This project used qualitative interviews from women in New York, NY and Phoenix, AZ to create a verbatim documentary play that explores the following research questions:
- How have the attitudes and experiences of women been affected by the 2016 election?
- What issues would women be willing to come together for and what might this look like?
- How can theatre aid in illustrating empathy between divided women today?
This project aims to create a theatricalized space for conversations that are not happening today, a space that places women’s voices directly in dialogue. In this project, I explored my research questions by creating a new verbatim documentary play and presenting two staged readings, one in each respective city, to further the development of the play.
New York City Reading: January 14, 2020 at 6:30 PM New York University, Pless Hall, 1st Floor Lounge 82 Washington Square East New York, NY 10003 Supported by the Verbatim Performance Lab
Phoenix, AZ Reading: January 30, 2020 at 6:30 PM ASU Performing and Media Arts Center APMA 131 Film Studio 970 E. University Dr., Tempe, AZ 85281 Supported by the Verbatim Performance Lab and the Bridge Initiative: Women+ in Theatre
Play published in ArtsPraxis, July 2021 in Volume 8, Issue 1.
In this issue, our contributors have reflected on their diverse practices, many of which fall under or draw upon trauma-informed and healing centered practices. In Divided We Stand, Carmen Meyers uses verbatim documentary theatre to investigate how women in the U.S. negotiated and maintained their identities and relationships in today’s climate of political polarization.
These images were taken at the New York City Reading On January 14, 2020. Photography by Christine Fischer