If this year’s Oscars are any indication, Hollywood may have begun making some small progress in casting older women in substantive roles. But for Angela Allyn, Evanston’s community arts programs coordinator, the imbalance of opportunity in the entertainment industry still feels very real.
Frustrated by the persistent lack of meaningful parts for older female actors, Allyn recently decided to address the scarcity, at least in her own neck of the woods.
Last fall, Allyn launched The Old Lady Project to encourage the development of screenplays, scripts and theatrical works with significant parts for women older than 50. Her call for scripts yielded several standouts including Grandmothers, Incorporated, a quirky ensemble comedy that will be performed as a stage reading at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, April 17, at the Noyes Cultural Arts Center.
“The entire population is aging, and people want to see their demographic reflected in stories,” said Allyn. “So I said, ‘OK, I can put one little drop in this ocean.’” In October, Allyn put out the call for submissions, and her little drop swelled into a tsunami. By mid-January she had received 646 scripts from 32 countries.
Although Allyn had originally intended to accept submissions through the end of the month, she made the decision to close the portal.
“I thought there will be no way for us to get through this if I don’t turn the faucet off,” she said. “It felt like that I Love Lucy scene with the chocolates.”
Allyn called the script review process “daunting.” She worked with roughly a dozen volunteer readers recruited from the theater industry.
“Once we got up to 300 submissions, I had a couple of panelists run screaming from the room,” she recalled with a chuckle. Still, every script got a look.
Interest in The Old Lady Project was high within the theater community, according to Allyn, but the feedback was not always positive. There was pushback on the name of the initiative, and she received a barrage of letters from those who viewed the word “old” as pejorative. Others argued that 50 is the new 30 – too young to be considered old.
“It’s not,” said Allyn, defending the cutoff choice. “Any perimenopausal woman can attest to that.”
Blocking out the negative noise, Allyn and her team focused on the job at hand, finally selecting four works to be performed at the Noyes Cultural Arts Center this month and in November. Grandmothers, Incorporated, by award-winning authors and playwrights Lillie Barrett Evans and Crystal V. Rhodes, is the first in the series.
To direct the production, Allyn tapped veteran director and dramaturg Joan Mazzonelli, who spent much of her career with the Theatre Building Chicago and specializes in developing new works. Mazzonelli said she was eager to be a part of the project.
“There’s no questions that there’s a scarcity of parts for older women,” she said. “It’s universally known, and people are beginning to address the problem, but it’s an issue in the entire entertainment industry.”
Mazzonelli noted that, for a director, there are many benefits to working with older women. They remember the restrictions of the past, she said, and can bring a completely different perspective to the stage.
“They have a broader outlook. They know how to work cooperatively in a really good way, and they have a lot of humor.”
Designed to elicit plenty of chuckles, Grandmothers, Incorporated is the tale of four longtime friends who are seeking a restful weekend in a country cabin when a notorious drug lord appears in their midst. Chaos ensues as the feisty widows dispense their own unique brand of justice.
The show stars Marssie Mencotti, Marian Kaderbek, Andrea Conway-Diaz, Ana Maria Alvarez, Brian Pastor and Charles Greenia. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased on the city of Evanston’s website.
