juft 112004
enough good roles for women in theater,” she
asserts. Her hope is that hy encouraging play
wrights, more women-focused work will be pro
duced. With Emergence, Soderberg intends to
empower women on stage— and off.
One of those women is Portland play
wright Sandra de Helen, a 60-year-old lesbian
who has been writing plays for three decades.
Her 10-minute piece Burning Up premieres
July 18 at Emergence.
De Helen’s short farce finds the character of
playwright Tennessee Williams stranded on the
balcony of a burning building in New Orleans.
Homoeroticism runs rampant as do other pas
sions when a Russian spy, a young Greek god, a
female prostitute and a Southern belle all join
Williams amid the flames.
De Helen writes about all kinds of people,
gay and not so. “It just depends on what
grabs me,” she says. “I try to write about
characters.”
She does see the need, however, for more
and better roles for queers on stage. Like
Soderberg, de Helen says women are still
The schedule emergeth
E
mergence: The Second Annual Portland
Women’s Playwright Festival takes place
July 17 to 19 at C oH o Theatre, 2257 N.W.
Raleigh St. All shows are free.
• 2 p.m. July 17: Have reality shows
taken over the airwaves and commandeered
our better senses? A small, persevering cast of
characters fight hack against the ratings-
driven network machine in One Night on
M ars hy Madge Zaiko o f Portland. Directed
by Helena de Crespo.
• 2 p.m. July 18: Tennessee Williams
comes out on the balcony of a burning build
ing in the French Quarter during Mardi Gras
in Burning Up by Sandra de Helen of Port
land. Cast includes Michael Teufel and Steve
Brian. Two hilarious absurdist stories explore
the collusion between Hollywood and the
government to create winning propaganda in
Spies and O ther Q ovem m ental Dysfunctions
by Victoria Vidal of North Hollywood, Calif.
Both shows directed by Tamara Carroll.
• 7 :3 0 p.m. July 19: Tom is gone, but his
fatal accident leads to a series of complex
deceptions— while a wounded womans manip
ulation oFrelationships spins dangerously out of
control— in Tom 's Qirls by Elena Naskova of
Los Angeles. Brilliant scientist Wanda is about
to get married, but before she can, she has to
let go of her obsession— saving planet earth—
in M ajor Issues by Shirley King of Benicia,
Calif. Both shows directed by Amy Gray.
struggling to make a mark as directors and
playwrights.
R
ecent statistics corroborate de Helen
and Soderbergs perceptions. According
to American Theater Magazine, in the
2001-2002 season, only 17 percent o f play
wrights and only 16 percent of directors
hired by off-Broadway and regional theaters
were women.
De Helen, who started her own women’s
theaters in the 1970s and ’80s, is pleased to
see a new generation of women-run theaters
like Radiant cropping up. “I’m grateful for
A n n a,” she says. “S h e’s a really enthusiastic,
young visionary. S h e’s so committed to
women. And she’s an excellent director as
well.”
T he admiration runs both ways. Soder
berg lauds de Helen for her multitude of
work and directed the 2002 Stark Raving
Theatre production of de Helen’s Witch!,
based on a true story about a lesbian Wiccan
who encounters discrimination because of
her spirituality.
Soderberg says she’s interested in seeing
more plays like Witch! in which a queer
character’s sexuality is not the main theme
o f the play. “ I’m interested in plays about
lesbians being people,” she notes.
“ Being people” is core to Soderbergs
vision of theater in general. “To he human is
to be an actor,” she says. “We act every day,
and we often don’t realize we’re playing a
role.”
De Helen adds that theater is “a commu
nity event. It doesn’t happen without an
audience,” which “is part o f the special
something happening right then, in real
time. It’s never going to happen in exactly
that way again.”
N or will Emergence happen the same
way. N ext year Soderberg will open the field
nationally to any playwright with work that
includes strong women characters. Eventual
ly, she wants the festival to invite play
wrights (of any gender) from around the
world.
A s for Radiant, she says they will keep
doing “old plays in new ways,” which
includes stirring up the gender soup. “When
we do Hamlet [in 2006], we plan on doing a
lot o f gender-bending,” she says. “And who
knows with Jesus Christ Superstar ?”
Jesus in drag? The mystery will he revealed
in May 2005 at a theater near you. J H
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