Burning, Powerful Women!!!! by Hank Kimmel
Iowa 1962. Men work. Women take care of the home. And young Mary Jo Brickner is about to get married to John Sybil. It's a typical year in Swisher until Ritva Puotila storms into town and creates the BPW, a secret order of women designed to empower Mary to become the first female valedictorian of the high school....and a whole lot more. A fractured fairy tale where The Music Man meets Our Town meets...
Iowa 1962. Men work. Women take care of the home. And young Mary Jo Brickner is about to get married to John Sybil. It's a typical year in Swisher until Ritva Puotila storms into town and creates the BPW, a secret order of women designed to empower Mary to become the first female valedictorian of the high school....and a whole lot more. A fractured fairy tale where The Music Man meets Our Town meets Gloria Steinem meets the three witches of Macbeth.
SUMMARY
When Mary loses her bra during a romantic tryst, the B.P.W. springs into action. Posing as Mary's mother, father and boyfriend, the members of the B.P.W. -- who consist of a widow, divorcee and “spinster” -- use the bra to gain access to Mary's subconscious. They have different ideas about how a young woman should live, and they are desperate to share their views before, as they see it, the next generation is lost forever. Ultimately, it is Mary who must decide her fate as she comes to realize there is no guarantee of a happy ending, only the chance to control her own narrative.
A combination satire and fractured fairy tale (Our Town meets The Music Man meets Gloria Steinem meets the three witches of Macbeth), Burning Powerful Women depicts a clash between old-fashioned and modern living -- at a time when this clash was at its cusp, reflecting the changing status of women in America, and one adolescent’s attempt to take control over her life. Breaking the boundaries of time and space, Burning Powerful Women takes a stylized look at a very real emotion: the desire to find one's own voice.
Burning Powerful Women is a 70-minute play with seven characters that is to be played by four actresses ranging in age from 17-60. The three older actresses along with being a divorcee, widow and “spinster” also portray/channel Mary's mother, father and fiancee. The play requires a simple set, and the movement between various settings can be suggested by the blocking
DRAMATIC PREMISE: Questioning leadership leads to full-throated independence.
NOTES
This play was initially developed in a workshop with Margaret Baldwin and Diane Moroff where the play was devised from an exercise involving a poorly scanned newspaper, haiku poetry, and stream of consciousness writing exercise. This play was also developed as part of the Process Theatre (GA) Plays in Process Series. It also received a reading at the Last Frontier Theatre Conference (Alaska), and through No Shame Productions (Athens, GA). Also contributing: Lily Yancey Miller, the Fern Theatre, Nichole Palmietto and especially Open Minds Theatre. The play is meant to be developed as a collaborative piece with the script serving as the launch, not the end point. The portrayal of characters is meant to be done as authentically as possible, and, if produced, the play allows for flexible and innovative staging.