Note:
You want to root for a new company like MAIDEN PHOENIX, dedicated to finding more
opportunities for female theater artists. And you really want to support their
current effort, an examination of the prisons women build for themselves, aided
and abetted by pop culture and the fashion industry. (Thin, white waifs with
attitude stare out from glossy magazine pages in S&M poses, thanks
singlehandedly to photographer Helmut Newton back in the ‘80s, but I’ll bitch
about that in another article). The women in MISS PENETENTIARY are still (after
all these years) desperate to be desired and desperate to be liked by everyone.
Where did the feminists of the ‘60s go wrong? We thought we exploded the Cinderella
myth. We thought we had the ERA in our grasp. Well, no. But we thought we
raised the next generation(s) to be independent, proud and self-confidant. What
happened?
We
thought Roe v. Wade sealed the deal but here we are again, 100 years after
Margaret Sanger founded the first birth control clinic, defending Planned
Parenthood. We thought “our bodies were our own” but the Right Wing and Bill
Cosby think they belong to them. What?
SO as
a show of support for Planned Parenthood, MAIDEN PHOENIX is donating the
proceeds from their October 8th show to PP. That’s putting your
money where your play is!
THE REVIEW
Laura Neubauer’s MISS PENETENTIARY (@ BPT through Oct. 17th)
is a wry look at the bars women set for themselves—and around themselves—with
self-loathing, perfectionism and defeatism, not to mention those Jimmy Choo six
inch heels. The play opens with a nifty chuckle. Just like the orphans in
ANNIE, the inmates scrub the floor of their jail in syncopated rhythm. Each
hopes to escape by scrubbing the hardest and by winning a beauty contest. Hence
the play’s title.
Part theater of the absurd, part theater of revolt and part sermon,
MISS PENETENTIARY has five capable actresses, under Alyce Householter’s smart
direction, playing the heck out of Neubauer’s meandering script. Neubauer takes
considerable pains to introduce each character, so much so that you’re not sure
who the central character is for quite some time, given all the posturing.
Each inmate gets plenty of meaty dialogue and a hurdle to
overcome. Often these obstacles occupy several scenes when one would suffice.
Neubauer’s conceit has lots of promise but it gets bogged down in unintended
contradictions: For instance, Gret (Kim Klasner) thinks she isn’t attractive
(when all she needs is confidence in herself) and how does she get the
confidence? By putting on make-up and styling her hair? Surely that isn’t the
point Neubauer wants to make. In fact, Neubauer goes to great lengths to
sabotage the idea of beauty pageants but sometimes her focus is a bit blurry.
Perhaps sending up pageants makes the play clearly a comedy
(with wonderfully funny choreography by Kaitee Treadway and smashing music by
Christopher Higgins) where tackling illiteracy and overcoming drug addiction
make the play a serious endeavor. Can they coexist? Perhaps but I couldn’t see
it gel. It’s not easy to make a script work the first (or last) time out. The
Maiden Phoenix people are taking a big risk with a new play. And we need new
plays by women! Neubauer is extremely fortunate to have Klasner, Dayenne
Walters, Elissa Palma, Caitlin Gjerdrum and Holly Cinnamon to strut her stuff.
