What is it about?
Does the writer or the director of a new playtext own the meaning? This issue is problematized when the director is a feminist who unconsciously follows her impulses to insert mise en scene that make sense to her. I examine this unconscious modality and its effects in 'Reach' (2007) which later became 'Solomon and Marion' (2011) by Lara Foot.
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Why is it important?
The development of new South African writing for theatre is hampered by the need for negotiation over meaning between writer and director in the first staging of a new playtext. It is time consuming and energy wasting. Much easier is the choice to auteur - to write and direct one's own pieces. But the struggle to find an equitable process in collaboration between writer and director must continue. By examining the feminist director's role in making meaning through mise en scene it becomes possible to open up an alternative approach to collaboration.
Perspectives
By using a feminist lens on a universal problem in the creating of new plays in South Africa, I am able to consider the kinds of meanings and signs feminism and 'becoming woman' create in new playtexts that are not necessarily feminist.
Ms Clare Iona Stopford
University of Cape Town
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This page is a summary of: Mise en scèneas a feminine textual body: making meaning inReach, South African Theatre Journal, May 2015, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/10137548.2015.1043937.
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