Fashioning the Body: Versions of the Citizen, the Self, and the Subject

The Maids: Gender, Ritual and Power

 

I will be directing a production of Jean Genet’s one-act play The Maids.  I will hold auditions on November 28th, 29th, and 30th. I will orchestrate rehearsals twice a week for two hours at a time, culminating in several final performances to be held at the end of winter quarter.  I will be responsible for providing creative direction to the actors, supervising and planning rehearsal periods, and creating a concept for set, costume, light and sound design.
    The central themes and concerns of this project revolve primarily around gender and power. Genet’s play, taken on its own terms, does not specifically explore gender themes except perhaps in the relation between Madame and Monsieur (a character whom we never see). The three characters in the play are all female. The way in which I propose to enact a discourse on gender is to cast two male-identified individuals in the roles of Claire and Solange. The third role, Madame, will be played by someone who identifies as female.
    What attracted Jean Genet to the theatre was the sheer artifice of the medium. He loved drama because it is all make-believe; it is a deliberately manipulative art form, a false reality designed to deceive, and this deception is perfectly socially accepted (even encouraged). His plays are Brechtian in that they desire to be a vehicle for social change, but depart from Brecht in that Genet was particularly interested in manipulating and sustaining contradictions in the minds of his audience. Jean-Paul Sartre, in his introduction to The Maids, tells us that “For Genet, theatrical procedure is demoniacal. Appearance, which is constantly on the point of passing itself off as reality, must constantly reveal its profound unreality. Everything must be so false that it sets our teeth on edge” (10). It is partly in keeping with this spirit of false appearances that I would like to cast male-identified actors in female roles. The characters of Claire and Solange are identity onions; almost every layer they present to us is peeled back to reveal another underneath, and none of these layers is quite the truth. If the actors are male, the visible fact of their maleness will contribute an added layer of falsehood to the performance that will demand critical interpretation by the audience (by virtue of the audience’s difficulty in suspending disbelief and difficulty in buying into the illusion of the play). Once the characters of Claire and Solange appear to have finally revealed their “true selves”, the viewer will be left to wrestle further with the visual contradiction of a male playing a female role.
    From this inquiry into appearances I hope to generate discourse about what, if anything, lies at the core of human identity. I hope to play with identity as though it were nothing but a series of reiterative gestures, to be put on and cast off at will. Through the theatrical presentation of Claire and Solange’s journey, I hope also to create discussion around gender identity, power relations in gender roles (it may cause dissonance to see men playing a traditionally female role, serving a woman) and cultural anxiety about the spectacle of seeing men wearing women’s clothing. I am just as deeply interested in the social experiment of directing this particular production, the experiment of myself – an identified female – directing identified males playing the roles of identified females. To this effect, I will be keeping a detailed production journal of what occurs in our rehearsals, to be turned in at the end of the quarter. I plan to use this journal as a place for recording and analyzing the production process, as well as a way to remember and share all of the unseen work that goes into a play.
    I am choosing the medium of the theatre because it is one in which I have much experience and interest. I believe that the visceral experience of watching people perform live, in front of an audience, lends a story depth that other mediums do not. It provides a space for humans to gather together and share a common experience, and it breathes life into text that might otherwise remain on the page. The process of staging a production requires intensive emotional and psychological commitment, and forges a tight-knit community of people that must work closely together to bring something wonderful to fruition.  The theatre is also the perfect medium in which to explore identity, because of the established and understood fact that the audience is filing in to watch people pretending to be other people. Since this is a phenomenon that occurs daily in our non-theatre-related lives, it is almost a comfort to come to a place where we know what we’re getting into, and we are willing to accept and embrace the masks that others wear.
    My project is in dialogue primarily with Jean Genet. The Maids is his conception, and I intend to engage with a selection of his other plays and novels, as well as literary criticism of his work. As a supplement to this dialogue, I will turn to various authors writing on the avant-garde theatre (a movement to which Genet belonged), French culture in the 1930s – 1940s (especially of the bourgeois and the working class), and identity politics surrounding gender.
    The skills required in order for me to complete this project are as follows:
- A strong grasp of the technical aspects of staging a production
    - Knowledge of acting and directing technique
    - Leadership skills
    - Strong communication skills
    - Acting ability
        
The resources required in order for me to complete this project are as follows:
-    Performance space (in Evergreen’s Communications Building)
-    Rehearsal space
-    Audition space
-    Access to Evergreen’s Costume Shop
-    Scripts of The Maids (already obtained)
-    Access to materials for set building (wood, paint, tools)
-    Set pieces (bed, vanity, dresser, mirror, furniture)
-    Props (hairbrush, makeup, tea set, broom, gloves, telephone, alarm clock, flowers, jewel case, jewels)

            We will be writing a foundation grant for props, set and supply costs. We will buy used building materials and props from second hand stores. Some of the basic supplies needed are:
·       Wood

·       Door

·       Paint

·       Fabric

·       Some Props

We will also be using many of our own resources as well as borrowing things. Melissa (my stage manager)’s mother is a theater teacher for a high school, so we will have access to their props and costumes if needed. We will most likely not spend money on:

·       Set décor

·       Set furniture

·       Hardware

·       Costumes

·       Makeup

·       Some Props

·       Play bills and flyers

·       Tools

All of our actors and tech crew will be volunteers.

Budget:

Wood: $35-45  -used 2x4's cost about $2.50 a piece

Door: $15-25   -a used inside door costs about $20

Paint: $5-18    - depending on the color, you can buy a mistakenly mixed paint can for $5. About $18 for a new one.

Fabric: $10-30   -used curtains from Goodwill cost about $5 a piece; brand new fabric would be around $30.

Props: $25-40

    Throughout the rehearsal process, I will be looking into any live performances in the Seattle, Olympia and Portland areas that explore related themes from the play: power, gender, French culture, cross-dressing, domestic servitude, etc. I would like us (myself, the cast, and stage manager) to attend a drag show in Portland (Darcelle XV) at some point, to see if any aspects of watching men in women’s clothing will aid the cast in their performance.
    Note on the rehearsals: I want to leave these fairly open, as the rehearsal process is organic and depends largely on the actors. We will work on specific scenes as we need to, and the process will happen however it happens. I will plan for specific things (acting workshops, live performances, etc.) but the rehearsals themselves will be unpredictable, and changes to my personal syllabus will be made as we go along.



Personal Syllabus
FALL QUARTER

November 12 – 16 (Week 8)
-    Reserve COM 209 / 210 for auditions - get faculty signatures and hand in pink sheet (By Tuesday 11 / 13)
-    Complete, get faculty signatures, and hand in green sheet for use of COM building spaces for performances (by Wednesday 11/14)
-     Make audition ‘teaser’ posters & distribute liberally around campus
-    Give Melissa her own copy of “The Maids”

November 19 – 23 (Thanksgiving Break – Week 9)
-    Re-read “The Maids”, choose cold readings for auditions, make photocopies
-    Make up audition information sheets, make photocopies
-    Eat Thanksgiving Dinner

November 26 – 30
-    Hold auditions in COM building
-    Make casting decisions

December 3 – 7
-    Email casting decisions to audition participants
-    Email cast, plan for a meeting this week or next
-    Meet with cast, introductions, distribute scripts, discuss rehearsal times for winter quarter, answer questions, etc.

December 10 – 14 (Eval Week)
-    Time off for eval conferences.

December 15 – January 6 – (Winter Break)
-    Reread play, make outline of major transitions in scenes, analyze text, prepare for first rehearsal


WINTER QUARTER

JANUARY

Week One (1/7 – 1/11)
-    Rehearsal: confirm rehearsal times and locations, read-through, establish deadline for being off-book, theatre games
-    Read Sanford Meisner On Acting
-    Read excerpt from Genet: a collection of critical essays
-    Collaborate with Melissa & Maria to create an “actor’s info packet”, comprised of different perspectives on ‘The Maids’ and Meisner exercises
-    Foundation grant proposal due

Week Two (1/14 – 1/18)
- Rehearsal: Meisner / Stanislavsky / Viewpoints workshop with Venu Mattraw
- Read Artaud’s The Theatre and its Double
- Read “Antonin Artaud and the Theatre of Cruelty”, from Avant Garde Theatre
- Read excerpt from The Imagination of Jean Genet

Week Three (1/21 – 1/18)
-Rehearsal: Watch Murderous Maids
-Read Boal, Theatre of the Oppressed
-Read “Our Lady of the Flowers”
-Off Book?


Week Four (1/28 – 2/1)
-Rehearsal, work on what needs work
-Read Excerpt from Jean Genet and his Critics
-Read excerpt from Jean Genet: a study of his novels and plays
-Read excerpt from Saint Genet

FEBRUARY

Week Five (2/4 – 2/7)
-Rehearsal: costumes & sets meeting
-Read excerpts from France since 1870
-Read excerpt from Modern France


Week Six (2/11-2/14)
Rehearsal: work on what needs work, costume & wig fittings
-Read The Papin Sisters
-Read excerpt from The Politics of Women’s Bodies
-Drag show in Portland?

Week Seven (2/18-2/21)
Rehearsal: light and sound design meeting, Stumble-through
-Read excerpt from Blending Genders
-Read excerpt from Revealing Male Bodies

Week Eight (2/25 – 2/29)
-Rehearsal 1: Run-through AND work on individual scenes
-Rehearsal 2: Run-through
-Move set pieces into COM building


Week Nine (3/3 – 3/7)
-Rehearsal: TECH WEEK. Dry tech (run-through w/ light and sound cues)
-Rehearsal: Wet tech (run show)
-Dress rehearsal
-Final Dress rehearsal
-OPENING NIGHT MARCH 7, 7 p.m.

Annotated Bibliography

Genet

Brooks, Peter and Joseph Halpern, eds. Genet, a collection of critical essays. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1979. 31-46, 146-155, 172-177, 178-190. This book brings together a selection of essays written on Genet himself, his novels and plays, and the theories behind his work. The essays I will be using are “The Theatre of Genet: A Sociological Study” by Lucien Goldman; “Genet, His Actors and Directors” by Odette Aslan; “Profane and Sacred Reality in Jean Genet’s Theatre” by Jean Gitenet and “I Allow Myself to Revolt”, an interview with Jean Genet by Hubert Fichte.


McMahon, Joseph H. The Imagination of Jean Genet. Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1963. 145-155. This book is a deep and rich biography of Genet that also includes in-depth explorations of his most celebrated works, including The Maids. The excerpt I will be using is the chapter entitled “’Haute Surveillance’ and ‘Les Bonnes’”.

Sartre, Jean-Paul. Saint Genet, actor and martyr. Trans. Bernard Frechtman. New York: G. Braziller, 1963. This book is Sartre’s celebration of Genet’s life and work, and Sartre’s own existentialist interpretation of all that Genet did and wrote. He also explores Genet’s status as a symbolic and philosophical figure, and delves deeply into all that Genet’s life meant, both on a personal and on a societal level.

Thody, Philip Malcom Waller. Jean Genet: a study of his novels and plays. New York: Stein and Day, 1969. 25-54, 163-178. This book is also a biography of Genet, with a sizeable chapter on Genet’s philosophy of the theatre and on The Maids. I will be using Chapter Two, “Problems and Themes” and Chapter Nine, “The Maids”.

Webb, Richard C. and Suzanne A. Webb. Jean Genet and his Critics: An Annotated Bibliography, 1943 – 1980. New Jersey: Scarecrow Press, 1982. 309-354. This amazing work brings together almost every single snippet of critical review of Genet’s work, from 1943 until 1980. Some of them are reviews of his plays, some are of his novels, and some are of the man himself. The portions of this book that interest  me are specifically the critical reviews of various productions of The Maids.  

White, Edmund, ed. The selected writings of Jean Genet. New Jersey: The Ecco Press, 1993. This book is a collection of some of Genet’s most celebrated works. I intend to read Our Lady of the Flowers, Miracle of the Rose, and Funeral Rites.

Theatre

Artaud, Antonin and Mary C. Richard. The Theatre and Its Double. New York: Grove Press, Inc., 1958. This is a collection of essays on Artaud’s philosophy of the theatre. More specifically, it contains the manifesto of his ‘Theatre of Cruelty’, where Artaud expressed the importance of recovering "the notion of a kind of unique language half-way between gesture and thought." Artaud and Genet are often compared, and my hope is that this book will serve as an aid to understanding Genet’s play and offer a different perspective on how to perform it, as well as the theatre in general as an artistic medium.

Boal, Augusto. Theatre of the Oppressed. Trans. McBride, Charles A. and Maria-Odilia McBride. New York: Theatre Communications Group, Inc., 1979.

Brustein, Robert. The Theatre of Revolt. 2nd ed. Illinois: Ivan R. Dee, Inc., 1991. 363 – 411. “In a new edition of this now –classic work, Robert Brustein argues that the roots of the modern theatre may be found in the soil of rebellion cultivated by eight outstanding playwrights: Ibsen, Strindberg, Chekhov, Shaw, Brecht, Pirandello, O’Neill, and Genet. Focusing on each of them in turn, Mr. Brustein considers the nature of their revolt, the methods employed in their plays, their influences on the modern drama, and the playwrights themselves.” I will be reading the section that explores the parallels between Artaud and Genet’s philosophies, entitled “Antonin Artaud and Jean Genet: The Theatre of Cruelty”.

Innes, Christopher. Avant Garde Theatre 1892 – 1992. New York: Routledge Inc., 1993. 108-117, 59-77. This book discusses Genet and Artaud, as well as certain subjects both were obsessed with, such as death, ritual, and illusion. There is also a nice summary of Artaud’s Theatre of Cruelty. The titles of these excerpts are called “Black Masses and Ceremonies of Negation: Jean Genet” and “Antonin Artaud and the Theatre of Cruelty”.

Meisner, Sanford and Dennis Longwell. Sanford Meisner on Acting. New York: Random House, 1987. This is Sanford Meisner’s acting and directing manifesto. It follows one of his master classes in New York, and explains in detail his acting and directing technique, as well as being sort of a workbook for actors. I will be using Meisner’s acting style as the primary teaching tool for my cast.

Gender

Tuana, Nancy, William Cowling, Maurice Hamilton, Greg Johnson and Terrance MacMullan, eds. Revealing Male Bodies. Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1992.  This book is something of a reaction to all the literature surrounding women’s bodies. It is a collection of essays on male identity and male bodies, gender norms, the social aspects of the human body, and issues surrounding the specifically male anatomy. I am interested in this book primarily for its sections on the male experience of wearing women’s clothing, and of assuming a female identity. My hope is to be able to understand more of what it will mean to place male actors in female roles. The excerpts I will be using are “Dragging Out the Queen: Male Femaling and Male Feminism”  and “Turnabout: Gay Drag Queens and the Masculine Embodiment of the Feminine”.


Ekins, Richard and Dave King, eds. Blending Genders: Social Aspects of Cross-dressing and Sex-changing. New York: Routledge, 1996. “In Blending Genders international contributors come together in a lively discussion of all those who attempt to blend various aspects of gender, either in respect of themselves or others. In addition to historical, sociological and political analyses the book includes a number of personal and descriptive accounts. Blending Genders is the first comprehensive treatment of the social aspects of cross-dressing and sex-changing and, as such, can rightly lay first claim to an emerging field of transgender studies.” I have interest in this book because of its discussion of ‘historical crossdressing’. Specifically, the article I will read is from “Part I: Experiencing Gender Blending”. The article is titled “In Female Attire: Male Experiences of Cross-Dressing – Some Historical Fragments”.

Weitz, Rose. The Politics of Women’s Bodies. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. 25-45. “The Politics of Women’s Bodies: Sexuality, Appearance and Behavior, 2/e, brings together recent critical writings in this important field, covering such diverse topics as the sources of eating disorders, the nature of lesbianism, and the consequences of violence against women.” I will be reading the article by Sandra Lee Bartky “Foucault, Femininity, and the Modernization of Patriarchal Power”.

France

Sowerwine, Charles. France Since 1870: culture, politics and society. New York: Palgrave, 2001. (Chapter 9, France after the War, 1919 – 28. “France since 1870 is a history of France from the definitive establishment of the Republic in the 1870s to the social and economic changes of the 1990s. It brings a fresh gendered and cultural approach to bear on social and political issues. Sowerwine has created a narrative history covering a broad sweep of French history, including such dramatic events as the Commune, the Dreyfus Affair, World War I, the Popular Front, Vichy and the French Holocaust, and May ’68.” I will be using this book to help familiarize myself with the French experience during the time this play takes place. I am hoping to gain insight into the characters, the playwright, the experience of the Papin sisters by studying the experience of working class French women in general during this period. I will be reading the excerpts “Class Struggle”, “The Elections of 1919”, “Gender struggle: Repression” and “Gender struggle: Liberation?”.

McMillan, James, ed. Modern France 1880-2002, from The Short Oxford History of France, William Doyle, ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. This book will be another source on the experience and power struggles of working class French women during the period The Maids takes place. I will read Chapter 6: Women: Distant Vistas, Changed Lives.

Edwards, Rachel and Keith Reader. The Papin Sisters. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. This is an in-depth study of the Papin sisters, Christine and Léa. (the real-life women on whose story Genet based his plot for The Maids.). I hope that by having knowledge of their story, I will be able to more accurately understand what Genet was attempting to do with his play.

"More than this, the idea of 'race' defined and consolidated typologies that could not be dissociated from their very specific representational technology and its perceptual and cognitive regimes. The truths of race were produced 'performatively' from the hat that biological science provided, like so many startled rabbits, in front of a noisy, eager, imperial crowd. 'Race' became an important means to link metaphysics and technology; it made sense readily within these unprecedented historical conditions." - Paul Gilroy, "Race Ends Here"

(All definitions are taken from the O.E.D.) 

TYPOLOGY: The study of symbolic representation, symbolic significance, representation, or treatment; symbolism. 2.) The study of classes w/common characteristics; classification, esp. of human products, behaviour, characteristics, etc., according to type; the comparative analysis of structural or other characteristics; a classification or analysis of this kind.

CONSOLIDATE: unite, make whole, combine, connect.

REPRESENTATIONISM: The doctrine that the immediate object of the mind in perception is only a representation of the real object in the external world.

COGNITIVE: The action or process of knowing

IMPERIAL: empire, sovereign state. 2.) designating certain decorations or orders

METAPHYSICS: questions about substance, being, time and space, causation, change + identity; the first principles of things; phenomena beyond the scope of scientific inquiry.

Translation

What kind of body society needs? What kind of body society needs. I feel like there's a difference, apropos of gender, between men & women's needs... Men need a body thta is strong and able. I think strength applies to both sexes. Except, especially today and among college-age youth, I feel like there's a shift in the ideal male body - men are tending to be more feminine; thinner, curvier bodies, longer hair, tighter clothing... that perhaps the shift is more towards... I think androgyny is becoming sort of an ideal - male bodies need to have the pleasing aesthetic of a slender female form but also need to be useful and energetic, smart, accomplished.

The feminine "mystique" is shifting from Marilyn Monroe curves to skinny Minnies - the waif is popular on both sides. Why? Maybe we're just tiring of broad shoulders, muscular arms, giant breasts?

Idealized bodies:

-DaVincian proportions

-a perfect blend of masculine cut and feminine curve

    I am an intersexed mouse. My sex organs are in my head, but I also have a vagina on my underbelly. My vagina is also my eye, the only eye I have, but as I am constantly facing downwards i am blind. I have a long, long spinal cord attaching my head to my body - my head also functions as a sex organ by virtue of connecting (engaging in intercourse) with a computer, without which I can't function. I only function if my sexual partner - the computer - is turned on. My arms are able to function as individuals, though they are inescapably attached to my body. My arms can be clicked - manipulated by whoever holds me. When I am turned on, my butt glows red. I am smooth to the touch and shapely. I am an intersexual - although I have a vagina on my underbelly, my head penetrates and is penetrated by the computer I attach to - it is there that our intelligences merge, so the act of sex is always also a constant interchange of information. There is no sex for me without knowledge, or without electricity. Without my partner, I am nothing - I am dependent on two external manifestations. I must be guided externally if I am to move. I am the computer's favorite prosthetic. I am designed for comfort. My head is a powerhouse of potential energy. I am clothed in steely blue with silver stripes (to accentuate my curves), but underneath I am red, red, red. My underbelly is transparent - my intestines and digestive system are clearly visible. I have been branded with text as someone else's property - I do not own myself. I was made by many, and was born in several different global locations. I am not a unique individual - I am an identical mill-tuplet.

PRO      (s)      THESIS

ANTI     (s)     THESIS

 

ProsTHEsis

ProsShesis

Pro She is

But what if she isn't? 

 

Pros THIS is

Pros THESE is

(that's bad grammar) 

(note: I don't think I understood the prompt. But here it is.)

I have a glass eye (I had a glass eye). I fell in love with it after it became a part of my body, an unblinking unseeing part but a part nonetheless. It's smooth gloss was cleaner than that other soiled organic eye ever could have been. It sits in my face with benign perfection and allows no emotion to move it; no tears will render it dysfunctional, no red-eye, astigmatism, bleary morning-after syndrome, cracks, cuts, bruises, soreness, stinging, irritation, sleepymen, uncouth unclean bio-processes won't invade it's calm Gandhi meditation in my skull. My other eye may feel too strongly; this one is eternal and beautiful, and most of all always on guard, always alert, never resting, never sleeping, I can watch when I'm unconscious - I can deceive and mystify: not only that, but this eye is GREEN, a magnificent cut-grass green that would never otherwise appear in my brown-shaded self.

       I see, in the inorganic objects, a light bulb - and within the light bulb a parasol, and without the light bulb a parasol. I see a wheel, a studded tire, countless BMW monograms in aluminum steel, a gear grinder, and a pocket watch. Among the organic there dwells a wig but not really a wig simply because the face is missing, replaced instead with a cut of a photo of a red dress and some lettering, which is perhaps inorganic but seems organic by virtue of the placement. A lone curved hand stretches out from the hair, the hand looks Venus-like, like a hand I've seen before. Oh! It looks like David's hand, David of The Statue of David. The woman's face in the corner has one eye barely visible, covered by the BMW moniker and the other eye distended, out of proportion, too-big too-blurry out of focus, perhaps not even a human eye at all. This woman's face is in stark black and white. The same color as the light bulb.

Here we have color, sepia tone, and black and white.

    There is a sepia man emerging from the center of the studded tire, perhaps a sports player. He looks to be punching (but layered over) the parasol and the woman holding it. Gold bright white mechanical evolution, feminine and organic but utilitarian woman-as-machina, woman-as-car, a timekeeper, what do we find beautiful? Is it time (watch), money (BMW), power (electricity), motion and movement? Oh if only we could put wigs on our engines and fingernails on our timepieces, what a marvelous bio-mechanical fusion of the new and the old, sexy IS technology, don't you know?

 

Blythe

Concept Rhyming Essay #2

Professor Zay

Oct. 28, 2007

“This was a whole new race, energy incarnate, charged with supreme energy. Supple bodies, lean and sinewy, striking features…theirs was the keenest assembly of bodies, intelligence, will, and sensation.”

-excerpt from Klaus Theweleit’s “Male Bodies and the ‘White Terror’”

<!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]-->

I would like to look at Pumping Iron II: The Women as it relates to Klaus Theweleit’s article “Male Bodies and the ‘White Terror’”. Even though the film itself is meant to be an infomercial, a glorification of the body and especially the female body, a tribute to the sport of bodybuilding, it has many overlapping qualities with Theweleit’s discourse on the military experience: Body as machine. Woman as machine. Women who use machines to make their bodies bigger. The desiring-machine. Theweleit’s article focuses on male bodies, but I think there are many ‘rhyming’ concepts between this article about the white militaristic male body and this film that is trying to explore and advertise women’s bodybuilding and fitness.

So many things wrong with this ad, but it is very worth examining in light of this week's cyborg reading. Please take a look!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-NfrBgYIEQ

 

Okay. As previously announced, I am doing a production of Jean Genet's "The Maids" (oh my god.) This will be a pretty all-consuming endeavor. I am: sometimes late to things but very focused upon arrival. I am goal-oriented and passionate about performance. I work best in a relaxed environment (not doing-nothing-and-talking-about-celebrities relaxed, but calm open-minded let's-take-time-to-do-things-well relaxed). Looking for people who would be supportive of and interested in a theatre project, even if they've never done a lick of theatre before. I want a wide range of perspectives (visual art, creative writing, photography etc), but people who would also be really titillated and excited about discussing the play process. Things I would love to explore winter quarter: Jean Genet - as a person, playwright and novelist, more Foucault, French culture esp. as it pertains to power relations (servitude, the experience of the working class, etc), 1930s - 1940s era art and film, the 'performativity of gender', more gender theory in general, as well as performance theory. The thing about this play is that I'm planning on casting male-identified individuals in the roles of the maids, which will be an exciting social experiment in itself - myself as an identified woman, directing identified men on how to play women (who are secretly men anyway, according to Sartre's interpretation of the play). It's ideal if the play itself is also good, but I'm planning on doing a lot of writing about the process, which is why I want to continue to explore gender theory (for instance, how do you teach someone to act 'like a woman'? How can we take the subject [femininity] out of the object [the human with 'female' physical attributes], and eventually make femininity itself just a gesture and a symbol, a coat to be worn by anyone who wants it?). I'm realizing I'm one of the only people in the class doing a performance project, so I will bring a unique perspective to the group.