Theatre is an extremely male dominated field. This has become more and more apparent to me since directing A Piece of My Heart in March 2008. Piece is a play about women in Vietnam sharing their stories. While it was written by a female, males are the ones who had to give it importance. A male collected the stories of these women and said that they were important - because on their own, the stories were worthless. Males produced, directed, designed and stage managed the first production of this piece - again, lending their male credibility to this piece so that people would take it seriously. When I directed this piece, I took the males out of it. A man was never seen on stage - it was only the story of the women. In doing this research, I was shocked that this story - a story about women - could only be told if men gave it credibility and said it was important.
In my dramatic literature class this semester, we have most recently been talking about the theories of Freud and Lacan. What has stood out the most to me is the Law of the Father - meaning, males hold knowledge. Language is the gateway to the Law of the Father because when we learn language we are gaining knowledge. I realized that the theatre department where I go to school is very much run by the Law of the Father. Males are the ones who are the authorities, who hold the knowledge. Two-thirds of our main stage season is directed by males. All of the plays on the main stage season are written, and/or adapted, by males. Our department chair is a male. Males completely dominate jobs in the department. Females hold jobs in the acting and education because those are more nurturing female positions. Males are the ones who teach everything else (with the exception of MSJ but she has to fight way harder than her male counterparts to be heard and respected).
I feel, as a female, that I am running in to walls in the theatre world. I have to work at least three times as hard for my work to be noticed and deemed as "good." I can't get away with mediocrity. People, at first take, do not take me seriously because I'm a female. What's more, I'm a married Mormon female who is just going to be popping out kids for the rest of her life. Ha! If I wasn't serious about doing theatre, I wouldn't be fighting as hard as I am right now to be heard. I'm working on writing a show, I've already directed two this semester, I'm directing two right now, in preproduction for a third, working on a paper to take to a conference, looking at internships and graduate schools, TA-ing the directing classes, etc. And yet, I'm still not taken seriously. I don't see any of my male counterparts fighting as hard. Because they don't need to! If they show a little bit of promise, BAM! They're in! It isn't fair and it probably won't ever be fair.
I'm a female and my voice isn't being heard! Help, I'm being oppressed!
