On the Importance of a Feminist Community

By Ashley Jacobson

My whole life, I’ve been surrounded by strong, powerful and generous women. My mother, my sisters, my friends, my teachers, and even my bosses have all been strong, self-sufficient and badass women. I have always had a strong sense of sisterhood/community and been encouraged to view my own womanhood as a source of strength. As a child, it never occurred to me that anyone would ever expect anything less than me because of my girl-ness.

Now, as an adult, I don’t take for granted this community because it has fortified me against an unrelenting and sexist reality. Because of the strength these women instilled in me as a girl - the moments of degradation, objectification and reduction can be just that–moments. I can be fearless when I need to be–because the world that I have built for myself is safe and unabashedly feminist.


The American Play at the Steve & Marie Sgouros Theatre.
Photo by Melissa Balan. 2015.

When I had my first success as a playwright with THE AMERICAN PLAY, it infuriated me how differently I was treated because I was a woman, because the show was produced by women, but it dared to talk about men, and masculinity and sexual violence. The show was cut-throat and disturbing and even though bloggers and audiences alike seemed to love it, they would still come up to me and say “YOU did that? But it’s so sophisticated….” People seemed offended that I was the writer–that they couldn’t look at me and predict what kind of artist I would be. “How did THAT come out of that pretty little head of yours?” (a direct quote). Their incredulity was insulting, but I knew I was still very lucky to have my voice out there. I still had the privilege of producing my own work in such a visible way that people HAD to respond to it.

So I turned to that strong sense of community to help deal with this insipid sexism, and that's when my best friend and co-producer/co-badass Elizabeth Sarkady and I founded THE DIRTY BLONDES (TDB)–an unapologetic theater company intent on producing more works of theater that stir passionate responses, and more importantly, works that will hopefully bring new and underestimated voices to the table.

What started as a revenge project has blossomed, for me, into a compelling life’s mission to build this theater company that will not only continue to engage and progress my most favorite art form (theater), but could also be a transformative opportunity and community for other daring and unapologetic artists. This personal mission is fueled by a stubborn naiveté, a childish “you’ll see!” that I possess because of the strength and courage of all the women in my life and the community that I was blessed with from birth. That is why representation is so important, visibility is so important, supporting others when you have the opportunity to is so important.

The Miracle Play at The Secret Theater.
Photo by Ashley Lauren Hamilton. 2013.

Now, The Dirty Blondes is in its fifth season, and we had our first Off-Broadway premiere last year. We have created an identity as a company as bad-ass and dark and surprising. There are so many artists out there making work that no one thinks they are capable of. As a writer, I want to create jarring and aggressive works of theater, and as a Producer with TDB, I want to empower artists to make the work that people will say ‘how did YOU do that?’



                       
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Ashley Jacobson is a Brooklyn-based playwright. A graduate of The New School, her plays have been produced at off-off Broadway theaters across New York City, including a sold-out run as part of the 2015 FringeNYC, and off-Broadway at the Soho Playhouse as part of the Fringe Encore Series. In 2015 she received the Overall Excellence in Playwriting Award from FringeNYC for The American Play. She is a co-founder and Artistic Director for THE DIRTY BLONDES, a feminist theater company "with a taste for provocation." Now going into its fifth year, The Dirty Blondes have produced more than 15 live events and have featured the work of more than 180 artists. To learn more about The Dirty Blondes and to work with us, please visit http://www.thedirtyblondes.org/.

My Career In Theatre: What A/An ____________ [ADJECTIVE] Road!

Contributed by Robin Rothstein

For me, working in the theatre has been a thrilling and ever-changing road map. I've been down quite a few roads in my career – actor, playwright, lyricist, producer, arts advocate, and commercial theatre professional, to name a few.

It’s not unusual, though, to wear different hats over the course of a theatre career and it’s also no secret that it’s a tough industry, loaded with personal and financial risk from indie theatre on up to Broadway, and beyond. But this is partly what makes it so rewarding and exciting, right? And the industry is expanding every day – artistically, commercially, globally. You can create opportunities everywhere if you know how to look for them.
What’s been so cool for me is being part of both the indie theatre world and the Broadway world. I owe a LOT to both for giving me a wide range of knowledge and experiences. In the indie world, I’ve been fortunate to have my writing produced in New York festivals over the years, including, once again, the NY Indie Theatre One Minute Play Festival coming up this May, and I’ve learned about local politics by getting into the trenches alongside my colleagues at the League of Independent Theatre (LIT), where the fight for more financial support for the arts goes on. My interest in arts advocacy also inspired me to join my community board where I was promoted to Chair of the Arts & Institutions Committee. I continue to use that as a platform to raise awareness and to remind people how instrumental the arts are to the well being of society, both culturally and economically.

And it is at this intersection, between the arts and economics, where I now find myself. Having worked in the touring division at Broadway Across America for a number of years now, I have seen time and time again how important commercial touring shows are to keeping theatre alive across the U.S., and how “the road” feeds back to Broadway in the tourist dollars that were part of the record numbers reported for 2015. This same paradigm of the arts benefiting local economies can be found across the country. It has also been a known fact for years that artists and arts organizations help the local economy here in NYC.

The past few years have been especially rewarding for me, as I took the initiative to combine my creative writing expertise, my theatre business know-how, and my interest in the arts promoting community prosperity. I got an idea for a project that fulfilled me artistically, and that I also believed had enduring commercial potential. This project was my family musical, MAD LIBS LIVE!

It took nearly eight years for the project to get from the “light bulb” going off in my head in my mom's kitchen to the world premiere Off-Broadway this past November at New World Stages. And while there were many challenges and unknowns all along the way, I wouldn’t trade a moment of it! What an exciting road the MAD LIBS LIVE! process has been and continues to be, as our team is now busy preparing for the exciting touring and licensing opportunities beyond our Off-Broadway run.

There will continue to be roads to choose from, but as long as I keep choosing, I’ll be on the right road, even if I end up making what feels like a wrong turn. (I’ve learned those can often turn out to be right turns in the end.) And as I move forward with MAD LIBS LIVE! and other endeavors, I can't wait to see where these next roads take me! 

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Robin Rothstein is a critically acclaimed playwright and commissioned book writer and lyricist whose writing has been produced in New York, across the U.S., and internationally. She is also Director of Operations at Broadway Across America and Chair of the Arts & Institutions Committee of Community Board 2, Manhattan. For more info on MAD LIBS LIVE!, please visit MAD LIBS LIVE!

No Business Like

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Contributed by Guest Blogger of the week, Doric Wilson.


Had I not left school early (so to speak) I never would have walked in the door of the Caffe Cino. It was during the run of And He Made a Her that I met my second most important mentor. Richard Barr was involved with Orson Wells and the Mercury Theater. (He is the first voice you hear in Citizen Kane). After producing on Broadway (Bert Lahr in Hotel Paradiso, Nancy Walker in Fallen Angels, etc.), he decided to move Off-Broadway to, in his words, “Turn the theater back to the playwright.'' In 1960, Richard mounted Edward Albee's first play, The Zoo Story, beginning a long time relationship with the playwright.

He also presented the first American professional productions of works by Ionesco and de Ghelderode and the world premiere of Samuel Becket’s Happy Days. In 1967 he became president of the League of New York Theaters, instituting the 8 pm Broadway curtain and inventing the preview (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf) to replace out-of-town tryouts. But more significantly, he was the first producer to recognize the importance of Off-Off-Broadway. Among the playwrights he found there were John Guare, A. R. Gurney, LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka), Terrence McNally, Sam Shepard, Jean-Claude Van Itallie, Lanford Wilson, and even Doric Wilson (no relation). An alternative theater award really should be named after Richard Barr, no one ever did more to legitimize what we do. He taught me how to produce and gave me the courage to start TOSOS.

I was sort of an unpaid assistant for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and got to watch and learn.
At the time, there was a lot of concern. The play was very long with some heavy going language
new to the delicate ears of uptown. Thanks to the McCarthy hearings, Uta Hagen had been
away from the stage for a long time. In 1963, no one was sure if she would be welcomed back.
A week before it started previews, Clinton Wilder, the co-producer begged me to use whatever
influence I had over Richard to get him to make Edward change the title of the play. Richard
budgeted Virginia Woolf for $65,000 but brought it in for $30,000, giving it a cushion to run long enough for word-of-mouth to counter hostile reviews. And the reviews were very Republican.

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