Uršule Bartoševičiūtė “Feminism in the Theatre: From Dialogue to Radical Ideology”

Using the statistical methods of the field, the methodology of the creative process and its expression, this lecture investigated the social, societal, political, and economic strands of the feminist movement in relation to the theatre. The statistics released in 2019 indicate that Lithuania had not made any progress in the field of gender equality since 2005, and it is therefore crucial to examine how systemic and internalized sexism correlates with artistic, social, and societal processes. The research is a full-fledged study of feminism in the theatre using diverse perspectives. It uses the premise of women construed as the ‘Other’ proposed by Simone de Beauvoir: contemplating on Woman, which was created by and for Man, it aims to place feminism in a temporal and locational frame, describe its waves, and reveal its manifestations within the theatre in general terms. The author offers an innovative approach to the organisation of the creative process by including feminism as a creative strategy. This strategy aims not only at the world portrayed on the stage, but also at rehearsal processes and the structuration of work, contextualisation, and usage of the tools proposed by intersectional feminism. Some potentially adverse effects of feminism are discussed, including censorship and the euphemizing of rhetoric and related phenomena in theatrical discourse. In the last part, the author exemplifies feminism in the theatre on the show Requiem for a Woman (dir. Uršulė Bartoševičiūtė, produced by the Lithuanian State Youth Theatre, Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, and Iceland University of the Arts, premiered on 19 and 20 August 2020 in Vilnius). The creative process where feminism was employed as a creative strategy and stimulated a healthy dialogue amongst all the members of the creative team is scrutinized in this part. The research aspires to create a supplementary theatrical theory and practice that can encompass and systematise the need of intersectional feminism in the theatre.