Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 1985 - 8

unquestioned over the ages. In a number of other disciplines-for example,
literary studies-feminist criticism has
been flourishing. Even in film studies
and art history, analysis is developing
from a feminist perspective. Theatre
has been much slower and more conservative in developing this point of
view. I'd like to categorize possible
areas for raising questions on this issue.
The first big category is gender
analysis: do men and women design
differently? The second category I'd
like to address is: from a historical and
political point of view, why are there so
few women scene designers, and how
does the future look? Thirdly, what do
plays historically offer for interpretation from a woman's point of view
about the theatre environment, the
process of creation, and collaboration
with author, director, producer, managers, designers, and the audience? By
feminist, I don't mean women writing
about women's issues, but the perspective that includes both men and women
looking at issues from the point of view
of woman's role in this historical and
critical milieu.
First, the whole issue of women and
biology: I personally don't think that
there are set biological differences that
are going to determine that men design
or create one way .and women another
way. I think the cultural determinants
are more important. Historically,
women have been considered inferior
biologically, intellectually and morally.
But what are the tests that have been applied? For example, biological strength
-strength is defined in terms of muscle
strength, a function of testosterone in
the muscles, as opposed to the strength
of endurance, the strength of pain in
childbirth. The male test of intelligence,
for example, measures trained skill in
mathematics. Men traditionally have
been urged and encouraged to seek
training in the mathematical disciplines,
while women have received less encouragement. Hence, their mathematical
skills are less developed and they don't
do as well on those tests.
Even issues of morality-what
kinds of precepts are being used? In
earlier years a playwright or a critic
would say that a woman is morally inferior to a man. This kind of assumption is not that old-fashioned. Playwrights as recent as August Strindberg
assumed that women were obviously

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morally inferior, as well as intellectually and biologically inferior. The central issue is when you assume honor,
duty, control, and functioning in society
are the main issues in moral superiority,
as opposed to feelings of passion, nurturing, and other moral issues that have
been less popular and maybe associated
culturally with the female mode.
Each person is made up of infinite
variables and determining factors and
the issue of gender is one of those-and
a very important element in that whole

In looking at artists today, for example, there are lots of things one can
say about their tendency in terms of design motifs, and the use of color and
shape that some artists like Georgia
O'Keefe and Judy Chicago have used,
emphasizing curves and organic shapes.
But again, it doesn't follow that all
women have to use those curves, those
shapes, just because they're women, or
that men can't use them. In terms of
women's backgrounds and the culturally and sociologically determined
elements in their lives, it is safe to say
a number of women do use those shapes
and lines and design patterns because
it happens to be closer to their
background.
The issue of the number of women
designers connects wi th the theatre
process itself. If you compare ~he number of women painters in art history

Heidi Landesman's 1985 Tony A ward- winning design for Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry
Finn al lhe Eugene O'Neill Thealre.

configuration that makes a person
quite complex. I think it's very dangerous to talk in terms of categories and
say that men design this way, women
design this way, men have this creative
impulse, women have this creative impulse. Nevertheless, there are issues one
can focus on, just as there are black issues, there are gay / straight issues, there
are Jewish issues, there are women's
issues. But it doesn't follow that all
women have to be categorized with
these issues.

6 Theatre Design & Technology/USITT/Summer 1985

that have been recently emerging-surprisingly there are quite a few women
painters, more than one thought-proportionately speaking, there are far
fewer women designers in history. This
is partly due to the theatre's relatively
conservative nature. It's a public art,
and depends on cooperation among
different groups of people. A painter,
or the daughter of a famous painter,
like Artemesia, can paint in the privacy
of her father's studio, and needs only
the encouragement of a father or per-
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 1985
