The Personal is Political (And Performable) panel Thursday, September 30 7-8:30 PM ET, will feature Sue Perlgut, founder of It’s All Right To Be Woman Theatre, Roberta Sklar and Sondra Segal of the Women’s Experimental Theatre, Bobbi Ausubel of Caravan Theatre, Martha Boesing of At the Foot of the Mountain Theater, moderated by Sara Warner, Cornell University.
In 1963, Bobbi Ausubel and Stan Edelson invested a grand sum of $50 to create an experimental theater dedicated to political awareness.
Caravan is best known for developing How to Make A Woman (HTMW). Under Ausubel’s direction, a committed acting company explored women’s issues and themes – their daily improvisations scripted finally by Edelson into open-ended scenarios resulting in HTMW, which is set in a dress shop offering only limited choices (society’s roles) for women. Caravan style. Caravan Theater won multiple awards for Best Ensemble, while receiving National Endowment for Arts and Massachusetts Arts and Humanities Foundation grants.
Minneapolis-based At the Foot of the Mountain Theatre operated from 1974 to 1991. In 1976, a group of women including Martha Boesing decided to rededicate the work of the company to making theatre for, by, and about women. The permanent home of the company, the People’s Center, housed them for twelve years until the company’s dissolution in 1991, at which point they were the nation’s longest-running feminist theatre company.
From 1970 – 1976 It’s All Right To Be Woman Theater lived, worked and performed in New York City and traveled to women’s centers and college campuses across the U.S. Their performances of stories from their lives inspired audiences everywhere and were key to the movement that is now known as “Second Wave Feminism.”They were seen by thousands of women and men who laughed and cried with us and embraced their message.
Follow this link to learn more about the theatre and the documentary
The Women’s Experimental Theater (1976-1986) founded in NYC by Clare Coss, Sondra Segal and Roberta Sklar flourished for a decade as a part of the vibrant second wave of the feminist community and movement.