Participation Type
Performance
Presentation #1 Title
Bloodroot: The Ballad of Clinch Mountain
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
PRESENTATION: Discussion and Performance of original script based on true stories of women from the Clinch Mountain area of Virginia. The presentation will be a 30 minute discussion about the development and writing of the original play integrated with excerpts from the play as examples. The examples could be either live performances by the actors using costumes and props only (no sets) or filmed examples from a live performance. We would finish with a 15 minute Q&A discussion about the project involving the performers/writers.
RESEARCH PROBLEM/INTEREST/QUESTION:
In a university theatre department that is 70% female students dominated by male-driven material (male playwrights writing plays with heavy male roles), it becomes increasingly difficult to find scripts that allow for multiple, large, strong female roles. The male students are receiving at least 3 times as many opportunities simply due to the odds.
What is a step that could be taken that would increase female opportunities in the department while giving women a chance to learn about other women in history and an outlet for collaboration and empowerment in a faith-based environment? This project promotes communication and critical thinking, ensures competency in research, enables students to engage in a major field of study in a career-focused discipline, and promotes an understanding of the diverse elements of American culture – specifically Virginia mountain culture.
This research relates to the studies performed by Elizabeth Freestone in collaboration with The Guardian which revealed only 38% employed by the theatre industry are women worldwide. It is supported by the League of Professional Theatre Women’s Women Count Project which explores gender parity, as well as the multiple studies and research on gender parity, diversity, and related issues in the arts gathered by the Women in the arts and Media Coalition. This research was directly aligned with the Women of Appalachia Project lead by Professor Kari Gunter-Seymour of Ohio University.
PLAN AND METHOD OF PROPOSED WORK
Students involved with the project were divided into 3 creative groups: scriptwriters, songwriters, developers. Each group researched the subject matter: lost voices of Appalachian Mountain women – based on true historical stories of women in the Blue Ridge Mountain area of Virginia. Each group met with the faculty mentor (a published playwright and member of the Dramatists Guild of America) once a week for 3 months during the research/writing period. Then all groups combined met with the faculty member twice a week for one month. At the end of this time period, a first draft of a full play was completed. A fourth group met during the summer to revise and hold dramatic readings and produced a final script. The script will be produced as part of the Liberty University Theatre season – with female students involved with all areas of production (costumes, props, scenic).
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROJECT:
At a time when theatres are being called upon to be more collaborative in order to ensure their survival, perhaps different, more egalitarian working models to create art could be transferred into the management of the theatres themselves – especially educational ones. Creating decision-makers who aren’t male could help counter the gendered tradition that still dominates in so many of our leading theatres, and not only rebalance the work seen on stage but the activity of the entire arts’ institution. How do we help with gender parity in the industry if we do not start in educational theatre?
Some issues studied during the process of the project:
- Do women writers tell stories differently than men?
- Do women collaborate differently if collaborating with all women?
- What can be learned about women’s history through the writing of a woman’s narrative?
- What will stimulate a woman’s imagination?
- How do women search for identity through theatrical narrative?
- Will creating through their own original work give the female students a sense of place and confidence within the department?
- Will this collaboration help develop a sense of community amongst our female students?
- Will the students appreciate the sense of place of the Appalachian mountains in which they now live?
- Will the students develop a love for the subject matter?
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Caudill, Rebecca. My Appalachia: A Reminiscence. Holt Rinehart Winston, 1966.
Dyer, Joyce, editor. Bloodroot: Reflections on Place by Appalachian Women Writers. University Press of Kentucky, 1998.
Dykeman, Wilma. Family of Earth: A Southern Mountain Childhood. The University of North Carolina Press, 2016.
Engelhardt, Elizabeth S.D., and Lynda Ann Ewen, editors. Beyond Hill and Hollow: Original Readings in Appalachian Women's Studies. Ohio University Press, 2005. Ethnicity & Gender In Appalach Series 1.
Farr, Sidney Saylor. Appalachian Women: An Annotated Bibliography. University Press of Kentucky, 2014.
Goodman, Linda. Daughters of the Appalachians: Six Unique Women. The Overmountain Press, 1999.
Inc., Foxfire Fund. The Foxfire Book of Simple Living: Celebrating Fifty Years of Listenin', Laughin', and Learnin'. Edited by Kaye Carver Collins and Johnathan Blackstock, Anv., Anchor, 2016.
Kirk, Luther. Appalachian Woman. CreateSpace Publishing, 2017.
Lewis, Helen M., and Monica Apple. Mountain Sisters: From Convent to Community in Appalachia. New Ed. ed., University Press of Kentucky, 2004.
Martin, Betty J. A Woman of Vim and Vigor: An Appalachian History. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2014.
Mitchell, Felicia. Her Words: Diverse Voices in Contemporary Appalachian Women's Poetry. University of Tennessee Press, 2002.
---. Her Words: Diverse Voices In Contemporary Appalachian Women’s Poetry. University of Tennessee Press, 2002.
Mountain Women's Journal 1990 - 1993. The Appalachian Women's Alliance, 1993.
Rice, Connie Park, and Marie Tedesco, editors. Women of the Mountain South: Identity, Work, and Activism. Ohio University Press, 2015. Race, Ethnicity and Gender in Appalachia.
Sharp, Cecil J. English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians. Edited by Maud Karpeles, vol. 1, Loomis House Press, 2012.
---. English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians. Edited by Maud Karpeles, vol. 2, Loomis House Press, 2012.
Stephenson, Jane B. Courageous Paths: Stories of Nine Appalachian Women. New Opportunity School for Women, 1996.
Stern, Peggy Poe. Mountain Pearl: Appalachian Heritage. Moody Valley, 2015.
Strong, Cliffie. Strong Survival: The Life and Times of a Mountain Woman. Christian Appalachian Project, 2004.
Tallichet, Suzanne E. Daughters of the Mountain: Women Coal Miners in Central Appalachia. Penn State University Press, 2006.
VanLandingham, Frances Henson. Mountain Women: Steel and Velvet: Stories of Appalachian Women. Privately Published, 2008.
Warren, Rhoda Bailey. Appalachian Mountain Girl. Chicago Review Press, 1998.
Wilkerson, Jessica, and David P. Cline. Mountain Feminist: Helen Matthews Lewis, Appalachian Studies, and the Long Women's Movement: An article from Southern Cultures 17:3, The Memory Issue. E-book, The University of North Carolina Press, 2011.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Mrs. Cooper works professionally as a director, choreographer, producer, and casting director, and is a member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers. She currently serves as the artistic director for the Alluvion Stage Company and as Chair of the Theatre Arts Department at Liberty University. She served as the Executive Producer of The Miracle at The Miracle Theater in Pigeon Forge, TN, for seven years, with Fee-Hedrick Family Entertainment, Inc., and has served as a professional casting director for both movies and theater in New York City, Chicago, and Atlanta. Mrs. Cooper is a member of The Dramatists Guild of America. She also was a past winner of the Charles M. Getchell national award for playwriting, finalist in the national Lehman Engel Musical Theater Competition in New York City, a national finalist in David Mark Cohen Playwriting Competition sponsored by the Kennedy Center, and a semifinalist in the Appalachian Festival of New Plays.
Presentation #6 Abstract or Summary
The discussion/partial performance would be 45 minutes long and would require 10=20 students to attend the conference as performers (depending on the excerpts used). The students would also participate in any type of discussion surrounding the performance as they are also the writers and researchers. If a filmed version of the live performance is used, then I would bring the 8 student head writers to participate in the discussion.
Bloodroot: The Ballad of Clinch Mountain
PRESENTATION: Discussion and Performance of original script based on true stories of women from the Clinch Mountain area of Virginia. The presentation will be a 30 minute discussion about the development and writing of the original play integrated with excerpts from the play as examples. The examples could be either live performances by the actors using costumes and props only (no sets) or filmed examples from a live performance. We would finish with a 15 minute Q&A discussion about the project involving the performers/writers.
RESEARCH PROBLEM/INTEREST/QUESTION:
In a university theatre department that is 70% female students dominated by male-driven material (male playwrights writing plays with heavy male roles), it becomes increasingly difficult to find scripts that allow for multiple, large, strong female roles. The male students are receiving at least 3 times as many opportunities simply due to the odds.
What is a step that could be taken that would increase female opportunities in the department while giving women a chance to learn about other women in history and an outlet for collaboration and empowerment in a faith-based environment? This project promotes communication and critical thinking, ensures competency in research, enables students to engage in a major field of study in a career-focused discipline, and promotes an understanding of the diverse elements of American culture – specifically Virginia mountain culture.
This research relates to the studies performed by Elizabeth Freestone in collaboration with The Guardian which revealed only 38% employed by the theatre industry are women worldwide. It is supported by the League of Professional Theatre Women’s Women Count Project which explores gender parity, as well as the multiple studies and research on gender parity, diversity, and related issues in the arts gathered by the Women in the arts and Media Coalition. This research was directly aligned with the Women of Appalachia Project lead by Professor Kari Gunter-Seymour of Ohio University.
PLAN AND METHOD OF PROPOSED WORK
Students involved with the project were divided into 3 creative groups: scriptwriters, songwriters, developers. Each group researched the subject matter: lost voices of Appalachian Mountain women – based on true historical stories of women in the Blue Ridge Mountain area of Virginia. Each group met with the faculty mentor (a published playwright and member of the Dramatists Guild of America) once a week for 3 months during the research/writing period. Then all groups combined met with the faculty member twice a week for one month. At the end of this time period, a first draft of a full play was completed. A fourth group met during the summer to revise and hold dramatic readings and produced a final script. The script will be produced as part of the Liberty University Theatre season – with female students involved with all areas of production (costumes, props, scenic).
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROJECT:
At a time when theatres are being called upon to be more collaborative in order to ensure their survival, perhaps different, more egalitarian working models to create art could be transferred into the management of the theatres themselves – especially educational ones. Creating decision-makers who aren’t male could help counter the gendered tradition that still dominates in so many of our leading theatres, and not only rebalance the work seen on stage but the activity of the entire arts’ institution. How do we help with gender parity in the industry if we do not start in educational theatre?
Some issues studied during the process of the project:
- Do women writers tell stories differently than men?
- Do women collaborate differently if collaborating with all women?
- What can be learned about women’s history through the writing of a woman’s narrative?
- What will stimulate a woman’s imagination?
- How do women search for identity through theatrical narrative?
- Will creating through their own original work give the female students a sense of place and confidence within the department?
- Will this collaboration help develop a sense of community amongst our female students?
- Will the students appreciate the sense of place of the Appalachian mountains in which they now live?
- Will the students develop a love for the subject matter?
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Caudill, Rebecca. My Appalachia: A Reminiscence. Holt Rinehart Winston, 1966.
Dyer, Joyce, editor. Bloodroot: Reflections on Place by Appalachian Women Writers. University Press of Kentucky, 1998.
Dykeman, Wilma. Family of Earth: A Southern Mountain Childhood. The University of North Carolina Press, 2016.
Engelhardt, Elizabeth S.D., and Lynda Ann Ewen, editors. Beyond Hill and Hollow: Original Readings in Appalachian Women's Studies. Ohio University Press, 2005. Ethnicity & Gender In Appalach Series 1.
Farr, Sidney Saylor. Appalachian Women: An Annotated Bibliography. University Press of Kentucky, 2014.
Goodman, Linda. Daughters of the Appalachians: Six Unique Women. The Overmountain Press, 1999.
Inc., Foxfire Fund. The Foxfire Book of Simple Living: Celebrating Fifty Years of Listenin', Laughin', and Learnin'. Edited by Kaye Carver Collins and Johnathan Blackstock, Anv., Anchor, 2016.
Kirk, Luther. Appalachian Woman. CreateSpace Publishing, 2017.
Lewis, Helen M., and Monica Apple. Mountain Sisters: From Convent to Community in Appalachia. New Ed. ed., University Press of Kentucky, 2004.
Martin, Betty J. A Woman of Vim and Vigor: An Appalachian History. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2014.
Mitchell, Felicia. Her Words: Diverse Voices in Contemporary Appalachian Women's Poetry. University of Tennessee Press, 2002.
---. Her Words: Diverse Voices In Contemporary Appalachian Women’s Poetry. University of Tennessee Press, 2002.
Mountain Women's Journal 1990 - 1993. The Appalachian Women's Alliance, 1993.
Rice, Connie Park, and Marie Tedesco, editors. Women of the Mountain South: Identity, Work, and Activism. Ohio University Press, 2015. Race, Ethnicity and Gender in Appalachia.
Sharp, Cecil J. English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians. Edited by Maud Karpeles, vol. 1, Loomis House Press, 2012.
---. English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians. Edited by Maud Karpeles, vol. 2, Loomis House Press, 2012.
Stephenson, Jane B. Courageous Paths: Stories of Nine Appalachian Women. New Opportunity School for Women, 1996.
Stern, Peggy Poe. Mountain Pearl: Appalachian Heritage. Moody Valley, 2015.
Strong, Cliffie. Strong Survival: The Life and Times of a Mountain Woman. Christian Appalachian Project, 2004.
Tallichet, Suzanne E. Daughters of the Mountain: Women Coal Miners in Central Appalachia. Penn State University Press, 2006.
VanLandingham, Frances Henson. Mountain Women: Steel and Velvet: Stories of Appalachian Women. Privately Published, 2008.
Warren, Rhoda Bailey. Appalachian Mountain Girl. Chicago Review Press, 1998.
Wilkerson, Jessica, and David P. Cline. Mountain Feminist: Helen Matthews Lewis, Appalachian Studies, and the Long Women's Movement: An article from Southern Cultures 17:3, The Memory Issue. E-book, The University of North Carolina Press, 2011.
