Drama Group Seeks Diversity

“Something magical’ happened last spring when an all-female cast worked together to create the “Vagina Monologues,” says Julia H. Fawcett ’04, a Harvard Radcliffe Dramatics Club (HRDC) member who acted in the play.

The racially diverse, all-female cast did more than act together, she says. They bonded and formed a sisterhood, of sorts, a rare event in campus theater made even more so because of the cast’s unusually diverse composition, she says.

Before the production ended, Fawcett and two other Monologues cohorts—Heather J. Thomason ’04 and Julia C. Reischel ’04—decided to create that experience for others.

The result? The Athena Theater Company, the only campus theater group devoted to increasing the presence of women and minorities on Harvard’s stages as well as creating student community. It joins the Asian American Association Players and Black Community Action Student Theater (Black CAST), theater groups that put on shows featuring primarily Asian-American and black actors, respectively.

“There are so many talented women, but lots of the better parts are male,” Fawcett says, pointing to the greater number of male roles in this year’s Freshmen Musical as an example. “We wanted to offer an alternative, one that’s more diverse and that has more opportunities for women.”

The trio is trying to mark their company as different from the start. At Saturday auditions for their first production, Paul Zindel’s Pulitzer Prize winning “The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds,” the three sat on the floor, clapped after performances and offered chocolate to the actresses.

Athena Theater Company emphasizes that auditions for the all-female cast are color-blind. They are bypassing common casting, where actors audition for multiple plays in a five-day stretch, to run auditions at their own time and in their own way.

Other major differences that the three envision: giving a portion of the play’s profits to a campus women’s group of the audience’s choosing and sponsoring a competition for female playwrights in the spring. Athena would produce the winning script.

And they want to hold workshops, bring in speakers and open up rehearsals to the public to make the production reflect the ideas of audience members.

Minority actresses, by and large, say they love the idea behind Athena, which is to give opportunities to those who are overlooked by the traditional theater community.“I’m a woman and a minority so sometimes I get the double deal,” says Sharon Doku ’05. “A lot of times in theater, a lot of things are done by typecasting. It’s hard for a black woman to get a part that should be done by a white woman.”

Others say companies like Athena are necessary to promote diversity in Harvard theater, which has, in the past, been criticized for being elitist and for marginalizing minorities.

“Often times the casting that goes on at Harvard isn’t colorblind,” says Black CAST President Vanessa R. Carr ’02. “It’s great that these organizations exist because there seems to be a need for it, but it’s sad there is that need.”

“The environment for minorities at Harvard theater is not very friendly,” says HRDC member Kimberly J. Ravener ’03. “[The theater community] tends to be a very small, tight-knit group of people, which can also be a code word for incestuous, so it’s just not as established to have diversity in HRDC.”

Naomi R. Krakow ’03, HRDC Campus Liaison, notes that the HRDC board is already reaching out to minorities. She says increased publicity efforts are in the works and a main stage production of “Three Sisters,” a color-blind play with strong female characters, is also being developed.

But while most praise the idea behind Athena, some question the wisdom of avoiding common casting.

Carr, who decided to go through common casting for Black CAST’s “Raisin in the Sun” production last year, says participating in the process will eventually help minorities become more involved in Harvard theater.

“By being there, there would be a presence that reflected the need [for diversity]. It’ll show there’s a pool of minority and women actors that can’t be ignored,” Carr says. “While they’re there for our show, they might say ‘Hey, I’ll audition for X show because I’m there.’”

Jennifer Banner ’02, who co-produced a play last year, says she thinks common casting would be wise “just in terms of getting a lot of people to audition.”

Fawcett, Reischel and Thomason say they simply want to draw a wider talent pool.

Ultimately, though, what may influence the future of Athena the most is the success or failure of “Gamma Rays,” which opens Nov. 1.

“That’s our test,” Thomason says. “In all honesty I’m a little bit nervous…but at least we’ve got the ball rolling.”

Auditions are being held tonight, from 5 to 9 p.m., in the Lowell House junior common room.

—Staff writer Juliet Chung can be reached at jchung@fas.harvard.edu.