Reflective practitioner-problems

I have had a little think about the problem of no lads...
In having a male in the performance, I had hoped to represent alternative notions of woman and femininity; as well as looking at how these things are constructed in relation to ideas of the male and masculinity. Having a male in the performance would allow us the opportunity to explore the ways in which femininity and notions of ‘woman’ are defined in relation to the ‘other’ and the male. It is looking as though I may have to rethink the ways in which I approach these concepts because of not being able to get hold of any male performers. This is a shame, as much of my writing and research to date on the theme of woman and trauma is about the relationship between the two genders and their representations. Having three female performers will change the dynamics of the texts that I have written and the way in which we approach the concepts and themes during the devising process. Having an all female cast and using the texts with all female performers will bring an element of ‘lesbianism’, which was not the main aspect that I really wanted to address with Siren Song. We will have to explore femininity from an entirely female perspective which inevitably brings with it the need to address and explore lesbianism as a construct. It will mean that we will have to explore ways in which gender representation works, how it is constructed and perceived from an entirely female perspective.

This is not an area of theory that I am particularly knowledgeable about and I am going to have to do a great deal more research into this field. The performance explores the idea of ‘siren’, the concept of woman and the relationship that these have to trauma. Having three female performers might be interesting because it will give us the opportunity to address the ways in which women tell their stories, how they represent and manifest the part of the other, the male, in those stories and performances. It will be interesting to see how we can work through and negotiate ‘male’ presence in the absence of any male presence.

My only major concern is that this narrows the target audience and makes the performance even more niche than it is by being participatory. If my struggle to gain access to performers is any indication, I now have concerns about getting access to audience.