GRRL PARTS
In 2006, Susan McCully, a dramaturg and lecturer in UMBC’s Department of Theatre, decided to take action against a problem that seemed to crop every with every production: “In faculty meeting after faculty meeting, we would say ‘We have ten women in our scene class, and there just isn’t a decent play with substantial roles for even four women.’ And every theatre department has the same problem–I had this experience when I was in college.” Her solution was to inaugurate the annual “IN 10” festival, which commissioned short plays (most about ten minutes in length) with roles for female actors.
Now known as the GRRL PARTS festival, the tradition continues this year from March 2 through 6 at the UMBC Theatre with a presentation of three plays–two world premieres and one U.S. premiere–all directed by Eve Muson, an assistant professor in UMBC’s Department of Theatre. The commissioned works include Runaways by Ellen McLaughlin, whose plays have been staged throughout the U.S.; Snip, by Karen Hartman, whose multiple awards have included grants from the Rockefeller Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts; and What Is the Custom of Your Grief? by Timberlake Wertenbaker, a renowned British playwright who is a recipient of the New York Drama Critics Award.
McCully comments, “This is very engaging literature, and it’s the first time the plays as a group have had a global perspective. The three plays share a theme of young women–sisters, wives, mothers and lovers–bound together by desires and destinies beyond their control.”
Over the past seven years, GRRL PARTS has commissioned new plays by Heather McDonald (The Two Marys), Tina Howe (Milk and Water), Naomi Wallace (Duet for Water), Lee Blessing (Into You), Caridad Svich (Stepping on Water), Kia Corthron (Trickle), Phyllis Nagy (The One, The Other) and Naomi Iizuka (This Girl I Used to Know).
McCully plans to eventually publish all the commissioned works as an anthology. “The value of the anthology is that people will be able to pull from it according to their needs–these will be used by colleges and universities throughout the country.”
More information about the GRRL PARTS festival is available at http://www.umbc.edu/arts.
Dept of Theatre
Susan McCully
Eve Muson
(2/25/11)
