GirlImproved
Thirty-odd years ago, a girl in third grade wrote a play called “The Bad Day.” It was about a family (mother, father, sister, brother) visiting the dentist, which resulted in a lot of cavities, especially for the brother. Thus, the “Bad Day.” This was before Testing, so the teacher had the freedom to let the girl to put on the play for her class. Suddenly, not only was she a writer, she was thrust into the position of producer and director. As she busily set about bringing the production to fruition, she discovered there wasn’t one boy in her third grade class willing to play the brother. No matter, she decided to play him herself. The production was a great success and life went on.
Today, another girl in third grade prepares for the opening of Shakespeare’s “Tempest.” She’s playing Prospero. As she progresses through the years, she tackles other great roles, including Hamlet, Petruchio, Hotspur, Captain Hook, Peter Pan, Mowgli and Sebastian.
Five Shakespearean characters on stage. All males- all played by young girls.
Does anyone notice a pattern? Yes. It’s been 300+ years since Shakespeare and where are the girls? Why do girls still have to play boys?
Girls Do Not Want to Play Boys.
So how do we change this? We need more stories about girls, right? Well, there are a lot of organizations empowering girls to write their own stories. But we think it needs to go beyond that. We think it needs to go back to third grade.
As the writer-producer-director of her own piece, why didn’t it occur to the girl, or anyone else for that matter, to simply change the sex of the character she was playing? Why are we still following Shakespeare’s lead? Why are we still in a world of ‘Bad Days.’
Which brings us to our Big Idea: what if we teach girls to write, produce and direct, all at the same time? And what if we surround those girls with mentors who can encourage them to create stories with girls in them? So not only are they creating new stories, they’re changing expectations. And what if we give them the tools to be the game changers, so they don’t have to wait around for someone else to decide it’s time for stories to change, they can simply do it themselves?
This is how Girl Improved began. We’re hoping it can become a model and a resource for like-minded people in communities everywhere. Perhaps, with support and encouragement, this next generation can improve the way we see girls, the way we see boys, the way we see different cultures, lifestyles and races. Because we can’t just wait for change, we have to be the change.
When told about the nature of Girl Improved, a group of girl writers, producers, and directors creating girl-empowering plays, the question that may come to mind for you is, “Why? We already have plenty of strong female characters these days. Think about Katniss Everdeen, or Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or Bella Swan. Plenty of women get lots of chances to star on the stage, and the big screen. What is there to improve?”
While it’s true that we have come a very long way from when women weren’t allowed to vote or own land, there’s still a shortage of independent female role models in stories. Movies feature almost three times as many male characters than female on average, and more and more movies are flunking the simple Bechdel test. Sure, we have characters like Katniss, Buffy, and- Bella Swan? Are you serious? All she does in any of the Twilight movies is repeatedly criticize her own appearance, simper over her two romantic interests, and wait for them to save the day.
The point is, for every female character who is amazing (or amazingly evil), there are dozens more bland roles where women are only put in stories as damsels in distress or something sexy for men to ogle. In short, many of the girls in our media just don’t feel real. We at Girl Improved want to see more smart, brave, and complex women in plays… So we’re creating them! We’re trying to make better stories for girls like us. Maybe someday the world won’t need Girl Improved- but until then, we’re going to keep fighting for a better future.
Contact Information
Andee Kinzy, Director
ImprovEd Shakespeare
www.improvEdshakespeare.com
andee@kinzy.com
646-285-6852
