Presented to The Dramatist Guild Women's Committee in 2009.
Let’s not kid ourselves. Plays by women slip into the round file more
easily than those with male authorship.
A female name suggests “soft” writing, personal diaries about everyday
life, not dramas on male bonding, bitchy women and conquering the world. So, is it true that women only write “soft”
plays? Was Lillian Hellmann a soft writer
– hardly – but then a broad who boldly spelt out “GUILT” on her license plate
(google HUAC) was no shrinking violet.
So now a study has come out that proves decisively that in the heavily funded Regional Theater world women’s plays
are turned down more than men’s (that’s news!) but – get this – the culprits
for sending us into the round file are OTHER WOMEN!
Hey. That clears the air,
right? Men want our plays but the silly
bitches in the reading department are scared to push a play by a woman author
because they might look bad when the Male authorities laugh at it. Do you really buy this? I agree that women’s plays are judged on a
different scale but I refuse to point the finger at other women. Who are these sissy readers who are too soft
to take a stand? I know very few “soft”
women. In fact most of the creative
women I know are full of Ideas, Spunk and Opinions. Ladies, stand back because I am going to
loudly proclaim my own personal belief that MEN reject women’s plays because
they consider us too SOFT in our view
of the REAL WORLD.
It’s a total lie. And I set out to prove it to myself back in
the 1970’s when I ran an Off-Off-Broadway style theatre in Hollywood,
California. I had cut my teeth OOB in
the 1960’s writing, directing and acting in original plays that challenged the Theater
Establishment of the time. When I was
lured out to Hollywood to run the Next Stage Theatre on La Brea Avenue I
brought my perceptions of OOB with me.
We would have weekly readings of
one act plays by anyone who chose to bring them in, the ones voted as the best
would be produced and all the readings would be totally BLIND. The author was never revealed until after the
critique and it was interesting to see how often a play was assumed to be by
male or female depending on its tone. I
especially recall one quite eloquent play about men in love where all assumed
it had to be written by a male. When the
female author stood up one of the men in the audience asked her in shocked
tones,
“Where did you learn about male sexuality? What man helped you write this?”
And she responded,
“Every
man I ever loved!”
The play eventually moved to New
York and ran Off Broadway for seven months.
History Lesson: Edna St. Vincent Millay was 19 when she
submitted her long poem “Renascence” to the National Poetry Contest for “The
Lyric Year” magazine under the name E. St. Vincent Millay and WON hands down! However, when she turned up at the magazine
office, the Editor hastily rethought his decision and took First Prize away
from her. The other poets were angry at
this decision saying that “Renascence” was the best poem in the volume, and the
new winner stated in his acceptance speech that “the award was as much an embarrassment to me as a triumph."
and the second prize winner even offered her his $250 prize money in
protest.
So what happens when men or woman readers
see a woman’s name on a manuscript? I
know what happens - they DISBELIEVE! If it’s by a woman it can’t be as bold and
unique and imaginative and clever as it appears because women aren’t bold,
unique, imaginative, etc. Women are soft and into relationships and family
and nurturing. HA! I
adore women like that and wish I knew more of them. The women I know are smart and shrewd and see
through bullshit much quicker than men do.
A woman’s brain HAS NO GENDER, nor does a man’s. Which is why men are able to write fabulous
female characters and women are just as able to write great male roles.
When I started writing plays my
instincts told me to use a male name but my (male) agent at the time dissuaded
me. He insisted there was no bias
against plays by female authors...
“Look
at Lillian Hellman for God’s sake.”
Yup, her again.
Since I dislike having to lie, and
I naively believed him, I boldly put my full, clearly-female name, Morna
Murphy, on all manuscripts I sent out. After
years of no response I was a little taken aback when a rather sharp satire on
race relations came back with a terse note addressed to
“My dear Miss Murphy…”
And scolding the little Irish lady
for not understanding the reality of RACE in America. This play had been done Off Off Broadway and
received raves from the critics who “got it” but this guy wanted to spank
me. He read it and DISBELIEVED!
Why must we
keep having to fight the same old battles decade after decade? All we ask is PARITY. No special privileges. No condescending patronage. No NURTURING for God’s sake. Put the play on and let us take our
lumps. We’re tough broads. Rejection is an old friend. In classical music there were hardly any
women in heavily funded orchestras until they started auditioning ALL musicians
behind a screen. BLIND AUDITIONS! Women
knew enough not to wear high heels that clicked and now orchestras are brimming
with terrific women musicians - and they’re not all harpists.
So, about
three years ago I decided to go gender neutral and submitted under M. Murphy
Martell. Well, in no time at all the
phone was ringing and my husband was being informed that his play had won over 119 others and was head and shoulders over
them all.
“You
must mean my wife’s play”
He said, and there was a long
silence.
When I flew across the country to
see the truly fabulous production of this play I was treated royally but one
confidence from the producer disturbed me a bit.
“We were surprised to discover you were a woman author because we had
another woman a few years back and she was intolerable. Sat through every rehearsal and wouldn’t change
a word and when the show finally went on she stormed out complaining and
threatening to sue us.”
What a silly bitch! Hey, hearing this anyone would hesitate to
produce another female writer, right? After
all, male playwrights always behave with cooperation and dignity and have
respect for their co-workers and producers. Ho, ho, ho! Or is there a double standard I’m losing sight
of here?
Since then, as this non-gender
person, I have had other plays win contests, and have often been produced, but I
perceive a strain enters the relationship when I first come clean. Maybe it’s me, but the familiar camaraderie I
have known and loved all my creative life seems somehow half-hearted. In every case, the assumption was that I was
male and perhaps my happy revelation seems a sort of betrayal.
Are they afraid I’m a militant
feminist? (I am a feminist but a very friendly one); that I will sit in on
rehearsals and trip them up on every slight change of tone? (I stay away from
rehearsals and confer with the director by phone); that when I see my play
performed I will leap up and publicly denounce the whole lot of them? (never in
a million years, actors are fragile creatures who always long to please the
author); will I sue the producer(s) for
destroying my work? (nah, it’s happened, but I take my lumps and move on).
So
how about having all play
submissions blind? Totally Blind. So the
Theatre Managers, Artistic Directors, Dramaturgs and Readers don’t know and
don’t care about the Sex, Race, Age, Production Credits or University Degrees
that a submitting playwright has. All
they’ll know is the PLAY, the WRITING, the ORIGINALITY, the STAGE
WORTHINESS. Let their enthusiasm for a
play dictate and if the author turns out to be an 18-year old girl from the
slums writing her first play tell them that was Shelagh Delaney whose “A Taste of Honey” was a Broadway hit,
and welcome her with open arms. Hey,
this way they just might discover the next LILLIAN HELLMAN!
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