Andromeda’s Sisters: Taking the Art and Advocacy Online
Photo by Neo-Political Cowgirls. Featuring: Ae Andreas, Alexandra Berger, Gwendolyn Gussman, Madison Krekel, Michelle Yard, & Erik Thurmond
Max Berry
Neo-Political Cowgirls, an organization created for women in theater to help increase the female voice in the narrative of our society’s stories, was gearing up to present their annual fundraiser, Andromeda’s Sisters: An Arts and Advocacy Forum, before having to make the switch to Zoom, like many projects before them.
The finished product presented on Friday, August 14 and will continue on Thursday, September 3. This fundraiser “provides a platform for not-for-profit social justice organizations and leaders to speak about their work; for audiences to network and get engaged in advocacy and creative exploration; and for female-identifying playwrights and actors to be celebrated through their stage work.” The forum itself was split into two parts, the first being a presentation of monolouges written by female-identifying playwrights and another with a focus on social justice and advocacy.
I had the opportunity to hear from Founding Artistic Director, Kate Mueth about her experience with the new platform, how Neo-Political Cowgirls has adapted, and what the plans are for the future.
On your website, you say you “believe in breaking down conventional walls that traditionally separate audience and actors. Now that we have moved to a digital space, those “walls” span miles, and states, and countries. What specific challenges has your company faced with these new “walls” and what are some ways that you are overcoming them?
There’s a deep ride of “Learning as we go” happening here for so many of us. This is, on one hand, quite exciting and in some ways, familiar turf for devising artists who regularly in the best of days make work that deals with unfamiliar experiences and expectations. But the challenge here comes in really needing to relax and let go and try to just enjoy the ride of oddness a little more. Not knowing how things will turn out (from one extreme of possibility to another- it’s quite enormous, all the things that can go wrong or go surprisingly right) and just riding that wave can be anxiety-producing. What point is there in doing this though if it’s a nightmare to manifest? I mean, isn’t life hard enough right now? Let’s not add more misery. Might as well find freedom and joy.
The other challenge is getting that “global” possibility to know about one’s event- so similar to non-pandemic days marketing is still a challenge but now with added unknowns. In terms of the work itself- I’m really interested in the challenge of what real connection with our audiences looks like in a world of “zoomed out” people? How do we make things more expressively tactile? How do emotional vibrations travel through this remote land to really connect with our audience? It’s an interesting problem to work on.
What was the process of selecting the pieces for the forum? Did the new circumstances affect the selections or were they already set?
To be honest, I wanted little-to-no commentary on COVID. I’m more interested in all that is happening in the minds and hearts of women that transcends the pandemic- the stuff of a life that is going on anyways that even in other days we struggle to share and get heard in the fabric of theater stories. I am very open to whatever it is the playwright wants to send me. I really want to know what is on their mind now and I want to support that. Life goes on in very deep and profound and fascinating ways even while our world struggles and I feel that the unflappable resilience that women have and the depths of our ability to experience life are wise fodder for how to keep going in these challenging days. They’re often a spirit of “happy accident” in the coming together of these pieces for Andromeda’s Sisters.
But oddly, very often, there’s a delicious falling together of the pieces for this presentation and it’s quite fun to witness. Women write some really wild and bold and weird stories. I love it.
With more people being able to access your art than ever, has the response been different? Are more people engaging? Since a part of this forum was centered in advocacy, has the current situation helped that advocacy or been more of a challenge?
Hmmm. Good question! It’s hard to gauge these things regarding the audience due to the unknown of how many are watching at home upon one device. It feels pretty much like our normal numbers, really. I understand this because time is weird, there’s an endless array of offerings at our fingertips, so getting people’s attention is tricky. And there’s a serious problem with OVERWHELM. Whether that be with what to watch on Zoom, how to help save the planet, our BIPOC, and our country, or whether to make the bed or not. The overwhelm is a very real hardship. But that’s why we want to zero in on things like these women’s work and stories or the RFK Human Rights Organization or the work of Integrity First For America and their work suing Nazis- because we can take hold of these specific people and issues and show up in powerful ways that really matter.
We can focus IN and take action and find one another in these connections. Another piece of why I do love this forum is that we can reach audiences half a world away who we’d never have the pleasure to share our work with under other circumstances. What a great thing that aspect of all this craziness is!
With everything going on the world politically and socially, what do you personally feel theatre’s role is in responding to the world around us?
To not give up. To keep going. To listen and invite everyone in to tell their stories and to continue to make space for one another. I think it is really the time for theater makers to take risks, too. And I don’t mean for shock value or cleverness. I mean to not rely on the old plays and texts just because. We really must ask ourselves “What is the world I wish to build? What can Theater do to help make that happen?”
The old stories are not for these days. They need a pause, perhaps to be revisited later or remade into a salve for today’s strife. But right now, it’s all visionary hands on deck and this requires radical acceptance of responsibility from our brave theater artists.
Any plans for future virtual productions or other events coming up?
Thanks for asking- yes- September 3rd is Andromeda’s Sisters Part 2: Advocacy where Roberta Kaplan, Amy Spitalnick and Dahlia Lithwick are in conversation about their work suing the Charlottesville Nazi’s (trial is this fall) and Kerry Kennedy speaking about her RFK Human Rights organization and their work on Criminal Justice Reform and global femicide with readings by Bob Balaban and Catherine Curtin from Kerry’s book Speak Truth To Power. Tickets are $30 and proceeds benefit our three not-for-profit organizations.
And we have an outdoor, spread-wide dance theater piece in the cooker called The Parade which MAY be offered to a limited sized audience seated in single chairs 10 feet apart or if we still feel not so comfortable with that, we will record it for on-demand viewing. The piece plays with physical distance and utilizes classic Cajun Mardi Gras masks exploring the re-emergence of humanity and our relationship to one another as we slowly exit from the cave of challenge.
Here’s a little more about Kate Mueth and the Neo-Political Cowgirls:
Kate Mueth founded the award-winning Neo-Political Cowgirls 13 years ago to help fill the dearth of opportunities for and stories from the perspectives of women on our theater landscape. She conceives, choreographs and directs new, site- specific dance theater that is “Mind-bending, gorgeous, provocative and wild” in execution. Kate is an Equity actor, a proud Board Member and Officer for The League of Professional Theatre Women, and co-founder of The East Hampton Arts Council. Kate has worked as actor/director/ choreographer with such luminaries as Blythe Danner, Cathy Curtin, Aida Turturro, Tony Walton, Peter Boyle, Lizzie Larsen, Laura Gomez, Florencia Lozano and more. She has performed at Lincoln Center, Bay Street Theater and The John Drew Theater at Guild Hall as well as on stages in NYC, Chicago, Boston, and abroad. She worked side by side with her director husband Josh Gladstone to create a run of a post-punk Romeo and Juliet where she played a ribald Nurse and choreographed popping stylized dance and movement for the adventurous interpretation at The John Drew Theater at Guild Hall.
Kate has a lengthy biography in theater arts teaching and curriculum building over the past 30 years. Her work in conceiving, developing, directing and teaching the theater arts programs January Girls, Young Cowgirls, Dude’s Eye View, Girls’ Gaze and Project Hero continue to annually serve and empower our community’s youth, at-risk, and marginalized populations.
The Neo- Political Cowgirls are professional wild dance theater and arts education outreach- a powerful marriage of Arts and Advocacy. She was proud to be honored this summer by Katlean DeMonchy with a Hamptons Muse award, one of several women recognized for creative and social change work. Kate splits her time with work between East Hampton, NYC and places abroad. In these COVID days Kate waits, ponders, and keeps on finding the silver lining through shifted theater-making forms. She is mother to August Gladstone, a rising junior studying writing for film and television at Boston’s Emerson College, and wife to the talented Josh Gladstone- her two never-ending supporters and favorite characters in all this wide world. www.npcowgirls.org