Where 1\re Women Playwrights?
    (Ed. Note: Following is a reprint of      on genital overtones. The female          moot question, since anything can
    an imaginary interview conducted by       play is open and passive, Furtive         and does happen, coming as a big
    irrepressible New York playwright         events crawl right through any play       surprise to those who thought they
    and feminist, ROSALYN DREXLER,            written by any woman playwright,          had it all figured out.
    where she explores with herself the       0: Why don't more women write for            I a~ still writing plays , They
    existential situation of women play-     .the theatr-e?                             are eminently playable , They come
    wrights.)                                                                           in all sizes and moods and, frank-
                                             A: Why should anyone write for the         ly, I feel like a great natural, nat-
    Q: Where are the women playwrights?
                                             theatre? The theatre is a necropolis       ional resource that has not been
    A: They are deployed about the city
                                             of ideas. One goes there to mourn          tapped.
    waiting to make their move. They
                                             the loss of life, and to numb the
    have already learned how to take a -
                                             backside, Occasionally we hear
    part and put together their type -
    writers in a matter of minutes, and      laughter but only because an old man
    how to keep them clean and well lub-     in the street has slipped on a banana
    ricated. At a signal, which may be        peel,
    the clapping of one hand, all women      0: Why do those who write for the
    playwrights will shoot the vapids and    theatre tend to drift away after a
    proceed to a secret rendezvous where     period of activity? Why do they
~   a hidden store of explosive topics is    write only sporadically?
    waiting to be used. With proper          A: To write sporadically is to become
    handl ing, each sentence will find its   like the resting spore which has re-
    mark,                                    sistant walls, Stopping is a means of        Somewhere                   between
    0: How can we, the critics, producers,   survival through unfavorable perio-ds.          if you touch me, 1 111 scream
    and public tell whether a play has       The sporadic writer does not have to                            and
    been written by a woman,, , that is,     fuse with others to produce her work,               if you don 1t, then I will
    an unsigned pl ay?                       she is her own means of reproduction;                        is a quiet
    A: A thorough examination of any         this takes time,                                         {kind of heaven)
    work will reveal its sex at the mo -     D.eviant drifting patterns in women                            amidst
    ment of heightened excitation, In a      as well as in men may proceed from           two kinds                       of hetl
    female's play the capitals will be       rejection currents especially power-
    shorter, and an excessive use of the     ful in the realm of commercial
    letters 0 and P may be noticed. Thus,    theatre both on and off Broadway,
    POP, POPE, OOPE, and OOPS take           However, what is commercial is a                                by Evi Seidman


                                       i saw a woman sleeping
                                                  I saw a woman sleeping
                                                  In her dream Life came and stood before her
                                                  And held in each hand a gift
                                                  In the one hand, Love
                                                  In the other, Freedom
                                                  And she said to the woman, Choose

                                                            The woman waited long and said, Freedom

                                                                             Then Life said to the woman
                                                                             You have well chosen
                                                                             If you had chosen Love
                                                                             I would have given you what you had asked
                                                                             Then I 'NOUld have gone from you
                                                                             And returned to you no more
                                                                             Now the day will come when I shall return
                                                                             On tltat day I will bear both gtl"ts
                                                                             in one hand

                                                                                 I heard the woman laugh in her sleep.



                                                                                                      by Ol ive Schreiner




                                                              Graphic by Mei K~ang Lu                                         J