I Do Not Know One of My Sex

The following was taken from Jana's personal blog:
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On Sunday I had the distinct privilege of sitting in on The Tempest Ladies’ swing auditions. It was a victorious audition experience. Not only did we find our swings, but we were overwhelmed by how many talented actors showed up to play. Everyone aced – no one bombed. That says a few things: This city is filled with LOTS of great actors. This city doesn’t have enough acting jobs for these great actors. And these great actors all want to be a part of our all-female Shakespeare work specifically.

That last bit – the bit that all of these women wanted to be a part of the work we do was both overwhelming and encouraging. It also revealed something to me that I’d never considered before. To prepare for the audition, we asked that each woman bring in two contrasting monologues – one comedic and one of a male character. Wondering if anyone would be able to rise to the male character challenge, we were, again, pleasantly surprised as Hamlet, Cassius and Prince Hal came confidently into the room. In fact, I would go so far to argue that the male monologues were stronger than any contrasting female monologue we saw that day. And I had to ask myself – why are the male monologues better?

The Writing is Stronger? Is it because Shakespeare’s males experience higher stake situations and, therefore, require stronger, and, perhaps, better written pieces of text?

There is Male Confidence? Is it because playing a male automatically allows for a certain confidence that doesn’t come naturally when playing a fair sexed woman?

It allows Freedom? Is it because playing someone opposite to your own sex allows for a certain freedom that you could never experience without making a 180 in sexuality?

If it has to do with freedom, I have to take this a step further and wonder what that says about where our society is today. Yes, for women, we’ve made strides and experience things that even women of twenty years ago wouldn’t have experienced. And yet, there is still an unspoken amount of inequality, isn’t there? Maybe it’s subconscious, but it’s there. Why else would playing a man make us so liberal in our stage choices? So vocally stable and sound? So empowered and grounded? So strong and confident? Because as a male character in the room, these actors suddenly found the authority of a man. The authority that says, “This is my right. I’m entitled to this acting gig. I’m a good actor. I can tell a good story.” Does playing a man assert a certain right? And what does it say that we, as the casting directors, saw more power in the male monologues? Does that mean we have been conditioned to abide by the male right and to accept the male character as more confident, stronger and right for the choosing?

I don’t know that I have the answers to these questions. I certainly wouldn’t be so bold to claim any of this as fact, but there’s something about these questions still lingering with me a week after the audition that speaks volumes to what our culture has been taught and what we still follow based on learned behavior. I don’t know that it is good or bad. I think it is, however, uneven, off-kilter and skewed.

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That said, we underwent a very difficult decision-making process immediately following the auditions. We took time going through each headshot and discussing each actress. Everyone had brought something worthwhile to the table and it became harder and harder to narrow down the pile of people. Finally, we arrived at a final three. We had initially aimed at casting two swings - in case one ensemble member and one swing couldn't make it, we would have another swing to fill in. However, with three actresses left in front of us and six tracks to cover, we thought: why not cast three swings? Each swing can cover two tracks. So that's what we did - we added three swings to the ensemble! Without further ado, we welcome Stacey Bone, Mallory Hammond and Stephanie Strohm to The Tempest Ladies!