Photographs by Rachel Brandt
If only Nell Gwynn had hawked toasted ravioli instead of oranges outside London theaters back in the 1600s, the name of a local award-winning women-owned theater company would sound more like it belonged in St. Louis instead of
St. Augustine, Fla.
But history shows it was citrus (and, possibly, herself) that Gwynn sold until she caught the eye of King Charles II, who promoted her from the streets to the stage.
Even after Gwynn began to perform, it was rare to see a woman on the bill of an English production. And when actor Brooke Edwards moved to St. Louis from Los Angeles in 2000, she saw a paucity of women here both onstage and behind the scenes.
“All the theaters in this city were so male-based,” says Edwards.
It wasn’t long before Edwards teamed up with theater professionals Michelle Hand and Meghan Maguire. Together, they formed an all-woman company named after Gwynn: Orange Girls.
“We give female artists a voice—not only actors, but directors, playwrights, scenic designers, lighting designers and sound designers—as well as telling the female story,” Edwards explains.
Fulfilling that mission, Orange Girls has so far produced nine plays, including Standing on My Knees, about a female poet with schizophrenia, which this year won a Kevin Kline Award for Outstanding Production of a Play.
Despite improved visibility, women seeking parts still face difficulty because male roles outnumber female ones. Up to 80 women typically vie to play a dozen female characters in St. Louis Shakespeare’s productions, says company artistic director Donna Northcott. But it’s not just the work of the Bard that favors the boys; it’s contemporary theater as well.
“If you look at something like The Odd Couple, you have about eight men and two women—and the two women’s roles are very small,” Northcott notes.
The solution? More females behind the scenes, Northcott says. “Until we get more women playwrights and incorporate them into the mainstream and start producing them, it’s just going to remain the same.”
Joan Lipkin has been creating roles for women and other marginalized groups in St. Louis since 1988. As founder and artistic director of That Uppity Theatre Company, Lipkin says she started her own company so she wouldn’t have to wait for validation of her work from local directors—most of whom are men.
“I think most women start theater companies because they look around and it looks like the decision-making positions are a pretty white, male network,” Lipkin says. “So they can either try to gain access to that system or start a new one.”
Other St. Louis women who’ve played a role in boosting women’s presence in the local theater scene include Pamela Reckamp, who founded Spotlight Theatre Company; Donna Parrone, who helped start HotCity Theatre Company; and Dawn McAndrews, artistic director of the Shakespeare Festival St. Louis. The founder of now-defunct The New Theatre, Agnes Wilcox, has been at the helm of Prison Performing Arts for 17 years, and her contemporary Kathleen Sitzer is now in her second decade as director of The New Jewish Theatre.
These pioneers are bucking not only a local trend, but also a national one. Only 17 percent of theater productions in the U.S. are written by women, according to Women’s Expressive Theater, a New York–based company promoting women. And just 16 percent are directed by a female.
Calling theater “a mirror for society,” Lipkin says St. Louis has a lot of work to do as far as promoting women in theater.
“When the image reflected back to us is inaccurate or incomplete as a result of bias or lack of representation, it’s not good for us as a society,” Lipkin notes. “There has been much progress made … but there is room for more.”
