowledge. This is the basis for

the transformative which is at the heart of feminist theatre. As Helene Keyssar

reminds us, feminist theatre "aims to empower both the theatre and women"

(Keyssar 184).

The transformative theatre is empowering in several ways. It moves away

from the Aristotelian idea of conflict, climax, and resolution with its stress on the

agonistic. The Aristotelian format, with its parallels to male sexual performance,

and its linear focus, leads to a fixed and closed ending. The transformative,

however, acknowledges the "multiple and shifting selves that at any moment or

collection of moments constitute a developing self, placing that composite in a

context that is itself shifting" (Schlueter 163). This shifting brings us back to

Turner and his concept of the liminal zone, the "betwixt and between" stage in a

rite of passage. In the liminal zone, fixed roles are discarded and an element of

play enters. This play, or the ludic as Huizinga terms it (Turner 85), contains the

potential for cultural innovations, for new ways of both looking and doing. It is

here that we can explore the possibilities of what a woman can be. As the

playwright Megan Terry states: "We don't know what a woman could be like

because we've had so many outlines and definitions forced upon us" (Leavitt

288). It is only by stepping out of those definitions and into the perilous liminal zone that transformation can take place.

And perilous it is. For liminality is an ambiguous state. In such a state insecurities can abound as chaos breaks through cosmos, disorder invades

60 order. New possibilities entail destruction and re-creation. Old selves die, old

ideas show their limitations. New selves and beliefs are formed and then are

tested in the doing. Such is the nature of the quest. In a further refinement of

the liminal, Turner discusses the liminoid. He sees the liminal as obligatory

whereas the liminoid is optional (Turner 43). So too, a woman has a choice

whether to go "a-questing." However, for a woman in search of self, the

experience is truly liminal; her only options are change or living death.

Drawing on a combination of quest and social drama, I have written The

Crones Among Us. Before explaining the conventions I have employed, I would

like to note a special requirement that dramatic writing demands. In writing for

the stage, the playwright goes a step beyond Barthes. Roland Barthes in his

extended essay, S/Z, discusses the difference between the readerly text and the writerly text. The writerly text is one which seeks "to make the reader no longer a

consumer, but a producer of the text" (4). Such a text has multiple entrances and

networks, it is a "perpetual present" which encourages infinite play. Using

interpretation in the Nietzchean sense, the reader does not give the text one meaning but revels in the plurality of meanings in the text. A readerly text, on the other hand, is one committed to the "closure system" of the West, in which meaning is fixed and offered as a product. Barthes sees a classic text as falling in this category.

The playwright, however, must move beyond both the "writerly'' and the

"readerly" text and produce what might be called the "actorly" text. The actorly text would incorporate the writerly in the sense of enabling the reader, or in this

61 case the actor, to step into the text as story to revel in the meanings. But it must

also have room for the actor to enter into a specific character within the story. It

acknowledges and creates space for the actor to bring her gifts to the role.

In the following section, I will discuss structure, setting, the crone, and the

use of ritual in the creation of The Crones Among Us.

Structure

4 Using the eight holidays of neo-paganism as a structuring device , The

Crones Among Us shows one woman's journey as she explores the options available to her as a middle-aged woman in a youth- and future-oriented society.

The eight pagan holidays, or hinges as they are called, serve as choral points throughout the play. Occurring either at the crossroads, which symbolizes the liminal zone and place of power for the crone, or on the empty stage, the choral points represent the moments in the play where the fourth wall5 is broken, where the actors speak directly to the audience. Breaking the fourth wall is an effort to draw the audience in as participants, people addressed directly, rather than voyeurs sitting in the dark. This technique, along with several others I attempt to use, has a double-edged quality. Several people commented that they did not like it and felt that the play was calling attention to itself. However, I consider this a variation on Brecht's "alienation effect" whereby he attempts to prevent the audience from falling into a trance-like observation of the play.

It is also at the choral points that the story of Persephone, Demeter,

Baubo and Hades unfolds. However, the traditional story of Persephone's rape by Hades, her time in the underworld, her mother Demeter's grief and the crone

62 Baubo's support h~s been deconstructed and the focus shifted. Rather than the

daughter's virginity being at stake, it is the mother's life that is central.

Drawing again on Brecht, I have used verse at the choral points. Brecht in

Mother Courage used verse and music to demonstrate a self-awareness often

missing in the prose sections of the play. In Crones, many of the monologues

are written in free verse. Again, I am drawing on my background in poetry. I

believe that verse is intuitively more truthful than prose. As Muriel Rukeyser

reminds us, poetry can give the language in a play "a density, setting up a world,

which is too many times absent from theatre" (Rukeyser 128). While visual

images dominant film, theatre has always been the domain of the word. It is our

challenge to "clothe ideas in expressive speech and to give words once again

their highly original magic" (Jones 140).

The play begins and ends on the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. This circular effect was also used by Thornton Wilder in The Skin of our

Teeth, to suggest a perpetual life cycle of progress. Meserve sees it as "the

never ending but stubborn struggle of individuals to survive by the skin of their teeth; and ... they will succeed" (311). In Crones, the cycle suggests the idea of continual transformation, marked by the seasons, which themselves repeat endlessly.

Setting

Ibsen and Chekhov, the great exemplars of modem realism, set their plays in the bourgeois parlor, which was actually the focus of the life of those times (Fergusson 236). However, in keeping with the issues of transformation

63 and change, I have set several of the scenes from Crones at the crossroads.

The crossroad, according to the mythic tradition, is the haunt of Hecate, the

crone, guardian of the thresholds and crossroads, and guide to transitions and

transformations (Downing Home 238). The crossroad is a site of danger, both as

a burial site and a haunt for criminals. It is the liminal zone, the "betwixt and

between" place. The crossroad is a metaphor for choice and decision, in fad, a

crossroad demands a decision; even if one chooses to go straight through,

continuing on the same road, it implies a decision not to select turning either right

or left. The aspect of choice is emphasized by the use of a signpost, signaling

that it is also a place where one might ask directions.

Four scenes as well as the seasonal transitions are set at the crossroad.

The remaining eight scenes take place in more realistic settings such as a park

bench, a tattoo parlor, a kitchen and a hospital room. The switching between

non-realistic and realistic settings is an attempt to challenge the realistic theatre's

adherence to linearity and spatial contiguity.

The Crone

The crone operates on several levels. On one hand, she is a symbol of

what people fear about aging. The word itself is pejorative to many. It calls to

mind an image of a wizen, old woman, possibly with a wart on the end of her

nose, who haunts the forests and crossroads. She may possibly be a little crazy or in today's society, in the early throes of Alzheimer's. I felt it was important to show an old woman, still in full command of her faculties.

64 For old women, whether crones or not, are symbols of the living past. As

Anne Basting notes in describing Suzanne Lacy's The Crystal Quilt, "[o]ne can

trace the stages of life in each older woman's experiences, yet the women are

clearly more than what they were at any single point in history" (Basting 131 ).

Lacy's performance art piece, Crystal Quilt, was performed on Mother's Day,

1987. Four hundred and thirty older women, ranging in age from mid-fifties to

mid-nineties sat at tables arranged in patterns and covered with colored cloths in

the IDS tower in downtown Minneapolis. They created a living quilt as they joined, crossed, and opened their hands while a soundtrack recited pieces of

memory and mixed with the sound of simultaneous conversations. At the end of

the performance, the audience, made of shoppers wandering through the

skyway, were offered scarves and invited to talk with the women. It represented

an interruption in the way that older women are normally treated in society;

instead of being stepped around and ignored, people were invited to connect with

them, to recognize their humanity. Basting interpreted the performance as

celebrating the living past in the form of older women (Basting 132).

By using the crone figure, who is also the wise woman, I attempt to

intensify the presence of the old woman that Lacy created with Crystal Quilt.

However, this has created interesting issues of hierarchy. As readers and audience members recognize the crone as a woman of power, they are expecting to see her use that power. One reader explained that in reading the play, he was prepared to "respect and revere" the crone, but he found it impossible to do so, given her flippant behavior. He mentioned that use of such

65 an archetype leads one to expect a figure who would lead the way. On the other hand, the actors that have played the Sheila character take a different view.

They see the crone as encouraging them to make their own choices and to realize that there is no final authority. The behavior of the crone seems to disrupt the dominant culture's expectations of how an archetype should act.

Ritual

The opening and closing prayer is a response to the lack of ritual to celebrate the separation from an outgrown phase of life. As Simone de Beauvoir states: "Neither for men nor for women do we anywhere find initiation ceremonies that confirm the status of being an elder" (de Beauvoir 2). While ceremonies are important in marking transitions, rites of passage, they are not always a part of the culture. The lack of a specific ritual for an event or an experience is usually an indication that the culture does not value either the event or the person participating in it.

As Turner reminds us, ritual and its experiential aspect "communitas" is a

"way of renewing social recognition and understanding, and it revitalizes through participation in symbolic enactment" (Horvitz 1). It creates an opportunity to revitalize existence by opening up a participatory space where individuals can reconnect communally with basic meanings and understandings of existence. It is a space with a multivocity of meaning and it involves remembrance. By opening and closing the play with a ritual "prayer," I am attempting to bless the liminal site where through the course of the play, the sacred and the secular will interact. In their interaction, it is hoped that new possibilities will manifest

66 NOTES

1Maggio, Rosalie. The New Beacon Book of Quotations by Women. (Boston: Beacon Press, 1996), 18.

21bid, 18.

3 Woolf, Virginia. A Room of One's Own. (Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1963), 34.

~he eight holidays that I used for the structure of the play are: Winter Solstice - Dec. 22 - greatest darkness and longest night of the year. Candlemas - Feb. 2 - the beginning of the light Spring Equinox - Mar. 20 - day and night are equal Beltane - May 1 - fertility and the sacred marriage Summer Solstice - June 20 - greatest light and shortest night of the year Lam mas - Aug. 1 - lushness, fullness and the dog days Fall Equinox - Sept. 20 - harvest, day and night are equal Samhian -Oct. 31 -most sacred day of the year linking the living and dead. The actual dates of the holidays may vary depending on the year.

Sorhe fourth wall refers to the invisible wall between the actors and the audience.

67 The Crones Among Us

A Play

by

Bonnie Benson

Copyright 2003 The Setting:

A bare stage with minimal props, crossroads marker, a rock, park bench, counter, table and chairs, bed, packing boxes.

The Characters:

Sheila Middle-aged woman - SO's

Fran Middle-aged woman - SO's

Honey Middle-aged woman - SO's

Becky Young woman, daughter of Sheila - late 20's

Tony Young man- early 30's

Bill Peterson Older middle-aged man -60's

Cooch Old Woman - 70's

69 The Scenes:

Act I, Scene 1 Crossroads

Winter Solstice

2 Sheila's backyard

3 Shopping Mall

Christmas

Act II, Scene 1 Crossroads

2 Tattoo Parlor

Beltane

3 Sheila's kitchen

Intermission

4 Sheila's kitchen

Lam mas

5 Restaurant

Act Ill, Scene1 Crossroads

Autumn Equinox

2 Hospital room

Samhain

3 Sheila's living room

Winter Solstice

4 Crossroads

70 Act I, Scene 1

Empty stage with crossroads marker, lights begin coming up very slowly like a sunrise. When they are about halfway,

COOCH (ENTERS up the main aisle) Wait a minute, wait a minute! Stop the sunrise please. (climbs on stage and speaks to someone in the wings as she moves towards center) The sunrise does not start until I'm here, remember. (to audience) I'm telling you- there is no respect for old women in this society. I don't know how it is for old men, but for old women, it sucks. (from the center speaking to the wings) Okay? Take the lights down, and we'll start again.

Empty stage with crossroads marker, COOCH standing in the center. Her voice is heard and lights come up very slowly like a sunrise.

I begin in gratitude, thankful For the life that courses through my veins, For the air that fills my lungs, For the love that fills my heart.

Gratitude warms me, Like a fire on a dark night Like a rich mulled tea on a cold day Like a silken embrace.

I am thankful for the years I've lived The seasons I have shared For the births and deaths

Gratitude warms me, Like the heat of a lover's body Like a baby against my breast Like a fever at breaking

SHEILA enters from stage left and watches.

I thank the moon

71 For its phases from old to new For its tides that rise and fall Like the feelings in my heart

I thank death for being with me always The home to which I return Like a seed to soil To begin again the spiral of life.

SHEILA That's a wonderful prayer. COOCH Thanks, I'm rather proud of it myself. Poetry's not really my forte.

SHEILA Are you the wise woman? COOCH Wise woman, crone, witch, I've got a million names. It doesn't matter to me. Just go with what's comfortable.

SHEILA You're very accommodating. COOCH 1try not to sweat the small stuff.

SHEILA I really like your gown. COOCH Thank you, it is pretty. Actually, I'm on my way home from a Renaissance Fair.

SHEILA At this hour? (catches herself) ... I mean, I didn't think they ran all night. COOCH They don't but some of the parties do.

SHEILA So that's your party dress?

72 COOCH Not really, I had to step in at the last moment and play the "Wife of Bath". They're doing the Canterbury Tales this year.

SHEILA You're an actress?

COOCH Nothing special, I do a little community theatre every now and then.

SHEILA So you don't dress like this all the time?

COOCH Goddess, no. Are you kidding? Do you know how heavy this is, in this heat? I just want to get home and take it off.

SHEILA Oh. 1thought I'd wandered into this mystical space.

COOCH Well, yeah ...

SHEILA With crones and fairies and dragons.

COOCH Well, no.

SHEILA No?

COOCH No. (beat) I mean, yes, this is a mystical space. But there are mystical spaces all over the place. But we haven't seen a dragon in eons. And fairies? I haven't really been paying attention.

SHEILA But there are crones?

COOCH Oh, yes, we've got quite a few. Yours truly for one.

SHEILA Nice to meet you. I'm Sheila Fitzgerald.

73 COOCH My friends call me Coach. Nice to meet you too. (glances at watch) Look at the time.

SHEILA (looking around) It's pretty desolate out here. COOCH It serves its purpose.

SHEILA Do you actually live here? COOCH At the crossroads?

SHEILA Well, you are the guardian, aren't you? COOCH Just because it's my job doesn't mean I Jive here. I have a nice old rambling house near the glades.

SHEILA Really? COOCH Yep, just got cable, in fact.

SHEILA You watch lV? COOCH Sure, don't you?

SHEILA Well, not very much. COOCH You probably watch news and documentaries, one of those PBS junkies.

SHEILA Is there something wrong with that?

74 COOCH Of course not, watch whatever you want. (looking at her watch) Was there something in particular you wanted?

SHEILA Well, I feel like I'm at a crossroads.

COOCH 1think that a pretty accurate description considering ...

SHEILA No, 1mean in my life, spiritually, emotionally. Like I'm not really sure where I'm going next.

COOCH It's called life- get used to it.

SHEILA But, I don't have any role models, I'm so confused.

COOCH Sounds like you've got some work ahead of you. (looking at her watch again) But don't let me stop you. (starts to leave) See you around.

SHEILA Wait, aren't you going to help me?

COOCH Do what?

SHEILA Sort it out, figure out my next step.

COOCH Do I look like a guidance counselor?

SHEILA Well, you are a wise woman.

COOCH True, and you know why? I stay within my areas of expertise. Living your life for you isn't one of them.

SHEILA I'm not asking for that, just some advice.

75 COOCH Here's some advice - if it feels good, do it.

SHEILA That's pretty hedonistic.

COOCH Works for me.

SHEILA You're not very helpful.

COOCH Okay, how about ... It's my job to do my thing, it's your job to do your thing.

SHEILA Oh, that's real clear.

COOCH Look, the Oracle at Delphi spoke in riddles, so did the Sphinx. Clarity is not a high priority with us. (glances at her watch) I do need to go.

SHEILA Aren't you supposed to be available to me?

COOCH Sure, once in a while, not all the time.

SHEILA It's hardly all the time. This is the first time we've met.

COOCH You know, it probably would have been better if you'd made an appointment, then I could give you more time. (pulling a small notebook out of her pocket) How about the 21 ~ (beat) Oops, I forgot, it's the solstice. Time does speed up on you as you get older.

SHEILA How about the 27th?

COOCH No, I'll be out of town, going to the beach.

76 SHEILA You go to the beach?

COOCH Everyone's entitled to a little break now and then.

SHEILA I guess.

COOCH How about the 5th?

SHEILA Okay, that works. Where?

COOCH Where do you want?

SHEILA How about here?

COOCH Here? Wouldn't you rather go some place where we could sit, maybe have a cup of coffee - depending on the time of day, of course.

SHEILA That's right, you don't live here. . . . Urn, ...

COOCH Tell you what, I'll call you when I get back from the beach.

SHEILA But ..

COOCH If you're in the book, I'll find you. Ciao (COOCH EXITS)

SHEILA (watches COOCH leave) Thanks ... for nothing.

(looks around) This really is pretty bleak. Then again, my life is pretty bleak right now. It's not like 1haven't been searching. You name it, I've tried it. Numerology, runes, the I Ching, astrology. When I studied astrology, I found out I was in my Saturn

77 return. The time to evaluate, consolidate, and plan the next step. I didn't need astrology to tell me that.

Sometimes I feel like the past has shut a door on me, and everything on the other side is ancient history. Not that I'd go back if I could. It was unfulfilling in its traditional way, the husband who didn't hang around, the children who were delightful but grew up, the volunteer work that fed my soul but not my pocketbook, the jobs that paid the bills and starved my spirit. There's got to be something more.

On to the future? Actually that scares the shit out of me. Especially since I got off the anti-depressants. They worked for a while, took the edge off. But I got tired of walking around feeling like a block of wood. Totally destroyed my sex life, what there was of it. Now, at least, I can feel. I have good days and bad days but I'm alive. And when things get really crazy, I walk my labyrinth. You know, those mazes in the ground. Some of those big cathedrals have them. It probably sounds silly but walking in circles is very grounding. I think I'll go · ground myself.

(SHEILA EXITS)

(Blackout)

78 WINTER SOLSTICE

FRAN (crosses the stage waving a white scarf) It's December 21, the winter solstice -the shortest day of the year. They also have great sales at this time of the year. Assuming you aren't one of those people who does all her shopping the Friday after Thanksgiving.

Aren't those people amazing? Friday morning they are up and ready, waiting for those stores to open, list in hand. Some of them can go for 12 hours, with just coffee breaks throughout the day. It's marathon shopping.

1 had a neighbor like that. Did all her shopping on the Friday after Thanksgiving and all her wrapping on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. By Sunday, she was a season ahead of herself. All she had to think about was New Year's.

The only thing was .... she was so obnoxious to be around. All through the Christmas season, she'd be dropping these remarks like "all ready for Christmas?", "still shopping?" Why this one-upmanship about Christmas shopping?

Actually, I think people that do the Friday after Thanksgiving thing really don't like shopping. It's like it's an ordeal to get through. They've got their list like it's a battle plan, they're going to go in there, buy those presents and get out alive. And then they're done. Don't have to think about it for another year.

Now, me? I'm a process shopper. I like the steps involved. Go into the store, wander through the racks, look at things, hold them up, see how they look in the mirror and then take some to the dressing room. I like trying on those dresses that 1would never wear. You know the ones- really deep cleavage, cutouts across the hips, slits up to here. For 30 seconds I'm a bimbo, a middle-aged bimbo, true, but still a bimbo.

Do you think most women have a secret desire to look like a bimbo? (beat) Well, think about it, I've got some shopping to do. (EXITS)

(Blackout)

79 Act I, Scene 2

Open stage with maze pattem on the floor. SHEILA is walking slowly in pattem. BECKY ENTERS, stops and watches for a moment.

BECKY Mom,

SHEILA (keeps walking)

BECKY Mom, I need to talk to you.

SHEILA Not now, dear, I'm in the labyrinth.

BECKY Mom, this is important.

SHEILA Uh, huh.

BECKY Mom.

SHEILA (waves to BECKY to join her) Come on.

BECKY Mom.

SHEILA (waves again)

BECKY (with a heavy shrug, BECKY crosses to labyrinth and begins to follow SHEILA)

BILL (ENTERS and watches them) Can I join you?

80 SHEILA (waves him to join them)

BILL (gets behind BECKY and follows them) (to BECKY) Did you talk her?

BECKY (shakes her head)

SHEILA (finishes the circle, takes a deep breath while raising her arms above her head then slowly Jets the air as her arms come down by her side) Now I feel grounded.

TONY (ENTERS) Telegram for Miss F. Telegram for Miss F.

SHEILA Here, dear, I'll take it. She's busy right now.

TONY Sign here please.

SHEILA (signs, takes telegram and holds it up to the light)

BECKY (completes the circle, is raising her arms above her head when she notices SHEILA with telegram. Reaches over and takes it from her) I think that's mine.

SHEILA I was just holding it for you.

BECKY Up to the light?

SHEILA I was shading my eyes.

81 BECKY Right, Mom. (she opens telegram, reads it, looks up as if considering her options, distractedly folds it, and puts it in her pocket)

SHEILA Well? BECKY Huh?

SHEILA 1thought you wanted to talk about something important. BECKY I did?

SHEILA You did a few minutes ago.... Well, if you can't remember, it must have been a lie. (looks at BILL who is still walking the labyrinth) Who's the old fart? BECKY He's not an old fart. He's probably your age.

SHEILA Do I look that old? BECKY You look like contemporaries.

SHEILA You mean I look like an old fart too? BECKY Mom, women don't tum into old farts.

SHEILA Well that's encouraging. BECKY They become dowagers.

SHEILA Complete with hump? BECKY Only if they don't take their calcium. Are you?

82 SHEILA I'm eating a lot of oysters.

BECKY What about milk?

SHEILA No, it gives me hot flashes. All those growth hormones in cows. (looks over at BILL who is still circling) Does he know it's a maze, not a circle?

BECKY I'm not sure. (goes over and taps him on the arm) You can come out now.

BILL 1wasn't sure how many laps I was supposed to do.

BECKY That's okay. Come over and meet my mother. Bill, this is my mom, Sheila Fitzgerald. Mom, this is Bill Peterson.

SHEILA (putting out her hand) Nice to meet you, Bill.

BILL (taking her hand) My pleasure, Sheila. May I call you Sheila?

SHEILA It seems to work for most of my friends.

BECKY Mom.

SHEILA Sheila's fine.

BILL Rebecca's told me a lot about you. It's so nice to finally meet you.

SHEILA She has?

BECKY Just the good stuff, Mom.

83 BILL It's all good.

SHEILA Is it getting deep in here?

BILL 1beg your pardon? BECKY Why don't I get us some drinks?

BILL (looking at his watch) Actually, I can't stay this time. I was hoping I could make an appointment with you, Sheila.

SHEILA For what? BILL To see your house.

SHEILA Didn't you just walk through it to get out here? BECKY 1told Bill that you were thinking about selling and I figured he could give you an estimate.

SHEILA As long as I'm just thinking about it, I don't need an estimate. BECKY Sure you do. You don't have to sell it, just consider it.

SHEILA 1don't even have to consider it if I don't want to.

BILL Maybe this is a bad time.

SHEILA 1think you're right, Bill. I'm sure you can see yourself out while Rebecca and I have a short discussion.

84 BECKY Now, Mom.

SHEILA Bye, Bill. Just leave your card on the hall table. (takes BECKY by the arm and moves away)

BILL I'll call you tomorrow if that's okay.

SHEILA Sure, whatever.

BILL (EXITS)

BECKY Mom, before you go off on me, I'm just trying to help you.

SHEILA Help? Selling my house out from under me? This is help?

BECKY I'm not selling your house. I'm just trying to help you take the first step. You keep saying it's too much work.

SHEILA I'll be the judge of that.

BECKY Okay, okay, I'll just step back.

SHEILA Fine. Now what was the telegram about?

BECKY Telegram?

SHEILA Yeah, the one in your pocket.

BECKY Oh, this one. (patting her pocket)

85 SHEILA Yeah, that one.

BECKY It's a contest I entered.

SHEILA Publisher's Clearinghouse? Is Ed McMann going to come walking through the door next?

BECKY No, it's a different kind of contest, and I'm just one of the finalists at this point.

SHEILA So, tell me about it.

BECKY Well, I'm not sure you'd understand.

SHEILA So try me.

BECKY Well, I'm thinking of becoming an egg donor.

SHEILA A what?

BECKY An egg donor. You know, to a fertility clinic.

SHEILA You're giving away your eggs?

BECKY Not exactly.

SHEILA You're selling them?

BECKY It's not really selling them, it's more like helping out someone who can't have children.

86 SHEILA Honey, you may be helping them out but they're paying through the nose for it. Just be sure you get yours.

BECKY 1can't believe how mercenary you sound.

SHEILA Look, you want to sell your body parts, fine. Just get fair market value.

BECKY 1don't think I want to have this discussion with you.

SHEILA Fine, have it with your father or your brother.

BECKY They wouldn't understand.

SHEILA If you can't make it understandable, maybe you don't understand it either.

BECKY There you go, trying to tell me how to live my life.

SHEILA Becky, if you want to be the Easter Bunny and just give away eggs, go for it. I'm just saying, use your head. If I had any eggs left, I'd sell them too. But once again, my timing is off. (looks at her watch) Now, if you still want to go shopping, let's go. I've already missed my Tai Chi class.

BECKY I'm right behind you.

(Blackout)

87 Ad I, Scene3

COOCH is sitting on a bench in a shopping mall facing the audience. Christmas decorations are everywhere.

SHEILA ENTERS from stage left laden with packages.

SHEILA (calling off stage) Becky, I'm just going to sit down on this bench for a while. No, finish your shopping. I'll watch the packages. Just tum me into a pack horse. (puts packages down on her left then notices COOCH) What are you doing here?

COOCH People watching.

SHEILA Aren't you supposed to be at the crossroads?

COOCH As 1told you before, it's my job, not my life. I'm there when it's important.

SHEILA How do you know? Do they beep you?

COOCH No, 1 know when I need to be there. And I know when I need to be other places too.

SHEILA Are you clairvoyant?

COOCH What's this, twenty questions?

SHEILA I'm just trying to get some information here.

COOCH And I'm just trying to watch life's rich pageant. See that little boy over there?

88 SHEILA In front of the toy store?

COOCH Yes. He's been watching that train go around for 15 minutes. I hope he gets one for Christmas.

SHEILA Can't you get him one?

COOCH I'm a crone, not Santa Claus. For an intelligent woman, you sure confuse your archetypes.

SHEILA Well, 1think Christmas has just become too commercial. I just don't enjoy it any more.

COOCH That's too bad. lfs such a pretty time.

SHEILA You don't think it's too commercial?

COOCH 1think it's whatever you want it to be. I like the lights, the way people decorate their houses.

SHEILA With those hideous plastic reindeer on the roof?

COOCH Only if they have a Rudolph with the blinking red nose.

SHEILA You're kidding?

COOCH No. Just because something is tacky, doesn't mean I can't like it. You seem to spend a lot of energy being upset about things that really aren't that important.

SHEILA You think so?

89 COOCH Just an observation. Look, they're going to do a puppet show. Wanna watch? (EXITING) TONY (ENTERS and sits next to SHEILA)

SHEILA (to COOCH who is walking away) No, I'll just wait here.

TONY (to SHEILA) 1beg your pardon. Did you say something?

SHEILA 1was just talking to . . . myself. I do that sometimes.

TONY So do I. Especially at times like this.

SHEILA Really.

TONY Without sounding like a scrooge, which I probably do, I really don't like this whole holiday season. What with the crowds and the traffic, I just feel like a sardine all the time.

SHEILA Slimy?

TONY Squeezed. In fact, if you moved your packages to the other side, I'd have a little more room on the bench here.

SHEILA Sure, (moves packages).

TONY Thanks so much. (moves over on the bench) Say, do you like chocolate?

SHEILA Only dark chocolate.

90 TONY A true connoisseur, a woman after my own heart. (opens a small bag and pulls out a candy box) Try one of these. (SHEILA and TONY each take one and pop one in their mouths)

SHEILA MMMM. This is rich.

TONY It's Belgian- they make the best chocolate. (looks up and sees someone) Uh, oh (closing up candy box and putting it in the bag) gotta go. Here, hold on to this for me. (EXITS)

SHEILA But,

COOCH (ENTERS) It was a rerun, a puppet show rerun. (noticing the candy bag) Oh, you got some candy. Can I have a piece?

SHEILA Well, it's not really mine to share. A young man asked me to hold it for him.

COOCH You know you're going to eat it all when you get home.

SHEILA I am not.

COOCH (cocks her head and looks at her)

SHEILA Okay, just one piece.

COOCH One?

SHEILA Okay, two. Or three.

COOCH (takes a few pieces and puts them in her pocket) Thank you.

91 SHEILA Aren't you going to eat them now?

COOCH No. (looks at her watch) It's time to run.

SHEILA But I thought maybe we could talk.

COOCH Once again, you're catching me at a bad time. My program starts soon.

SHEILA You'd rather watch TV than talk to me?

COOCH Let's face it, you do whine. Plus, you can't beat a good cartoon.

SHEILA You watch cartoons?

COOCH Doesn't everybody? (EXITS)

SHEILA But ..

BECKY (ENTERS and sits down on bench) Done. I got the last one. (stretches her legs) Boy, am I hungry. (leans towards SHEILA) You been eating chocolate? I thought it gave you hot flashes.

SHEILA Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't, I never know. (holding up the candy bag) Want some?

BECKY No, thanks. I'd rather have a meal. Ready?

SHEILA You're the driver.

(Blackout)

92 CHRISTMAS

BILL (crossing the stage waving white scarf) Merry Christmas, Happy Hannuka, Happy Kwanza (looking off-stage) Did I forget anyone? (looking at scarf) Do I have the right color here? Shouldn't I be doing red or green or blue? (shrugs) It was so much easier when everyone was white and Christian.

(Blackout)

93 Act II, Scene 1

Empty stage with crossroads marker at the back. SHEILA ENTERS, looks about and comes downstage.

SHEILA I keep ending up here. The symbolism is getting to be just a bit much.

BECKY (crosses stage waving gold scarf) It's Candlemas, eve of February 1. We have to keep the fires going through the end of winter since the sun is being so shy. These long nights and short days are cold. It's supposed to be a good time for taking omens.

TONY (crosses stage holding a small American flag) Actually, we're coming up on Presidenfs Day when we honor George Washington, the founder of our country, the U.S. that is, and Abraham Lincoln, the Great Emancipator, ole Honest Abe. A proud moment for patriots.

SHEILA Time does seem to be speeding up and I'm not getting any younger. Especially with all these changes. And I don't just mean ''The Change" as my mother's generation used to call it.

The first change was becoming invisible. It happened about two years ago. It was disconcerting at first. I'd walk into a room and it was as if I wasn't even there. Not that I was ever a great beauty but at least, I'd get several acknowledgements. But now? It's like I'm not even there. I think it's the gray hair. When I mentioned it to Honey, she agreed. She said,

HONEY (ENTERS stage left) But have you noticed the freedom? Sure, no one pays attention to you. You have no expectations to meet. You can do whatever you want ... because no one is paying attention. (EXITS)

94 SHEILA Now that made me think ... All those years, trying to do the right thing, trying to fit in. 1didn't need to do that anymore. Now my other friend, Fran takes a different view. She says,

FRAN (ENTERS stage right) We've got to be careful, they'll burn us again. They did it once, they'll do it again. Didn't you ever hear of the burning times? The witch hunts? Who do you think those women were? Old crones in the forest? They were the women we are becoming, women who are not beholden, women who say no. (EXITS)

BECKY (waving blue scarf) It's the spring equinox - March 21. A good time to make vows.

TONY Actually, we're getting ready for Easter, the feast of the resurrection, the great ...

SHEILA Enough! Can I have a little quiet here?

BECKY Well, if you expect to get through this in time, you're going to have to pick up the pace.

SHEILA Isn't this my story? Don't I have any control here?

BECKY Yes and no. Yes, it's your story but no, you don't have any control. At the end of 90 minutes, this stage will be dark, as in black hole. Plus I've got a date. (EXITS)

SHEILA (watches her walk off) Where was I?

Off stage voice/BILL Invisible.

95 SHEILA No, I've already done that part.

Off-stage voice/BILL Women who say no.

SHEILA Oh, yes. Well, that was,Fran's line. She thinks we need to say "no" more often. Personally, I'm experimenting with saying yes. I don't want to regret all the things 1didn't do. I want to have some great memories to keep me warm. Speaking of warm, is it warm in here or is it me?

BECKY (walks out and hands her a fan)

SHEILA Thank you, dear. (fans herself) My mother always told me a lady used a fan to cool off, She had learned to use one back in the days before air conditioning. It was always so important to be a lady, to show good breeding. Breeding always makes me think of animal husbandry, bloodlines and all. As though someone was going to check my teeth, or look for a tattoo under my upper lip. (fans herself then holds the fan out to look at it) That's an interesting design. I remember having a little sandalwood fan with a satin ribbon woven through the ribs. Very delicate and it had a lovely scent. You held it so and with just the slightest movement, ifs all in the wrist, you create a breeze.

Bring it a little closer to the face, about even with the nose, and you get the veil effect. Of course, veils are very suspect these days. Repression, control. People forget about the mystery, the seductiveness of a veil.

Years ago, fans were part of a woman's arsenal in the battle of the sexes. You could play hide and seek, you could flirt. You think of Spanish senoritas and Madame Butterfly, all coy and mysterious.

And then there's the image of the little southern town, sitting on the porch at night, listening to the crickets, trying to keep the bugs away. Not very romantic.

With a bigger fan, you can do vaudeville. Let me entertain you.

And when things got serious, there's the sound of a fan snapping shut. My mother could snap a fan shut and that was the end of the discussion. That's when you saw the steel. We'd freeze with our eyes on the fan as though it had become a sword. It's a slender strip of wood but it stings when you're rapped with it.

96 But that was a different time. My mother knew what was expected of her, her role, her place. And as long as she stayed in it, she was relatively safe. What was that line? I think it was some fine southern gentleman who said: 'Women, like children, have but one right and that is the right to protection. The right to protection involves the obligation to obey."

Obedience, however, has never been my strong suit. Probably wasn't my mother's either, she was just sneakier.

Well, I can't hang out at a crossroads for the rest of my life. I need to do something. When in doubt, I believe in trying something new. I know, it's a delaying tadic, but it is my life. What does that commercial say? When was the last time you did something for the first time?

(Blackout)

97 Act II, Scene 2

In a tattoo parlor. Counter with large binders of designs. TONY behind the counter looking at recently received drawings in a folder. SHEILA ENTERS and goes to the counter.

TONY (looks up) Hi, can I help you?

SHEILA Hey, aren't you the chocolate guy? Remember at the mall at Christmas? You sat on the same bench with me and you had that Belgian chocolate.

TONY Yeah, now I remember. Do you still have it?

SHEILA Are you kidding? You don't leave a box of chocolate with someone and think they'll just hold it for you, do you?

TONY 1guess that is pretty unrealistic.. By the way, I'm Tony.

SHEILA And I'm Sheila. Why did you leave me your candy?

TONY (looking over his shoulder and bending closer) I'm not really supposed to eat chocolate.

SHEILA Diabetic?

TONY Borderline. I'm supposed to control it with diet. I was shopping with my mom and if she saw it, she would just give me such a hard time.

SHEILA I know what you mean. I'm a mom and I spend a lot of time giving people a hard time. I think it's in the job description.

TONY One of the benefits of motherhood.

98 SHEILA It has its down side, believe me. But let's talk tattoos.

TONY Okay, you've come to the right place.

SHEILA What have you got in purple?

TONY You name it, we've got it. Anything your heart desires.

SHEILA 1was thinking about a snake.

TONY You want it coiled, ready to strike? Or do you want it stretched out wrapping around an arm or a leg?

SHEILA 1hadn't thought that far. Do you have any pictures?

TONY Oh, I've got pictures. These binders all have small designs, great for that first tattoo. Is this your first one?

SHEILA Yes.

TONY Lots of first timers go with something simple, you know, kinda like getting your feet wet. (pulls out a binder and flips to a page) A lot of the ladies like the rose bud - subtle but attractive.

SHEILA It's nice but I want something with a little more oomph.

TONY 1can appreciate that. A lady with your experience and fine chocolate sensibilities is probably ready to be a little daring with that first tattoo. (picking up folder} Look, I just got these designs this morning. Incredible art work, isn't it?

SHEILA (looking at the artwork) Are these all by the same artist?

99 TONY Yeah, Coach.

SHEILA Coach?

TONY You know her?

SHEILA Well, ah, ... no, it's probably not the same person.

TONY 1think she shows a lot ofYakuza influence. You familiar with Yakuza?

SHEILA Vaguely. Aren't they Asian?

TONY Japanese, to be precise. (pulls out a coffee table book of pictures) Now these people have raised the full body tattoo to an art form. Not that you should start with a full body tattoo but this will give you an idea of just what you can do with a tattoo. Look at those colors. Aren't they alive?

SHEILA Awesome. (studies the picture then points to the page) They even tattoo their penis?

TONY When they say full body, they mean full body.

SHEILA I would think that would smart.

TONY Some people say there's no price too high to pay for art. (both study the page) Now, here's a snake. See how it goes around his leg, across his butt and up his back. Is that something?

SHEILA Where's the head?

TONY 1think it comes down over his shoulder. (turning the page) Yeah, here it is. lfs like it's resting on his heart. What a piece of work.

100 SHEILA How long did that take to do? TONY The whole thing or just the snake?

SHEILA No, just the snake. TONY I'd say about 20 hours.

SHEILA Whoa. Let's start small, just a nice, little coiled snake. TONY Sounds good. Do you know where you want it?

SHEILA No, you have any suggestions? TONY Just leave it to me. I know the perfect place.

(Blackout)

101 BELTANE

HONEY . (waving green scarf) Beltane, the eve of May 1., one of the old fire festivals, when fires light up the sky, bonfires celebrating fertility, and the ripe abundance of Mother Earth. Lovers would sleep in the fields and celebrate the great rite. The Maypole dances, Persephone returns from the underworld, the world bursts into bloom.

You do know the story. No? It's actually pretty old.

Persephone left, slamming the door behind her tired of the plants and crops, the sheer routine of keeping life going, while men and sex and darkness nibbled at her curiosity, threatening to leave her behind.

Demeter wept, knowing her daughter would be considered one of "those" girls, her marriage prospects dimmed. What if she came back pregnant from her romp with Hades, charmer that he was.

She still remembered the golden tones he'd used with her, the voice that caressed her ears, the strong fingers that stroked her neck and wove themselves through her hair

But she hadn't gone. She knew the price besides, she was too afraid of her mother to dare, she knew her duty to the plants, she was responsible.

When Iambe, bawdy lady, came to cheer her up, for grief had made her irresponsible where passion couldn't, she let herself be pulled to life with laughter.

Again the flowers bloomed, fruit ripened and Demeter opened her arms to her prodigal girl hugging her home, loving her return from daring with just a hint of envy in her tears.

Well, this is the day dear Persephone comes back. Let the festival begin!

(blackout)

102 Ad II, Scene 3

SHEILA, FRAN and HONEY are seated around a table cluttered with 4 or 5 empty wine bottles, drinking wine. HONEY is wearing a headscarf. SHEILA, facing the audience, is showing her tattoo, at the base of her spine, to FRAN and HONEY.

SHEILA So what do you think?

HONEY It's beautiful. lfs a gorgeous lavender. And the turquoise eyes really set it off.

FRAN Whatever possessed· you to get a tattoo?

SHEILA 1 needed something different.

FRAN So dye your hair, buy a new dress.

SHEILA No, I needed a real change.

FRAN A tattoo is a real change? Are you going to pierce your tongue next?

SHEILA Sometimes, Fran, you are so ... conservative.

FRAN Me? I'm the one saying we need change, the patriarchy has to go. I'm the real feminist, the real adivist in this group.

SHEILA And we love you for it. It's just that I'm talking about personal issues.

FRAN The personal is political.

HONEY Fran, dear, why don't you put a cork in it?

103 SHEILA On second thought, Honey, give her some more wine. Maybe we can drown her.

HONEY (pouring wine) Did it hurt much? The tattoo?

SHEILA Not really. The worst part was when it scabbed and got itchy. Plus it's close to the underwear line. So I had to stop wearing underwear. FRAN Can I ask why you chose that spot? Instead of on your upper arm or across your forehead for all to see?

SHEILA Well, for one thing, my tattoo is a private thing for me and my friends. FRAN All your friends that see your butt.

SHEILA It's not on my butt, it's the base of my spine. Tony said it's a very powerful place. FRAN Tony?

SHEILA My tattoo guy. FRAN So we're on a first name basis with our tattoo guy?

HONEY I would think so. After all, he saw her butt.

SHEILA Well, not all of it.

HONEY But some of it.

SHEILA Well, yeah.

104 FRAN I'm still waiting to hear how you came up with your site selection.

SHEILA Well, that's where my Kundalini is.

HONEY It's where your sexual energy lies dormant.

FRAN And the snake's guarding that?

SHEILA Kind of. But the snake is also a symbol of wisdom. So I figured that would help me use my sexual energy wisely.

FRAN As opposed to just being a slut or something.

HONEY That's not very nice.

FRAN Sorry. I'm just trying to understand this.

HONEY You know, Fran, sometimes people do things just because they feel like it. They don't always have a political agenda.

FRAN I realize that. It's just that we're all past the stage where we go out and get drunk and get tattoos.

SHEILA Weare?

FRAN Were you drunk?

SHEILA No, I wasn't. I was very organized, I looked at all kinds of pictures before 1 made my selection.

FRAN But, why didn't you put it somewhere that you could see it?

105 SHEILA I don't need to see it, I know ifs there.

HONEY And I really think it's beautiful.

SHEILA Thank you. FRAN How's it affecting your sexual energy?

SHEILA Well, Tony warned me I might get horny a lot more. FRAN Did he offer to help you out?

SHEILA No, but he did say to come back if I had any questions. FRAN Sounds like the door's open.

SHEILA He's kind of young. FRAN How young?

SHEILA Early thirties.

HONEY Is he cute?

SHEILA Nice looking. FRAN Maybe you should go back and get another tattoo.

SHEILA So I can get laid?

106 FRAN I'd consider a tattoo if it meant I might get a little action. You know, before I forget what sex was like.

HONEY It's just like it always was. I just don't have that much interest in it these days.

SHEILA That's because of the chemo. Once it's over, you'll be interested again. FRAN You're not still doing it?

HONEY No, my last treatment was last week. Now I'm just waiting for my hair to grow back.

SHEILA Maybe it will come back curly. That happened to one of my friends.

HONEY As long it grows back, I'll be happy.

SHEILA It will. FRAN So what's the story on the house? Did you get the estimate?

SHEILA No.

HONEY Didn't Becky bring somebody by to look at it?

SHEILA Yes. FRAN (to HONEY) Do you get the feeling that she doesn't really want to deal with this?

HONEY Well, it's a big step.

107 FRAN Do you think she's going to go with the "if I ignore it, it will go away" method of problem solving?

SHEILA You don't need to act as if I'm not here. FRAN Then join the conversation.

SHEILA 1don't want to disrupt my life right now with a move. Anyway, I like my things. like being surrounded by my books. This represents a lot of years.

HONEY Plus, Becky still lives with you.

SHEILA Maybe not for long.

HONEY Is she finally getting married?

SHEILA 1doubt it. I've never seen her with the same guy twice. FRAN Maybe she just wants to keep her private life private without any cross­ examination from you.

SHEILA But I never interrogate her about her boy friends. FRAN You don't think you do. You know how they misinterpret everything we do.

HONEY Why do you think she's leaving?

SHEILA I just have this feeling. Plus she needs to get out on her own, make her own place. FRAN Well, if you sold the house, she'd have to.

108 SHEILA I'm not selling my house just to get rid of my daughter. FRAN Just a thought.

HONEY Would you adually make her move out?

SHEILA 1 don't know; if I thought she needed to, I might. FRAN That's what I did with Frankie.

SHEILA It's different with sons. FRAN Probably. But I know it made him grow up. Now he's even buying a house. In fact, he has a great real estate agent if you want her name.

SHEILA No, I've already got Bill. If I ever sell, I'll use him. FRAN Is he that guy you went out with a couple times?

SHEILA Yeah. FRAN What does he think of your tattoo?

SHEILA He's never seen it. FRAN Really? Is that your wise use of your sexual energy?

SHEILA No, ifs called dating a gentleman. FRAN No sex drive?

109 SHEILA What can I say, these old guys just don't have a lot of oomph.

HONEY 1had a young one once. He was pretty good. FRAN That's what I need. An 18 year old - all dick and no brains. They last all night.

HONEY But he might want to talk to you. You know, afterwards. FRAN That would be above and beyond the call of duty. Luckily, they always fall asleep.

SHEILA Have you ever tried a black guy? FRAN When I lived in California. There were a lot of Black Panthers around.

HONEY Panthers? But I thought ... FRAN Yeah, well, these guys took the separatism only so far. In bed they were still working out their fantasies about white women. And I was working out mine.

HONEY Personally, I've always wanted to try an Oriental. FRAN They call them Asians now.

HONEY Okay, Asian. But I'd want him to have long hair. Don't some American Indians have long hair too? FRAN Any man can have long hair if he lets it grow. Assuming he doesn't have male pattern baldness.

HONEY True, but I don't like curly hair. It has to be thick and straight. You know, down to his waist.

110 FRAN Do you want to have sex or do you want to braid his hair?

SHEILA Maybe she wants to do both, it's her fantasy. FRAN Whatever works, dear.

SHEILA You know the other day I was in the food store, waiting at the deli counter and there was this young kid, late teens, early twenties and he was flirting with this girl in the bakery department. He was telling her how he'd seen her somewhere a week ago. And how she looked so fine. And how one of his friends told him that she worked in the bakery. And all the time, she's moving things around in the display case. By now, I'm watching her and realizing that she's just playing with the stuff back there. It's almost as if he'll keep going on as long as she keeps puttering around back there. At one point, she looked over at me and she had this smile. It was like she was saying, he does have a way with words. And he did. Made me think of the last time a man gave me that much attention. FRAN And that was ...

SHEILA Other than Bill, quite a while ago. FRAN So this Bill has potential?

SHEILA At this age, any man that pays attention to me has potential. FRAN You always were so discriminating.

SHEILA Thank you. But seriously, it's like I have this skin hunger. And I think Bill has it too but it's a different kind of skin hunger. FRAN Is there any more wine, Honey? I think this is going to be one of her more twisted explanations.

Ill SHEILA No, listen. He touches me all the time. You know, taking my arm or patting my hand or knee when he talks to me. FRAN Sounds pretty good so far.

SHEILA It is nice. lfs the way people who have been together a long time touch each other. My aunt and uncle are that way, always touching each other. You know, the way Pete touches you, Honey.

HONEY Yeah. I depend on it, especially on bad days when I feel so brittle, days when I just want to be held. FRAN And the problem is ... ?

SHEILA I haven't been with anyone for three or four years so when a man touches me, especially a man that I'm kind of interested in, I get all aroused, I just want to jump his bones.

FRAN You go, girl.

SHEILA I wish it were that easy. FRAN Come on, we're all liberated now.

SHEILA Sure, we are but they aren't. I mean he's such a gentleman, maybe that's all he wants in a relationship. They say guys decline as they get older. FRAN Then go for a young one. What about tattoo boy?

SHEILA Tony? He did have nice hands. FRAN 1think I see another tattoo in the offing.

112 SHEILA But 1want more than just sex. I want a connection, intimacy.

FRAN Greedy, aren't we.

SHEILA Maybe so. But I want that in my life. If we're honest (sidelong look at Fran), I think we all want that.

FRAN But at what price? What are the tradeoffs?

SHEILA Why are there always tradeoffs?

FRAN Because there are. Nobody gets everything they want.

HONEY She's not saying that

SHEILA I'm just saying that menopausal women need love too.

FRAN We all need love. But what we get and what we settle for are two different things.

HONEY You make it sound so depressing.

FRAN I'm just being realistic.

SHEILA Spare me your realism. You know, I'd like to try that polyandry thing, you know, one woman, many husbands. I always thought that polygamy thing was backwards. You know, the way the Mormons do it, one guy and three or four wives. Generally, one guy can't keep one woman satisfied, much less three or four.

FRAN Basic mistake - assuming that the woman's satisfaction even comes into the equation. The purpose is to populate the world with little Mormons. Ergo, you only need one man to impregnate lots of women.

113 SHEILA Sometimes, I wonder if 1•m becoming gay.

FRAN Becoming gay? I thought either you were or you weren't.

SHEILA Well, maybe gay isn't the right word. Maybe I need a new word, like ... multi-sex.

HONEY Makes me think of those earthworms that are both male and female. They just reproduce all by themselves.

SHEILA That's just it, the reproducing thing. FRAN Certainly you're not one of those women that wants to have a baby after menopause.

SHEILA Heavens no. There are days I didn•t want the babies I had. But I never went Medea on them so they survived to adulthood. No, I'm talking about the sex outside reproduction. FRAN Ah, the pleasure side.

SHEILA Right.

HONEY But isn't it always about pleasure? FRAN Don't you just love these people that grew up without benefit of a repressive religious education? It should be, dear, but it rarely happens.

SHEILA You know Susan Sarandon? FRAN Personally, no. But I know who she is.

114 SHEILA Don't you think she's attractive?

HONEY 1think she's beautiful.

FRAN So are you lusting after her?

SHEILA No, it's just that I think she's sexy.

FRAN Do you want to sleep with her?

SHEILA 1don't think so.

FRAN But you're not sure.

SHEILA Well,

HONEY 1think you should sleep with whoever makes you happy.

BECKY (waving purple scarf) It's the summer solstice. The sun is at its height, it's the longest day of the year. It's a time for positive energy, openness, reason, themes of light and clarity.

FRAN Or do younger women interest you? Becky's pretty sexy.

SHEILA She's my daughter, for God's sake.

FRAN We're just talking body type here. Forget she's your daughter.

HONEY She has very good features.

115 BECKY That's your signal to disperse, ladies. FRAN Is she an athlete?

HONEY 1think she's a runner or a swimmer.

SHEILA Will you two stop?

BECKY Hello! Am I the only one on a timetable here?

SHEILA It's okay, we're almost finished.

BECKY Don't blame me if you're saying your last lines in the dark. (EXITS) FRAN She's feisty too.

SHEILA Enough already.

(Blackout)

116 ~~-~------

INTERMISSION

BECKY

In an effort to stay on schedule, our normal twenty minute intermission has been cut to 12 minutes. So please try to get back on time. Ladies, if there is a long line, just use the men's room. Smokers, try to keep it to one cigarette. Drinkers, just gulp. See you back here in 12, no, eleven and a half minutes.

(Blackout on stage) house lights up immediately

117 Act II, Scene 4

Early morning. SHEILA's kitchen with all the bottles from the night before. Phone rings. SHEILA ENTERS in bathrobe, looks at the mess and answers the phone.

SHEILA Hello. . . . Oh, hi, Joe. No, I just got up. . .. Yes, Joe.... No, Joe. No, I don't understand, why don't you explain it to me.

(SHEILA is picking up the kitchen as she listens for a moment.)

Sorry, I didn't catch that last thing. . . . . Joe, Becky's all grown up, as in a woman. She has control over her own body, the government notwithstanding.

(Knocking at door)

Hold on, there's someone at the door. (Crosses to the back door, opens it and steps back.) You came?

COOCH (ENTERS) You said you wanted to talk and I was in the neighborhood.

SHEILA Now? ... Just let me get off the phone.

COOCH Take your time.

SHEILA Joe, look someone just came by. Let's talk about this later. Joe, I have to go. (Hangs up the phone and turns to COOCH) When's he going to learn that he can't control everything.

COOCH Probably when you do.

SHEILA Me? I control?

COOCH We all do; it's a bad habit. (sits down at table)

118 SHEILA Oh, I'm sorry, would you like some herbal tea?

COOCH In this heat?

SHEILA Iced tea then?

COOCH Do you have a beer?

SHEILA Sure, I just didn't think that, that ... never mind. (Gets a beer out of fridge and pours it into a glass.) There you go.

COOCH Thanks. (takes a sip and looks around). This is a nice kitchen. Do you cook a lot?

SHEILA 1 used to but I don't any more. (starts clearing the table again) You don't mind if I clean up around you. It's kind of a mess in here.

COOCH Looks like you had a party.

SHEILA Just some friends over for wine. Too much wine. (beat) You know what I really don't like about all this? It's not cleaning up the kitchen, it's more how I feel. I really dislike the idea that the body just doesn't keep up like it used to. Remember in your twenties, thirties, even into your forties, you could party all night and still get up the next morning and go to work. Okay, maybe you didn't feel too great, but you could do it, you could force yourself. But now, ...

COOCH You could still do it.

SHEILA Are you kidding? The way I feel this morning?

COOCH It's all relative. You don't have anything you need to do so you don't need to rally your strength. If you did, you'd do it.

119 SHEILA Well, thanks for the vote of confidence. But if I were you, I wouldn't count on me to do anything brilliant any time soon.

COOCH Too bad. I've done some of my best work in an altered state.

SHEILA Not this one. This is just a hangover.

COOCH Any delirium?

SHEILA Oh, like the DTs. I don't drink that much.

COOCH No, I meant how you get that drifty feeling, you get it from a few drinks, a little smoke, some people take pills.

SHEILA You're into recreational drugs?

COOCH Everybody is. It's just that some are legal and some aren't. I think everybody has a drug of choice.

SHEILA Well, I guess this means I'm a wino.

(phone rings)

SHEILA (turns around and looks at caller 10 and lets it ring.) That's my ex on the phone again.

COOCH Ex?

SHEILA Ex-husband, Joe. He's upset about Becky, my, our daughter. She's thinking of donating her eggs.

COOCH Instead of selling them?

120 SHEILA You think she should sell them?

COOCH Well, most people don't raise chickens for the fun of it.

SHEILA Chickens?

COOCH Chickens, eggs. In my day they went together.

SHEILA Oh, that kind.

COOCH What kinds are you thinking of?

SHEILA Her own eggs, the sperm and egg type egg.

COOCH Oh, 1see. I keep forgetting about all the new technology. Some of it is so technical and dry.

SHEILA Well, actually there was a good program on PBS that explained the procedure and all. (notices that crone is looking around the room, not really paying attention) But I forgot, you don't watch PBS. You were probably watching Bugs Bunny.

COOCH Or Daffy Duck. I really like him better.

SHEILA Maybe I should just give up and watch cartoons all day.

COOCH There are worse ways to spend your time. Might put a little laughter in your life.

SHEILA I laugh.

COOCH I haven't heard you.

121 SHEILA Well, 1 do. That's what I did with my friends half the night. They think I have a great sense of humor. COOCH (raising her beer) To your sense of humor.

SHEILA Thank you. But I'm really more concerned about Becky right now. (beat) I may have given her some bad advice. COOCH Such as?

SHEILA About her eggs. I just treated it like a business deal. If you're going to sell your eggs, get a good price. But now, I'm rethinking it. I mean, eggs are really life, aren't they? COOCH Everything is life.

SHEILA Yeah, but this is people life, an egg can become a baby, a person. COOCH Under the right circumstances it can. But it needs a sperm to get anywhere.

SHEILA True. But I was thinking about this whole egg sperm thing and for some reason, I don't think I'd be that concerned if my son decided to become a sperm donor. I guess there's something faceless about sperm. COOCH This is what you wanted to talk about?

SHEILA Not really but it's so typical of how I end up worrying about other people's problems when I should be focusing on my own. But when I focus on myself, I feel selfish. COOCH Selfish? That's a tricky word.

122 SHEILA Tell me about it. My ex used it like a weapon. Any time I didn't put him or the kids first, I was selfish.

COOCH So?

SHEILA Well, nobody likes to feel that they're selfish.

COOCH Why?

SHEILA 1don't know, it's not ... good or feminine or something.

COOCH You believe that?

SHEILA 1can't help it, I'm a creature of my conditioning.

COOCH Oh, please.

SHEILA Well, I am.

COOCH Argue for your limitations and they are yours. (beat) I can't remember who first said that, but I like it. It has a nice ring to it. (finishing her beer) May I use your ladies room?

SHEILA Sure, it's down the hall on the left.

COOCH Thank you. (EXITS)

BECKY (ENTERS noticing the bottles and beer glass) Isn't it a bit early in the day to be drinking, Mom?

SHEILA Oh, that's not mine. Somebody just stopped by. In fact, she's ...

123 BECKY Really? Anyone I know?

SHEILA I don't think so.

BECKY Try me.

SHEILA It was the crone.

BECKY Crone? As in old wise woman? Now you have goddess types wandering in and out of the kitchen? Have you been playing with your medication again?

SHEILA I'm off the medication, dear.

BECKY Maybe you need to go back on it. (turns towards hall and sees COOCH approaching). Cooch? Is that you? How in the world ... (hugs COOCH)

SHEILA You know each other?

BECKY Yeah, Mom, but I didn't know you guys knew each other. Talk about a small world.

SHEILA It sure is.

BECKY Remember when Caroline had her daughter. Cooch was the mid-wife.

SHEILA Oh, yeah, I remember. So, you're a mid-wife. Interesting. (beat) Then you might have ...

BECKY And she's a plumber.

SHEILA You're a plumber?

124 COOCH Yes, I learned the trade from my first husband, the pretty blond. My mother always said that a woman should have a trade, a profession. She should be able to support herself.

SHEILA Who'd have thought ...

COOCH 1think of it as being all related: plumbing is plumbing - buildings, bodies. Things go in, things come out. You have to make sure that the channels are open. Kind . of like sailing, or harbors. Waterways. It's that concept of flow, just go with the flow, let the energy carry you. Work with your body. It's kind of like dancing. (swings her arm out and then notices her watch) Well, it's time for me to get going. (to Becky) Say hi to Caroline for me.

BECKY Will do.

SHEILA Are you going right now? I wanted to ...

COOCH We'll talk again. Ciao. (EXITS)

SHEILA She always does that! That woman never gives me any answers.

BECKY Is she supposed to?

SHEILA Common courtesy says that when one person asks a question, the other one should respond.

BECKY Even if they don't know the answer?

SHEILA Yes, they could at least be polite, try to be helpful.

BECKY Even when they don't know?

125 SHEILA Knowledge isn't the point here, it's manners. BECKY No, 1think it is knowledge. The real truth is that she probably doesn't know the answers to your questions any more than you do.

SHEILA She could at least say that. BECKY She probably didn't want to embarrass you.

SHEILA Why would I be embarrassed? BECKY Because you still think someone else has all the answers. But they don't, nobody does. Knowledge is in the body, it's body based. That's how we know everything, through the body.

SHEILA You sound like you're about to launch into one of your theories again. I'm going back to bed. BECKY 1ran into Bill the other day and he said you two went out to lunch.

SHEILA Did he tell you that I'm not interested in selling the house? BECKY 1don't think he's interested in that any more either.

SHEILA He's a nice enough man. BECKY It's nice to hear you say that rather than write him off as a male chauvinist pig.

SHEILA Oh, he has chauvinist tendencies. BECKY But he's not a pig.

126 SHEILA So far he's not.

BECKY It's amazing what happens when you give someone a chance.

SHEILA I don't need dating advice from you.

BECKY Not advice, just encouragement.

SHEILA Go encourage somewhere else. I'm going to bed.

(blackout)

127 LAM MAS FRAN (waving red scarf) It's Lammas Eve, August 1 red for the summer's heat, for blood, wine and fire, symbolic of ongoing life.

com dances in the fields this is where Demeter first realizes that little Persephone is gone actually she's having a good ole time with Hades in Hades don't believe all that Christian propaganda; there are some nice spots down there.

Mom's not too happy- wait til you see what she does to the plants; it's the Medea of the flora.

Just enjoy the lushness of it all watch Sirius chase the sun through the dog days I'm for pleasure sensuality isn't the point of a body to enjoy it?

(blackout)

128 Act II, Scene 5

Interior of restaurant, SHEILA and BILL seated at table.

SHEILA That was a great meal.

BILL I'm glad you enjoyed it. Would you like some dessert?

SHEILA No thanks, I'm fine. I'll just finish my wine.

BILL Would you like some more?

. SHEILA No, any more and I won't make it home. And I've got a big day ahead of me tomorrow.

BILL Tell me about it.

SHEILA I'm going to see my lawyer and sign my will.

BILL Oh. Any special reason?

SHEILA No, I just want to put my affairs in order.

BILL That has an ominous ring to it. I hope nothing's wrong.

SHEILA No, everything's fine. I'm just trying to get my life a little more organized.

BILL That's always a good plan. I find that when I'm organized, I get more done. Things seem to go a little smoother.

SHEILA 1could use some smooth in my life.

129 BILL As I've said before, if there's anyway I can help ...

SHEILA Well, if 1ever decide to sell my house, I'll let you handle it.

BILL That's very nice but that's not what I mean. As I told you, I'm more interested in you than your house. In fact, I wanted to talk to you about the holiday.

SHEILA Which one?

BILL Labor Day, it's only three weeks away.

SHEILA AKA Freedom day.

BILL I beg your pardon.

SHEILA That's what I used to call it when my kids were little. Freedom day. They'd go back to school and my sanity retumed.

BILL Didn't they go to summer camp?

SHEILA No, in those days we couldn't afford it. They just stayed home and, as one of my childless friends used to say, "filled my life with joy and sunshine."

BILL 1think my daughter-in-law sends her children to camp in the summer. She said they really enjoy it.

SHEILA Probably not as much as she does.

BILL (looks at her questioningly)

SHEILA

130 I'm sure she loves her kids, we all do. They're just a little hard on the nerves sometimes. But go back to Labor Day.

BILL Well, usually we have a big family get-together on Sunday and I was hoping you would come as my date.

SHEILA And meet your family?

BILL Yes, they're looking forward to meeting you.

SHEILA Now that sounds ominous.

BILL Why?

SHEILA Expectations,

TONY (ENTERS, comes over to the table) Sheila, I thought that was you. (leans over and kisses her on the cheek) How are you?

SHEILA Fine, good to see you. Oh, Tony, this is my friend Bill, Bill, this is Tony.

BILL (starting to stand to shake hands) Hello, Tony, nice to meet you.

TONY No, don't get up. I just wanted to say hi. Are we still on for next week?

SHEILA I'm still thinking about it.

TONY You surprise me, Sheila. Most people, after the first time, they can't wait to do it again.

SHEILA Maybe I'm different.

131 TONY That you are. Well, look I don't want to interrupt your meal. You two have a good time. Nice meeting you, Bob.

BILL Bill.

TONY Right, Bill. I'll call you next week, Sheila.

SHEILA Okay. BILL Well, he seems like a nice fellow.

SHEILA Actually, he's a borderline diabetic.

BILL Really? You'd never know it to look at him. He looks like one of those people who works out.

SHEILA I think he does.

BILL Did you meet him at the gym?

SHEILA No, at the mall. He gave me some chocolate.

BILL He was handing out samples?

SHEILA No, he was hiding it from his mother so he gave it to me. Belgian chocolate, it was so rich. I ate the whole box in two days.

BILL I didn't know you were one of those chocoholics.

SHEILA Well, I try to keep it under control.

132 BILL Moderation in all things.

SHEILA 1think that's a good thing to aim for though I have mixed results.

BILL Your friend, Tony, what line of work is he in?

SHEILA He's an artist. He has his own little shop.

BILL Really? Does he paint, sculpt, .... ?

SHEILA Actually, he does tattoos.

BILL On people's bodies?

SHEILA Well, yes.

BILL Funny, I never would have pegged him as a tattoo artist. I thought most of those people were bikers and hippies.

SHEILA Is there something wrong with bikers and hippies?

BILL No, no, of course not. lfs just a stereotype anyway, I suppose.

SHEILA You should watch that. You can meet some very nice people in tattoo parlors.

BILL I wouldn't know, never having been to one. I think of them as full of drunken sailors on shore leave.

SHEILA There you go, stereotyping again.

133 BILL You're right. I should be more open-minded.

SHEILA Life's a lot more interesting when you're open-minded.

BILL I'm sure it is. (beat) Do you spend a lot of time in tattoo parlors?

SHEILA It's not as though I hang out there.

BILL But you and Tony seem to be good friends.

SHEILA Well, yes, but I have a lot of friends doing interesting work.

BILL So I see.

SHEILA Does it bother you that I have a friend who is a tattoo artist?

BILL No, of course not. It's justthat ...

SHEILA That what?

BILL Tattoos seem so, so ... barbaric.

SHEILA Why?

BILL They conjure up images of Bantu warriors and bikers.

SHEILA Back to the bikers again. Did it ever occur to you that maybe you were a biker in a past life?

BILL Please, don't start the past life thing again. And yes, I read the book you gave me. But no, I'm still not convinced.

134 SHEILA I'm just trying to help you broaden your horizons.

BILL 1 know and I really appreciate it. But I don't want to argue with you. What I really want is for you to join my family and me for Labor Day.

SHEILA 1think that's rushing it, Bill.

BILL What do you mean?

SHEILA We should know each other better before we meet each other's families.

BILL But, I already know Becky.

SHEILA But that's just because she was trying to sell my house out from under me. You were just a tool.

BILL A tool?

SHEILA But 1 don't hold it against you. You were an unwitting tool.

BILL An unwitting tool?

SHEILA 1 know it's not flattering but that's how we met. Now we're becoming friends and I think we should just take it a step at a time.

BILL Thanks for clarifying that, Sheila. I really appreciate it.

SHEILA Oh, now you're offended.

BILL I'm trying not to be. So, it's no to the picnic.

135 SHEILA For now, yes, it's no.

BILL Can I ask you something else?

SHEILA Sure.

BILL 1don't mean to pry but are you dating Tony?

SHEILA Oh, no, he's just my tattoo guy.

BILL He did say he was going to call you next week. So I thought ...

SHEILA Oh, that's just about another tattoo.

BILL Another one? You have a tattoo?

SHEILA Well, yes.

BILL On your body?

SHEILA That's where they put them, Bill. And don't start on the bikers.

BILL 1wasn't going to. It's just that, that ...

SHEILA I don't look like the type?

BILL I don't know, I guess not.

SHEILA

136 Tell you what. Why don't you pay the bill, take me home and I'll show you my tattoo.

BILL Really? Where is it?

SHEILA Just wait and see. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

(Blackout)

137 Act Ill, Scene 1

Empty stage with crossroads marker at the back. CRONE is sitting in a chair reading a small book. Suddenly she looks up as if she hears something. She puts the book in her pocket and EXITS stage right. SHEILA ENTERS stage left and comes downstage.

SHEILA This is starting to be my second home. Although if I was going to spend much time here, I'd fix it up a little. (goes over and sits down in the chair) And I'd get some comfortable fumiture. (looks under the chair and pulls out a hand mirror, studies herself then looks out at the audience)

You know, once I was in the supermarket and I looked up from the shelf of shrink-wrapped beef and pork, and caught my grandmother's reflection. thought what's she doing here and then I realized it was me.

After 1got over the shock, I thought, so this is age, wearing me smooth as a river stone, my thermostat irregular, like my periods and my moods. Some nights I awaken, heat without passion while dreams mock the body changes.

After Bill, I realized that men worried about their looks even more than women.

TONY (ENTERS and takes hand mirror from SHEILA and looks at himself) I'm kind of a multi-purpose guy - young, handsome - what you might call the male ingenue role. It's been a long time coming but finally there's a place for us. For years, women had a lock on the role - young, cute - get a woman. Finally, with a little gender equity, there's a place for handsome, air-head men. And I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. You know what they say: location, location, location.

BILL (ENTERS and takes hand mirror from TONY) Luckily, I still have my hair. There's something about hair that says ''virility." Think of Samson and his hair.

SHEILA Is it just the hair?

BILL 1think it helps. After all, this age thing is hard on all of us. I hate it when some kid calls me "Pops" or almost runs over me with a skateboard. And you know what? I hate golf.

138 SHEILA Sounds a little reactionary to me.

BILL 1 hate all these assumptions people have about how I'm supposed to spend my life. It's my retirement.

SHEILA Actually, it's your life, Bill.

TONY Didn't I meet you at the restaurant with Sheila? It's Bob, isn't it?

BILL Bill.

TONY That's right - Bill. Bill.

BILL You have a tattoo parlor, don't you?

TONY (nods)

BILL You do very nice work.

TONY Thank you. You know, I kept asking Sheila how her boy friend, girl friend, significant other liked her tattoo but she would never tell me.

BILL Really?

TONY Yep, real closed mouth. I can't help it, I just want feedback on my work.

BILL Does it hurt very much?

TONY Just smarts a little. You ever had one?

BILL

139 No, no.

TONY But you've thought about it.

BILL Not really.

TONY But you are now.

BILL Well, ...

TONY Lots of couples have matching tattoos.

BILL What happens when they break up?

TONY That's not very optimistic.

BILL True, but I'm just curious.

TONY Sometimes, I tattoo over it. You can just add a letter and make a whole new name, if you're lucky. AI becomes Sal, Paul can become Pablo. Others take more work.

BILL you've done this a lot.

TONY Enough times to suggest that somebody might want to start with an initial rather than the whole name.

BILL You don't just tattoo a big X over it.

TONY Of course not. That would look horrible.

BILL Wouldn't it depend on where it was?

140 TONY Wherever it was, if it was that ugly I'd remember it. So, do you want a tattoo?

BILL No, thank you. . . . But I'll keep you in mind, give some people your name. TONY I'd appreciate it. It takes work to build a business, the constant training, the cost of supplies,

BILL Oh, I can imagine. (beat) Are you a biker? TONY A biker?

BILL It's not important, I was just wondering ...

SHEILA (cell phone rings) Hello, ... okay, I'm leaving now.

(Blackout)

141 AUTUMN EQUINOX

BILL (waving orange scarf) It's the autumn equinox, September twenty first. This is a seasonal thing I can understand. Although with all these Celtic and Old English names, I keep expecting a knight or a Druid priest to show up.

At this point, things are drawing to a close. I can sure understand that. People die on you, leave you alone. It makes you a little crazy. You grab the first warm fuzzy you can find, the hunger is so intense. It's visceral. (pause) That'.s a funny word to use about sex.

(looking at the scarf) Our football jerseys in college were this color. Those crisp fall days and the team runs out on the field, and the trees are turning colors - reds, golds, oranges. The stands were full, everyone cheering. My senior year we had a great season. Won every game. (throws an imaginary football) If it was today, we would have played in a bowl game. (pause) Back to the harvest festival, the days begin to draw in. It's also called Mabon, after the Celtic- I told you we couldn't get away from them - Queen Mab of the Fairies. I thought she was related to Arthur. But 1 could be wrong.

142 Act Ill, Scene 2

Hospital room with HONEY in the bed. COOCH is sitting next to the bed, holding her hand. SHEILA ENTERS and stops and watches.

COOCH It's all right. (turns to SHEILA) See, I told you she'd come. We wouldn't let you be alone. (EXITS stage right)

SHEILA Fran called me. She said you had a relapse.

HONEY You might call it that.

SHEILA She couldn't come now.

HONEY She never was very good at goodbyes.

SHEILA Neither am I but this isn't goodbye. lfs just a minor setback.

HONEY No, I think it's a major setback.

SHEILA Don't talk like that, you're just depressed being in this hospital and all.

HONEY No, I'm not depressed. I'm actually very clear. I know this is it.

SHEILA I wish you wouldn't talk like that.

HONEY (sighs and looks at the ceiling) For the first time in my life, I'm trying to face the truth and no one will let me. My kids, Pete, everyone keeps telling me, hang in there, you'll get through this, you're tough.

143 SHEILA You are.

HONEY No, I'm through being tough. I'm tired. I'm ready to go.

SHEILA It's okay.

HONEY No it isn't. The way Pete looks at me, like I've let him down. But I just can't do it any more. (starts to cry)

SHEILA Honey, please don't cry. You'll make me cry.

HONEY Nobody makes you cry.

SHEILA No, you're wrong. Lots of things make me cry, I just don't show it.

HONEY The worst thing is the cold. I just feel so cold.

SHEILA Do you want me to get you a blanket? Should I call the nurse?

HONEY No, just hold me. Keep me warm.

SHEILA (looks towards door then gets in bed with HONEY) How's this?

HONEY Better. You feel so warm.

SHEILA It's probably just a hot flash. You know, this reminds me of when you used to sleep over when we were kids. ·

HONEY And we'd stay up all night talking about boys.

144 SHEILA And clothes and hair.

HONEY You had the biggest crush on Frank Petrini.

SHEILA Well, 1was in my greaser stage and he had that neat black leather jacket and that big Harley.

HONEY What was it he used to say?

SHEILA Takes a real man to ride 300 pounds of rewing steel.

HONEY He was so macho. Did you guys ever do it?

SHEILA What?

HONEY Come on, you know what. lt.

SHEILA Promise you won't tell?

HONEY Promise.

SHEILA Okay. Well, the one night I finally got my courage up to be a real biker chick, we went to this party. Old Frankie was really putting the booze away. Maybe he could tell that this was going to be the night. So we're downstairs in the den on this couch. lfs really dark and we're necking and he's got my shirt unbuttoned, hand in my panties. I'm getting pretty excited myself. And I'm thinking oh, this is it. And then, everything stops. I'm thinking I did something wrong, especially since I didn't know what I supposed to do anyway. So I look at him in the dark and I realized that he had passed out.

HONEY No.

SHEILA Yep. Right there on the couch.

145 HONEY So what did you do?

SHEILA Buttoned my shirt and left.

HONEY He must have been so embarrassed.

SHEILA He never knew. I was still in that "proted the male ego" mindset so when he asked me, as they all do, was it good for you? I told him he was out of this world.

HONEY Not a total lie.

SHEILA True. But then he's bugging me to do it with him again. But I wasn't really interested in him any more. So, I told him I might be pregnant.

HONEY 1always wondered why he joined the navy all of a sudden.

SHEILA To see the world and put oceans between us.

HONEY But you weren't pregnant.

SHEILA No, I was still a virgin when I got married.

HONEY Really? But you always aded like such a, a ....

SHEILA Slut?

HONEY Well, I wouldn't really say that.

SHEILA But you thought it.

146 HONEY Well,

SHEILA Come on, I thought you wanted to be honest.

HONEY Okay, a slut. But you really weren't.

SHEILA No, 1talked a good game. Plus, I was at the stage where I'd do anything to piss off my mother.

HONEY 1 always thought your mother was so elegant, such a lady.

SHEILA She was but she wasn't warm like your mom. I always envied you.

HONEY Really?

SHEILA Yeah, the cookies and the hugs. You guys always had home-made cookies.

HONEY They were really store-bought from the day-old bakery. Mom would reheat them.

SHEILA You're kidding.

HONEY No, Mom really wasn't much of a cook or a baker.

SHEILA Well, the hugs were real.

HONEY Yeah, she was a great hugger. That's what I missed most about her when she ... died. You know, when I was little and I got sick, she'd hold me just like now. She'd rock me ever so gently and she'd always say, as long as you can feel my heart beat, you'll be okay. Like she was living for both of us while I was sick.

SHEILA (starts to rock HONEY very gently)

147 HONEY 1can feel your heart beat.

SHEILA That's good.

HONEY Promise you won't leave me?

SHEILA Promise.

COOCH ENTERS stage right holding a flame and stands behind the bed. She watches HONEY and SHEILA for a moment, then blows out the flame. (Blackout)

148 SAMHAIN

TONY (waving black scarf} It's Samhain (SOWeen), Halloween.

The veil between worlds thins, the crack between the worlds is widening.

the dead wait for this night to cross into their new lives in a new world Ancestors come back to speak to us now.

It is the end of the old year and the time has come to celebrate the crone, the healer, the counselor, the guide the mistress of transformation who leads us to our new selves, our higher selves

It was just about this time that Demeter found Persephone and began the long journey to bring her kicking and screaming, of course back home she's not the kind of girl I do tattoos on -too flighty changes her mind halfway through 1don't want work going out looking slipshod I have a reputation to maintain in this business

I prefer a crone any day someone like Iambe who brought Demeter out of her sadness through laughter the life of the soul or Hecate, guardian of the crossroads

My personal favorite? Baubo now there's one bawdy lady wild woman of sacred sexuality that woman knows more erotic ... (notices someone over his shoulder)

But the important thing is to celebrate the crone (EXITS)

149 Act Ill, Scene 3

Packing boxes are piled about, SHEILA is closing boxes. FRAN (ENTERS with a tray) Okay, it's break time. You've been at this for three hours straight.

SHEILA I want to get as much done as I can. FRAN There is tomorrow, you know.

SHEILA Yeah, when the movers get here. Everything's got to be boxed or trashed by 9 am tomorrow morning. FRAN 1don't know why you set yourself these impossible deadlines.

SHEILA It's all relative. It just depends on how motivated you are.

FRAN Well, I'm motivated to eat and have some tea. Will you join me? (beat) Believe me, the boxes won't run away.

SHEILA I almost wish they would. FRAN They won't. (handing her a tea cup) Have some tea in your good china for the last time.

SHEILA (takes a sip and looks at the cup) It is pretty, isn't it? FRAN 1don't think Becky would mind if you decided to keep the china a little longer.

SHEILA She probably doesn't care one way or the other. I just need to get rid of it now.

150 FRAN It's your call.

(They sip in silent for a moment.)

SHEILA What's that sound? Coming from the kitchen.

FRAN Chant.

SHEILA What kind?

FRAN Tibetan. My mother had it playing the whole time we were moving her out of her apartment. It was really soothing.

SHEILA You mean to the retirement home? .... that's comforting.

FRAN 1wish. She moved into some sort of group home. Eight of them living in a big old rambling house near the Glades. Not a one of them under 70.

SHEILA Sounds like a commune to me.

FRAN Could be for all I know.

SHEILA Haven't you been out there?

FRAN Sure, but usually I take her out somewhere.

SHEILA Maybe next time you should stay and have dinner. Find out what theyre up to.

FRAN Probably no good.

151 SHEILA Well, do we sound a little jealous? What are they doing, having orgies out there? At feast we don't have to worry about any of them getting pregnant.

FRAN Oh, come on.

SHEILA Unless of course, one of them gets eggs from someone like Becky.

FRAN Is she still talking about being a donor?

SHEILA Not for right now.

FRAN Well, that's good, isn't it?

SHEILA 1think she's just putting it off, I don't think she really made a decision.

FRAN Leave it alone. Procrastinate on anything long enough and you end up making a decision, even if it is to do nothing.

SHEILA Speaking of procrastination, it's time to get moving again.

FRAN Okay, slave driver. Can I do something else? I'm really tired of packing glasses.

SHEILA 1never said this would be entertaining. FRAN 1know that. I'm just saying that I'd like a little variety. Anything need to be done in here?

SHEILA Well, you can tape some boxes. FRAN Fine, I'll just put these tea cups away. (FRAN EXITS with tray and returns. SHEILA returns to the boxes)

152 FRAN (ENTERING) Can I ask you something?

SHEILA Sure, what?

FRAN How come you didn't go to Honey's funeral?

SHEILA 1don't do group grieving very well. It's bad enough to lose someone without having to make small talk with people you barely know.

FRAN Adually, I like the small talk, nothing political, just how's the family, how are the kids, school. It's that ritual talk we do when we're all facing the same loss. We're reminding ourselves that we can still function, even in the face of loss. It's almost a community thing for me. It makes me feel like I'm not alone. (pause) Pete asked me why you weren't there.

SHEILA And?

FRAN 1 made up some story about you having the flu.

SHEILA Thanks.

FRAN Did you go for your checkup?

SHEILA Yes.

FRAN And?

SHEILA And I got a clean bill of health.

FRAN So you're not dying?

SHEILA No, I'm not dying.

153 FRAN But you're getting rid of all your stuff.

SHEILA Looks that way. FRAN When you called I just thought you were moving a few things around. I didn't realize that you were, were ... SHEILA I'm downsizing. Corporations do it all the time. I'm just doing it with stuff; with things, instead of people. FRAN But what brought this on?

SHEILA 1guess it was that checkup. Maybe Honey too. FRAN You are dying.

SHEILA We're all dying, Fran. Some people just have a clearer timetable. But I don't happen to be one of them. FRAN So you're not dying.

SHEILA What's with this dying obsession? FRAN I'm just trying to figure out what's going on. You tell me you're clearing out some stuff. But when I get here, I realize that you're not moving, you're leaving. Moving is going from one place to the other and keeping your friends and still seeing them and talking with them. Leaving is, is ... what Honey did.

SHEILA Everybody leaves some day. FRAN 1know, I know that. I still don't like being left behind.

154 SHEILA Nobody does, baby. (kisses her temple) That's why we love the time we're together. (sitting down on a box) 1 started thinking about this after my checkup - when I got a clean bill of health. It was like getting freedom after all those tests and treatments. Alii could think of was my life has been handed back to me. It's all mine, I can do anything I want. So 1started thinking about it. What did I want now? Just me, not my kids, or my parents, or my friends, just me. FRAN And?

SHEILA Well, the first thing I realized was that I didn't need all this stuff, I don't even want it any more. FRAN It's so strange to think 9f you without your things. I guess I always associated them with you.

SHEILA So did I - twenty years ago when I used them all the time. But now, it's just so much clutter. Sometimes I feel like I live in a museum, in a house waiting for a family to appear. But the family has grown up and left and I don't need it any more.

You know, I did this 20 some years ago. I was living in D.C. and I gave all my stuff away; my aunt thought I was joining a religious order. No, I just went to Puerto Rico and started accumulating all over again. FRAN But don't you want a place for your kids to come home to?

SHEILA They can stay with their father if they need to. FRAN Isn't his place kind of small?

SHEILA It's better than nothing. FRAN So, you're selling too?

155 SHEILA No, I'm just going to empty the house and let it sit here. Of course, I'm selling. told Bill to come do an estimate and put it on the market. FRAN You don't waste any time once you make up your mind, do you?

SHEILA Can't afford to. There are too many things I want to do. FRAN So what are you going to do first?

SHEILA Get rid of all this stuff.

BILL (from door) Sheila, you home? SHEILA In here.

BILL ENTERS

SHEILA You remember Fran, don't you, Bill?

BILL Sure, I do. Hello, Fran, nice to see you.

FRAN You look well.

BILL Thank you. I, ah ...

FRAN I think I'll go make some more tea. (EXITS)

BILL I wanted to bring you a little bon voyage gift for your trip. I mean, not your trip, your move. (handing her a box of candy)

156 SHEILA Thanks for understanding the difference. Some of my friends are having a hard time with it. (opening the box) Dark chocolate, this is nice. Thank you, Bill.

BILL 1thought it might give you energy for the move. (looking around the room) looks like you've gotten a lot done.

SHEILA I've only got a few more closets to go.

BILL When my wife died, I went through this. I never realized just how big the house was. Actually it had always been too big, Adele always said that. We were finally talking about moving when she got sick. Then, (beat) it all seemed to go so fast. And then, there I was, alone in a great big house. As 1said, Greg tried to help. But what was I going to do with dresses, shoes, make-up, bottles and jars, all those things that filled the medicine cabinet, those fancy bottles. She must have bought herself a hundred over the years, full of perfume. What's the French name for it? Ooo?

SHEILA Eau, eau de cologne. (beat) She bought them? You didn't buy them for her?

BILL Well, no ...

SHEILA Tsk, tsk, Bill- not very romantic.

BILL She had hundreds of them.

SHEILA Doesn't matter. If she loved them, you should have bought her some.

BILL Even though ...

SHEILA Even though - she had tons. That's half the point of something being romantic, you don't need it. It's more a sign than the thing itself.

And that's why, when a relationship breaks up, for whatever reason, there's so much stuff to get rid of. (beat) Just imagine if everything in this house were a gift from a lover, can you imagine how hard it would be to give it away?

157 Luckily a lot of it is stuff I got from the flea market, serviceable but hardly sentimental. Wrth that I say: Thank you and good bye. No tugging of heart strings, no memories tickling the back of my mind. Completely utilitarian. It's cleaner that way.

BILL (picking up a picture in a frame) Including the pictures?

SHEILA No, (taking it from him) those go with me. (pause) But it wasn't like that for you, was it?

BILL No, not quite. It wasn't quite so . . . utilitarian.

SHEILA But, you got through it.

BILL Yes, 1did. We did. Greg's wife finally stepped in. (beat) Of course, once Adele's stuff had been taken care of, there was still our stuff and my stuff. FRAN (ENTERING with tea tray) I got rid of "our" stuff years ago.

SHEILA 1thought I had too. But it just keeps multiplying and the "our" keeps shifting. Once it was Joe and me, now it's Becky and me. Except that I'm not playing warehouse for her while she finds herself. FRAN I made more tea. It's supposed to be calming.

SHEILA Like the chant?

BILL Is that what that is?

158 FRAN It's Tibetan. There's a belief that moving takes you to the bottom of your soul, you have to cut off roots, which is painful. So you need to be very gentle with yourself when you're moving. . .. (glares at SHEILA) Or leaving. Tea?

BILL No, Fran, no thanks. I've got to get moving myself. Got to meet Greg and the family for dinner.

SHEILA Thanks for coming by.

BILL Now, you remember ...

SHEILA 1know, I know, "write when you find work•,

BILL Bye, Fran. (EXITS)

FRAN Bye. (turning to SHEILA) What's the story with him?

SHEILA 1guess it depends on whether or not I find work.

FRAN Good luck, Bill. And where are you going to be looking for this work?

SHEILA At the beach. Tony's going to let me use his place. It's just two rooms but it's right on the water. It'll give me time to find my own place, get some money coming in. If it's just you, you don't need a lot. You can travel pretty light.

FRAN Will Tony be there too?

SHEILA No, he's going to Japan for a couple months.

FRAN So you're just going to drop out?

SHEILA That sounds pretty sixties.

159 FRAN Well, it certainly seems like what you're doing.

SHEILA Not really, I'm just going to pay attention more. And to do that, I need less clutter, that's all. There's a lot to explore out there. And inhere. The sooner I get through this, the sooner I can try something new. That's what I always liked: the starts, when everything is still and quiet.

Sometimes I'd go to the beach in the morning and it would be like glass, not a ripple. It was like swimming in a mirror, gliding through water.

I want to see more of those mornings. I want to walk around in my life and see what I still care about, what's still important to me. FRAN You could do that here.

SHEILA Maybe, but I think I need a change. (pause) As soon as we finish here, let's go get something to eat. FRAN Works for me. (looking around) Aren't we just about done?

SHEILA Three more closets and we're out of here.

(lights dim as they clear the stage)

160 WINTER SOLSTICE

BECKY (waving white scarf) It's December 21, the winter solstice -the shortest day of the year.

Into the womb of the world where the seeds of tomorrow sleep

In the outside world, as Fran said earlier, it's a great time for shopping. Especially if you need some household goods.

Bum the yule log to protect the house. And don't forget the mistletoe.

161 Act Ill, Scene 4

Empty stage with crossroads marker. At the back is COOCH in the shadows. Lights like sunset.

COOCH (moving forward) 1finish in gratitude, thankful For the life that courses through my veins, For the air that fills my lungs, For the love that fills my heart.

Gratitude warms me, Like a fire on a dark night Like a rich mulled tea on a cold day Like a silken embrace.

I am thankful for the years I've lived The seasons I have shared For the births and deaths SHEILA (ENTERS from stage left) Gratitude warms me, Like the heat of a lover's body Like a baby against my breast Like a fever at breaking

I thank the moon For its phases from old to new For its tides that rise and fall Like the feelings in my heart

1thank the air which carries my breath My life and my prayers to the source Of their being.

I thank death for being with me always The home to which I return Like a seed to soil To begin again the spiral of life.

(Stage goes dark.)

THE END

162 Appendix I Development History of The Crones Among Us

This play has its seeds in a science fiction/fantasy short story,

"Transitions," that I wrote four years ago. That story dealt with a woman closing

one stage of her life, as a wife and mother, and moving on to a more solitary,

independent lifestyle. Throughout the story, she referred to her mother's diary which contained a series of poems marking her mother's discontent with her chosen path. The tension in the story arose from the daughter's parallel discontent and whether she would transcend it.

Following the short story, I began working on a cycle of poems about the crone. Several of these poems were read at the Second Annual FAU Women's

Studies Graduate Student Symposium, March 2000. They were also the impetus behind my attendance at the Crones Counsel IX in Asilomar, CA in 2000.

As I continued to write poems and short stories, I moved into playwrighting. An earlier project on the poet Amy Lowell had convinced me that the best way to present her poems would be through the medium of theatre.

This exploration resulted in my extended one act, Bright Blue Wave. This play was instrumental in developing the alternating use of prose and verse which I later employed in Crones. I presented a staged reading of Bright Blue Wave in

Studio One at FAU in November, 2001.

163 The Crones Among Us has been through a long development process.

The first draft was done as part of a graduate seminar team-taught by Oliver

Buckton and Mike Budd in Popular Culture in the Fall Semester, 2000. The next draft was read at Hollywood Boulevard Theatre in Hollywood, Florida in early

March 2001. It was later given a staged reading at the Southeastern Women's

Studies Association (SEWSA) Conference at Florida Atlantic University in March

2001. Following more rewrites, Yolandi Hughes, Artistic Director of Dreamers

Theatre in Coral Gables, Florida presented another staged reading.

Each rewrite of The Crones Among Us was based on audience feedback, critique from other theatre professionals and my exploration and study of various theatrical techniques. The version presented in this dissertation was awarded the

"Best New Play of 2003" by the Palm Beach Dramaworks Studio Theatre in West

Palm Beach, Florida on June 21, 2003.

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171 Bonnie M. Benson

Curriculum Vitae

EDUCATION:

2003 Ph.D. in Comparative Studies Public Intellectual Program, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida.

2002 Candidate in Philosophy.

1986 M.B.A., University of Phoenix, Arizona.

1980 B.A. in Human Relations, Golden Gate University, California,

AWARDS:

Academic: Lifelong Learning Scholarship - Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts & Sciences, Florida Atlantic University, 2002-03 academic year. Graduate Grants Committee Travel Award, Florida Atlantic University, March, 2001. Professional: Best New Play of 2003, Palm Beach Dramaworks Studio Theatre, June 2003 for The Crones Among Us. Finalist, Third Annual Short Play Reading Festival, Boca Raton Theatre Guild, April 2003 for Playing By Ear. Finalist, SlamPiay 2002, Theatre League of South Florida, December 2002 for Myths and Other Ues. Foster Fellowship Award for Emerging Artists, The Cultural Foundation of Broward, Inc., June, 2000

ARTS MANAGEMENT WORKSHOPS:

Winter Institute for Arts Management, Arts Extension Service/UMASS Ft. Lauderdale, Florida - January 2003

The Grantsmanship Center Training Course, The Grantsmanship Center, Inc., Ft. Lauderdale, Florida - June 2002

172 STAGED READINGS OF PLAYS:

The Crones Among Us, Third Annual Playwright's Festival, Palm Beach Dramaworks, June 2003 In Gertrude's Chambers and Myths and Other Ues, New Play Directing Marathon, Florida Atlantic University, April 2003 Playing By Ear, Third Annual Short Play Reading Festival, Boca Raton Theatre Guild, April 2003 Myths and Other Ues, SlamPiay 2002, Theatre League of South Florida, December 2002 The Crones Among Us, Dreamers Theatre, 12 March 2002 Bright Blue Wave, Florida Atlantic University, 28 November 2001 The Crones Among Us, Southeastern Women's Studies Association Conference 2001, Florida Atlantic University, 17 March 2001 The Crones Among Us, Hollywood Boulevard Theatre, 4 March 2001 Sleeping Dogs, Theatre with your Coffee, Hollywood Boulevard Theatre, 23 January 2000 The Dressing Table, Theatre with your Coffee, Hollywood Boulevard Theatre, 13 June 1999

PRODUCED PLAYS:

Sleeping Dogs, Love Creek Productions, New York City, 24-26 June 2001

PRODUCTIONS DIRECTED AND/OR PRODUCED: Theatre: The Palm of Death- Director, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida, April 2003 Lysistrata- Producer/Director, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida, March 2003 Sudden Changes - Director, Dreamers Theatre, Coral Gables, Florida, March 2002 The Vagina Monologues- Executive Producer, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida, February 2002 Ivanov- Dramaturg/Assistant Director, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida, November 2001 A Special Place - Director, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, October 2001

Television: Hosted 3 episodes of On Stage Florida at WLRN, Miami, Florida: Training the Actor- May 2001 Cultural Diversity in South Florida - June 2001 Women in Theatre- July 2001

173 POETRY READINGS & PRESENTATIONS:

Fourth Annual Florida Atlantic University Women's Studies Graduate Student Symposium, March 2002 Second Annual Florida Atlantic University Women's Studies Graduate Student Symposium, March 2000 1999 Inaugural ONI Conference, The Face of a Woman, Florida Atlantic University, September 1999

PUBLICATIONS: Short Stories: "No More Tomorrows," Grit Magazine, 16 Apri12000 "Problem Child," Tropic Magazine of The Miami Herald, 1 February 1998 "The Good Luck Charm," Tropic Magazine of The Miami Herald, 21 September 1997 "The Manu" in Uncoiling the Snake: Ancient Patterns in Contemporary Women's Uves, ed. Vicki Noble (San Francisco: HarperSan Francisco, A Division of HarperCollins Publishers, 1993), 95-98. Poetry: "Saphhics," Troubadour: Best of Rhyme at the Millenium, March 2000 "If Bette Midler came back as a tree," Ms. David, February 2000 "Volunteer," Capper's, 25 January 2000 "Sky Scooter," Capper's, 9 March 1999 "Return," Women's Studies, 1999, Vol. 28, pp. 697-698 Articles: "Paradise Found," Fitness Swimmer, April/May 1998 "The Reluctant Racer," Fitness Swimmer, Winter 1997 "Dream lover," Tropic Magazine of The Miami Herald, 15 December 1996 "Mall-Crawling in C.R.- Where am I, Anyway?" The Tico Times, 7 January 1994 "Do You Know Where Your Wildlife Is?" The Tico Times, 18 June 1993

LANGUAGES:

Fluent Spanish, reading competence in French and German

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:

Editor and Special Assistant, Spring 2001 Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida Assisted Gloria Anzaldua. Provided office support, critiqued and edited essays and short stories, assisted in preparation of manuscripts.

Graduate Teaching Assistant, 8/98 - 5/99 University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida Taught English Composition and Introduction to Creative Writing.

174 Administrator, 3/94-7/94 Centro Creativo, Santa Ana, Costa Rica, Central America On a contract basis, operated an holistic health center, scheduled workshops and classes, managed a staff of Western health practitioners and Costa Rican support staff. Also managed small vegetarian restaurant and cabins on grounds. Designed and wrote a monthly newsletter.

Operations Manager, 1/92-2/94 Access International, San Jose, Costa Rica, Central America Set up a sales agency to represent U.S. manufacturers in Latin America. Relocated the office to Costa Rica - 8/92. Oversaw all administrative activity, monitored sales, negotiated contracts, managed budget, organized travel.

Program Coordinator, 11/87 - 6/88 Spanish Speaking Unity Council, Oakland, California Coordinated the Time to Read program with two Oakland public schools. Worked with principals, teachers and counselors and recruited students for a reading enhancement program utilizing volunteers from the corporate sector. Program received a Volunteer Action Award from President Reagan.

E.P.A. Manager, 8/87 -10/87 Spanish Speaking Unity Council, Oakland, California Managed an adult school for the SSUC. Supervised instructors provided by the Oakland Unified School District and interacted with other administrators. Scheduled classes, assigned instructors and designed curriculum. Oversaw installation of computers and set up curriculum for new computer classes.

Director of Student Activities, 11/86 - 4/87 Dickinson-Warren Business College, Berkeley, California Scheduled classes and faculty, advised faculty on adjusting curriculum to make it more relevant to the work place. Counseled students, handled job development and placement, interacted with faculty, staff, personnel agencies and rehab counselors. Coordinated graduations and special events.

Director of Counseling, 9/84 - 2/86 University of Phoenix, San Ramon, California Counseled working adults entering non-traditional, degree completion program. Evaluated transcripts and work experience for admission, conditionally admitted all undergraduate and graduate students for San Ramon division. Conducted orientations, made on-site visits. Scheduled

175 faculty for independent study, sat on Faculty Assessment Committee. Handled financial aid, veterans' benefits, certified students and disbursed monies. Designed procedures and tracking system for financial aid when processing was decentralized.

Volunteer Coordinator, 6/83 - 12/83 Oakland Public Library, Oakland, California Set up an adult literacy program using the Laubach method including recruitment and assignment of all tutors and students, administration and publicity of program. Program received a grant of $136,000.

Job Skills Instructor, 3/80 - 4/81 Mission Language and Vocational School, San Francisco, California Designed and taught 4 month program in Job Prep for data-entry students. Developed intensive 2 week orientation and job prep course for Latino Employment Development Program.

English Instructor, 11/78 - 4/79 Berlitz School of Languages, San Juan, Puerto Rico Taught conversational English to businessmen and university students in both groups and individual classes.

MEMBERSHIPS:

The Dramatists Guild Theatre League of South Florida The Playwrights' Center Hannah Kahn Poetry Foundation

176