Arresting Rape Culture – Projects - Theatre
1) Geoffrey Simon Brown. Little Red
“The idea of using the Red Riding Hood myth to discuss sexual taboos, rape culture and sexual assault has been brewing with me for more than a decade. Two years ago I approached Major Matt Mason and we had a series of intensive discussions at a retreat we took in Rosebud which lead to a radical reimagining of the myth.”
2) D. Jeremy Smith, The Taming of the Shrew (Adaptation, 50 Shades of Shrew?)
“Director D. Jeremy Smith recasts the competitive approach to love and sex within a wider discussion of consent, domination and rape culture that's been brought to the fore by accusations against Jian Ghomeshi and Bill Cosby.”
Website: https://nowtoronto.com/stage/theatre/review-the-taming-of-the-shrew/
3) The Ghomeshi Effect
“The term the ‘Ghomeshi effect’ was coined two years ago and has been used by several newspapers (The Vancouver Sun, The National Post, The Toronto Star, Now Toronto, The Walrus, Maclean’s Magazine, and Salon) to describe the phenomenon that Mr. Ghomeshi’s trial has inspired: namely that people are now speaking regularly and openly about sexual violence, particularly how it is handled in the justice system. The term adequately describes the content of this play, which will present multiple perspectives on the topic of sexual violence and the justice system in hopes of encouraging discussion and critical thought around this very challenging subject.”
Website: https://theghomeshieffect.com/2017/01/10/sexual-assault-survivors-lawyers-and-activists-speak-out-through-the-ghomeshi-effect/
4) William Shakespeare: Rape of Lucrece, Hamlet, The Tempest, Othello, Romeo & Juliet
5) Marie Clements, The Unnatural and Accidental Women
“Marie Clements reconstructs the lives of these women as shaped by lost connections—to loved ones, to the land, to a way of life—lives of at times desperate, at times tender yearning for ties of communication, belonging and shelter gone dead.”
Website: http://talonbooks.com/books/the-unnatural-and-accidental-women
6) Nozake Shange, For Colored Girls Who Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf
“Colored Girls first took shape in 1974 as an electrifying performance by Shange and four of her close friends in a Berkeley, Calif., women’s bar, the Bacchanal. As they moved and danced, they recited Shange’s poems–about coming of age, heartbreak, sexual assault, redemption. The choreopoem went on to Broadway to win an Obie and be nominated for Tony and Grammy awards.”
Website: https://www.poemhunter.com/ntozake-shange/
7) Minita Gandhi, Muthaland
“Minita Gandhi is the American-born daughter of Indian immigrants, and like many in her generation, she feels stuck between two worlds. This notion of straddling divergent spaces is something she explores in her one-woman show, Muthaland, which charts her coming of age.”
Website: https://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/511835/theater-heal-from-sexual-assault/
8) Augusto Boal, Theatre of the Oppressed.
“As created by Brazilian theatre visionary and Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Augusto Boal (1931-2009), Theatre of the Oppressed (T.O.) is a form of popular community-based education that uses theater as a tool for social change. Originally developed out of Boal’s revolutionary work with peasant and worker populations in Latin America, it is now used all over the world for social and political activism, conflict resolution, community building, therapy, and government legislation. It is also practiced on a grassroots level by community organizers, activists, teachers, social workers, cultural animators, and more.”
Website: http://www.mandalaforchange.com/applied-theatre/theatre-of-the-oppressed/
9) Judith Thompson, Palace of the End
“Based around the lives of three distinct characters—a young soldier imprisoned for her misconduct at a prison camp in Iraq, a microbiologist-cum-weapons inspector who exposes the false justifications for war, and a mother/political opponent of Saddam Hussein—Palace of the End details the reality of the war in Iraq from three unique perspectives. With its emphasis on the human voice and power of the soul in the midst of a destructive war, each account is a riveting and brilliantly portrayed indictment of one of the contemporary world’s worst conflicts.”
Website: http://www.playwrightscanada.com/index.php/genres/award-winners-1/palace-of-the-end.html
10) Drew Hayden Tayler, God and the Indian
“At its core, God and the Indian, by celebrated Aboriginal playwright Drew Hayden Taylor, explores the complex process of healing through dialogue. Loosely based on Death and the Maiden by Chilean playwright Ariel Dorfman, the play identifies the ambiguities that frame past traumatic events. Against the backdrop of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which has facilitated the recent outpouring of stories from residential school survivors across the country, the play explores what is possible when the abused meets the abuser and is given a free forum for expression.”
Website: http://www.drewhaydentaylor.com/books/god-and-the-indian/
11) Diana Tso, Red Snow
"In 2009 Diana Tso had the opportunity to meet survivors of World War Two in China and Korea to hear their testimonies through ALPHA Education’s Peace and Reconciliation program. It deeply enriched the writing of her play Red Snow, a love story inspired by survivors of the Rape of Nanking."
12) Diana Tso, Comfort
"Comfort is a declaration of love as well as a story about resilience, inspired by the comfort women forced into sexual slavery in WWII. During WWII Japan’s military sexually enslaved over 200,000 women and girls across Asia. Their stories continue to be silenced as are the voices of many women in war, in our present day and in our own city. Comfort merges eastern and western storytelling traditions through text, movement and live music, bringing diverse cultures together to speak our stories"
Website:http://code.on.ca/blog/spotlight-artist-diana-tso-and-her-new-play-comfort-womens-rights-through-theatre