Carrie Brewer: Woman Warrior
By Kessa De Santis
As the talents of many lifetimes emerge, a new theater company is forged...
In October of 2000, a new theater company called The Lady Cavaliers
debuted in New York City. The group, wholly comprised of "female actors
who fight," is a welcome addition to the Off-Broadway community. Under
the guidance of fight choreographer David Dean Hastings, producers Carrie
Brewer and Bevin Kaye have mounted an impressive show, GLORIA, that
can truly be described as an experience.(The show ran October 5 through
21, 2000. Read our review at www.electroniclink.com/Offbway
Following the opportunity to see the opening performance of this five-act
fantasy, On October 13, 2000, I was afforded the additional pleasure of
interviewing Carrie Brewer, who wears many hats here, including starring
in the title role. Enthusiastic and energetic does not even begin to describe
her. Effervescent comes closer.
Brewer, founder of The Lady Cavaliers, possesses a genuinely effusive spirit.
For her group's inaugural production, she chose to have an original work
commissioned expressly for them. While discussing ideas for the group,
she learned, to her great surprise, that she need look no further than her
own home. A relative newlywed, Brewer was pleasantly surprised to
discover the playwriting talents of spouse Peter Hilton. A formidable
creative team, this collaboration, though not initially intended by Ms.
Brewer when the notion to found the group struck her, has turned out to
be both fruitful and successful.
No shrinking violet, Carrie Brewer is, superficially, an unlikely warrior. To
watch her perform, and to speak to her one-on-one is to develop an
appreciation for the many facets of this young actor. As she speaks of her
emerging talents as a combatant, she becomes rather spiritual. Over and
over, Ms. Brewer noted the odd turns of chance that led her and other
Cavaliers to take up arms. Particularly, she marveled at the way in which
each had seemingly found her respective "specialty" among the myriad
weapons that these women perform with. Below are highlights gleaned
from our discussion.
Kessa De Santis:
I noticed that in the press release there was a quote from Bevin Kaye
giving assurance that, "There is not one anti-male line in the show!"
Does mounting a show like GLORIA, which exclusively consists of
strong, independent women, make the producers feel obligated to
give such assurances?
Did there appear to be the assumption that an all female cast is
equated with either radical Feminism, or general male-bashing?
If so, why do you think this is?
Carrie Brewer:
I thought about that a lot. The company is inherently political. By
its very nature, The Lady Cavaliers is a political company - it came
about because of a lack of opportunities for women in stage combat.
There are very few plays written that highlight women warriors,
whether real or fictional, regardless of the fact that history is filled
with examples of them. Women have commanded armies,
captained pirate ships, and fought in the front lines of battles for
centuries, and yet they have been missed out in most of the history
books.
Gloria, however, is not political. The play is a fantasy, and has
nothing to do with making any statements on feminism. It was
written by a man! And Peter Hilton had no intention of writing
anything that was seen as more than pure entertainment. We also
have a male fight director, so we do not harbor any resentment
toward men, in fact, many are helping us carry the torch!
KD:
Does having Peter Hilton as playwright, and David Dean Hastings
as fight director, help temper assumptions?
CB:
I think it does. We thought about having a female fight director.
There are only a handful of them in New York...
KD:
I was intrigued by the few details provided in the press release for
GLORIA regarding the history of women warriors. When did you
first learn of this heritage, and what more can you tell me about
these seemingly lost histories of many cultures?
CB:
My research on women warriors began after I started fighting. I was
at a two week stage combat workshop up in Maine where we had to
choose scenes to fight in, and 95% of the time I ended up playing
a man. Onstage, there's a long history of men playing women's
roles. Women weren't allowed on stage until... 1666, I believe, one
of the few dates that I know. Historically, there were some female
warriors who had to dress as men, but many more who didn't. One
of the best books on the subject is David E. Jones' Women
Warriors. I really want the website to be a resource on this subject,
so I spend a lot of time on the links. There are so many stories...
There are stories of nuns battling to save their convents - warrior
nuns. This led to a law being passed that women couldn't wear
armor. Story after story. It amazes me.
KD:
You have trained and received certification from SAFD. What led
you to seek this relatively unique credential?
CB:
I came to New York. There was tons of competition and nothing
that really made me stand out. I sort of fell into the fighting thing
and found it was something I had a knack at.
KD:
Obviously, you have found the opportunities for women with
combat skills to be lacking. Does this reality seem to increase in
direct proportion to the depth of the production budget? For
example, do you think this resistance is more prevalent on
Broadway?
To that end (if your answer is yes), have you found that
off-/off-off-Broadway is more receptive to a group like The Lady Cavaliers?
And/or, are these venues currently the most reasonably available
outlets for new and unique theater companies?
CB:
I think the bottom-line problem is that there was nothing written...
Xena and the two girl Power Rangers, I think it's very popular right
now. I think it's universal based on the success of Xena. I love
Xena!
KD:
I would like to learn more about the history of The Lady Cavaliers.
When did the idea occur to you to found a group?
CB:
I can't believe no one in New York has done this before. When I
first came up with this idea, I would sit around with my friends and
talk. And we'd go through the gamut. One day Peter just said, "I'll
do it." It took him about 2 « months then.
KD:
Wow! That is impressive. How much guidance did you give him in
regard to the script for GLORIA?
CB:
Peter is such a good writer, and so supportive. And for all the right
reasons. He knows drama so well. How to have it innately
theatrical and have people on the edge of their seats. It's got to be
fun. Peter wrote this for the women to be strong and independent
and sexy and soft. We're not pretending to be men.
KD:
What sort of response did you receive from the women who
auditioned for the group? How many respondents were there?
What, essentially, were you looking for in the hopefuls?
CB:
We had so many people who wanted to audition for us, about four
to five hundred submissions. We saw two hundred. We (Carrie
and director Alexandra Ornitz) realized that this would work. We
put an ad in Backstage asking for female actors who fight, and that
was quoted back to us so many times. We needed to find people
who could fight really well and act really well.
KD:
Alexandra Ornitz does a memorable turn as the character Jade in
which she wields a bullwhip. Since this character is also a
prostitute, do you think this scene fulfills some sort of male fantasy
regarding The Dominatrix?
CB:
That's the problem with the bullwhip scene. It's very popular, being
written about all over the place. Obviously that's not the message
were going for. Actually, that's Alex's specialty. She picked up the
whip, and was a natural. How do you explain it? In a few weeks
she was able to do things that others can't do after years of training.
It goes to show that it in our bodies and just nobody's given us a
chance.
KD:
What pitfalls did you encounter in preparing GLORIA for the
public?
CB:
The major pitfall was finding a space in New York City. We were
getting kind of panicky. Nothing was big enough.
KD:
I would imagine that in a production such as this it is especially
important that the actors get along.
CB:
Yes. Especially for the actors that appear in several scenes together.
We have a fight call every day for an hour before the show.
KD:
What lies in the future for The Lady Cavaliers?
CB:
I would really love to fight direct. Right now, I'm not half as skilled
as David is. In a few years though. I would love to take us on tour.
I think the colleges will go crazy for us. I'd love to start to do
workshops. There's even a market for corporate events.
Bevin is my favorite person in the world. She's handling all the
publicity and the money. I would like to do it on the West Coast -
she's based out there. This is a first-time producing for me and we
found such great designers. Christianne (Myers), she's brilliant,
excellent.
It is very important to me that people know about the women
warriors. It will help society's view of women today, which, sadly,
is still as the weaker sex. I'd like to take The Lady Cavaliers into a
more educational place, not preachy, but with an historical slant on
the plays - the truth is just as exciting as fiction. And for the record
- the Amazons are not a myth.
Carrie Speaks: An Oral History of the Women Warriors
In interviewing Carrie Brewer, I recognized her to be a valuable
fount of information. The tales below are conveyed by Carrie
herself.
To learn more, visit the website at www.ladycavaliers.com - KD
In the midst of a desperate search for plays with female fighting roles, I came
across a couple of 17th C. pirates named Anne Bonny and Mary Read. Mary
successfully disguised herself as a man for most of her life, but Anne made no
bones about her sex and fought fiercely along side of her lover, Captain Jack
Rackham, for many years. The women finally met while battling each other.
After being captured, Mary revealed her sex and they became inseparable. The
most inspiring story of the two happened during a night of festivities below
decks. The ship was attacked, and while the men were too drunk and afraid to
fight, Anne Bonney and Mary Read took on the entire battle themselves, and
staved off the attacking pirate ship for as long as they could.
Reading about these women lead me to another pirate, this time a captain,
named Grace O'Malley. Granuaile, her Gaelic name, dominated the Irish seas
for decades and eventually had a documented visit with Queen Elizabeth I of
England. Despite Granuaile's repeated efforts to defeat the English, Elizabeth
admired her, and granted her a pardon for the rest of her life.
Each woman warrior I read about lead me to another, and I was increasingly
astonished that most people have never even heard of these women. How did
that happen? They have certainly shaped history just as much as the men we
read about in school. Boadicea led the Celtic revolt against the Romans in AD
61; Trieu Au, "the Vietnamese Joan of Arc" fought and won many battles
against the Chinese in the 3rd C. AD; The Amazons of Dahomey (West
Africa), the King's royal, elite army, were feared and respected by the
Europeans for their ferocity in battle for most of the 19th century! The list
goes on and
on.
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