Forum Theatre

On the Bechdel Test (and theatre)

by Managing Director, Julia Harman Cain (@JuliaHarmanCain)

For the uninitiated and curious, the "Bechdel Test" sprang from this comic by Alison Bechdel and was credited to her friend Liz Wallace in 1985. Here is the gist:

Does a movie have the following?

1. Two female characters.*

2. Who talk to each other.

3. About something other than a man.

That is the whole test. Just to clarify, the Bechdel test does not measure whether a movie is good or interesting or even feminist. Rather, this is a mind-poking way to ponder the presence of women in movies.

(For the NPR story on the "Test," click here)

The results are nuts. Many of my favorites completely flunk: the original Star Wars, 12 Angry Men, Schindler’s List, The Dark Knight, The Lord of the Rings, Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Princess Bride, Shawshank Redemption, Interview with a Vampire, and Inception. Even most early episodes of The West Wing and Law & Order. You know what does pass? 10 Things I Hate About You. And Mean Girls. (So there.)

A corollary: if you have to wrack your brain, then it may as well not pass. Maybe Claudia and that older lady vampire talk when they are getting burned to death in the thing. But since I’m not sure and I own the movie, it is not a clear pass.

An inverse: when people give you crap about the standard being too tough, try the rule in reverse (as in, with men). Everything will pass. Everything. Likely in the first five minutes of running time. Including Sesame Street.

As Anita Sarkeesian of Feminist Frequency points out here, the absence of nuanced, named female character is a systemic problem. And the rule forces us to realize that such a problem exists. Movies are predominantly by men, for men, and about men. Which is not necessarily the fault of a given person or studio. But these movies sell and receive awards, and thus the formula goes unquestioned. Or unnoticed.

I am not a film expert, but a one-gender, one-sexuality perspective seems like bad business. Why limit your product and potential audience? Why ignore 50% of the pool of actors and directors and writers? It makes no sense to me. How does that forward film as a medium? How does that encourage advances in writing and style? How does it even make the maximum amount of money?

Moreover, creating an exclusive, gender-biased world breeds sameness in what that world produces. It yields predictable dynamics, predictable storylines. And seasons with No Strings Attached and Friends With Benefits back to back.

The theater rule: in my spin on the test, you pick a theatre. And test the season.

We gave that a whirl here at Forum and the results were interesting. Since we have moved to Round House, here is what passed: Angels in America, Amazons and Their Men, Scorched, Headscarf and the Angry Bitch, and for colored girls… One Flea Spare passes in the last scene; while it has not started rehearsal yet, The Language Archive should pass. bobrauschenbergamerica and Mad Forest do not.

So what does this mean? I would guess that it is less a reflection of one theatre and more a reflection of our community as a whole.

Taking classics out of the mix, plays tend to fare better than movies. By a pretty solid margin. Check out the top-five longest running Broadway shows. I feel like an insane person arguing this, but Cats passes -- “Memory” is a duet with two felines. A Chorus Line, Les Miserables, and Chicago pass. Phantom of the Opera is on the edge, but does pass (ballet scene). So do Rent and Wicked.

For a more fun example, so do a lot of the shows that I have seen in DC. They pass easily too. As in, I don’t have to pore over the script or call someone who worked on the show. I can remember a precise conversation -- even in a show like House of Gold that I saw once over a year ago -- that passes the test. Which says to me that the test is not just about equity of representation.

When all of a play’s characters -- not just the Bruce Waynes or Han Solos, but men and women alike -- are complex, multifaceted, and weird, I remember them. There is a reason that I can quote Mean Girls like a champ. That movie is no Citizen Kane, but the female characters are actually unique and weird. Art that captures a broad slice of the world, and actually does so in a complex way, tends to stick with you. Try out the test on the last five winners of the Pulitzer Prize in Drama. Not only do they pass, but you also can probably remember exact lines or moments. Theater is not perfect (and anecdotes are not statistics), but maybe movies should take a hint.

In essence, the test is not the be-all-end-all. And plenty of incredible films and plays do not pass it, which by no means renders them less incredible. But the test is also a way to stay aware of how far we have to go. A way to question what is produced and funded and celebrated. A reminder of what we are seeking. Not just a 50/50 gender split on the cast list. But a cast that feels like our world. Characters that are complete and memorable. A world that is not just equal, but detailed.

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* Characters” is the key word, to me. Two female extras in line at Starbucks are not characters. Those three blonde girls in the different colored dresses in Beauty and the Beast are not either. In fact, the “Mo Movie Measure” stipulates that the female characters need to have names. Whoa there.

Q & A with FOR COLORED GIRLS... Director Jamil Jude

by Artistic Director, Michael Dove (@michaeldove) with Jamil Jude (@mrjdjude)

As we open for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf I wanted to get a few thoughts from the show's director and founder of Colored People's Theatre Collective, Jamil Jude.

MICHAEL DOVE: What led you to wanting to direct this play? How does it connect to the founding of Colored People's Theatre Collective?

JAMIL JUDE: I wanted to direct this show for a couple of reasons:

I was really inspired by a reading of the show I saw at Prince George's Community College in 2009. I had the chance to meet Ntozake at the reading. Even in old age and declining health, she embodied the spirit of a Goddess and the security of self that I admire in women (so very much like Sechita!)

In 2010, Tyler Perry's version came out and it was nothing like the beautiful play I heard read. I wanted an opportunity to show people what the play could be. I wanted a chance to bring people back to the beauty of the poetry. I also had an amazing choreographer I wanted to work with.

Colored People's Theatre Collective; we tried to devise a show ourselves in early 2010 but our applications for space went unanswered. This play, for the obvious and also for the not so obvious, fits our mission exactly. Can this play, which is so distinctly about women of color, transcend the use of the "N" word and other cultural references and illuminate the universality of the piece.

So, in short (lol) that's why I wanted to do this piece.

MD: What was the experience of the first production, in the Fringe, like?

JJ: The Fringe production was a HUGE learning experience. Fringe has its own set of rules and restrictions, and at times, we found that hard to work around. On the other hand, we were SO thankful for the support we received from our Venue host and the rest of the Fringe team. We really felt like we belonged in the DC community with the amount of love and support we received. Opening night had to be the single-most rewarding moment of my artistic career and definitely set CPT off on the right foot!

MD: The show has really evolved since I saw it in the Summer. In fact, I've been surprised by and excited about the fairly radical changes you've brought to it. Can you talk a bit about the re-conception of the story and how that came about?

JJ: When we talked about putting the show up a second time, we wanted to keep the fun we had this summer but present something a little different to reflect the growth, as a company but also as a community.

Also, Lady and Brown, Nicole Brewer, is happily expecting her first child! AND IT'S A GIRL! When our 8th "for colored girl" was added to the mix, we needed to find a way to address our extra cast member. I had this idea of a baby shower and liked it but didn't know if it would work.

Jacqueline Lawton provided us with a really amazing dramaturgy packet for the show. In the packet there were quotes from Ntozake where she spoke about wanting to present a piece that can counter the emotionless, contraceptive talk young women were receiving as they matured through life. Her play removes the mystical/romantic ideas we have of growing up and shows us the reality of life. Life is beautiful, painful, delicate, complicated and magical and this play captures it all!

As I sat back down with the play after having read Jacqueline's packet, the shower idea seemed to work even better! Let's use the play, a play that would have still been new when Nicole was born, and let's pass it on to her baby. Let's allow the play to guide the future generations of young women much like Nicole's mom, her friends, and their generation were shaped by the play's experiences. Our collection of stories will be passed along to the future in a series of gifts, poems, stories, dance and reality!

MD: We met when you were working at Arena Stage. Since then, you've moved up to Minneapolis to be the Producer in Residence at Mixed Blood Theatre. What sort of work are you doing up there and how does that community compare or contrast to the DC area?

JJ: The Minneapolis theatre community is so dynamic! There are artists working in every direction of the genre and doing great work. It feels so good to be a part of that community.

Mixed Blood is dedicated to using theatre to address the artificial barriers that keep people from succeeding in America. Very much like CPT, Mixed Blood sees theatre as a vehicle for change and social justice.

This season we are looking for ways to revolutionize the way people access theatre. Through Radical Hospitality, we offer no-cost admission to all of our main-stage programming! We've seen an amazing amount of support for the program and our audiences have begun to better reflect the America we live in.

I head up our discussion series. These include our blog, nightly-post show audience conversations, speaker series, lobby post-it notes and social media. Talking to audiences about the art is my favorite part of theatre and I get to do it every night!!

MAD FOREST: notes from the dramaturg

By Mad Forest dramaturg, Hannah Hessel (@hanvnah)

From the program for Mad Forest

On the plain where Bucharest now stands there used to be “a large forest crossed by small muddy streams…It could only be crossed on foot and was impenetrable for the foreigner who did not know the paths…The horsemen of the steppe were compelled to go round it, and this difficulty, which irked them so, is shown by the name… Teleorman – Mad Forest.”

– A Concise History of Romania

The late 1980s were a time of political uprooting in Eastern Europe. Many countries, under Communist rule, were suddenly making changes towards democracy. In many of these places the changes came out of organization and order; the steps can be understood and followed. This was not the case in Romania. In 1989 the revolution took people by surprise. It wasn’t that the people weren’t interested in change, or hadn’t expected it at some point, but the violence, suddenness and bloodiness of the revolt was stunning. It was in that sudden aftermath that playwright Caryl Churchill and director Mark Wing-Davey visited, explored and imaginatively recorded the world they saw.

Romania, under Communist rule since the late 1940s, was ruled by Nicolae Ceausescu, the general party secretary. He ruled as a dictator creating harsh rules and a society built around paranoid fear. The party line was one of dedication to Ceausescu, highlighting his love and devotion to the Romanian people. Economically the people were suffering. In the early Eighties Ceausescu had enforced food rationing. The official monthly ration contained just over two pounds of flour, sugar and meat, one pound margarine, and five eggs. There was never a guarantee that food would be available in the shops. The unhappiness and oppression of the people existed as a bubbling under the surface. It was as if everyone in the country was waiting and no one was acting. When it did start, it happened suddenly and with such quick rage that it is difficult for historians looking back on it to track. Just a couple of years following the revolution a poll was taken of the Romanian population asking if they felt that the events of December 1989 were indeed a revolution, only 46% felt that it was. A similar poll taken in 1999 had the results at 49%.

The atmosphere in Bucharest post-revolution was one of relief and confusion when Churchill, Wing-Davey, a designer and 10 student actors arrived at the end of March 1990. They listened, questioned, observed and explored the city. On returning Churchill compiled the research and wrote Mad Forest.