Nightwood Theatre company promotes women.
Nightwood Theatre produced Yellowman, which looks at internal racism within the black culture.
Photo by/GUNAR KRAVIS
Nightwood Theatre is a midtown Toronto company run by women, produces plays by women and tries to encourage the next generation of women to get involved.
Known as Canada's national women's theatre, Nightwood is a not-for profit group launched in 1979 and is currently celebrating 30 years of producing and developing women's plays, said Kelly Thornton, artistic director.
"We have launched the careers of many women playwrights and directors, most notably was author Ann MacDonald, who wrote our flagship production, Goodnight Desdemona, Good Morning Juliet," she said.
Thornton said the main component of Nightwood's mandate is to develop and promote women's theatre that's written and directed by women. Even their design and production teams are comprised of women.
"We have male actors, but we try as much as possible to try to hire women for all the key roles," she said. "We'll have entire production teams entirely women driven, even in the technical department."
In a world where society is trying to meld cultures and establish equality for the sexes, Thornton said their mandate is still relevant.
As an example, Thornton cited a 1982 report by the Canadian Council for the Arts on the status of women in Canadian theatre.
"They did this national survey on how many women artistic directors there were, how many female general managers there were, how many female playwrights were being produced, the number of female directors were being hired and a number other areas of research, and the numbers were not good," Thornton said.
You may wonder how that translates to today, but Thornton said current reports dictate while there has been some progress, the numbers are still not great in many of those areas. For example, there are a lot of female general managers (GM) but not artistic directors (AD).
"The GM carries the business side of things and the AD is the front person who gets all the accolades," she said. "That sadly is still a prevalent trend in Canadian theatre."
Add to that fact there are more female theatre students coming out of schools then men, but more women get out of the business because they can't get roles.
Thornton said Nightwood hopes to bridge those gaps with the shows they stage.
They also aim to produce unique and socially relevant plays that challenge audiences.
For example, last year, Nightwood staged Yellowman by Pulitzer Prize-nominated Susan Smith Blackburn.
Thornton said this show was about shadeism, a term that talks about internal racism within black culture. Yellowman was a Romeo and Juliet-type story about a light-skinned black man and a darker-skinned woman and how their love was torn asunder by the pressure by the families and the society in which they lived.
"It was a very edgy subject matter but very artfully told, but it was also a difficult subject matter that's often not talked about in black culture and certainly not in the broader society," Thornton said.
Next season they're staging the Governor General award-winning play The List, by Quebec playwright Jennifer Tremblay.
It's a show about a woman whose life is so congested she makes lists to keep it all straight. After a friend asks for a favour, it too is put on her to-do list, but is ignored, which has dire consequences.
"Ultimately and inadvertently she is the cause of her friend's death," Thornton said. "It's a very human story. A story that's unique and individual to this woman, but it's also a universal story about how we navigate around the planet as human beings...it speaks to how congested we are and running as fast as we can to keep up."
Besides showcasing Canadian women's work, Nightwood also invests in young people too seed the next generation of female artists in Canada. They do this by hosting Busting Out, a theatre training program for girls 12 to 16.
Thornton said a lot of girls suffer from low self-esteem and poor self image from peer pressure and the media, and this annual program is a way to help empower them.
"Theatre is a tool of empowerment. There's no better way to address some of your closeted issues than to come together in an all-girl, safe environment," she said.
Guest artists work with girls to create an original play based on their writings. At the end of the two-week program the girls present the play to the public.
"It's amazing," Thornton said. "A lot of parents say it (has) had a massive effect on their child's makeup and that they have a new perspective on themselves and the world."
Nightwood also hosts the Groundswell Festival to give women playwrights who are mid-career, or not well established, a leg up. They do this by showing their plays in development, in the beginning stages before play production.
"It's seeing the bare bones of the theatrical experience," Thornton said. "It's actors and the scripts are read and performed, but there are no bells and whistles, lights or sound."
Nightwood has many initiatives to support their mandate and propel their company into its next 30 years, but most importantly it's about the shows and Thornton said a good theatre production can change the world.
"I believe that theatre, while we should entertain, we should also open new perspectives to people's lives," she said "...There are human stories that can resonate with audiences, challenge thought and awaken a new perspective in society."
Visit www.nightwoodtheatre.net for details.