Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 27, 1993 TAG: 9306250189
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: ROBERT FREIS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Long
It's true that his acting company barred women from the stage, and that squeaky-voiced adolescent boys were cast in female roles at the Globe Theater.
Yet the Bard still got it - he understood the barriers of expression and identity that women encounter, and his plays often reflect this insight.
While many are swooners and seductresses, Shakespeare did create strong, influential female characters - with a catch.
He veiled them to make them acceptable for his contemporary audiences.
Shakespeare depicted these outspoken women as changelings such as ghosts, enchantresses and witches. Or he disguised them as men before they could have their say.
His plays resonated through the centuries because Shakespeare had a canny knack for capturing human nature.
The challenges of self-expression faced by many of his female characters remain as vital as today's headlines.
As Shakespeare ironically observed in one play, it's easier for women to adapt than for men to change their minds.
That perpetual issue came into sharper focus earlier this month as a 3-year-old, national theatrical group visited the Virginia Tech campus.
Called the Company of Women, the troupe will turn the tables on Shakespearean times by performing his works with an all-female cast.
They say their goal is to address a range of personal and social issues by reinforcing the voice of women and girls.
Within a year or so, the Boston-based Company of Women plans to stage a national production tour of "Henry V," Shakespeare's quintessential war play.
Long-term plans are for a number of local companies, comprising adolescents and called the Company of Girls, to be spun off from the national group.
Their idea isn't gender elitism but an enhanced perspective, said Kristin Linklater, a veteran Shakespearean actor and voice teacher.
"If I could look around the world and conclude everything's OK, well, this might not be necessary."
"But two-thirds of the world's refugees are women and children. The men have killed each other off. They don't seem to be working it out too well," she said.
Linklater is the author of a book, "Freeing the Natural Voice," which emphasizes the emotional and psychological aspects of vocal expression.
Her thesis is based on two precepts: "Muddy thinking is the fundamental obstacle to clear articulation," and "Blocked emotions are the fundamental obstacle to a free voice."
Theater, she believes, is the ideal means of testing and amplifying this voice. And Shakespeare, given his cultural reknown and extraordinary insight, is the best playwright for the Company of Women's goal to hold a mirror to society.
The troupe's other philosophical foundation comes from Harvard University psychologist Carol Gilligan, whose work also focuses on the voice.
Gilligan says that during early adolescence many women lose touch with their natural voice - and with themselves - by assuming emotional disguises.
"Up to that age, girls have an amazingly clear view of the world and they tend to speak up about it. They know what they think," said Linklater.
"Yet when they reach the edge of early adolescence, they lose touch with the world after recognizing a culture that doesn't really include them."
This process, more profound and subtle than not being able to play baseball with the boys anymore, is like going underground or going into a deep sleep, say Linklater and Gilligan.
The Company of Women wants to revisit this crucial time during the lives of its members, and awaken lost voices. The Company of Girls wants to prevent that phenomenon from occurring.
The 20-member troupe came to Blacksburg this month for its first full workshop. It had two connections to Virginia Tech: Maureen Shea, a co-director of the Company of Women and a former member of the Tech faculty, and Patricia Raun, a student of Linklater's who teaches voice and acting at Tech.
Raun and Cindy Babson, a local activist and actor, were designated to organize this area's Company of Girls.
The main group, comprising theater professionals from across America, spent two weeks in residence at Tech working on organizing the national performing troupe and getting to know one another, Raun said.
A significant part of their workshops dealt with role-playing and violence, a characteristic of many Shakespearian plays that particularly interests the Company of Women.
Linklater said her work often makes her think of her 16-year-old son, and how her grandfather lied about his age at 16 in order to fight in World War I. "I don't want my son to be slaughtered or obliterated. That's what it boils down to for me."
"There's not one of us in this group that even dislikes men a little bit," said Raun. "Before I became a mother, none of this would have been important to me."
Linklater described the two-week workshop as emotionally challenging and physically exhausting. "I can only do it for several weeks a year. It's like taking your skin off."
Raun and Babson, with the help of guidance counselors at county schools, invited 15 local girls to spend a weekend as the Company of Girls.
On the stage in vacant Burruss Hall, Raun, Babson and other members of the main troupe encouraged these young women to embrace what one counselor called "the magic of theater."
Their frantic, ebullient exercises involved improvisation and experimentation.
During one afternoon session, the counselors led the young women through a madcap rendition of "Romeo and Juliet." The girls got to play various parts - male and female - and the plot was only barely adhered to.
Yet the result, as intended, was that the participants saw the play from a different viewpoint.
"That was enlightening," said one girl.
Later, the girls were led through other stage exercises, such as impersonating statues with theme such as "hate," "love," "death" and "friendship."
"It's awesome how we could work so well together without knowing each other," Auburn Middle School student Anilia Angert said afterward.
"You really got into doing instead of watching," added Tish Campbell, who attends Christiansburg Middle School.
Headed down the aisle, one girl exclaimed, "I'm not crazy, I'm creative!"
Raun and Babson work with this local Company of Girls, with public theatrical performances as the goal.
Both companies acknowledge they can't change the world, but they will try to reconnect the woman back to the girl who was passionate, clear and outspoken.
And they stress their intent is a positive one for society, as the Company of Women seeks to make their voices heard.
by CNB