The Creative Corner - Guest Blog #1: Jennifer Arfsten
/The prodigal blogger returns! …not sure that label really works here…oh well! Onward!
I would like to introduce you all to the next of my fulfilled promises for this new year of blogging with a segment I’m calling The Creative Corner.
“But Michael, what is this Creative Corner? Don’t you already write about ‘creative’ things?” An astute observation, dear reader.
The Creative Corner is my new, just-out-of-the-packaging Guest Blog segment, where I ask friends and colleagues in the creative field to write about a topic they are interested in or passionate about, which connects to either the business or their personal creativity.
I hope to have a Creative Corner post once per month so you can hear some lovely thoughts (other than my own) on the beautiful craziness that is the business of making art.
Our first guest is Jennifer Arfsten. I met Jenn last year as part of the Bristol Valley Theater callback process for their 2019 summer season. She’s a wonderful performer and an absolute delight in the room. Jenn made an impression right away with both her talents and her humor, and I was delighted when she was cast to play Anne Boleyn in the premiere production of The King’s Legacy. Her performance was beautiful and nuanced, and she was a joy to work with this summer. Jenn has become a good friend of mine in a very short period of time, and I look forward to watching where this friendship and our continued work will take us!
And now, without further ado, The Creative Corner #1: Jennifer Arfsten - Where Are All The Women?
Where Are All The Women?
“This is just....so weird.”
It was the thought that I couldn’t shake as I stood in a room full of gorgeous, statuesque, barely clothed women, while four white men ran a critical eye over them.
While this might sound like the start of a questionable fantasy to some, for a woman in musical theater, specifically a dancer, this scene is utterly commonplace. Dressed in our finest black lingerie, trying to be both darkly seductive and balletically refined, we prepared to dance our legs off and potentially earn a spot in this production of “Chicago”.
Every morning they can, dedicated and hopeful NYC non-Equity female performers wake up before dawn, do their makeup, pack their dance shoes, and wait in line for hours for the mere chance to be seen and considered for a show.
Though I am intimately familiar with this grind and have been in a similar room dozens of times, on this particular day I could not take my eyes off the casting team: The older bald choreographer, who kept giving barely perceptible shakes of his head to the young (male) dance captain; the bearded casting director who leaned against the mirror with his arms crossed, engaged yet aloof; and the academic-looking casting director shuffling our headshots as fast as possible. Undoubtedly, all of these men are accomplished professionals in their respective fields with years of knowledge and experience. But as I watched them watching us, casually making decisions that could alter the next year of our lives, I wondered why, when casting a show centering around two iconic female musical theater roles, is there not one woman behind the table?
When it comes to musical theater writ large, creative teams are predominantly male. In the words of Kathy from The Last Five Years, “When you walk in the room there’s a table of men, always men, usually gay, who’ve been sitting like I have and listening all day to 200 girls belting as high as they can”. (These seemingly relatable lyrics come from the musician/lyricist Jason Robert Brown...ironically, yet another man behind the table). It seems this continues to be the accepted industry status quo, and the problem goes all the way from creation to casting. In the shows that opened on Broadway in 2018, 37% of the principal roles were for women; 19% of the new plays/musicals were directed by women; only 16% of these new works were written by women. All of this consumed by audience members who are 66% female.
Why is this problematic? Though many theatrical writers are brilliantly prolific in portraying the human condition, there are certain unique experiences only expressed by those who have lived through it. Culturally, we seem to be grasping this concept when it comes to ethnic diversity: no one is keen on art portraying a minority experience or story written by a white person, and rightly so. But in the same way, why do we continue to accept stories of women that have been created and sculpted by the male experience? Why are we, as women, content with looking at ourselves through their eyes?
On the encouraging side of things, there is a definite upward trend in representation (see graph at bottom of page for data from 2019). But we need to be asking more of our theatrical leaders, and more of ourselves when it comes to the media we consume. A small but meaningful solution I live by: I almost solely read narratives by female authors with female protagonists. Some might find this sexist, or seemingly unnecessary. But these are the stories I’m interested in supporting and absorbing: women as the heroes of their own stories, with full, vibrant, nuanced lives. And in a world where a woman as successful as JK Rowling still had to publish under a pseudonym, I’d argue the necessity is obvious.
We get more stories of diversity when we have diverse people in creative and authoritative positions. We need more women at the helm in theater. We need more people who are already successful under the current system to care about elevating women. With the reality that men are still overwhelmingly the majority in positions of power, I believe they should be cognizant of and responsible for asking what they are actively doing to include more female voices; further, male and female, we should all continue to demand it.
Thinking back to Chicago (a musical originally created with an all-male creative team, source material from a female playwright) I’m reminded of an old meme I saw, sporting a picture of more scantily glad women hitting almost impossible poses, with these words emblazoned across the front: “Only one man should tell a woman what to do with her body, and that’s Bob Fosse.”
Ha. A sensible political/theatrical joke. Sure. But...who adapted and perfected his technique to fit the female anatomy? Gwen Verdon. And she was a celebrated, Tony-Award winning actress long before Fosse arrived to bless and mess with her life.
I welcome and honor the tradition and contribution of most men to musical theater. But often, as I observe an art form that prides itself on inclusivity and diverse storytelling, it’s unfortunate that I still have to ask: Where are all the women?
Weinert-Kendt, Rob. “This Year's Gender & Period Count: The Best Numbers Yet.” AMERICAN THEATRE, 19 Sept. 2019, www.americantheatre.org/2018/09/25/this-years-gender-period-count-the-best-numbers-yet/.
(Disclaimer: This whole discussion is built around current heteronormative gender labels, with respect to the fact that the conversation regarding representation of LGBTQ and gender-nonconforming individuals is also important and necessary in the further evolution of theater.)
Sources:
Geier, Thom. “Broadway Gender Gap: Women Had 37 Percent of Principal Roles in Last Season's New Shows.” TheWrap, 4 June 2018, www.thewrap.com/broadway-gender-gap-women-37-percent-principal-roles/.
Miller, Julie. “Inside Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon's Unconventional Marriage.” Vanity Fair, Vanity Fair, 16 Apr. 2019, www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2019/04/gwen-verdon-bob-fosse-fx-marriage.
Weinert-Kendt, Rob. “This Year's Gender & Period Count: The Best Numbers Yet.” AMERICAN THEATRE, 19 Sept. 2019, www.americantheatre.org/2018/09/25/this-years-gender-period-count-the-best-numbers-yet/.
Jennifer Arfsten
Jennifer Arfsten is a New York City based performer and barre instructor. She is passionate about politics, feminism, and empowering others through mental and physical fitness. She recently performed as Anne Boleyn in the premiere production of Michael Radi’s The King’s Legacy at Bristol Valley Theater.
(IG) @jenniferarfsten
