Kelley Hungerford – assistant editor. Audience members young and old exited the Ford Theatre reluctantly near midnight Nov. 6. Conversations, some muted and some animated, continued on after the post-play discussion following the theater department’s production of Henrik Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House.”
“We could have gone on another hour or more,” Janet Gupton, associate professor of theater and communication arts, said. “I think we raised more questions than we found answers for.”
The talkback began at 10:30 p.m. and lasted a little longer than an hour. An entire section of the theater’s seating was filled with people eager to discuss the play, written in 1879, within the context of “The changing face of the American workforce: Women, careers, family and sacrifices,” the topic of the discussion.
“I think part of our mission for the department is that when we choose plays, classic plays like [“A Doll’s House”] that still have relevance today, it’s to add that extra educational element to our plays,” Gupton said.
The talkback audience largely comprised community members; the few students who were there were mainly part of the play’s cast and crew.
Besides the actors and actresses, discussion panelists included McMinnville residents Kathleen Bernards, a certified public accountant who owns her own practice; Ronni Lacroute of Willakenzie Estate, who is a Linfield trustee; Tanya Tompkins, Linfield associate professor of psychology; and David Bates, a local journalist and stay-at-home father.
“I realized that I didn’t want this to become a panel without a male voice,” Gupton said.
Bernards said she was pleasantly surprised that so many men were present for the talk.
“I feared it was going to be a bunch of us women talking about our gripes and how much progress we made, and I’m glad it wasn’t that,” Bernards said.
As a panel member, senior William DeBiccari, who played Nils Krogstad, said he felt more inclined to speak on the panel because he is a man.
“It didn’t faze me at all,” DeBiccari said.
Part of the impetus for the discussion was a report by Maria Shriver, titled “A woman’s nation changes everything,” but Gupton said that, while the report happened to coincide with the production, “A Doll’s House” wasn’t performed because of it.
“It was kind of a serendipitous, happy accident that it came out at that time,” she said.
Topics brought up at the talkback included the effects of today’s economy on women, mental and verbal abuse, single-parent concerns, portrayals of women and men in the media, male and female responsibilities today versus 50 years ago and balancing motherhood and a professional career.
In fact, juggling such a life appeared to be a common challenge for several panel and audience members.
“I stayed within the doll house and managed to come out anyway,” Jo McIntyre, a McMinnville resident and reporter, said at the discussion. “In spite of what happens, you can always go somewhere.”
McIntyre, along with other women present, frequently brought up the implications of the do-it-all woman on family and careers. Gupton said that, a lot of the time, perceptions of familial roles are changed to accommodate this lifestyle.
“Overall, the whole imposing of gender roles can be detrimental to both men and women in ways that we don’t always foresee,” she said.
Bernards said the range of ages of the panel members helped put feminism and sexism in perspective in the context of the last few decades. Lacroute is about ten years older than her, Bernards said, and Tompkins is a bit younger.
“You could see the progression of how the doors open wider,” Bernards said. “What we were trying to say at the panel was, ‘How did we walk through some of those doors since then?’”
Brenda Marshall, professor of theater and communication arts and the department’s chair, concluded that some doors remain closed to women and others, such as nonwhites, because today’s societal structures are behind on public opinion’s thoughts on the issue.
Freshman Caitlyn Olson, who portrayed Kristine Linde in the play, agreed.
“I think we’re pretty gender neutral,” she said in a later interview, adding that attitudes concerning gender inequality needed to change in Ibsen’s time — the late 1800s. “We’ve moved past that but need to structure our world to accept that.”
The student actors made many key points throughout the talkback, and some revealed personal information about their families, including having a single mother or older parents.
“Two students mentioned the positive impact in their lives of having parents who were quite a bit older,” Bernards said. “That was something I hadn’t thought about.”
DeBiccari said the discussion was informative but incomplete.
“There was some very good information, and some of it was like, ‘Wow, why are we listening to it?’” DeBiccari said. “I just feel like the talkback itself was — what’s a good word — unfortunately elementary.”
He said a lot of his frustrations stemmed from the late hour after performing.
But the late night didn’t seem to bother most attendees, and Gupton, Bernards and Olson all said they thought the talkback was a success.