High school drama teachers warn aspiring actresses
“there will be ten male roles for every female role!” And
to some extent, that won’t change too much when you’re
talking about classical theater. But OSF is clearly working
on the issue.
“Because our resident playwright is Shakespeare, there
are going to be more great men’s roles,” says Silva. “While
there has been an increase of female roles in contemporary
theater, I think the buzz at OSF is more about certain choices
and casting in this theater.”
Silva is certainly in a position to talk about casting
choices. Last summer she didn’t just play the title role in
Julius Caesar, she rocked it. Hard.
“You cast a woman as Julius Caesar and that’s going to
create some buzz,” Silva says. “The festival, to their credit,
wasn’t shy about it.” From the moment she was chosen to play
the ill-fated dictator, Silva began to encounter eager fans in the
local Bi-Mart as well as a few grimacing naysayers in the seats.
Love it or hate it, she notes, “The buzz factor had a long arc.”
Julius Caesar certainly wasn’t the fi rst time a woman
fi lled the shoes of a male character at OSF, and judging
from the cast list of the upcoming As You Like It, it won’t
be the last. “They’re not afraid to mess with things here,”
Escalante notes.
Challenging gender roles isn’t the only thing the festival
does to encourage women who want to take part. For
Escalante, it is OSF’s willingness to stage the works of
major female playwrights, who tend to (not surprisingly)
write more and better female roles.
Next summer will see the staging of Tanya Saracho’s
Dreams of the Muse, a Latina playwright Escalante says she
is particularly excited about. “She writes plays for women,”
she explains of Saracho, “and to do a show with an entirely
female cast is really brave.”
According to Silva, Romeo and Juliet is, for most people,
the fi rst Shakespeare play they connected with. “They read it
as a sophomore in high school,” she says, “and have an idea
of who Juliet is supposed to be.”
“You have to trust you own voice,” Escalante explains
of playing Juliet, which she calls “a huge opportunity, and
you want to do it right. I fi nally came to the realization that
the only way to get it right was if it was mine. I can’t try to
do a Juliet that someone (else) needed or wanted.”
Not that anyone’s looking for 24/7 approval.
“The boys have the crazier fans,” Escalante says,
speaking of her co-worker Daniel José Molina, who is
playing Romeo this season.
Silva agrees, recalling an intelligent conversation she
had with a young woman after a performance. Concluding
their talk, the woman suggested to Silva that Romeo
could keep his shirt off throughout the entire production.
“They love him, and scream for him,” Escalate says with
a shudder.
It’s an area of equality the ladies are willing to skip. A bar-
rage of screaming 14-year-old boys is remarkably unappealing.
Changing What’s Possible
VILMA SILVA
Juliet in the Face of
Public Opinion
Expectations run high for female artists at OSF,
particularly when you’re talking about Romeo and Juliet.
For this year’s production, set among the fading glory of
Californio culture in 1840s, Silva is playing Doña Capulet
while Escalante tackles the role of Juliet.
And everyone has an opinion about it.
Silva played Juliet in her second year with OSF. “There
are so many preconceived notions about this character,” she
says. “And to be the perfect Juliet to every single person
who walks in the room is impossible.”
Escalante and Silva traded stories about nasty letters to
the editor about their performances, about folks stopping
them in the street, calling them whiney. “I had a guy tell me
my hands were to big to play Juliet,” Silva says.
Seriously?
Escalante says she is looking forward to the older, meat-
ier roles. “During my four years of college, I was always
cast as much more mature women,” she says. “Since I got
out of school I keep playing younger and younger roles. My
fi rst professional role was a 17-year-old, and I was like, ‘Oh
my god, I don’t know how to play someone my own age.’
So I have to rework my brain, especially playing Juliet, who
is 13.”
Does it get Escalante down to think about playing the
ingénue for the next ten years?
“Yes and no.” She grabs her cheeks and mocks an
admirer saying, “Oh, you’re so cute, you’ve got such a baby
face.” Suddenly straight again, Escalante says, “I just never
thought of myself that way, but I’m excited for whatever.
Throw it at me, I’ll do it.”
PHOTO BY JENNY GRAHAM
Creating Opportunity
The Upside to Aging
American fi lm and theater have been guilty of promoting
the idea that, while men gain gravitas as they age, women
simply expire. But recently, with Oprah declaring 50 to be
the new 40 and former ingénue Kate Winslet taking on tough
roles and refusing to go in for Botox, there has been some
Hollywood leadership around age appreciation for women.
Can this translate to a regional theater?
Escalante and Silva look a little confused when I ask this.
Was I suggesting that there is anything wrong with aging?
“The roles are certainly going to be different,” Silva
fi nally says. “Luckily they’ve been really challenging and
wonderful so far.”
Young women have been on the edge of their seats with
excitement while watching last year’s Julius Caesar and
this year’s Romeo and Juliet. While advancing their own
careers, Escalante and Silva are advancing opportunities for
the next generation of theater artists as well.
Speaking of Julius Caesar, Silva says, “The girls would
go crazy. I love that. To play the title character was a big step.
Some people were fi ne with it, some were not convinced,
but I loved that the girls would really get a kick out of that.
It’s a huge step in confi dence about who you are, what you
can achieve, what’s possible. What’s possible is changing,
and that’s exciting.”
Escalante says she’s been moved and excited about
inspiring a younger generation of Latinos. “Many of the
discussions I’ve done have been with groups of Latino
students,” she says. “I see a lot of kids like the kids I went
to high school with, some of them who got into so much
trouble. I see myself in those groups, the tight pants that I
used to wear and the big hoop earrings, all the makeup. And
you see them becoming really interested in Shakespeare.”
Escalante smiles refl ectively. “When I was in college,”
she continues, “I strayed away from the Latino image. I
didn’t want to be classifi ed as a Latina actress. I wanted to be
an actress. Once I got out of college I realized what an asset
that was. It’s braver to take on the responsibility of saying I
will help to represent a people in a positive light.”
A Long Road
Refraining from lighting up a Virginia Slims, I have to
note that they have come a long way. Yet along with Tanya
Saracho’s script, there are plans at next year’s OSF to stage
My Fair Lady, Taming of the Shrew and A Streetcar Named
Desire, none of which hold my favorite portrayals of female
power. Is it too early to thank the world for getting more
enlightened? Or can OSF work their magic with these
scripts as well?
ew
RECOVERING FROm THE
BUBBLE ECONOMY
Jobs, Wages And Unemployment
Monday, April 9, 2012 7:00 p.m.
Giustina Ballroom, Ford Alumni Center
1720 East 13th Ave.
Featuring Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic
and Policy Research in Washington, D.C., and Mark Thoma ,
professor of economics at the University of Oregon.
Department of Economics
waynemorsecenter.uoregon.edu
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