Para las Mujeres! Women in Improv!

[kaci_beeler]

I'm talking about the relative reaction to me declaring that I wanted to have some male bonding time on stage. Or that something magical happens when it's only dudes.

I think it might cause a froo frah, or worse yet a kerfuffle. Am I wrong? If I said that, what would go through your head? Would you be angry? Annoyed? Roll your eyes? I'm sure you'd have a reaction, right?

If you said that in all sincerity, and didn't mean it as a reaction to someone else saying they wanted and all (blank) troupe, but as a real expression of the appreciation of what it is to be male and the energy that you share with other men, and as long as you didn't want to play only with men, then I would be pleased. I think it's great for men to be able to be happy and proud to be men, and not have to be on the defensive about it. I think everyone should get to be proud and happy to be who they are, and be happy that everyone else is who they are.

Yeah, I'm totally with Val. If you said it in all sincerity I would be behind you 100%.

Mission Improvable
Improvised Shakespeare Co. in Chicago
Both are quite popular/well-known, and exclusively and purposefully all-male.
If that's the groove they like to rock, it's fine with me. I think I might have been more miffed about it 3 years ago, but for some reason I just don't have the bile for it anymore.
They made a purposeful choice and I respect that.

[jillybee72]

I'm usually concentrating on having fun and playing pretend.

Yes! Me also! And occasionally as a vehicle for that fun I organize an all-women event which I unabashedly enjoy. And during that time I think how cool, I love these people who happen to be women.

-------------

I finally thought of the troupe I was thinking of that celebrates being men!



It's Mantown from Toronto and everyone l-o-v-e-s them. I will ask them if anyone ever gives them a hard time. I've never heard anyone complain about it.

[York99]

For improv troupes, it shouldn't matter what gender, race, age, etc. the performers are. What's important is grouping people by socioeconomic status.

[Jastroch]

Cool Cool.

So long as you guys are cool with dudes being dudes and having a similar safe space to hang and feel safe being dudes, then I got no problem.

Of course, the irony of me engaging in this discussion is that I don't really want to have a dude only space.

Now, let's play a fun intellectual game:

Is it okay to form a minority only team because the minority wants to improvise with people of the same cultural background? And if that's okay, is it okay for a bunch of whites to say I want to play with white people for the same reason?***

I think it's intellectually okay, but laughably unnecessary. The same way that creating a safe space for men is okay, but likely unnecessary (unless you live on a weird star trek world where women in comedy outnumber men).

I think people who would feel a need to define a safe place for whites are probably the same people who think whites are persecuted, and are creating said space in opposition to a racial minority.

To a lesser degree, a man who creates a "safe place for men" is probably more likely to be doing it as an anti-woman (as opposed to pro male) thing. But that doesn't mean it's wrong or that we should assume that motivation or judge his agenda.

*** It's an interesting question, given that some of us are forming a Connecticut native Cage Match team, which by it's nature will be 100% WASP.

[Jastroch]

I think the message is jumbled. Any time the majority uses the minority's viewpoint as a theoretical, everything gets all jumbled. Sean Hannity does this all the time when he claims that white people are being discriminated against. You simply laugh it off.

So you're saying that it is wrong for someone to say, "I want to be in an all male troupe because I feel comfortable there"?

[alexd231232]

nobody is "just" anything. everyone has worlds inside of them. performance blesses us with the gift of exploring those worlds, inside ourselves and others.

preach

[Spots]

So you're saying that it is wrong for someone to say, "I want to be in an all male troupe because I feel comfortable there"?

Nope, didn't quite say that. That's a perfectly viable viewpoint.

[jillybee72]

I asked Bob from Mantown if anyone ever gives them a hard time because the name celebrates the male gender, and he said:

"Yes and no. I think people expect Jock-humor from our show. It helps that we are very artsy gentlemen pretending to be "dudes" so we balance it out a bit. I think the only branding problem we had was initially people thought the name meant we were all gay and thats only a problem for the people who expect man-love at our shows."

[MitchellD]

I asked Bob from Mantown if anyone ever gives them a hard time because the name celebrates the male gender, and he said:

"Yes and no. I think people expect Jock-humor from our show. It helps that we are very artsy gentlemen pretending to be "dudes" so we balance it out a bit. I think the only branding problem we had was initially people thought the name meant we were all gay and thats only a problem for the people who expect man-love at our shows."

Wow, that stuff didn't even come to mind for me.

[mpbrockman]

Cool Cool.

So long as you guys are cool with dudes being dudes and having a similar safe space to hang and feel safe being dudes, then I got no problem.

Of course, the irony of me engaging in this discussion is that I don't really want to have a dude only space.

I appreciate the irony, but working with GGG for so many years I have found myself doing things like - oh - hanging out in a MPLS hotel room eating vegetarian pizza and watching "Project Runway".

One needs an afternoon of dead cow and ESPN to recover from that.

[Jastroch]

One needs an afternoon of dead cow and ESPN to recover from that.

all male improvised barbershop -- the Cold Tones. I'd invite you to hang out with Elevator Action at TCIF, but there are women in the group :/

[York99]

the Cold Tones.

I forgot about the ColdTones. We need to get those maroon velvet jackets.

[valetoile]

I think there is something you can share about being male with other males, being female with other females, or being in a minority group with other minority groups. I don't think there's really much that bonds "white" people together, unless you want to celebrate not being a minority. Which rubs me the wrong way. If you want to make a group of all WASPS, or all irish catholics, or all red-heads, then maybe you've got a little more something to hold you together, and the groups still happen to be all white, probably. In any group you perform with, you're looking for something that you share. Sometimes that thing is easily categorizable (all female, all gay males, all from another country living in america, all over six feet tall...) and sometimes it's not. The groups that seem more mixed still have a common bond, it's just not as easy to put a label on it. And by the same token, just because people share a label doesn't mean they'll share an experience or point of view. But when you share something that everyone has labeled you with, and you connect, it can be another great arena to explore, that you probably couldn't explore with different people. You'll explore other arenas with them.

[mpbrockman]

all male improvised barbershop -- the Cold Tones.

I would so love this - especially if I could sing bass!

[Rev. Jordan T. Maxwell]

i think if nothing else, this discussion has given us the wonderful phrase "oyster playground."

So you're saying that it is wrong for someone to say, "I want to be in an all male troupe because I feel comfortable there"?

i think it's less that, and more that it would be absurd (not "wrong") for someone to say "well, if THEY can have an all Mexican/Asian/black/female troupe, why can't WE have an all white/male troupe? that's racist/sexist! we're being discriminated against/discriminated against!"

nobody is "just" anything. everyone has worlds inside of them. performance blesses us with the gift of exploring those worlds, inside ourselves and others.

preach

i often do.