What I Did:
When I lived in Germany a few years ago, teaching for the US Dept. of Defense, I was asked by the base command at Spangdahlem to write and produce a play for Women's History Month. I combined February and March and did a tribute to African-American women writers and called the one-act play "Oprah's Book Club." It was so well received, they asked me to do something similar the next year, so I wrote another one-act play called "Shakespeare's Sisters," which commemorated women writers in the English language, both British and American. I would like to write one more play to finish the trilogy on women writers.
How I Did It:
I did a lot of research on women writers for both plays, falling back on my PhD in English and my experience in teaching women's literature over the past several years. I got my students at Bitburg and Spangdahlem air force bases to play the roles, as well. Everyone had a good time, the students and community learned some things about women writers, and we all felt that women had been celebrated well both years!
Advice
- I was not given much time to write or rehearse either of my plays, and I felt we all would have done a more thorough job and felt more confident going into our productions if we had had more time to prepare. I would insist on that if I were to do something similar again.
What were your hopes and goals? Were they met?
I hoped to introduce our audience to women writers, so everyone could learn more about them and celebrate the contributions they had made. I also wanted the students involved to learn a lot and appreciate the women who had gone before them. I think both productions exceeded our expectations!
