Review: Neo-Political Cowgirls’ Come Together to Celebrate the Marriage Between Arts and Advocacy with Andromeda’s Sisters
Katherine Hebert
Neo-Political Cowgirls is a female-lead experimental theatre group based around Long-Island. Founded in 2007 their goal is to break free from the entertainment industry’s paradigm where many women artists were struggling to find joy in the audition and performance world. Neo Political Cowgirls is centered around amplifying the voices and stories of creative women. They’ve spent the last decade spreading their unique and creative voices through works written by and for women while also making time to help out in their community by setting up multiple programs for local children to help teach young artists to find their own creative voices.
Their most recent venture Andromeda’s Sisters is an Arts and Advocacy Forum presented in two parts acted as part digital performance, part forum, part gala. To quote a video we were shown prior to the performance:
“Andromeda’s Sisters is a conversion of the quintessential gala. We are not here just to raise funds to support our performative and education work but to encourage the audiences into extensive conversations, change-making initiatives and networking as we amplify and celebrate the creative and courageous work of women. Andromeda’s Sister’s is a marriage of art and advocacy inviting you in, into wet your curiosity, to stoke your ambitions, and to find a place where we are called to awaken, to listen and to clearly choose our steps forward.”
Part 1 of this event, and the evening I attended, was a night of original pieces, some designed specifically for this digital event and others from a repertoire of the playwrights’ individual bodies of work, the only parameters these creators were given was that the work had to come from and be performed by a female identifying voice. Kate Mueth coins the digital space performances as “not quite film and not quite theatre but something in between and we’re so lucky to have it”.
As a critic it is always particularly challenging to write about a showcase of works from individual creators rather than one complete piece. So to rectify this I will be reviewing each creator’s piece individually.
One of the creators whose work was featured was Vanessa Walters who presented to the audience two movement pieces from her ongoing canon of work entitled “Ripening” that according to Walters is meant to explore our relationship with time both psychologically and emotionally and the wonder and cruelty it wreaks. In its complete form Ripening is part film, part immersive-installation,part live performance. It’s current development is “Salon De Salvage” which is both a performance, a beauty salon and as Walters describes “a salon of discourse”. At this event we were shown a test shoot for a piece called “Sila!” which will be folded into a film called “Ancient Fury” that is slated to be incorporated into Salon De Solvage. “Sila” is a fast paced movement piece leaden with a primal rage that had me leaning forward in my seat and desperate to see its place in the context of the work described by Walters.
A group of nine women square off against a man in ancient armor with a primal almost ancient rage that’s countered with at times animalistic and at times understated movement alternating between perfect synchronization and a slow descent into chaos. This juxtaposition between a simmering enraged empowerment and perfect uniformity is utterly mesmerizing to watch. Her second selection “Doll Dance”, from “Ripening Yields” was endued with an eerie aura that combined childlike movement with stiff stagnant “doll-like”choreography, leaving the audience uneasy and entranced. Comparing these two pieces feels like comparing night to day and like I’m sure most of the audience in attendance I rushed to www.ripeningnyc.com where the full video of “Ripening Yields” was available and take it from me it is well-worth the half-hour it takes to watch “Doll Dance” in its proper context. I will absolutely be looking out for what Vanessa Walters takes on next.
In the first monologue of the evening Lynn Grossman’s “Bitch!” we’re let into the world of Chloe the dog desperately trying to rouse her owner from bed four months into quarantine. I have seen rousing discourse amongst the theatre community about not wanting to see theatre about the pandemic or about quarantine or the lockdown. While I understand this preemptive irritation with this thought I’m personally not a fan of it. We’re living in unprecedented times and people will make art about it regardless of outcomes we’ve yet to witness. However Grossman’s choice to remove the human perspective entirely not only avoids the pitfalls of the American Theatre tropes that seem to be getting under the skin of audiences everywhere but it allows this piece to proceed with a dry humor I did not expect when Grossman told us this piece was about the lockdown. This choice leaves Grossman the room to craft a piece with genuine humor that avoids falling into the typical pitfalls of a piece of this nature. The actress portraying Chloe does a brilliant job of walking the fine line between portraying a literal dog and keeping a grounded honest human performance that we can relate to. And her ability to tap-dance between the two was incredibly impressive.
The second monologue comes to us from Sarah Bierstock’s “Mothers and Daughters” which explored the relationship dynamics between a particularly zany family. The monologue or rather monologues combined, featured actress Ellen Dolan portraying both “Grandma” and “Mom” which she was able to achieve with no confusion through voice and physicalization work alone. Bierstock’s voice is very contemporary and the sequence of this piece that we singled in on is a perfect display of a woman longing for normalcy in the midst of a life slowly falling into shambles.
The third piece of the evening Mia Funk’s “In My Dreams” was a short film shot in black and white with Mia Funk’s writing layered on top. Funk’s piece centers around a relationship that is falling apart when it doesn’t live up to the expectations of our protagonist, portrayed by Funk. This piece definitely added some variety to the evening’s lineup. Mia Funk’s piece was thought provoking and the imagery utilized in the piece was mesmerizing. And Funk’s writing contains vivid imagery that conveys raw emotion that juxtaposes the black and white film portraying what appears to be a woman at peace.
The next two pieces of the evening came from Dipti Bramhandkar. Her first piece “A Brown Girl’s Guide to Self-Love” was an exploration of women’s sexual agency through the lens of Indian culture. Laura Gomez portrays a woman talking herself through a dry spell in her marriage as well as her journey to experimentation with self-pleasure. Bramhandkar achieves this with a candid voice that contains a fair bit of humor which is further strengthened by Gomez’s authentic performance. Bramhandkar intentionally crafted this piece using a comedic voice with the intent to explore what sexual discovery might feel like to someone who is older.
In Dipti Bramhandkar’s second piece “The Funeral” we focus on the experience of a mistress shut out of her married lover’s funeral. The idea of the piece came about when Bramhandkar read a story of a man who died and then had his multiple lovers attend his funeral. The monologue acts as part confessional, part self-tape meant to invite the audience into her hotel room as the “other woman” tells us what her imagined details of the funeral will be like and what her relationship with this married man was like from the confines of her room. Florencia Lozano gave an authentic and compelling performance as the mistress with a restrained display of grief and hopelessness that never strays into over-indulgent. Dipti Bramhandkar’s voice is honest and urgent, her writing displays an offhand humor that invites the audience in regardless of the topic.
In the next selection from Tanya Everett’s “1000 Miles”6, Nehassaiu deGannes portrays Myra a “ball-busting” woman articulating her frustrations with being in a relationship as well as searching for one. Everett’s writing has an authentic voice with a poetic lilt that carries the audience into the character’s mind, this is further strengthened by deGannes’s performance. This monologue was uniquely suited for a virtual format, being framed as a webinar.
Lucy Boyle’s monologue came from her play “Goody Garlick”, a piece about Elizabeth Garlick, a woman from East Hampton who was put on trial for witchcraft in 1657 nearly 40 years before the better-known Salem Witch Trials. In this selection Elizabeth Garlick, portrayed by Blythe Danner muses and contemplates what she would do if she actually had the powers she’d been accused of having. Blythe Danner’s performance gives a lot of power to this intentionally contemporary, surprisingly funny piece that taps on some all too relevant issues. I genuinely would love to see this piece monologue in its full context. This piece and the concept described by Boyle sounds absolutely spellbinding and I would love to attend a fully realized production of this work.
In Joy Behar’s “Where Are You At?” Cathy Curtin portrays an eccentric woman describing her coping mechanisms after her husband confesses to having an affair for the duration of her pregnancy.Curtin gives a restrained but all the more powerful performance as a woman on the verge of fame with a marriage falling apart behind closed doors. Behar’s writing is funny and poignant, letting us into her character’s minds.
The final piece put forth, “Poem About My Rights” was penned by June Jordan, a creator that passed away in 2002. Jordan was described as “vibrantly alive as an activist for feminism, civil rights and lgbtq rights”. As a homage to Jordan, her poem was portrayed by actress Portia. This was easily the most moving piece of the evening. This unrelenting, and fiery exploration of the trappings of being in the “wrong skin” and how this attributed to her sexual assault. The piece resolves itself and ties the rest of these pieces together when the speaker rejects the wrongness of her body. She states that she does not consent to her oppression, “Poem About My Rights”, and every other piece presented this evening absolutely floored me.
The second part of Andromeda’s Sisters will be held September 3rd where speaker Carrie Kennedy of the Robert F Kennedy Human Rights Organization, will be discussing their organization’s global work. In addition speakers from Integrity First will also be taking part in a discussion about their upcoming trial where they will be taking the Charlottesville nazis to court. This lineup alone proves that as Mueth said “Arts and Advocacy is a beautiful marriage”. I can not wait to see what this powerful group of women does next.