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Beate Hein Bennett
April 25-27, 2025
In the down under Cabaret space of Theater for the New City [TNC], a collective of feisty middle-aged women writers, known as the Westchester Collaborative Theater of Ossining, performed a series of stories to an appreciative intimate audience of mainly ‘mature’ women with a few men among them. The stories appeared to be based on personal experience, and they touched the nerve of any woman who grew up in America in the 50s, reaching young adulthood in the 60s and 70s.
Many a woman of that ‘certain age’ looks at life in America now and wonders where has it all gone—the “it all” being the women’s struggle for equal rights, for the right to own one’s own body, for the right to BE and fully develop all capabilities in whatever form. Have we lost “it all” in a severe political backlash? And where do the younger women, our daughters and granddaughters stand? Are they caught up in the victimization claims of the #MeToo movement? Are they really beholden to the “male gaze”, or let themselves be subjected to men like the women in “The Handmaid’s Tale?” Or are they taking for granted the progress our generation had fought so hard for? Being a woman of ‘a certain age, this reviewer has been raising these questions for the past ten years, as the political climate has veered sharply to the cold, violent rightward direction of the post-Roe vs.Wade era.
The full title of the showcase production is “THAT’S (NOT) ALL SHE WROTE…because after 50 she’s got A LOT to say.” The Westchester Collaborative Theater of Ossining, a membership theater, started this project by soliciting submissions of short pieces by women over 50. Producer Lori M. Myers and director Carol Mark ultimately chose nine stories by five writers who also perform their pieces, script in hand. The dramaturgical framework is a writers/actors workshop that includes the audience as part of the workshop, albeit no audience member is invited (at this point) to present a story of their own. It makes for a lively uninterrupted seventy-five minutes with spontaneous audience reactions being welcomed by the playwright/actors.
The subjects and the characters of these stories, mostly presented as monologues range widely. Some stories are humorous, some are nostalgic, some tragic, some heart wrenching, some absurd; in short, they deal with the breadth and depth of women’s experiences over the past fifty to sixty years. Some of the writers are experienced performers while others instinctively know how to capture an audience’s attention. Kathy Rossetter has contributed three very different stories all of which she performs with extraordinary zest. Irresistible is her 1970 Miss Tennessee, with Southern belle charm and endless wide smile, as she tries to teach a new crop of Miss Universe aspirants how to behave “with grace and dignity” and imbue them with the absolute conviction to win because being a loser means being a nothing.
Joni Fritz presents the tragic result of a fertility treatment that ends with a dead fetus and the necessary DNC procedure, now prohibited in many states as an illegal “abortion” with potentially fatal results for a woman. Lori Myers wrote a playlet “Civil Disobedience” as a reimagining of January 6, 2021 in which a member of the House of Representatives is caught in the unfolding catastrophe at the Capitol while her rebellious MAGA son is actually participating in the insurrection with a baseball bat—they communicate via cell phones from their respective locations until their shocking encounter. All the stories are poignant for our times.
The mission of Theater for the New City is to give space to a variety of voices, young and old, novice and experienced, from different backgrounds, reflective of life in New York City and the larger world. Crystal Field, the indefatigable founder/director of TNC saw the value in supporting this group of women playwrights from the Hudson Valley for which Producer Lori M. Myers expressed her heartfelt gratitude: “TNC has embraced us with this tremendous opportunity to present our creative work as women playwrights to a New York City audience. That support from this renowned theater means the world.” In a culture that places high value on youth and tends to marginalize (especially) women “of a certain age”, one welcomes the opportunity of hearing their perspective and seeing the energy that flows from women with zest, courage, and conviction that their experiences matter and should be heard.
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