8: Theatre - Women - Character
- Claudia Contin (Italy) CHASING ARLECCHINO
- Han Tae-Sook (Korea) LADY MACBETH’S WEAPON
- Sorella Englund (Finland/Denmark) THE SYLPHIDE OF THE CENTURY
- Alice Ivanova (Russia) NOT BEAUTIFUL
- Rebecca Ogamo Teele (USA/Japan) TOMOE
- Guandaline Sagliocco (France/Norway) MY ORCHESTRA
- Roberta Carreri (Italy/Denmark) A HANDFUL OF CHARACTERS
- Bianca Mastrominico (Italy/Britain) BIANCA AND JUDY
- Maria Mänty (Finland/Denmark) THE STORY OF THE MUMMY BRIDE
- Silvia Pritz (Argentina) THE RECIPE
- Sandra Pasini (Italy/Denmark) THE LINE ON WHICH LIFE DANCES
- Sanja Krsmanovic Tasic (Yugoslavia) DANCING WITH DARKNESS
- Ni Nyoman Candri (Bali) THE HERO DISGUISED AS A SERVANT
- Birute Mar (Lithuania) AN ACTOR’S SHADOW
- Laura Mariani (Italy) GIACINTA PLAYS THÉRÈSE
- Madeline McNamara (Aotearoa New Zealand) TURNING TABLES
- María Ibarreta (Argentina) PERSONAL GEOGRAPHY
- Eva Maria Gauss (Germany) MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS
- Frock (ass. by Helen Jamieson) (Aotearoa New Zealand) AVATARS IN CYBERSPACE
- Anne-Sophie Erichsen (Norway) MY MOTHER IS IRRESISTIBLE
- Roxana Avila (Costa Rica) DRAMATIS PERSONAE
- Raysa Fatima Taba’mrante (Morocco) POETRY HAS A MELODY
- Heidi Hovland (Norway) NOT REAL, BUT TRUE
- Laylage Courie (USA) A GIFT PASSING BETWEEN US
- Geddy Aniksdal (Norway) DEEP DOWN
- Ya-Ling Peng (Taiwan) RIVERS IN THE DARK NIGHT
- Anabela Teixeira (Portugal) A LETTER
- Susan Bassnett (Britain) ON NOT NOTICING AN EARTHQUAKE
- Jill Greenhalgh (Britain) WOMEN IN RED - download the article as a PDF
- Hasna el Becharia (Algeria/France) VIVE LES CÉLIBATAIRES!
- Maria Ficara (Italy) A ROSE AMONG THE PEOPLE
- Anna Zubrzycki (Poland) CHRONICLES - A LAMENTATION
- Julia Varley (Britain/Denmark) MORE OR LESS REAL PEOPLE
This
is the eighth volume of The Open Page, a theatre journal which originally
complemented the Magdalena Project's Newsletter, the last issue of which
was published in Autumn 1999. The Newsletter gave an opportunity for
the sharing of accessible information and documentation, and its function
has been replaced by a website (www.themagdalenaproject.org).
The Open Page was founded in the belief that there needed to be a more substantial space for women theatre practitioners to report on their work and express their thoughts, feelings and analysis of theatre, as a means of building their own memory and a critical perspective within theatre history. As the journal has grown so too has the necessity to document and historicise women's work in theatre: we have to leave behind traces of our work for ourselves and for future generations.
Women's work in theatre has until very recently been poorly documented or neglected. The Open Page does not come from one ideological position through which the choice of what is or is not published is filtered, nor does it insist upon an adherence to theoretical perspectives which can inhibit the expression of a plurality of ideas and experiences. Rather The Open Page seeks to give space to many different voices, some of them dissident, others not, keeping a balance among contributions from experienced authors and scholars, practitioners needing to put their thoughts on paper and first time writers more accustomed to expressing themselves through performance.
The eighth issue of The Open Page has the theme Theatre - Women - Character and issue nine will focus on Theatre - Women - Struggle. In collecting articles we have given great importance to international diversity although the choice of printing in one language forces us to confront the problems of translation. As far as possible we have tried to be faithful to the original intention of the texts even if this has meant showing disrespect for English scholarly form or grammar. The gender form chosen by the author for the word actress-actor-female performer has been respected.
We welcome comments and suggestions and information and letters in relation to the ninth issue, Women - Theatre - Struggle.
Characters have the main role in this issue of The Open Page. They speak for themselves, they put forward their point of view, they direct the work, they become authors, they decide. The actors, directors, scholars and historians are witnesses or mediums who help to reveal the life of characters, as if they were independent beings who want to be set free with the help of craft and artistic work. Seen as a whole, the articles bring together characters from the magic world of theatre as people from different eras and continents who have the power to meet and communicate.
The articles explore the relationship between the theatrical character and the person, between the artefact and the artist, between the performer's identity and the assumed identity. But they also focus on the importance of having a strong self-reliant character to confront adversity and establish an autonomous expression and existence in one's work.
Whether creating, being, playing, interpreting or presenting a role, whether telling stories through words, images or music, a connection exists between the performer's own personality and the nature of who or what is presented on stage. The spectators see characters, and beside/inside/behind/through/above each character they see a person. They see a role, the interpretation of that role and the actor who is presenting the role. Some articles talk about developing a character by creating and elaborating actor's material; others discuss character by taking the example of a particular production. In some articles different characters are revived and confronted. Those performers who need years to fully embody a character in their particular genre use the article to follow the long process of apprenticeship. We find many references to the sources of inspiration that help in creating or interpreting a character, in both technical and emotional terms, reminding us of the connection between life experience, daily events, improvisation, composition, exercises and training. Building a character can also be a process that can be ignored or rejected with the performer just trying to behave in as ordinary fashion as possible on stage.
For what and whom are we searching when we build a character or we allow ourselves to be inhabited by a character? For ourselves? For an alter-ego? For a guardian angel? For complementarity, opposition or similarity? For truth? For the spectator's perspective? For a challenge? For immortality? Characters live on, and even the women we remember from the past seem to have acquired a certain fixed personality in our eyes, becoming myth, archetypes or characters. They come alive when we let them speak to our world today, when we let them struggle for a better tomorrow, when we let them help us say what it is that we need to say.
Julia Varley
Holstebro, March 2003