Girls gone wild!

Ok it’s been awhile since we’ve had a chance to chat about the goings on around town … and have there been some!    So now let’s get serious.

The Women’s Policy Summit just concluded and congratulations to all especially head honcho Heidi Sieck.   But ladies, we gotta keep the drumbeat going:   elect more women supervisors, appoint more women to boards and commissions, enroll more kids in our public schools, and help more women find economic independence right here in San Francisco.

The fact that local women’s organizations are focusing on these issues will definitely make a difference.   Witness:  Heather Knight’s article in the Chronicle … “Women losing traction in city politics”. We need a concerted effort to keep in the media … we need to organize around “talking points” and keep talking … We need leadership here … let’s recruit!    Let’s do weekly conference calls with the PR chairs of Policy Summit members.   Include the women supervisors and women who have leadership roles on key boards.   Decide on the three things we will all be saying to our members and the media these next few weeks … Lets coordinate to get stuff done.   It’s time to pressure the outgoing board.

And why why why don’t we have women candidates in every supervisor race? And what about the Ed Boards of local media not endorsing women?   Omigod.   What kind of town is this?

A little shout out to our girl Debbie Mesloh who hasn’t slept in her own bed in a while. Last year she took a little leave of absence from running Ms. Kamala’s press office to help out a fringe—but very inspiring—candidate by doing his press in California. Now she’s heading up the communications for Obama in one of the most contentious states (Missouri) for the likely next prez.  We’re with you Deb!! And thanks Mera Granberg for flying out just to help our girl—we succeed as a team.

Oh and there definitely is something in the water…. baby power:….Bonnie Jean von Grogh brought Leah into the world about a year ago, Amy Everitt and Sueanne McNeil Biotti both had kids last winter (Andrew for Amy and Samantha for Sueanne), Melanie Nutter gave birth in May to a little Nash, and Amy Moy just had adorable Zoe this September…who’s next? We’ve got a little SFWPC mommies and daddies group set up. If you’re interested in joining, contact sueanne@sfwpc.org.

And you have to check this out … Women, Power and Politics at www.imow.org site.   The International Museum of Women’s gathering place.

And well OK I’m just getting started.    Let’s chat again soon.

GirlTalkSF

Got gossip for GirlTalk?  Email GirlTalkSF@aol.com

The Department on the Status of Women and the Department of the Environment have teamed up to launch a cell phone drive to mark October as Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Bring your old cell phone (working or not) to the Department on the Status of Women to be refurbished and loaded with pre-paid minutes so that a domestic violence survivor can call for help.

Two Ways to Donate:
1. Please drop off phones at the Department on the Status of Women, 25 Van Ness Avenue, Suite 130.

For questions please call Carol Sacco at 415-252-2574 or email carol.sacco@sfgov.org.
Thank you!

SFWPC Policy Chair Heidi Sieck is also the President of the BRAVA Theater Board of Directors-a SF theater whose primary purpose is to produce outstanding world premieres by women of color and lesbian playwrights. Check out the fabu article in today’s Chronicle about Brava-and buy some tickets to see a great show.

Oh and did we mention that Heidi just finished putting on the 2nd Annual San Francisco Women’s Summit that brought together the women’s organizations in the City to discuss common objectives and goals? Incredibly successful event.  Is there anything this lady can’t do?

Brava Theater boasts bold new season

Robert Hurwitt San Francisco Chronicle

Sunday, September 28, 2008

The Afghans are not coming. Wednesday, as this issue was going to press, Brava Theater Center informed us that some of the Afghan actors in “Beyond the Mirror” had been unable to secure visas to come to the United States. “Mirror,” created in Afghanistan by members of New York’s Bond Street Theater and the Exile Theatre of Kabul - the first known collaboration between Afghan and American theater companies - was to have opened a two-week run at Brava this week.

A show canceled because of international politics is a fairly dramatic way to open a new season, though probably not as dramatic as the chance to see the regional premiere of a work created and first performed in Afghanistan about life there during three decades of war and upheaval. Exile itself was formed in Pakistan by theater, film and TV artists who had had to flee Taliban persecution of artists in general and female artists in particular.

It wouldn’t be unusual for Brava to present a show like this. In recent years, the feminist theater in the Mission District has brought in adventurous topical artists and works ranging from Mexico’s Astrid Hadad to the harrowing English docudrama “Guantánamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom,” not to mention creating some of its own, such as founder Ellen Gavin’s ambitious “Stardust and Empty Wagons: Stories from the Katrina Diaspora.”

But such works have been few and far between. In the latter part of two decades running Brava! for Women in the Arts, Gavin focused more on presenting musical events and community programs than on producing plays at the theater center she’d opened in ‘96. The big news is that Brava is offering an eight-play season, including two world premieres, the first season produced by Brava’s new artistic director, Raelle Myrick-Hodges.

“Economically, it’s a risk,” Myrick-Hodges readily admits. “But everything is. Hiring me was a risk, so I don’t see why I shouldn’t be taking risks. That’s what I was hired to do.”

Two of the shows are local premieres of pre-existing productions, the now-canceled “Mirror” and performance artist Penny Arcade (former Warhol Factory superstar Susana Ventura) in her widely traveled “Bitch!Dyke!Faghag!Whore!”

“Just being able to say that out loud is super fun,” Myrick-Hodges says with a wide smile. “It’s such a quintessential piece about women’s sexuality and the gay community, about the intersection of politics and sex and sexual orientation, and it’s never been done in San Francisco. I really wanted that to be part of my first season.”

Bringing in shows can reduce production costs, though it does entail housing and other travel-related expenses. The other seven shows are original Brava productions, as are such special events as comic Bill Santiago’s “The Funny of Latin Dance,” which preceded the season opening earlier this month, and a benefit onstage interview with Ilene Chaiken, writer and producer of “The L Word,” March 27. Not only that, Myrick-Hodges is inaugurating a new performance space, Brava’s 2nd Stage in a renovated rehearsal room, though no shows are planned yet for a cabaret space, still going through permit processes.

Despite the major increase in Brava’s production schedule, Myrick-Hodges is doing it on a somewhat smaller budget - down, she says, from $1.2 million to “probably under a million. Every transition loses funding. Funders don’t know you. They get terrified. My hope is that we’ll be back up there the following season. But I also think one of the things that’s killing American theater has been this need to constantly grow and grow, and prove that you’re a grower. Our mission isn’t to sell people products. Our intention is to share ideas and opinions and create discussion and support social change.”

There are quite a few secrets to doing more with less, one of which appears to be her seemingly boundless energy and enthusiasm. A tall, striking woman with expressive brown eyes and hands that move almost as fast as she talks - stylishly dressed for a Brava community artists open house that evening - Myrick-Hodges interrupts our interview to dash into the main theater for an audition, then returns to pick up her train of thought without missing a beat. This is the fourth day of a week of open auditions for local actors and she’s “seen about 200″ so far.

“I’ve been here from like 9 a.m. to 7 or 8 each night, and I think I’m holding up pretty well so far. But the reason for that is because of the excitement and enthusiasm of the actors that are coming in.”

Myrick-Hodges is working with the small staff she inherited, “Six of us, doing the jobs of 30,” augmented by “four professional apprentices” and “a lot of incredible volunteers.” She’s saving costs, in part, by mounting shorter runs than the norm - two to three weeks - and by using the small 2nd Stage for four of the shows. The 368-seat main stage is subject to Actors Equity and other theatrical union rules. The new, flexible space, with “80 seats max,” is not.

She’s also budgeting less per show - “$16,000 to $20,000″ for the main stage shows, she says, compared to “more like 40 to 75″ in the past. For one of the world premieres, Brian Thorstenson’s “Over the Mountain,” she’s sharing development costs with Santa Clara University by working on it there. And she’s cut back on Brava’s music events. “We’re definitely doing Trio Los Panchos, because we love them. But some of the things we were doing - it could cost us $20,000 to bring in a musician for two nights. We might break even, which is great, but if I can produce a play on that, which is nothing, at least we’re able to start cultivating some young theater artists.”

At 37, Myrick-Hodges may think she’s perceived as “the youngest kid in town, the least experienced” of the new crop of incoming artistic directors - such as Loretta Greco, who’s just opened her first season at the Magic Theatre, and San Jose Repertory’s newly appointed Rick Lombardo. But she clearly knows her way around. As she should. Not only has she “been preparing for this job since I was 6,” as she’s fond of saying, but she’s worked at many of the country’s major theaters, co-founded the now 10-year-old Azuka Theatre in Philadelphia and was mentored at New York’s Public Theater by George C. Wolfe, who entrusted her with staging the national tour of his production of Suzan-Lori Parks’ “Topdog/Underdog.”

Myrick-Hodges will open the 2nd Stage in November by directing Kobo Abe’s “Friends,” a 1964 classic of modern Japanese theater in which a contented, solitary man’s life and home are taken over by strangers who claim they’re there to help him. That will give her two months to fix any problems before she hands the space over to other directors - Megan Soto, who’ll stage Mac Wellman’s complex “Sincerity Forever” and African-American Shakespeare Company Artistic Director Victoria Erville for Pearl Cleage’s “A Song for Coretta” (as in Coretta Scott King) in January.

The 2nd Stage will house an intimate staging of Sophie Treadwell’s expressionist classic, “Machinal” in March. The main stage will host the world premieres by Thorstenson and Molly Rhodes (”For All the Babies’ Fathers”), two of the local emerging playwrights - she also names Marcus Gardley and Eugenie Chan - she believes have been neglected by the area’s larger theaters.

“Somebody’s got to be taking care of the local artists,” she exclaims. “I think this is a really good place to do that, to contribute to the canon of theater. I want Brava to be a professional art theater that supports and celebrates the intersection of multiculturalism and feminism. That’s what it’s about.”

Brava! for Women in the Arts 2008-09 Season

Friends by Kobo Abe, directed by Raelle Myrick-Hodges; Nov. 6-17.

Sincerity Forever by Mac Wellman, directed by Megan Soto; Jan. 9-19.

A Song for Coretta by Pearl Cleage, directed by Victoria Evans Erville; begins previews Jan. 19, runs Jan. 22-29.

Bitch!Dyke!Faghag!Whore!, created and performed by Penny Arcade, regional premiere; begins previews Feb. 25, runs Feb. 28-March 7.

Machinal by Sophie Treadwell, directed by Evren Odcikin; March 12-22.

Over the Mountain by Brian Thorstenson, directed by Myrick-Hodges, world premiere; April 16-26.

For All the Babies’ Fathers by Molly Rhodes, directed by Jessica Heidt, world premiere; April 30-May 16.

The Beebo Brinker Chronicles by Linda S. Chapman and Kate Moira Ryan, directed by Myrick-Hodges, West Coast premiere; June 6-25.

 All shows at Brava Theater Center, 2781 24th St., San Francisco; (415) 641-7657, www.brava.org

Palin: Wrong woman, Wrong message
By Gloria Steinem
September 4, 2008
Los Angeles Times

Here’s the good news: Women have become so politically powerful that even the anti-feminist right wing — the folks with a headlock on the Republican Party — are trying to appease the gender gap with a first-ever female vice president. We owe this to women — and to many men too — who have picketed, gone on hunger strikes or confronted violence at the polls so women can vote. We owe it to Shirley Chisholm, who first took the ‘white-male-only’ sign off the White House, and to Hillary Rodham Clinton, who hung in there through ridicule and misogyny to win 18 million votes.

Selecting Sarah Palin, who was touted all summer by Rush Limbaugh, is no way to attract most women, including die-hard Clinton supporters. Palin shares nothing but a chromosome with Clinton. Her down-home, divisive and deceptive speech did nothing to cosmeticize a Republican convention that has more than twice as many male delegates as female, a presidential candidate who is owned and operated by the right wing and a platform that opposes pretty much everything Clinton’s candidacy stood for — and that Barack Obama’s still does. To vote in protest for McCain/Palin would be like saying, ‘Somebody stole my shoes, so I’ll amputate my legs.’

Palin has been honest about what she doesn’t know. When asked last month about the vice presidency, she said, ‘I still can’t answer that question until someone answers for me: What is it exactly that the VP does every day?’ When asked about Iraq, she said, ‘I haven’t really focused much on the war in Iraq.’

Palin’s value to those patriarchs is clear: She opposes just about every issue that women support by a majority or plurality. She believes that creationism should be taught in public schools but disbelieves global warming; she opposes gun control but supports government control of women’s wombs; she opposes stem cell research but approves ‘abstinence-only’ programs, which increase unwanted births, sexually transmitted diseases and abortions; she tried to use taxpayers’ millions for a state program to shoot wolves from the air but didn’t spend enough money to fix a state school system with the lowest high-school graduation rate in the nation; she runs with a candidate who opposes the Fair Pay Act but supports $500 million in subsidies for a natural gas pipeline across Alaska; she supports drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve, though even McCain has opted for the lesser evil of offshore drilling. She is Phyllis Schlafly, only younger.

And American women, who suffer more because of having two full-time jobs than from any other single injustice, finally have support on a national stage from male leaders who know that women can’t be equal outside the home until men are equal in it. Barack Obama and Joe Biden are campaigning on their belief that men should be, can be and want to be at home for their children.

This could be huge.

Gloria Steinem is an author, feminist organizer and co-founder of the Women’s Media Center. She supported Hillary Clinton and is now supporting Barack Obama.