THEATER CULTURE, MY PLAYWRITING REALITY: a SELF- REFLECTIVE ANALYSIS Margaret Iha
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University of New Mexico UNM Digital Repository Theatre & Dance ETDs Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2-8-2011 IN A "WE CAN'T" THEATER CULTURE, MY PLAYWRITING REALITY: A SELF- REFLECTIVE ANALYSIS Margaret Iha Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/thea_etds Recommended Citation Iha, Margaret. "IN A "WE CAN'T" THEATER CULTURE, MY PLAYWRITING REALITY: A SELF-REFLECTIVE ANALYSIS." (2011). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/thea_etds/32 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Electronic Theses and Dissertations at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theatre & Dance ETDs by an authorized administrator of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. IN A “WE CAN’T” THEATER CULTURE MY PLAYWRITING REALITY: A SELF-REFLECTIVE ANALYSIS BY MARGARET E. IHA B.A., Journalism, Northern Illinois University, 1997 DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Fine Arts Dramatic Writing The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico December, 2010 © 2010, Margaret E. Iha ii IN A WE CAN'T THEATER CULTURE MY PLAYWRITING REALITY: A SELF-REFLECTIVE ANALYSIS BY MARGARET E. IHA ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Fine Arts Dramatic Writing The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico iii IN A “WE CAN’T” THEATER CULTURE My Playwriting Reality: A Self-Reflective Analysis BY Margaret E. Iha BACHELOR OF ARTS IN JOURNALISM AND COMMUNICATIONS MASTER OF FINE ARTS IN DRAMATIC WRITING ABSTRACT This essay examines the effects of a “we can’t” theatre culture as experienced by the author. I detail my experiments in discerning and enacting a "we can" way of doing theatre amidst a creative environment punctuated by unkept promises. My account examines two main unkept promises or "we can't" moments: we can't write didactic drama and we can't produce your play that way. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES.....................................................................................................vii INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................................1 YES WE CAN #1 – DIDACTICISM ISN’T BAD........................................................8 Introduction..............................................................................................................8 “Truths” Based on Personal Experiences in the Playwriting World ....................8 Defining “Didacticism” ......................................................................................10 Distilled Formal History of Didactic Drama .........................................................11 Didacticism Is Part of the Form and Always Has Been...................................... 11 The Bias Against It Is Real................................................................................. 13 Didactic Styles as Related to My Playwriting Experiences ...................................14 Strident ............................................................................................................... 15 Intellectual..........................................................................................................16 “Female Voice at the Center”.............................................................................20 Activist ................................................................................................................ 24 YES WE CAN #2 – RED UMBRELLAS THE MUSICAL, MY STEPS TO MAKING IT HAPPEN ..........................................................................................31 Tenacity .............................................................................................................. 31 Just Institutions ..................................................................................................35 Give Them Their Dreams (Like Eggs that Would Hatch)...................................36 Making a Difference........................................................................................... 41 You Can Do It! ...................................................................................................43 Inclusion.............................................................................................................48 v CONCLUSION............................................................................................................52 A “We CAN” Theater Culture Is Possible............................................................. 52 Safe Space...........................................................................................................52 Ellen Stewart.......................................................................................................52 Endnotes ......................................................................................................................59 Bibliography ................................................................................................................ 60 APPENDIX.................................................................................................................. 64 Red Umbrellas the Musical Play Script.................................................................65 vi List of Figures 1. Alexandra Buresch as Robyn in costume I designed 32 2. Margie Maes as Sophea in red lingerie I designed and hired seamstress to sew 33 3. Patrice Kelly as Mila in corset donated by local lingerie shop 33 4. Leah Scott as Fabiana during photo shoot on Albuquerque street 39 5. Maes and chorus during “Srei Coit,” an original musical composition from the play 39 6. Michelle Stewart as Ghita the prostitute 40 7. Stewart as Ghita the hotel owner 40 8. The Epilogue red umbrella dance I choreographed 43 9. Helen Senesac as protestor 45 10. Lauren McCauley in a carnevale mask as crew 45 11. Cristine Hogsett as Alice and Maes as Sophea in an emotional scene 45 12. Buresch, Scott, Smith, and Maes in confrontational scene from play 46 1 IN A “WE CAN’T” THEATER CULTURE My Playwriting Reality: A Self-Reflective Analysis Margaret E. Iha University of New Mexico INTRODUCTION A “we can’t” mentality is often present in contemporary American theater culture.i It often wears the face of a critic and can thrive in a way that replicates, like cancer cells. In theater culture, where those who do not fit in mainstream culture find respite and acceptance, there is an expectation, almost a promise, of “everything goes.” “Here, you shall be well received.” And yet, once past those illusions, reality rises. The “everything goes” freedoms are revealed as masks of something else, a fear, a doubt, a lack of faith in something more, cold and timid souls, even a resistance to certain types of difference. As a playwriting student, I have found myself blunted in this “we can’t” culture. It has coiled around me and bound me, its fear cells multiplying in my members and in my work. Coming from a prescriptive environment of politics and government, I expected something else. I expected creative bliss and rewarded impulse, support for big ideas and the will to take risks. There is a hint of these, a tease really; a vapor; more of a lacking. I have been disappointed. And I have complained. I have not been the only one. There have been those in contemporary theater practice like Coco Fusco, Cherrie Moraga, Lynn Nottage, and Ellen Stewart who have challenged the ways in which theater culture excludes, rooted in its “we can’t” mentality, based on race, sexuality, and mainstream ideas of theater. They have challenged the voices that say, “We can’t have women of color or lesbian voices, or female voices at all for that matter, at the forefront of theater.” They have challenged it and continue to challenge it through their writings and their creation of theater that speaks to them, and many others, despite the resistances. 2 There are those like Naomi Wallace and Stewart who circumvented the “we can’t” mentality by taking their work to other countries, countries at various times better prepared to be “we can” thinkers. There are those like Tyler Perry whose work goes mostly unappreciated by mainstream culture. Yet, he is well received by black audiences and others who value Perry’s strident moral worldview. He created a way to write those things he feels compelled to write by building his own support system rather than waiting for the “we can’t” folk of theater to “give him permission” to be the writer he is. It has worked. There are those like Tim Robbins who have taken plays beyond the theater and attached them to their own brand of politics. Robbins has specific ideas of how the world should work not just how he wishes it would. He has his own brand of activism. He creates and attaches to his plays educational programs that inform and hopefully change minds. All of these “we can’t” theater culture challengers, Fusco, Moraga, Nottage, Wallace, Perry, Robbins, and Stewart have been the chemo for this cancer that has tried to have its way with me, this pervasive sickness that has robbed me of my joy for writing, a joy I have owned since childhood. And the “we can’t”s have tried to steal it. Of course, they will say, “we can’t” listen to this. She is just the angry type, a ranter really, selfish, insensitive, naïve. What does she know about any of it? She is the political sort…and didactic. I know enough at least to know what questions to ask. Like, for example, what exactly is