"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."While the men who crafted those words did not specifically refer to women, Native Americans, or slaves, I think it's fair to assume that this mission statement for the American democracy was aimed to protect its citizens from the kinds of abuse suffered at the hands of the British crown and religious zealots. As more loathsome legislation is enacted into law in states like Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Ohio, and Missouri (with Louisiana's politicians just itching to join the parade of ignorant hypocrites), perhaps we should try to view current events through the masks of the theatrical gods of comedy and tragedy. To that end, let me offer up the following reading suggestions:
- "Honestly, We Just Hate Women," by Jessica M. Goldstein.
- "Suicide Rates In Girls Are Rising, Study Finds, Especially In Those Age 10 to 14," by Dr. Edith Bracho-Sanchez.
- "Alabama’s Extremist Abortion Bill Ruins John Roberts’ Roe Plan," by Dahlia Lithwick.
- "Anti-Choice Laws Are the Establishment of Religion," by The Rude Pundit.
- "When Life Begins and Ends," by Alexandra Petri.
Of course not. I sometimes wonder if what frightens the religious right more than anything else is the idea that women are innately more intelligent, more efficient, and can get more done than men. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell may have chastised Senator Elizabeth Warren with the phrase "Nevertheless, she persisted," but Warren's presidential campaign is going full steam ahead with policy proposals that could [hopefully] make McConnell's head explode.
Senator Kamala Harris may have one of the most outgoing personalities on the campaign trail, but she has proven to be a skilled prosecutor who can meticulously fillet Attorneys General like Jeff Sessions and William Barr. Veteran Congresswoman Maxine Waters had no trouble making mincemeat out of Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin. Newly-elected Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez may seem like a tempting target for macho blowhards, but she comes to a Congressional hearing armed with plenty of pertinent data.
Add in such highly articulate and powerful women as Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Cecile Richards (the former President of Planned Parenthood whose memoir entitled "Make Trouble: Standing Up, Speaking Out, And Finding The Courage To Lead" was published in 2018), Stacey Abrams (who is focusing her efforts on protecting voting rights), and Congresswoman Katie Porter (who did a splendid job of slicing and dicing JPMorgan Chase's CEO, Jamie Dimon, during a recent hearing) and you've got a formidable team of strong-willed women. And let's not forget late night comedians like Samantha Bee and Leslie Jones.
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Recently screened during the 2019 CAAMFest, A Woman's Work:The NFL's Cheerleader Problem is a documentary co-produced by director by Yu Gu and writer Elizabeth Ai which chronicles how three courageous cheerleaders took on the National Football League and won an important legal battle over wage theft. The premise for the film described as follows:“Imagine two all-star high school athletes passionate about their sport. Each of them grow up training, practicing, and competing relentlessly, until they earn full ride scholarships to ‘Division I’ colleges. Their talent and devotion set them apart from their peers, culminating with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to ‘go pro' (a level few will ever achieve). Each signs a multi-billion dollar NFL team but, while one will make millions, the other may not earn a legal minimum wage.”
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| Cheerleaders are in the spotlight in a scene from A Woman's Work |
“The former is a football player, a hero performing choreographed violence. The latter is a dancer/cheerleader, performing choreographed sexuality. The National Football League (a multi-billion dollar institution responsible for creating America’s favorite pastime) is a thriving example of systemic wage and gender inequalities. A Woman’s Work follows three characters through their legal and personal journeys in a David and Goliath fight.”
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| Underpaid and underappreciated, a cheerleader faces crushing debt in A Woman's Work |
On January 22, 2014 (just days prior to the Super Bowl), lawyers for a Bay area cheerleader filed an historic class-action lawsuit entitled Lacy T. v. Oakland Raiders. Inspired by her bold action, several months later, cheerleaders from five other NFL dance squads filed similar lawsuits alleging flagrant violations of state and federal minimum wage laws. Leslie Levy (Lacy’s labor rights attorney) made no bones about the fact that “NFL cheerleaders are some of the lowest paid workers in America. Minimum wage concessions workers are paid more. I’ve never seen an employment contract with more illegal provisions in my entire career.”
In May of 2017, the Oakland Raiders agreed to pay a $1.25 million settlement to 100 former cheerleaders who performed as Raiderettes from 2010 to 2014. Attorney Sharon Vinick of Levy Vinick Burrell Hyams asserted that “While our clients have now been paid the equivalent of minimum wage for all of the hours they worked and have been reimbursed for their out-of-pocket expenses, it is important to note that paying these women minimum wage doesn’t represent the value that these hard-working women bring to the Game Day Experience.”
After California’s Governor Jerry Brown signed AB202 into law, the bill’s author, California Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (a former Stanford cheerleader) stressed that:
“NFL teams and their billionaire owners have used professional cheerleaders as part of the game day experience for decades. They have capitalized on their talents without providing even the most basic workplace protections like a minimum wage. AB202 simply demands that any professional sports team (or their chosen contractor) treat the women on the field with the same dignity and respect that we treat the guy selling beer.”
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| Lacy T. in a scene from A Woman's Work |
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On May 21, 2017, after 146 years in business, the Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus performed for the last time. While there were numerous causes for its demise (protests from animal rights groups like PETA, diminishing audiences, too many entertainment choices on cable-TV), one factor has rarely been cited: the fact that cultural oddities that once seemed taboo or subversive have gone mainstream. Traditional concepts of gender identity, body piercing, and tattoo art now seem almost quaint. People who want to see exotic beasts like lions, tigers, and elephants can now watch them give birth on YouTube. The result? "Ballet Kink at the Guggenheim," a "sign of the times" article by Betsy Morais in The New Yorker.Playground is currently presenting the world premiere of a provocative new play entitled A History of Freaks. Written by Katie May and directed by Doyle Ott, the show lures audiences down a path on which an eager young man (who ran away from the circus in search of normalcy) and his new girlfriend (a Ph.D. candidate researching the history of traveling circuses) learn that some of their long-held beliefs about what their futures should hold in store for them are grossly unrealistic.
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| Steven Westdahl portrays former lion tamer Ron in A History of Freaks (Photo by: Mellophoto.com) |
Having assumed that, as a young man, he would inherit the business in which he was raised, Joseph (Patrick Russell) discovers that the challenges currently facing the circus may be more than he can handle. Despite his ideas about abandoning touring in order to relocate the circus to a warehouse where it could become a resident operation, he's forgotten why people go to the circus, where the circus's audiences are, and how much the circus depends on the so-called freaks who (now that the exotic animals are gone) have become its biggest attraction.
For Claire (Laura Espino), thinking of herself as a shy observer (rather than a bold performer) demands a radical pivot if she is ever to find her true self. The fact that Claire has purchased an old Winnebago for her travels is not enough for her to be accepted by circus folk who want to see proof that Claire has some kind of "act" she can use as her calling card.
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| Laura Espino (Claire) and Elena Wright (Eve) in a scene from A History of Freaks (Photo by: Mellophoto.com) |
Upon arriving in the Midwestern town where the Stromboli Brothers Circus Side Show is performing, Joseph is greeted warmly by circus performers he has known throughout his life. Among them are:
- Solomon (Sean Garahan), the lead clown who lost his best friend -- an elephant named after Charlie Chaplin -- to an animal sanctuary. Solomon has since learned how to diversify his talents and now swallows swords before live audiences.
- Sabine (Stephanie Prentice), Stromboli's bearded lady and fortune teller who manages the company's roustabouts and has surreptitiously been turning tricks with locals after performances.
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| Patrick Russell (Joseph) and Sean Garahan (Solomon) in a scene from A History of Freaks (Photo by: Mellophoto.com) |
- Ron (Steven Westdahl), who used to work with big cats, but now cooks for the circus employees and is hoping to take on a new identity as the tattooed man. When not working backstage, Ron's booming voice is put to use as a circus barker.
- Eve (Elena Wright), Stromboli's high-wire artist, who has been running the operation since her father died. Eve and her sister, Ava, were conjoined twins who had a unique aerial act until they were convinced to undergo surgery to separate them. Ava's subsequent death greatly impacted Eve as well as Joseph (who was in love with Ava). Eve now performs in order to honor her sister's memory while reciting palindromes as a means of calming her nerves.
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| Stephanie Prentice (Sabine) and Elena Wright (Eve) in a scene from A History of Freaks (Photo by: Mellophoto.com) |
Originally commissioned and developed in 2009 at the playwright's alma mater, (College of Idaho), A History of Freaks was a 2015 PlayGround Festival selection which received public staged readings. Over its 10-year gestation period May has meticulously found a way to portray the real-life stresses that the economic realities that an industry behemoth like Cirque du Soleil has forced upon smaller, more traditional touring circuses. A History of Freaks also captures the lingering sadness of losing a conjoined twin by using an old-fashioned clown act to portray the surgery (encouraged by men who thought it would be "good for business") that separated two female twins from each other.
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| Sean Garahan (Solomon) and Patrick Russell (Joseph) in a scene from A History of Freaks (Photo by: Mellophoto.com) |
Throughout the play, there are loving references to "The General" (Eve's father who ran the show). But when Joseph's plans to eliminate the freaks from the Stromboli Circus as a means of avoiding pesky problems with permits are revealed, the freaks whose acts form the core of circus life realize that they risk being betrayed by someone they have loved and supported since the day he was born.
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| Patrick Russell (Joseph), Sean Garahan (Solomon), and Stephanie Prentice (Sabine) in a scene from A History of Freaks (Photo by: Mellophoto.com) |
When an accident causes Claire to be pushed onstage to perform the "act" she never knew she had, the balance of power suddenly changes. With the spotlight on Claire, the injured Eve can retire from performing and (with help from Sabine) reinvent the operation as the Stromboli Sisters Circus Sideshow. Following Joseph's return to "the normal world," the women are free to remake the circus in their own image.
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| Elena Wright (Eve) in a scene from A History of Freaks (Photo by: Mellophoto.com) |
Not only does Katie May's script give each character a more complex backstory than one might expect, her writing elicits plenty of empathy from the audience for people who have often been treated like an alien subculture. Ott's six-actor ensemble skillfully handles the difficult trick of contrasting the outer strength of veteran performers with each character's roiling inner emotions while helping the audience to understand that what one wants from life is not always what one gets. Special kudos to Elena Wright, Stephanie Prentice, and Patrick Russell (who receive strong support from Laura Espino, Sean Garahan, and Steven Westdahl).
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| Elena Wright portrays Eve in Katie May's A History of Freaks (Photo by: Mellophoto.com) |
Performances of A History of Freaks continue through June 15 at the Potrero Stage (click here for tickets).
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