staging gender

[Adam Blatner]

I was sent an item (at the bottom), a call for papers about staging gender (from Sally 
Bailey, a major drama therapist), and this is what occurred to me. Your additions, 
comments, etc. will be helpful:

  What about presenting dramatically the issues related to gender? What about putting on a 
sociodrama in which men and women
 are present; some situations are chosen; and the key is that in addition to the roles of 
the men and women being enacted, there are also the doubles, representing the inner 
voices, and cultural expectations voices, impacting each actor. The real goal is to 
identify and embody and express these various cultural expectations factors, the voices 
that say things like
    not attractive enough,   too feminine, too masculine, too dorky, girls shouldn't let 
their aggressive intelligence show, can I engage in this interaction without make-up?  and 
the hundreds of other voices.
      Also, people can have loud inner voices and softer inner voices, little 
whispers---not enough to be compelling, but enough to make one a little uncomfortable, 
unsure.
   So, I imagine a workshop that would in effect be a mixture of axiodrama and sociodrama, 
since gendered role is larger than sub-culture and local social matrix

   It seems to me that there would be value in bringing to consciousness, explicitly 
identifying, naming and recording on a pad or taking notes the various issues involved! 
(I'm into identifying the issues and sub-components of issues, the unspoken beliefs and 
assumptions behind those beliefs.)

  I don't know if anyone has explored this. Do you know?   Warmly, Adam

> based on email sent from" <sdbailey at KSU.EDU> To: <DRAMATHERAPYLST at LISTSERV.KSU.EDU>
Sunday, January 04, 2009 Subject: Call for Papers: eJournal of Theatre & Performing Arts


 Platform Postgraduate eJournal of Theatre & Performing Arts:  Call For Papers: Deadline 
Friday 23 Jan 2009
 Spring 2009 (Vol 4, No 1): Staging Gender(s)
       Submissions are invited from postgraduates, postdoctoral researchers and 
entry-level academics in the fields of theatre and performing arts for the next edition of 
Platform, a themed issue, titled Staging Gender(s).
 How does theatre intervene in our perception of gender identity? What is the relationship 
between academic discourse on gender and feminism, and performance practices? Is there 
still a need to consider theatre practitioners or playwrights according to their gender? 
To what extent is work by women in theatre and performance informed by gender and 
feminism?
    Setting out from current debates surrounding the contested legitimacy and/or efficacy 
of terms such as feminism and gender identity this issue aims to explore the multiple 
intersections of gender and feminism(s) in different forms of theatre and performance. We 
hope that this issue will contribute to this debate on the relationship between feminism, 
gender and theatre/performance and make an attempt to trace connections with the past as 
well as to examine current and future directions.
    Topics might include but are by no means limited to: Gender and/or feminism as 
political intervention;  Intersections of feminist/gender/race/queer identities with 
theatre practice/theatre history; Futures for feminism(s); International feminism(s);
Representations of masculine identities in theatre history/practice; The 'new lad' plays 
and the feminist backlash; Gender identity and globalisation/nomadism/cosmopolitanism; 
Gender, feminism and reception; Platform welcomes practice-based papers.
    The deadline for submissions is Friday 23rd January 2009. Papers should be sent as 
email attachments, along with a short (200 word) abstract, to: 
platform-submissions at rhul.ac.uk
>>
>> Details of our submission guidelines can be found on the website
>> (www.rhul.ac.uk/drama/platform) and we recommend that potential
>> contributors familiarise themselves with these before sending in their
>> papers. All papers are reviewed by one academic and one peer reviewer,
>> provided they meet our submission guidelines.
>>
>> Platform is an electronic journal devoted to postgraduates, postdoctoral
>> researchers, and entry-level academics in the fields of theatre and
>> performing arts. Platform is run by postgraduates for postgraduates,
>> and is based at the Drama and Theatre Department of Royal Holloway,
>> University of London.
>> http://www.rhul.ac.uk/drama/platform
>>
>> --
>> Marissia Fragou
>> PhD Candidate
>> Department of Drama and Theatre
>> Royal Holloway University of London
>> Egham Surrey
>> TW20 0EX
>>
>> www.rhul.ac.uk/drama/platform
>>