Gallery: Mrs. Representation explores the portrayal of women in theater, television
By Alyssa Dorn
Feb. 13, 2017 10:58 p.m.
Mrs. Representation, one of the Theater, Film and Television Directing Continuum One Acts, explores the representation of women in film and TV through music by showing what might happen if five minor female characters ended up in a therapy room together. The musical opens Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. and runs until Friday. It was written by third-year world arts and cultures student Shayna Maci Warner, composed by fourth-year theater student Mina Bloom, and directed by third-year musical theater and directing student Charles Platt.
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Third-year musical theater student Claudia Baffo, who plays ''the therapist,'' conducts the other characters in a song by using her pen, an instrument of authority in the one-act that can force the other characters' movements. The one-act's writer, third-year world arts and cultures student Shayna Maci Warner, said, ''Mrs. Representation was born out of a love for television and theater, and my frustration with how limiting and heterogeneous roles for women still are.'' She said that the best way she could think of to combat the limiting female roles in theater was to write multidimensional female roles herself.
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''The cheerleader,'' played by fourth-year theater student Shannon Viele, answers ''the therapist's'' question of who the head cheerleader should date by exploring the possibility of a star-crossed lovers narrative between her and the rival team's head cheerleader.
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Second-year theater student Amber Li, third-year musical theater student Katie Emery, and fourth-year theater major Shannon Viele end a song about not thinking too hard. The one-act was written by third-year world arts and cultures student Shayna Maci Warner and composed by fourth-year theater student Mina Bloom, who is also the pianist for the play.
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Second-year theater student Amber Li sings as ''the token Asian character.'' Writer Shayna Maci Warner said, ''Working on this has taught me so much already about the preconceptions I hold about female representation, especially when it comes to intersectionalities in race, class, and sexual orientation within feminism.''
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Third-year theater student Maggie Jorgenson plays the character Emma, ''the gay best friend'' who is incredulous at the therapy sessions.
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Emma (third-year theater student Maggie Jorgenson) takes over the therapy session and encourages the minor female characters to speak for themselves. Third-year world arts and culture student and writer Shayna Maci Warner said, ''One-dimensional female characters don’t have a place in our increasingly self-aware generation. I thought that a musical that relied on tropes to expose them was a pretty fun way of breaking down certain stereotypes and adding dimension.''
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''The cheerleader'' (fourth-year theater student Shannon Viele) uses the pen, which symbolically gives her the authority and ability to speak for herself, to sing about the written limitations of her character.
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''The token Asian character'' (second-year theater student Amber Li) sings about being used by writers as a Japanese character with a Chinese name and a mistranslated English name as the other minor female characters cover her with their hands.
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''The therapist'' (third-year musical theater student Claudia Baffo) tries to take back control by seizing the notebook and pen.
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''The token Asian character'' (second-year theater student Amber Li) brings up the intersectionality of feminism and racism in that even women writers relegated her to stereotypical race-based roles. Emma (third-year theater student Maggie Jorgenson), who was written by women, attacks her and reveals her own anger at being used as ''the gay best friend'' who is made to kiss every other female character as a gag.
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As the one-act comes to a close, each minor female role has a piece of paper as they decide to use the pen not as a merely symbolic representation of authority, but as tools to write their own stories. They sing about showing audiences something they have never yet seen: real female characters.
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The actors dance into their bows, with director Charles Platt, third-year musical theater and directing student, guiding them from the background.
