Rapture, Blister, Burn curriculum guide

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“An intensely smart, immensely funny new play!”

– THE NEW YORK TIMES

TABLE OF CONTENTS Standards & Guidelines 2 It’s Good to make a Writer Squeamish 4 Themes for Writing and Discussion 6 The Path Not Taken 6 Generational Perspectives 9 Gender Roles and Relationships 11 Mastery Assessment 14 Let’s see how far we’ve come: A timeline of Feminism in the United States 15 For Further Exploration 21

“...But I wouldn’t call myself a Feminist” —

The Women’s movement Then and Now 21 The First Wave 22 The Second Wave 24 The Third Wave 26 Use Once and Destroy 30 Say What?!?! Modern Feminist Vocabulary 31 Suggested Activities 33

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NT ING CO T TO MP HE N AVE AN ATR & S NU Y E O E

UT O F H E TH ND E A RTS

Suggestions for further reading and viewing 36

© Huntington Theatre Company Boston, MA 02115 March 2013 No portion of this Curriculum Guide may be reproduced without written permission from the Huntington Theatre Company’s Department of Education & Community Programs

AUTHOR CREDITS This curriculum guide was prepared for the Huntington Theatre Company by:

Alexandra Truppi, Manager for

Curriculum & Instruction With contributions by:

Donna Glick, Director of Education

Rebecca Curtiss, Communications Manager

Inquiries should be directed to:

Meg O’Brien, Manager of Education Operations

Donna Glick, Director of Education Huntington Theatre Company 264 Huntington Avenue Boston, MA 02115

Solange Garcia, Marketing Assistant

Chrissie Sugg, Education Intern

Katelyn Diekhaus, Education Intern

ACADEMIC STANDARDS:

Student Matinee performances and pre-show workshops provide unique opportunities for experiential learning and support various combinations of the Common Core Standards for English Language Arts. They may also support standards in other subject areas such as Social Studies and History, depending on the individual play’s subject matter.

Activities are also included in this Curriculum Guide and in our pre-show workshops that support several of the Massachusetts state standards in Theatre. Other arts areas may also be addressed depending on the individual play’s subject matter.

COMMON CORE STANDARDS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS Reading Literature: Key Ideas and Details 3

Reading Literature: Craft and Structure 6

• Grade 7: Analyze how an author develops and contrasts the points of view of different characters or narrators in a text.

• Grade 7: Analyze how an author develops and contrasts the points of view of different characters or narrators in a text.

• Grade 8: Analyze how particular lines of dialogue or incidents in a story or drama propel the action, reveal aspects of a character, or provoke a decision.

• Grades 9-10: Analyze how complex characters (e.g. those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the themes.

• Grade 8: Analyze how differences in the points of view of the characters and the audience or reader (e.g., created through dramatic irony) create such effects as suspense or humor.

• Grades 11-12: Analyze the impact of the author’s choices regarding how to develop related elements of a story or drama (e.g., where a story is set, how the action is ordered, how the characters are introduced and developed).

• Grades 9-10: Analyze a particular point of view or cultural experience reflected in a work of literature from outside the United States, drawing on a wide reading of world literature.

• Grades 11-12: Analyze a case in which grasping point of view required distinguishing what is directly stated in a text from what is really meant (e.g., satire, sarcasm, irony, or understatement).

Reading Literature: Craft and Structure 5

Reading Literature: Integration of Knowledge and Ideas 7

• Grade 7: Analyze how a drama’s or poem’s form or structure (e.g., soliloquy, sonnet) contributes to its meaning.

• Grade 8: Compare and contrast the structure of two or more texts and analyze how the differing structure of each text contributes to its meaning and style.

• Grade 7: Compare and contrast a written story, drama, or poem to its audio, filmed, staged, or multimedia version, analyzing the effects of techniques unique to each medium (e.g., lighting, sound, color, or camera focus and angles in a film).

• Grades 9-10: Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure a text, order events within it (e.g., parallel plots), and manipulate time (e.g., pacing, flashbacks), create such effects as mystery, tension, or surprise.

• Grade 8: Analyze the extent to which a filmed or live production of a story or drama stays faithful to or departs from the text or script, evaluating the choices made by the director or actors.

• Grades 11-12: Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a text (e.g., the choice of where to begin or end a story, the choice to provide a comedic or tragic resolution) contribute to its overall structure and meaning as well as its aesthetic impact.

• Grades 9-12: Analyze multiple interpretations of a story, drama, or poem (e.g. recorded or live production of a play or recorded novel or poetry), evaluating how each version interprets the source text (Include at least one play by Shakespeare and one play by an American dramatist).

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MASSACHUSETTS STANDARDS IN THEATRE Acting

Reading and Writing Scripts

• 1.7 — Create and sustain a believable character throughout a scripted or improvised scene (By the end of Grade 8).

• 2.7 — Read plays and stories from a variety of cultures and historical periods and identify the characters, setting, plot, theme, and conflict (By the end of Grade 8).

• 1.12 — Describe and analyze, in written and oral form, characters’ wants, needs, objectives, and personality characteristics (By the end of Grade 8).

• 2.8 — Improvise characters, dialogue, and actions that focus on the development and resolution of dramatic conflicts (By the end of Grade 8).

• 1.13 — In rehearsal and performance situations, perform as a productive and responsible member of an acting ensemble (i.e., demonstrate personal responsibility and commitment to a collaborative process) (By the end of Grade 8).

• 2.11 — Read plays from a variety of genres and styles; compare and contrast the structure of plays to the structures of other forms of literature (Grades 9-12).

• 1.14 — Create complex and believable characters through the integration of physical, vocal, and emotional choices (Grades 9-12).

• 1.15 — Demonstrate an understanding of a dramatic work by developing a character analysis (Grades 9-12).

• 1.17 — Demonstrate increased ability to work effectively alone and collaboratively with a partner or in an ensemble (Grades 9-12).

Technical Theatre

Connections

• Strand 6: Purposes and Meanings in the Arts — Students will describe the purposes for which works of dance, music, theatre, visual arts, and architecture were and are created, and, when appropriate, interpret their meanings (Grades PreK-12).

• 4.6 — Draw renderings, floor plans, and/or build models of sets for a dramatic work and explain choices in using visual elements (line, shape/form, texture, color, space) and visual principals (unity, variety, harmony, balance, rhythm) (By the end of Grade 8).

• 4.13 — Conduct research to inform the design of sets, costumes, sound, and lighting for a dramatic production (Grades 9-12).

• Strand 10: Interdisciplinary Connections — Students will apply their knowledge of the arts to the study of English language arts, foreign languages, health, history and social science, mathematics, and science and technology/engineering (Grades PreK-12).

AUDIENCE ETIQUETTE Attending live theatre is a unique experience with many valuable educational and social benefits. To ensure that all audience members are able to enjoy the performance, please take a few minutes to discuss the following audience etiquette topics with your students before you come to the Huntington Theatre Company.

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• How is attending the theatre similar to and different from going to the movies? What behaviors are and are not appropriate when seeing a play? Why?

• Remind students that because the performance is live, the audience will affect the actors’ performance. No two audiences are exactly the same and therefore no two performances are exactly the same — this is part of what makes theatre so special! Students’ behavior should reflect the level of performance they wish to see.

• Theatre should be an enjoyable experience for the audience. It is absolutely all right to applaud when appropriate and laugh at the funny moments. Talking and calling out during the performance, however, are not allowed. Why might this be? Be sure to mention that not only would the people seated around them be able to hear their conversation, but the actors on stage could hear them, too. Theatres are constructed to carry sound efficiently!

• Any noise or light can be a distraction, so please remind students to make sure their cell phones are turned off (or better yet, left at home or at school!). Texting, photography, and video recording are prohibited. Food and gum cannot be brought into the theatre.

• Students will sit with their group as seated by the Front of House staff and should not leave their seats once the performance has begun.

IT’S GOOD TO MAKE A WRITER SQUEAMISH It’s no surprise that playwright Gina Gionfriddo and director Peter DuBois are collaborating again.

They’ve been trading ideas since the Clinton administration (1993-2000).

In the spring of 2012, they were hunkered down at Playwrights Horizons, working on the world premiere of Rapture, Blister, Burn, Gionfriddo’s new play about a career woman and a homemaker who envy each other’s lives. When Playwrights Horizons commissioned her to write the piece, Gionfriddo specifically asked for DuBois. “I’m not hugely prolific,” she says. “But anything that I’ve ever Peter DuBois and Gina Gionfriddo written, I would have wanted him to direct. It isn’t like I think he’s only right for certain projects. He’s right for all my work.”

Their connection became clear to the rest of the world when DuBois helmed Becky Shaw, Gionfriddo’s dark comedy about contemporary romance that was the hit of the Humana Festival in 2008. It eventually became a Pulitzer Prize finalist and drew raves at Second Stage Theatre in New York, the Huntington Theatre Company in Boston, and the Almeida Theatre in London. (DuBois directed those productions, too.)

However, the pair met long before Becky Shaw, when they were both graduate students at Brown University in the 90s. He got an MA in theatre history and criticism, and she studied dramatic writing with playwright Paula Vogel. (Both remember how he used to crash Vogel’s Friday night workshop sessions for her students because he was so eager to work with playwrights.) DuBois and Gionfriddo bonded. He directed her

T. CHARLES ERICKSON

Wendy Hoopes, Eli James, Keira Naughton, and Seth Fisher in the Huntington Theatre Company’s production of Becky Shaw

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graduate project. She taught writing classes for him when he served as artistic director of the Perseverance Theatre in Alaska.

Thanks to their long friendship, they have a shorthand that has defined their process on Rapture, Blister, Burn.

“It’s great because you can be less cautious with one another,” says DuBois. “You’re not tiptoeing around to make sure that you don’t hurt feelings.”

For instance, DuBois suggested changes to the text that make the housewife character, who dropped out of grad school to become a wife and mother, much more manipulative. He encouraged Gionfriddo to make the unmarried academic, whose specialty is pornography, darker and more seductive. He invented bits of business that not only gave actress Beth Dixon more laughs as a septuagenarian with a fondness for martinis, but also underscore the choices forced on older generations of women.

“He’s really fearless,” says Gionfriddo. “If there are places I need to go that I’m squeamish about going, he will push me there.”

She is not the only playwright who has succeeded with DuBois. He’s also directed the world premieres of David Grimm’s The Miracle at Naples, Paul Weitz’s Trust, Zach Braff’s All New People, Bob Glaudini’s Vengeance is the Lord’s, and Stephen Karam’s Sons of the Prophet (DuBois says he and Karam have already begun storyboarding a sequel). And he’s done it all while serving as artistic director of Boston’s Huntington Theatre Company.

“I love working with living writers, and I love the process of developing a new play from first draft to production,” says DuBois, who spent two years living in the Czech Republic in the 90s because he so revered its president, playwright Václav Havel. “I get excited by very original theatrical voices.”

— Janice C. Simpson TDF Stages: A Theatre Magazine May 29, 2012

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CAROL ROSEGG

Virginia Kull, Beth Dixon, and Amy Brenneman in Rapture, Blister, Burn.

THEMES FOR WRITING AND DISCUSSION THE PATH NOT TAKEN Is there anyone who has never wondered, “what if?” What if I had done something different? What if I had chosen the other option? What if I had said yes? What if I had said no? It can sometimes be difficult to know which choice is right when seeing the future consequences is impossible. In Rapture, Blister, Burn, former best friends Catherine and Gwen wonder what would have happened if they had each chosen the other’s path through life. Catherine questions whether she was right to focus so much on her career, to the detriment of her relationship with her ex-boyfriend, Don and the possibility of a happy marriage to him.

Gwen wonders whether sacrificing her academic aspirations in order to become a wife and mom whose focus is the home, not the workplace, was worthwhile.

As Catherine and Gwen gather with Catherine’s mother, Alice, and a young female college student named Avery, three generations of women are represented in discussions about the unique decisions women face and the realities of being a woman in the 21st century. The oldest of the group, Alice comes from a generation that fought for more opportunities to be available to women. But as other women were fighting for more choices, Alice had already made her own. “I wasn’t really aware” of the women’s movement, she notes in Act I, Scene 2, confessing that she had already chosen her path when many other women were burning their bras and advocating for equal rights. “I know that’s terrible. I was just very wrapped up in my little baby . . . I just didn’t follow it. I married late; I’d waited so long to have my baby, you know… I only had eyes for her.”

Catherine and Gwen belong to a generation that benefitted from the advances that Alice’s generation achieved. But they also represent the major debate the feminist movement produced. They find themselves on opposite sides of the work-home divide, each wondering whether all they sacrificed to get where they are was worth it. Avery is shocked that Catherine, a superstar academic who has published several books and is a sought-after guest speaker and panelist, may have regrets. “I read your Wikipedia entry,” Avery exclaims in Act I, Scene 2. “You cannot tell me that your achievements are not a way better destiny than, like, potty training and cutting crusts off bread.” “I can tell you I’m not sure,” Catherine admits.

Yet from Gwen’s perspective, the reality of life as a homemaker is less satisfying than Catherine speculates it to be. She laments not completing her graduate degree and expresses concern that her options and backup plans have been severely limited.

She may have sacrificed her career ambitions in order to support her husband, Don, but fears that in the end she may Photo : Smithsonian.com; “A Jazzed-Up Langston Hughes”

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CAROL ROSEGG Catherine (Amy Brenneman) and Don (Lee Tergesen) have vastly different world views in Rapture, Blister, Burn.

have done herself and her children a great disservice by allowing him to be the family’s sole breadwinner.

“I just don’t think we should romanticize economic dependence,” Gwen says. “I can’t teach with just an undergrad degree. I couldn’t support my kids if I had to. Or if I… wanted to” (I.2).

On the other hand, Catherine’s successful career makes caring for a while on her own or with a partner financially possible. Years earlier, before she followed her career ambitions, she dreamed that her partner would be Don, her then-boyfriend and a scholar in his own right. But their paths diverged when she received a fellowship appointment in London and Don declined to follow her there. As Don and Catherine’s relationship ended, Don began a new one with Gwen that led to marriage and two children.

Catherine became a dominant voice in her field, while Don left his ambitions behind and settled for the safety and routine of family life with Gwen. For the

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former couple, reflecting on what might have been is bittersweet. Yet the clarity of hindsight does not lend much comfort; Don and Catherine recognize that even different choices might have produced the same results: DON: Did you want one—a family?

CATHERINE: I would say yes, but… I think I wanted a family like you wanted a career. I wanted it but I didn’t do the stuff you gotta do to get it . . . If I had come back from London when you asked, would we be married now?

(He thinks on it) DON: If I’m honest… No. You work harder and you’re a couple IQ points smarter. I wouldn’t have stuck around for that.

CATHERINE: I think that’s very sad.

DON: It is. Because you were the one. I was at my

best when I was with you. Now look at me. (a beat) I wouldn’t do it now, you know? Blow it. Now? I’d suck it up, go to therapy, do whatever I had to do to, you know… be your number two. (a beat) I’m sorry I didn’t have this groping towards wisdom back when we could have used it. I’m sorry.

(I.3) According to college student Avery, Betty Friedan’s groundbreaking feminist book, The Feminine Mystique, said that “women have been sold a bill of goods that being a housewife and a mom is fulfilling when it so totally isn’t” and that this is “a recipe for misery for women to find all their happiness in husbands and kids” (I.2). This should mean that Catherine has a more satisfying lifestyle than Gwen. However, neither woman is quite sure if that is the case. Gwen notes that Phyllis Schlafly, who campaigned against the Equal Right Amendment in the 1970s, cautioned women that “if you reject the sphere of family and home, your life will be different than your mother’s and… you might not like it . . . If you thumb your nose at being a wife and a mom and making a home… Then you’d just better hope what you gave all that up for was worth it” (II.1). The irony of Gwen’s observation is that she is a woman who embraced the domestic sphere, yet she is unhappy with the life she has chosen and dreams of what could have been. “I had a fantasy of [my son] Julian and me moving to New York,” she laments. “I would finish school” (II.2). When an unconventional proposition gives Catherine, Gwen, and Don the opportunity to recapture the past and discover what might have been, they take it, as crazy as it seems to other people. It is a chance to see if the grass really is greener on the other side.

QUESTIONS: • If Gwen had married someone other than Don, would Catherine still be envious of Gwen’s life?

Why or why not?

• In Act I, Scene 2, Gwen applies Betty Friedan’s work to Catherine’s and her lives, saying that the

A first edition of Betty Friedman’s “Feminine Mystique.” (Bauman Rare Books)

“notion that a woman can only find fulfillment as a wife and mother . . . happens to be true” for her “but it’s not true for Catherine.” Does Gwen honestly believe this is true when she says it? In the end, is Gwen right? Why or why not?

• Alice eschewed participation in the second wave of the feminist movement because she was more focused on being a wife and raising her daughter, Catherine. But as Catherine grew up, Alice encouraged Catherine to put herself first and says that if she were in Catherine’s place now, she’d stay single instead of pursuing a serious relationship. Why does the advice she dispenses to her daughter not reflect her own path?

• Reflect on your own life so far. What choices have you made that brought you to where you are today? Were there moments that could have sent you down a different path than the one you followed? Have you ever looked back on those moments and wondered “what if” something had gone differently—for better or for worse?

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GENERATIONAL PERSPECTIVES People try to put us down (Talkin’ ’bout my generation) Just because we get around (Talkin’ ’bout my generation) Things they do look awful cold (Talkin’ ’bout my generation)

theory as it applies to pornography, but the real education is conferred when all four women share their generation-specific views on the best way to achieve and utilize the gender equality they all agree on.

Sex and sexuality are topics that a provide a platform for the women to share their divergent views.

—The Who (“My Generation”) To twenty-one-year-old college student Avery, contemporary, sex-positive culture is egalitarian and empowering. She is “hooking up exclusively” “Basically, every generation has anxieties that are with her non-boyfriend, Lucas, an arrangement unique to them. Like I gather from the reading that that allows them to enjoy sex without a serious your generation was all freaked out about Russia commitment as they focus on their work filming a dropping a nuclear bomb? And that… I mean, reality television show together (I.2). When Avery that means nothing to me,” college student Avery describes her relationship with Lucas, Gwen barely observes in Act II, Scene 1 of Rapture, Blister, Burn. restrains her disapproval. “It’s you getting drunk The conversation may be about the underlying socio- and Lucas filming it,” she says, goading Avery political inspiration for decades of horror films, but to tell Catherine more about the reality show, there is an underlying point in Avery’s statement that anticipating that Catherine will be equally appalled has broader implications: each generation’s distinct (I.2). Catherine’s response is tepid. “The women of worldviews can seem confusing or even absurd to your generation have… Let’s say you have reduced others. The course Catherine Croll teaches in her inhibitions,” she replies. Avery takes immediate mother’s living room primarily focuses on feminist offense. “You mean we’re sluts,” she responds.

I hope I die before I get old (Talkin’ ’bout my generation)

CAROL ROSEGG Beth Dixon and Amy Brenneman in Rapture, Blister, Burn.

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my opinion . . . No one buys the cow if he can get the milk for free . . . These days, men aren’t ashamed to be alone and women aren’t ashamed to give them sex.

So what incentive is left for the men to marry” (I.2)?

CAROL ROSEGG

Negotiating careers with marriage or a committed relationship is another point of intergenerational contention. From Avery’s perspective, the decision to put career ahead of homemaking is an easy one.

“I’m gonna do the career thing first, then if I decide I want kids later, I can hire someone to take care of them. If you choose the right career and the right husband, you can afford to outsource the homemaker Beth Dixon and Virginia Kull in Rapture, Blister, Burn. shit . . . You can hire people to do your home, but you “‘Slut’ is not in my lexicon,” Catherine clarifies. “I said can’t hire people to do your career” (I.2). Careeryou’re disinhibited.” Avery, still skeptical of Catherine’s woman Catherine is skeptical. “I don’t think you can . . . I think you can hire someone to clean your house meaning, inquires: “You think that’s a bad thing?” “I and cook your food and babysit your kids, but I don’t think it’s a very mixed thing,” Catherine explains. think you can pay someone to create a home for you” Surprisingly, it is septuagenarian Alice who identifies (I.2). Avery, however, is not convinced. She rejects with Avery’s frustration with the prior generation’s the concept promoted by Phyllis Schlafly, who said, as judgment and lack of understanding. “I was fine when Catherine explains in Act I, Scene 2, “that when a man my mother died,” she recollects. “I was very briefly and woman come together, the man must lead and the sad, then it was like a great burden had lifted. You woman must follow.” In her view, the very definition know what they say: ‘Your life begins when your of modern marriage is a true partnership in which mother dies’” (I.2). But this is where the similarities both people share all responsibilities equally. Avery end. Though the twenty-year age difference between continues to question why an equal balance cannot Avery and Catherine and Gwen generates some be struck and adds that not only should both partners conflicting outlooks on sexuality and relationships, have careers, but both should be equally passionate Alice’s inclusion into the group adds another layer and uncompromising about those careers. “If he’s of contrast to the proceedings. Her recollections of willing to give [his career] up that easily, then he didn’t dating and marriage—antiquated to Catherine and care enough about it” (I.2). Alice partially agrees.

Gwen—seem other-worldly to Avery, and Alice’s “No worthwhile man wants to depend on a woman,” conclusion that there was something to be said for the she concurs. “It just doesn’t seem natural to me” old way of doing things is even more baffling. “When (I.2). Catherine is more pragmatic. “My middle-aged I was your age,” Alice explains, “you couldn’t go out observation is that… In a relationship between two on Saturday night if you didn’t have a date. Boys or people, you can’t both go first. I think theoretically girls. If you didn’t have a date, you sat home with you can have 50/50. But on a practical, geographic your mother . . . So my girlfriends all went to their level it’s just very hard to do” (I.2). boyfriends and they said, ‘You have to find someone for Alice so she can go, too!’ That’s how people got together. It was a very good system” (I.2). When QUESTIONS: Avery wonders what would have happened if Alice had • Alice claims that women should withhold sex in just gone out on her own, Alice sees an opportunity order to get men to marry them but encourages to point out a flaw she sees in Avery’s pro-hookCatherine to try to break up Don’s marriage to Gwen, up stance. “It would have turned the men off,” she two pieces of advice that seem to be in opposition to concludes. “I think it still turns them off, if you want

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each other. Is Alice being hypocritical? Why or why not?

• Avery claims that she would have no respect for a man who sacrificed his passion to follow a woman. Why did Don refuse to follow Catherine to London? How is Don’s decision to not sacrifice for Catherine different from what Avery is talking about?

• Consider Gwen and Avery’s debate about post9/11 horror movies in Act II. As a young twentysomething, 9/11 would have occurred when Avery was 10 or 11 years old, whereas Gwen was already an adult. How do their ages, and by extension, their levels of awareness and understanding of 9/11 at the time it occurred, influence their points of view in their debate?

• Consider the phrases “everything old is new again,” “the more things change the more they stay the same,” and “what goes around comes around.” What do they mean and how do they relate to the characters’ strategies for dealing with life and relationships in Rapture, Blister, Burn?

• Are there any issues on which you and older members of your family have differences of opinion? Why do they see things as they do?

Why is your view different? What do older people not understand about you and your generation?

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GENDER ROLES AND RELATIONSHIPS In the 1970s, conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly predicted the destiny of the liberated woman to be “a cold, lonely apartment whose silence is broken only by the occasional visits of men who size her up as… an easy mark for sexual favors for which they will never have to pay nor assume responsibility” (I.2). As Catherine explains in Act I, Scene 2, Schlafly advocated against the Equal Rights Amendment in the belief that the ERA

would be the end of marriage. And the end

of marriage would be the end of civilization

. . . [Schlafly’s] argument was that marriage

and family are not natural states for men,

so society has to force them into it. And

the way to force them, she believed, was to

shame them, tell them that women are the

weaker sex and can’t survive without them.

(I.2) Schlafly, however, was not claiming that women were actually the weaker sex, but rather, was stating that human beings have specific genderbased roles to play in order for relationships and society work properly. Those who do not follow those roles, she deduced, do so at their own peril.

As the characters in Rapture, Blister, Burn explore the stat of their relationships, they create a case study in gender politics.

When Catherine says that she does not believe it is possible for a relationship between a man and a woman to be truly 50/50, she speaks from her own experience. Nearly twenty years ago, Catherine and her then-boyfriend, Don, both applied for a fellowship in London. Catherine was chosen but Don was not. Although it would not be possible for them to equally pursue their academic work abroad, Catherine hoped Don would follow her to London.

He did not do so and she refused to give up her academic objectives, which lead to the end of their relationship. “I asked you to come home and you wouldn’t,” he recalls in Act I, Scene 3. “You could come home, re-enroll here. If I went to London with you, I’m serving fish n’ chips.” In choosing to stay in London rather than return home, Catherine conveyed to Don than she did not need him. But was that the truth? Don’s words indicate that he needed her then, and still needs her. As they reevaluate their past, Don articulates the frustration and sense of worthlessness he faced as a man considering playing second fiddle to a highly ambitious, highly successful woman.

CATHERINE: Why do you care what I think of you at this point?

DON: I’m a guy, I’ve got the caveman writing.

CATHERINE: What does that mean?

DON: The girl is supposed to cook the big game after I catch it. She’s not supposed to catch the big bison instead of me.

CATHERINE: You think I caught the big bison?

DON: You did.

(I.3) As Catherine and Don try to recapture what could have been, Catherine finds herself changing her entire set of behaviors. She and Don stay up late, drinking beer, eating pizza, watching movies, and creating a general mess. Her research concentration, pornography, lends itself well to Don’s own personal viewing habits. “Wow,” Gwen remarks. “You found a woman willing to live like a teenage boy. And she watches horror movies and porn. You must be in

pig heaven over there” (II.5). In Act II, Avery, who has been reading more of Phyllis Schlafly’s writings than Catherine assigned for class, does not believe that the changes in Catherine’s behavior are doing her any favors in rebuilding her relationship with Don. “What you’re doing now . . . drinking all night, eating garbage, day-sleeping in your own filth. No man wants that from a woman,” she concludes. “A man wants his woman to be a civilizing influence” (II.4). Avery has actually been applying Schlafly’s philosophies to her own relationship with Lucas and proudly proclaims that she has seen results. Lucas was spending significant time with a Mormon film consultant in Los Angeles and Avery feared she would steal him away. So to get his attention back, Avery explains, she “made up a fake crisis . . . That got him to return my call. After that, I just made sure—in every interaction—to focus on what is not going well in my life” (II.4). Avery believes that Gwen’s recent phone call to Don is a similar strategy, demonstrating Schlafly’s beliefs that women must appear that they are weak and need a man to establish order in relationships. “She is swooning and shaming him,” Avery warns Catherine. “She’s unleashing her fucking siren song of loserness and she is going to get him back if you don’t take control” (II.4).

Meanwhile, gender expectations are playing out within Don’s own family and have been for some time. Don and Gwen, have two sons. The older, fourteen-year-old Julian, is a sensitive boy interested in acting, singing, dancing, and spending time with his mother. Three-year-old Devon, enjoys playing with toy trucks, watching Bob the Builder, and will only cuddle with his mother when he is afraid to go down the big slide at the playground. Don and Gwen believe that because Julian exhibits behaviors that they consider more feminine, he must be gay. But when Gwen goes to New York City with Julian, she and Don are shocked when Julian finds a girlfriend in line for tickets to the Broadway musical, Wicked.

DON: So, how ya doin’?

GWEN: Lousy. Mostly about Julian. How is it possible, Don? He sings show tunes—

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DON: World’s changing, Gwendolyn.

GWEN: What does that mean?

QUESTIONS:

DON: Women are running for president. Men are exfoliating. It’s all jumbled; you can’t read the signs.

• In Act I, Scene 2, Gwen states that Don has not fulfilled his obligations in their marriage but that she has. Gwen says that she does not “mind doing all the work at home—home is my sphere. But work, money… that’s supposed to be Don’s sphere and he has not held up his end.” In what ways does Gwen’s vision for her marriage to Don embody the Cult of Domesticity (see “…But I Wouldn’t Consider Myself a Feminist” on page 21)?

(II.5) In the end, Don and Gwen are not alone in their cluelessness. Before long, Catherine becomes uncertain how to keep Don by her side and Avery’s efforts to hold on to Lucas begin to fail. “You’re not very good feminists, you two. Ready to crumble and die over boys,” Alice says, noting the irony of their despair (II.7). But Catherine and Avery’s sorrow is short-lived and prove that the reality of Schlafly’s philosophy may not be quite what she anticipated.

• In Act I, Catherine describes her apartment, for which she hired an interior decorator, as “hotel-like” and “cold.” How is Catherine’s description poignant given Schlafly’s predictions for the fate of women who eschew traditional gender roles?

• In Act II, Avery claims that women’s emotional needs can just as easily be fulfilled by strong female friends as they can be by a husband. Will Catherine and Avery be happy with the decision they make at the end of the play? Why or why not?

CAROL ROSEGG Lee Tergesen and Amy Brenneman in Rapture, Blister, Burn.

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MASTERY ASSESSMENT Act I : Scene 1 1. What is the relationship between Gwen and Don? Between Don and Catherine?

2. Who is Julian?

3. What is Don’s former profession? What does he do now?

4. Why did Catherine move back home and ask Don to help her find a job?

5. Who is Devon?

4. What does Gwen think Phyllis Schlafly was saying about women who choose careers over family?

Act II : Scene 2 5. Who and what did Gwen’s AA group tell her was responsible for Don’s infidelity with Catherine?

6. What are Gwen’s conditions for going back to the way things were?

7. What decision does Don tell Catherine he has made about his marriage?

6. Why is Gwen hesitant to go out to dinner?

8. What does Gwen reveal that she and Catherine discussed when Catherine called while drunk?

7. Who is Avery? How old is she?

Act II: Scene 3

8. What does Catherine write about?

9. Why is Don at Catherine’s mother’s house?

Act I : Scene 2

10. Where are Gwen and Julian?

9. What is Catherine going to do for the summer?

11. According to Catherine, why have none of her relationships worked?

10. Who is Alice? How old is she?

12. Why does Avery believe Catherine and Don’s relationship is not going to work out?

11. Who are Catherine’s students?

12. What is the premise of Avery and Lucas’s reality TV show?

13. What does Avery claim she gained from stripping?

14. Who is Betty Friedan?

15. Why has Avery thought about becoming a stay-at-home mom?

13. What did Avery’s mother tell her are the only deal breakers in marriage?

14. To what does Avery compare being in love?

15. Why would Avery be OK with Lucas hooking up with a girl in LA? What would be worse?

16. What does Don think the half-dead leaf means?

16. According to Avery and Catherine, what caused the feminist movement to split in the 1980s?

Act II: Scene 4

17. Why is Avery offended by Phyllis Schlafly?

17. Where has Catherine been invited for a conference? Why hasn’t Don agreed to go with her yet?

18. According to Catherine, why did Phyllis Schlafly oppose the Equal Rights Amendment?

18. Why is Gwen unhappy in her class?

19. Why did Catherine not have a problem with being alone until now?

19. How has Julian been spending his time in New York? How does Gwen feel about this?

20. What point is Catherine willing to concede to Phyllis Schlafly?

21. Why would Gwen be unable to support herself and her children if she had to or wanted to?

22. How did Don and Gwen become a couple?

23. What does Don do after the kids go to sleep that makes Gwen so upset?

24. Why does Alice think Don would be different with Catherine than he is with Gwen?

20. What does Catherine want Don to do in order to restart his academic career?

21. What does Don say he needs to do back at his house? What does Avery claim he is going to do?

22. For what reason does Avery believe Gwen is complaining to Don about her unhappiness in New York?

23. How did Avery get Lucas to return her phone calls?

Act I : Scene 3

24. Why doesn’t Avery think Catherine should push Don to write a book?

25. According to Don, why has he come to see Catherine?

25. Whose books has Avery been reading?

26. Why didn’t Don read Catherine’s books?

Act II : Scene 5

27. What does Catherine think happened to her the night she called Don and Gwen while drunk?

26. What did Gwen learn is the thing that truly scares her?

28. Why does Don feel he is on unequal footing with Catherine? Why does Catherine feel she is unequal footing with Don? 29. Why doesn’t Don think he and Catherine would have gotten married if she had returned from London when he asked her to?

27. What do Gwen and Don decide about their marriage?

Act II : Scene 6 28. How does Catherine see Don? What does he think of her standards?

29. What does Catherine wish she had?

Act II : Scene 1

Act II : Scene 7

1. Why hasn’t Gwen gone out drinking with Don and Catherine?

30. What does Avery propose that she and Catherine do? How does Alice feel about the idea?

2. Why didn’t Gwen finish watching the movies Catherine assigned?

3. According to Catherine, what are all horror movies really about?

31. What is the “final girl”?

32. What does Alice think is wonderful?

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LET’S SEE HOW FAR WE’VE COME: A TIMELINE OF FEMINISM IN THE UNITED STATES • 1776—Abigail Adams writes a letter to her husband, future President John Adams, who is attending the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, in which she asks him to “remember the ladies & be more generous & favorable to them than your ancestors” when the Congress creates a new government for the colonies. She warns him to “not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands. Remember all men would be tyrants if they could,” and that “if particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice, or representation.” John Adams responds that he “cannot but laugh” at her warnings and that to follow her advice would “subject us to the despotism of the petticoat.”

Abigail Adams

• 1821—Emma Willard founds the Troy Female Seminary, the first educational institution in the United States to offer scientific instruction for women at the collegiate level.

• 1833—Oberlin College is founded as the first coeducational institution of higher education.

• 1837—Mount Holyoke, the first college for women, is founded.

• 1843—Margaret Fuller publishes Woman in the Nineteenth Century, in which she advocates for women to be taught independence and argues that in order for marriage to work, both partners must be an individual self-dependent unit.

Seneca Falls Convention

• 1848—Feminist and abolitionist women and some men gather for the Seneca Falls Convention, the first assembly to address the issue of women’s rights. The attendees, including Elizabeth Cady Stanton, create and sign a Declaration of Sentiments that includes twelve resolutions calling for equal legal protections for men and women and voting rights for women.

• 1849—Elizabeth Blackwell graduates from Geneva College and receives the first medical degree awarded to a woman in the United States.

• 1850—1,000 people attend the first National Women’s Rights Convention in Worcester, MA. • 1851—Former slave Sojourner Truth demands that black women be included in the suffrage movement by making the

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Alison Turnbull Hopkins at the White House on New Jersey Day

famous speech in which she asks, “Ain’t I a woman?”

• 1867—The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which specifically defines citizens as “male,” is passed.

• 1869—In May, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony form the National Woman Suffrage Association with the goal of securing voting rights for women through an amendment to the United States Constitution. Later that year, the American Woman Suffrage Association begins working to amend individual states’ constitutions to permit women to vote. In December, the Wyoming territory passes the first women’s suffrage bill, granting women the rights to vote and to serve on juries.

• 1872—Susan B. Anthony and her supporters are arrested for voting. Anthony is denied a trial by jury and fined $100, which she refuses to pay.

Sojourner Truth

• 1893—Colorado is the first state to amend its constitution to allow women to vote.

• 1896—Utah and Idaho amend their constitutions to allow women to vote.

• 1903—The National Women’s Trade Union League is established to improve wages and working conditions for women.

• 1910—The state of Washington amends its constitution to allow women to vote.

• 1911—California amends its constitution to allow women to vote.

• 1912—Arizona, Oregon, and Kansas amend their constitutions to allow women to vote.

• 1913—Alaska and Illinois amend their constitutions to allow women to vote. The Congressional Union (later renamed the National Women’s Party) practices civil disobedience and pickets the White House as it demands a federal amendment granting women the right to vote.

• 1914—Montana and Nevada amend their constitutions to allow women to vote.

• 1916—Margaret Sanger opens the country’s first birth control clinic in Brooklyn, N.Y. The clinic is shut down ten days later and Sanger is arrested.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B Anthony

• 1917—New York amends its constitution to allow women to vote.

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• 1918—Michigan, South Dakota, and Oklahoma amend their constitutions to allow women to vote.

• 1920—The 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, granting women the right to vote nationwide.

• 1921—Margaret Sanger founds the American Birth Control League, which will later become the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

• 1923—Margaret Sanger opens her second birth control clinic in New York. Alice Paul of the National Women’s Party drafts the Equal Rights Amendment.

• 1933—Frances Perkins is the first woman appointed to the US Cabinet. She serves as President Franklin Roosevelt’s Secretary of Labor from 1933-1945.

• 1935—The National Council of Negro Women is formed to lobby on behalf of black women against racism, sexism, and discrimination in the workplace.

• 1939-1945—While men fight overseas in World War II, six million women are recruited to work in military facilities at home.

Symbolized by Rosie the Riveter, these women become the primary drivers of the US economy.

• 1950s—Television series such as The Aldrich Family, Father Knows Best, and Leave It to Beaver depict nuclear families in which traditional gender roles are observed.

• 1960—The Food and Drug Administration approves birth control pills.

• 1961—President John F. Kennedy appoints Eleanor Roosevelt the chairwoman of the new Presidential Commission on the Status of Women, which documents evidence of significant gender-based discrimination in the workplace, and recommends reforms such as fair hiring practices, paid maternity leave, and affordable child care. The commission is a compromise to satisfy women’s groups’ frustration that Kennedy will not push for passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, which is opposed by Kennedy’s political base of organized labor.

• 1963—Betty Friedan publishes The Feminine Mystique, in which she describes the unhappiness with being housewives that many women felt in the 1950s and 60s and advocates that women find fulfillment in education and careers outside the home.

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Margaret Sanger

• 1963—Congress passes the Equal Pay Act, making it illegal to pay a woman less than a man for the same work. President John F. Kennedy signs the bill into law.

• 1963—American physicist Maria Goepper-Mayer wins the Nobel Prize.

• 1964—The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is established to investigate complaints and impose penalties in cases of employment discrimination based on race and sex (such discrimination is barred by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act). Senator Margaret Chase Smith, a Maine Republican, is the first woman to run for a major political party’s presidential nomination.

• 1965—The Supreme Court strikes down the nation’s last law banning the use of contraceptives by married couples.

• 1966—Betty Friedan co-founds the National Organization of Women (NOW), which advocates for the advancement and rights of women.

Betty Friedan walks in the women’s rights parade in New York City

• 1968—New York City’s Shirley Chisholm becomes the first African-American woman elected to Congress.

• 1969—California is the first state to adopt “no fault” divorce law, allowing couples to divorce by mutual consent.

• 1970-1977—The Mary Tyler Moore Show airs. It is the first television series to center on an unmarried, career-oriented woman.

• 1971—New York Magazine publishes a sample insert of Ms., a new magazine founded by Gloria Steinem.

• 1972—The Supreme Court rules that the right to privacy includes an unmarried person’s right to use contraceptives.

• 1972—Title IX of the Education Amendments prohibits sex discrimination in schools, including in athletics programs.

• 1972—Phyllis Schlafly begins her campaign against the Equal Rights Amendment. She argues that the ERA would take away gender-specific privileges such as “dependent wife” benefits under Social Security.

Ms. Magazine 1972 Issue

• 1973—The Supreme Court legalizes abortion in its Roe v.

Wade decision, overriding many states’ anti-abortion laws.

• 1973—Michele Wallace, Faith Ringgold, Doris Wright, and

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Margaret Sloan-Hunter found the National Black Feminist Organization to broaden the feminist movement to include concerns specific to black women.

• 1976—Nebraska passes the country’s first laws prohibiting marital rape.

• 1978—The Pregnancy Discrimination Act is passed, making it illegal for a woman to be fired or denied a job or promotion because she is or may become pregnant.

Phyllis Schlafly

• 1980—The National Organization for Women sides with antipornography feminists and declares that sadomasochism and pornography constitute violence, not sex, and are inherently dangerous.

• 1981—Sandra Day O’Connor becomes the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court.

• 1984—Democrat Geraldine Ferraro becomes the first woman nominated as a major party’s candidate for Vice President.

• 1986—The Supreme Court finds that sexual harassment is a form of illegal job discrimination in Meritor Savings Bank v.

Vinson.

• 1991—Author Rebecca Walker coins the term “Third Wave Feminism” in an article published in Ms. magazine. In the article, titled “Becoming the Third Wave,” Walker criticizes the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas despite allegations that he sexually harassed attorney Anita Hill, describes the suppression of female voices, and says that “to be a feminist is to integrate an ideology of equality and female empowerment into the very fiber of life. It is to search for personal clarity in the midst of systemic destruction, to join in sisterhood with women when often we are divided, to understand power structures with the intention of challenging them.”

• 1992—Rebecca Walker co-founds the Third Wave Foundation, a social justice group that supports young women and transgender youth.

• 1993—President Bill Clinton signs the Family and Medical Leave Act which requires employers to allow workers to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave for family or medical reasons, including the birth or adoption of a child.

• 1994—President Bill Clinton signs the Violence Against Women Act which provides federal funds for the investigation

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Rebecca Walker

and prosecution of crimes such as domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking.

• 1996—The Supreme Court rules that the Virginia Military School must admit female students in order to continue receiving public funding.

• 1997—Madeleine Albright becomes the first female Secretary of State.

• 2004—The March for Women’s Lives brings approximately 800,000 participants to Washington, D.C. to rally for women’s reproductive rights.

• 2008—The Republican Presidential ticket includes Alaska governor Sarah Palin as the party’s nominee for Vice President.

• 2009—President Barack Obama signs the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act, giving victims of wage discrimination up to 180 days from their last pay check to file a complaint with the government against their employer.

Madeleine Albright

• 2010—The United Nations General Assembly creates UN Women to focus on issues of gender equality and women’s empowerment worldwide.

• 2011—Pop singer Rihanna scores a summer radio hit with a song titled S&M. Some find discomfort with the song, she was brutally assaulted by her boyfriend, R&B singer Chris Brown, three years earlier.

Rihanna, recording artist

Slutwalk Toronto

• 2011—The first SlutWalk protest is held in Toronto, Canada in response to a police officer’s statement that “women should avoid dressing like sluts” if they do not want to be sexually assaulted. Subsequent SlutWalks are held in cities around the Canada and the United States, including Boston. Organizers and participants promote a message is that women should not be victimized, regardless of how they dress, and aim to reclaim the word “slut.”

• 2012—Georgetown law student and women’s rights activist Sandra Fluke is denied the opportunity to speak to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee about Conscience Clause exceptions in health care coverage. As a result, the only witnesses to testify at the hearing are men.

The controversy explodes days later when conservative radio commentator Rush Limbaugh slams Fluke on the air for her advocacy of contraception coverage without co-pay and labels her a “slut” and a “prostitute.”

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FOR FURTHER EXPLORATION

(from left to right) Ann Romney, Marissa Mayer, and Sheryl Sandberg

“...BUT I WOULDN’T CALL MYSELF A FEMINIST” — THE WOMEN’S MOVEMENT THEN AND NOW What is the enduring legacy of the women’s movement? What are the implications of the past on women’s roles in today’s homes and workplaces?

Rapture, Blister, Burn explores these questions through the experiences of four women from three generations with very different perspectives on where the women’s movement has been and the implications of where it is going.

In a 2012 interview with The Brooklyn Rail, playwright Gina Gionfriddo explained that when she originally began working on the play, she intended to write about the impact of internet pornography, but that the play evolved into something more about “the state of male/female relationships at this particular time in America.” It is no wonder that Gionfriddo’s writing developed as it did; in the last few years, gender politics have frequently dominated news cycles. In the first of a series of related and highly publicized events that occurred in the months leading up to the Huntington Theatre Company’s production of Rapture, Blister, Burn, Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney came under fire during the 2012 election when a video surfaced from his time as governor of Massachusetts. In the video Romney explained his support for increasing the work requirement to receive public assistance, claiming that even parents of children under the age of two needed to “have the dignity of work.”

Meanwhile, Romney’s own wife, Ann, the matriarch of an affluent family, had been a stay-at-home mother raising the couple’s five now-grown sons.

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In February 2013, Marissa Mayer, the new CEO of internet company Yahoo was sharply criticized for eliminating the option of telecommuting and insisting that all employees work in the office instead. Critics angry that this would punish working mothers noted that most did not have the flexibility to install a nursery next to their offices as Mayer did.

Then in March 2013, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg released her book, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, which reflects on her experiences as a woman navigating and moving up within corporate America. The book has been widely described, though not by Sandberg herself, as a “feminist manifesto.”

Women like Ann Romney, Marissa Mayer, and Sheryl Sandberg have complicated relationships with the women’s movement and exemplify the conflicts between work and home faced by women such as Catherine and Gwen in Rapture, Blister, Burn.

Romney, Mayer, and Sandberg have all talked openly about the sexism women in American society continue to face and the need for equality, yet Romney and Mayer refuse to use the word “feminist” to describe themselves and Sandberg only does so with some conditions. Why are successful women who have benefited from the last 150 years of progress sometimes reluctant to embrace the feminist movement? What about those who support equal pay for equal work, access to contraception and abortion, and sexual harassment protections, but footnote those positions with the declaration that they would not call themselves feminists? Are their choices feminist ones?

Are they embodying the legacy of those who came before them, whether they like it or not?

THE FIRST WAVE

belonged to different domains in society. While women were expected to play domestic roles within Playwright Gina Gionfriddo sums up many modern their families, caring for children and the home, women’s feelings about First Wave Feminism in men were charged with going to work where they dialogue from Act I, Scene 2 of Rapture, Blister, Burn: would take on the challenges of capitalism and earn AVERY: It’s not interesting . . . I mean, I’m glad it money that the family could use to purchase what happened. It put an end to women being owned like the needed. These prescribed gender roles implied slaves, and we got the right to vote. It’s just… None of that the public sphere, which was troublesome it is controversial, so what is there to talk about? and full of temptation, could only be successfully navigated by men. Women were considered too CATHERINE: It was controversial at the time, of weak and delicate for such stress and conflict, and course. so were to keep to the privacy of the home for their AVERY: I know but… It’s like discussing why people own protection. thought the earth was flat. It’s like, they were wrong, The Seneca Falls Convention, held in upstate New we’ve moved on.

York in July 1848, was the first step in the feminist CATHERINE: Fair enough. movement’s journey at a time when only 40% of single women and 4% of married women worked As a twenty-one-year-old woman, Avery views outside of the home. Spearheaded by Elizabeth feminism’s first wave through a modern, somewhat jaded lens; the concept of women and men as equals Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, both activists women’s suffrage and the abolition of slavery, has been mainstream thought for her entire life. the convention’s major accomplishment was a But when considered within the context of its time, document titled the Declaration of Sentiments and Catherine’s observation about the controversy of Resolutions. Stanton was its primary author and the early days of women’s suffrage is accurate. In based it largely on the United States Declaration 1848, when the first wave of the feminist movement of Independence. Signed by 100 of the 300 is generally considered to have begun, the Cult conventions attendees, it describes “the history of Domesticity, also known as the Cult of True of mankind” as “a history of repeated injuries and Womanhood, was the dominant value system of the usurpations on the part of man toward woman, middle and upper classes. The popular magazine having in direct object the establishment of an Godey’s Lady’s Book was influential in spreading the absolute tyranny over her.” It goes on to provide a idea that women should demonstrate the virtues list of specific offenses against women and demand of piety, purity, and submissiveness, and that men that women be granted all of the rights already and women should have clearly separate roles that

First wave feminists

First wave feminists

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possessed by men, including the right to vote.

While the declaration and its female signatories were widely maligned as unnatural, the resulting publicity accomplished Stanton’s goal of having the entire Declaration published. The Seneca Falls Convention, and another women’s rights convention held in Rochester, NY two weeks later, inspired many women and men to reconsider the gender roles that their society expected. Over the next several years, similar conventions were held around the country to advocate for a variety of issues including married women’s property rights and equal access to education. As a contrast to the ideals upheld by the Cult of True Womanhood, the New Woman emerged in the late 19th century as a feminist model of educated, independent, career-oriented women.

The women’s movement was met with an obstacle, however, when the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution was passed following the Civil War in 1868, providing legal citizenship and voting rights to African-American men. As many women’s suffrage activists were also abolitionists, there had been hope that women and African Americans would be enfranchised together. Instead, the 14th Amendment defined citizens, regardless of color, as “male.” As a result, the national women’s movement split into two factions in 1869. On one side was the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA), cofounded by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, which balked at the idea of enfranchising black men while excluding white women from those same rights. On the other side of the schism was the Boston-based American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA), which maintained the alliance between the pre-Civil War antislavery and women’s movements. In the following years, the NWSA began employing confrontational strategies, such as encouraging women to vote illegally, while the AWSA supported the formation of state and local suffrage groups to lobby local lawmakers.

In 1890, the NWSA and AWSA merged and the goal of securing women’s right to vote began to gain traction as the Wyoming territory and the states of Colorado, Utah, and Idaho each amended

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their constitutions to grant women the right to vote before 1900. In the early 20th century, the women’s suffrage movement was transformed into a feminist movement by women such as Carrie Chapman Catt, Jane Addams, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s daughter, Harriot Stanton Blatch. These women linked the cause of women’s suffrage to progressive political reform, framing it as not just a matter of justice, but as a solution to a variety of social problems including prostitution and labor exploitation. They formed alliances with immigrants to support increased literacy and reform of childlabor laws. Through these efforts, the NWSA laid the groundwork for an amendment to the United State Constitution. The 19th Amendment was finally passed in 1920.

First wave feminists

Second wave feminists

THE SECOND WAVE Feminism’s second wave is most commonly associated with the 1960s and 70s, but its roots reach back to 1923 when Alice Paul penned the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) in an effort to transfer the newly won equality in the voting booth to employment, housing, and other areas. Opposition to the amendment came from many different directions, including from Eleanor Roosevelt and other supporters of the New Deal who cautioned that the ERA represented the interests of middle and upper class women and that working class women needed government protections. Male-dominated labor unions also opposed the ERA out of concern that it would undermine their power.

While men were fighting overseas during World War II, Rosie the Riveter became a symbol of the war effort as many women took over the manufacturing jobs men left behind. In 1945, 36% of the American workforce was female. Yet this was more of a patriotic movement than a feminist one and when the war ended, businesses began urging women to return home and some even laid off their female employees. By 1950, 29% of the workforce consisted of women and the cultural shift that sent nuclear families to the suburbs had begun. The gender roles portrayed in advertisements and television shows

1943 wartime propaganda poster

of the time seemed more connected to the Cult of Domesticity than the New Woman, and those who did want to pursue careers outside of the home were often characterized as “lost” or “man-hating.” Not every family could not manage the suburban lifestyle they dreamt of on only one income, but rather than returning to work full-time, some women began home-based sales jobs such as Tupperware parties that allowed them to work without leaving their families unattended.

In 1953, The Second Sex by French writer Simone de Beauvoir was published in the United States. De Beauvoir believed that men had made women an “other” in society by falsely ascribing an aura of mystery to them, giving men an excuse to stereotype women and to build and maintain patriarchal power structures. The Second Sex was a major influence on Betty Friedan, the American feminist who authored The Feminine Mystique in 1963. In her book, Friedan described the unhappiness with being housewives that many women felt in the 1950s and 60s and advocated that women find fulfillment in education and careers outside the home.

The 1960s brought several other significant social changes. In 1960, the Food and Drug Administration approved the oral contraceptive pill, giving women the power to decide when and if they became

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pregnant. In 1963, the same year that The Feminine Mystique was published, President John F. Kennedy’s Commission on the Status of Women (PCSW) released its report on gender inequality. Chaired by former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, the commission quantified the workplace discrimination faced by women across the country. In 1966, the PCSW founded the National Organization for Women to work for the advancement of women. It named Betty Friedan its first president. In 1964, Congress passed Public Law 88-352 (78 Stat. 241), which would come to be known as the Civil Rights Law of 1964.

It was originally written to prohibit discrimination on the basis of race in the hiring, promoting, and firing of workers. The word “sex” was added at the last minute and Section 703a made it illegal to “fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions or privileges or employment, because of such individual’s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.”

The Equal Rights Amendment was also resuscitated in 1972. Activist Phyllis Schlafly initiated her STOP ERA campaign, arguing on the legal grounds that the amendment did not fully define words such as “sex” and “equality,” and would thereby give vast new powers to the courts (in an April 2009 interview with Time magazine, Schlafly surmised that “if the Equal Rights Amendment had passed, we would have had same-sex marriage 25 years ago”). While critics called Schlafly a hypocrite for her exalting of stay-at-home mothers while she worked as a fulltime political activist and lawyer, Schlafly’s efforts were successful. The ERA did pass both houses of Congress, 49 years after it was written and first introduced, but it subsequently failed to achieve the minimum number of state ratifications (38 out of 50) to become part of the Constitution. By the congressionally imposed deadline of June 30, 1982, only 35 states had approved the ERA, falling three states short of ratification at the national level.

Despite the failing of the ERA, second wave feminists won other legal protections. In 1972, President Richard Nixon signed the Education Amendments,

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which stated in Title IX that “no person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance,” leaving a lasting impact on women’s participation in high school and collegiate athletics.

In 1973, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Roe v. Wade that “the Ninth Amendment’s reservation of rights to the people is broad enough to encompass a woman’s decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy,” thus legalizing abortion in the United States and overriding some states’ anti-abortion laws.

The Pregnancy Discrimination Act, an amendment to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, was passed in 1978, prohibiting employers from discrimination “on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, or other related medical conditions.”

While the legal battles were being waged, cultural shifts were happening, too. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, women made up 32.3 percent of the national workforce in 1960, with 30 percent of married women holding jobs outside the home (a huge jump from the 15 percent of married women who worked in 1940). By 1973, a momentous year for feminism, that number had climbed to 36.7 percent and eleven years later in 1984, 42.1 percent of the American workforce was comprised of women.

This increase in women’s workforce participation created heightened awareness of the wage gap (women earned approximately 60 cents for a man’s dollar during this period), sexual harassment, and other gender-based disparities. The birth control pill provided women with increased freedom to determine when and if they became pregnant, allowing more of them to invest more time in their careers and thus be promoted to more senior positions in their workplaces. Meanwhile, increasing numbers of women became politicized through their involvement in the Civil Rights movement and the anti-war protests against the Vietnam War. Middle class men and women attained higher levels of education than ever before while the period’s music and art promoted values of peace, love, and brotherhood. All of these factors combined to

produce a vibrant counterculture determined to celebrate the concept of community while opposing all oppressive systems.

But conflicts over cultural issues began to develop within the feminist movement, and by the late 1970s, it began to fracture over the issues of porn and prostitution. Avery summarizes this schism in Act I, Scene 2 of Rapture, Blister, Burn:

So… Until like 1980, all the feminists were on the same page. They agreed that we shouldn’t be freaked out by our vaginas and we shouldn’t make two dollars an hour when a guy makes four. Then around 1980, some of the feminists started freaking out about pornography. And the women’s movement splits over this. One faction wants to go to war over porn. The other faction is like… They just don’t think porn is that big a deal.

From within this divide grew two factions that would have a profound impact on the upcoming third wave: anti-porn feminism and pro-sex feminism (also referred to as sex-positive feminism).

The most prominent group on the anti-porn side was Women Against Pornography, of which Gloria Steinem was a member. The group argued that pornography presented misogynist images that were harmful to women and girls. They protested outside of Times Square strip clubs and advocated for legislation that would deem pornography an infringement upon women’s civil rights. On the other side, the term “pro-sex feminism” was coined by Ellen Willis in an essay titled “Lust Horizons: Is the Women’s Movement Pro-Sex?” that appeared in the Village Voice in 1981.

In her essay, Willis suggested that the positions taken by anti-porn feminists were not only authoritarian and puritanical but were also threats to free speech.

While anti-porn feminists equated pornography with rape and characterized heterosexual intercourse as a mode of male domination that must be reformed to prevent harm to women, pro-sex feminists promoted the idea of sex as mutually pleasurable for both men and women, and that women should not be afraid to embrace their sexuality.

Symbol of Anarcha-feminism, which claims that anarchism is inherently feminist because it opposes all power-based relationships.

THE THIRD WAVE The divide between the anti-porn and pro-sex camps created confusion over what constituted feminism in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

There are those who question whether there currently even is a contemporary “feminist movement.” While some women proudly proclaim themselves feminists, others, like Avery in Act I Scene 2, agree with principles and values generally considered feminist but are not interested in claiming that label. “I definitely agree that stuff’s empowering,” Avery remarks, “but I don’t personally identify myself as a feminist.”

If there is one defining trait of Third Wave Feminism, it may be the lack of cohesion amongst women about what, exactly, feminism is. The term was coined in a Ms. magazine article in 1991, in which the writer, Rebecca Walker, criticized first- and secondwave feminism for overlooking and excluding the voices of non-heterosexual women and women of color. Many low-income women also felt that their concerns were not being represented. As a result, a number of women in the 21st century find themselves echoing Avery with their belief in equality but lack of affinity for the feminist identity. One recent example is former Republican Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who, as a

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wife and mother of five with a demanding career in government and media seems to perfectly exemplify second wave feminism’s objectives. Despite having had the opportunity to pursue goals that were possible only thanks to the feminist movement, Palin has waffled in her embrace of the word. When asked

by NBC News anchor Brian Williams if she would apply the label of “feminist” to herself during the 2008 campaign, Palin responded: “I’m not going to label myself anything . . . And I think that’s what annoys a lot of Americans, especially in a political campaign, is to start trying to label different parts of America different . . . I’m not going to put a label on myself.” But in an interview with Katie Couric of CBS, Palin took a different stance, calling herself “a feminist who believes in equal rights and I believe that women certainly today have every opportunity that a man has to succeed, and to try to do it all.” Politics aside, it is clear that Palin is not alone in her uncertainty. Despite their appreciation of the opportunities they can credit to the feminist movement, many women feel that in the 21st century there is a stigma attached to the word. Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, a Stanford University graduate, mother, and a successful executive in the maledominated tech industry, articulated this dilemma in a 2013 PBS interview. “I think it’s too bad,” she said, “but I do think that feminism has become in many

ways a more negative word.”

Those who decline to describe themselves as feminists sometimes do so out of fear that the word “feminist” will be interpreted as “femi-nazi” (see “Say What?!?! Modern Feminist Vocabulary” on page 31).

Other times, however, women eschew the feminist label out of genuine uncertainty whether their life choices could be considered feminist ones. Consider that the National Center for Education Statistics reports that women earned approximately 61% of all post-secondary degrees (including Associate’s, Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Doctoral degrees) conferred from the 1999-2000 through 2009-2010 academic years, indicating that women are pursuing education, and by extension, careers outside the home, in record numbers. Simultaneously, the last ten years has also seen a movement of selfproclaimed feminist housewives who, armed with college degrees and working-mother role models from within their own families, make the choice to stay at home to focus on caring for their children and household. These women, such as those profiled in “The Retro Wife,” a March 2013 article in The New Yorker, say that their decision is a feminist one by virtue of its being a choice—and was choice not what the feminist movement was all about?

In Act I, Scene 2 of Rapture, Blister, Burn, Avery

Third wave feminism

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claims one woman cannot deem another woman’s path unacceptable or un-feminist, just because they would not choose it for themselves. “If you believe a woman should be free to choose her own destiny, you can’t add a ‘but’ to that,” she explains. From Gwen’s perspective

…That’s all [Phyllis] Schlafly was saying . . . If you decide to stay single and fabulous, you have to live with the consequences. What if you wake up one day and decide… My books don’t love me; my degrees and awards don’t love me; my mother loves me, but she—at some point—has to die. Schlafly’s point is not that harm will come to that woman, it’s that she better have the guts to live with her choices. Own your own misspent life. Don’t victimize women who made the other choice.

(II.1)

Career-oriented women were once considered nonconformist, disobedient outsiders, but as they become more and more the norm and young women are expected to be high academic and career achievers, is there more feminist rebellion in choosing to stay home? “I’ve thought about being a stay-at-home mom just as like a fuck you to the system,” Avery notes. “It would kill my parents. I’ve had like a million dollars worth of education. If I wind up in mommy and me class after all that, their fucking heads will explode” (I.2).

So is it possible for a stay-at-home mom to be a feminist? What about a stripper? A Playboy playmate? An executive with no children? An executive with children? Diversity, in terms of ethnicity, identity, sexual orientation, and class, but also in viewpoints on what is and is not feminist, plays a major role in the third wave. Some modern feminists even choose to embrace symbols and activities considered by the previous waves to be oppressive and patriarchal and use them in subversive ways. Words like “slut” and “bitch” become terms of endearment while high heels and push-up bras become symbols of empowerment.

Or not—because in a group that holds the freedom

to choose as scripture, the only guarantee is a wide range of opinions and values.

Beyond the question of what does and does not constitute feminism in 2013, there is further disagreement over what the long-term legacy of the movement will be on gender roles and relationships.

As Catherine explains in Act I, Scene 2 of Rapture, Blister, Burn, “feminism asserted—quite rightly—that women have a right to the same opportunities as men. What feminism has arguably left unfinished is how two empowered people are supposed to negotiate all this fantastic equality.” But Catherine’s mother, Alice, points out in Act II, Scene 7 that this may not be such a bad thing: “[Phyllis Schlafly] said you girls would pay for your independence and your whoring. She said men wouldn’t stay with you and she was right. You’re free. You’re free… (A beat.

Alice thinks of her own life and what might have been…) I think it’s wonderful!”

QUESTIONS: • Do you consider yourself a feminist? Why or why not?

• What grievances in the Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions has the feminist movement rectified since the Seneca Falls Convention?

Research the lives and specific views of convention organizers Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott. If these women were alive today, what might they think of the ways in which society has changed and not changed in its treatment of women?

• Talk to the women you know (such as mothers, aunts, grandmothers, sisters, teachers, and bosses) about their life choices. How did the feminist movement impact their lives? Have they ever felt torn between home and career? If so, how did they negotiate those different pulls? How much of their paths did they travel by choice and how much by necessity? If they had to do it over again, would they make the same choices or do things differently? Do they consider themselves feminists? Why or why not?

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• What does the term “glass ceiling” refer to? What glass ceilings still exist in politics, business, and other facets of 21st century society?

• In 2013, women still make only 77 cents for every dollar made by men in the United States, despite the increasing number of women obtaining advanced degrees and education. Research the factors that contribute to the gender-based wage gap. How does the wage gap in the United States compare with other countries? Which factors keeping women’s pay down could be alleviated with changes to laws or policy? How can women and men be proactive in their work on this issue?

• On March 5, 2013, the Equal Rights Amendment was reintroduced as S. J. RES. 10 by Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ). Research the obstacles faced by supporters of the ERA throughout its history. Why did it take so long for the Amendment to be voted on? Why did the fifteen states that did not ratify the Amendment decline to do so? What is the outlook for potential passage of the recently reintroduced version? If the Amendment were to be passed and ratified, what would change for women in America?

• In 2012, a series of legislations and policy positions by politicians around the country became commonly known as the War on Women. What types of issues were at the center of the War on Women? Is this title appropriately descriptive? Why or why not?

• In the 2004 film Mean Girls, Tina Fey plays Ms. Norbury, a high school math teacher who tells her female students, “You all have got to stop calling each other sluts and whores. It just makes it OK for guys to call you sluts and whores.” Is Ms. Norbury right? In your experience, when girls call each other sluts or whores, what is the intent? Is a girl calling another girl a slut or a whore different from a guy using those words to refer to a girl? Why or why not?

• In a 2002 interview with Esquire magazine, Playboy founder and editor Hugh Hefner said: In the 1950s and ‘60s, there were still states that outlawed birth control, so I started funding court cases to challenge that. At the same time, I helped sponsor the lower-court cases that eventually led to

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Roe v. Wade. We were the amicus curiae in Roe v.

Wade. I was a feminist before there was such a thing as feminism. That’s a part of history very few people know.

Research the political positions Hefner has advocated for throughout his life on issues such as birth control, civil rights, AIDS, war, and LGBT rights, as well as criticisms of his business ventures from throughout Playboy magazine’s sixty-year history. Do you agree with Hefner’s assertion that he is feminist? Why or why not? Hefner’s daughter, Christie, worked for Playboy Enterprises for nearly thirty years, including twenty-one years as CEO (1988-2009). Research the life and work of Christie Hefner, including her political and social advocacy.

In your view, is Christie Hefner a feminist? Why or why not?

USE ONCE AND DESTROY The Riot Grrrl movement of the early 1990s (see “Say What?!?! Modern Feminist Vocabulary” on page 31) was largely rooted in punk and rock bands comprised of entirely or predominantly female members such as Bikini Kill, Babes in Toyland, L7, Sleater-Kinney, and Hole. Common topics of these bands’ music included sexuality, sexual abuse, rape, female empowerment, misogyny, and patriarchy.

Fronted by singer-guitarist Courtney Love, the band Hole released their album Celebrity Skin in 1998. It includes the song “Use Once and Destroy,” the lyrics of which inspired the title of Gina Gionfriddo’s play, Rapture, Blister, Burn.

“USE ONCE AND DESTROY” BY HOLE It’s the emptiness that follows you down It’s the ache inside when it all burns out It’s poisonous it muscles it aches It’s everything you had when it breaks It’s the emptiness that’s all you have left Too terrified of your frozen breath It’s a bitter mouth it’s buttered and knived It’s the awful truth you fight for your life It might as well it might as well hurt It might as well it might as well

I went down to rescue you I went all the way down Fill your hungry wretched life Here they come it’s closing time It’s the bitter root it’s twisted inside It’s the heart you used to have when it died It’s the emptiness it poisons it lies It’s everything that you’ll never find It might as well it might as well hurt It might as well it might as well I went down for the remains Sort through all your blurs and stains Take your rapture blister burns

Stand in line it’s not your turn All dressed in red always the bride Off with her head all dressed in white Off with her head I went down to rescue you I went all the way down I went down for the remains Sort through all your blurs and stains Oh I will follow you Anytime anywhere Oh I will come for you Just say you aren’t there

QUESTIONS: • What is the “it” the song repeatedly refers to?

• Reexamine the verse in which the title of Gionfriddo’s play, Rapture, Blister, Burn, appears: I went down for the remains / Sort through all your blurs and stains / Take your rapture blister burns / Stand in line it’s not your turn

Why do you think this verse inspired Gionfriddo? What connections exist between the emotions and actions of the play’s protagonist, Catherine, and the point of view expressed in “Use Once and Destroy?”

• Courtney Love once stated that the name of her band was inspired by the line, “there’s a hole that pierces my soul,” from Medea, an ancient Greek tragedy by Euripides. How does the story of Medea reflect the feminist themes found in the music of Hole and other Riot Grrrl bands?

• Consider the depiction of girls and young women in popular culture in 2013 such as the images of musical artists Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Nicki Minaj, Taylor Swift, and Katy Perry. What have these women said publicly about feminism? Would you consider their images or their music feminist? What about the depictions of women on scripted television shows such as Girls and Pretty Little Liars, reality television shows such as Jersey Shore and The Real Housewives series, and films such as Brave and Spring Breakers. Could any of these representations of girls and women be considered feminist? Why or why not?

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SAY WHAT?!?! MODERN FEMINIST VOCABULARY The Rapture, Blister, Burn character Alice is in her seventies and while she can count feminist pioneers like Gloria Steinem and Jane Fonda as her contemporaries, she spent her twenties more concerned with raising her child than participating in the women’s movement. In their early forties, Catherine and Gwen are beneficiaries of the previous generation’s revolution. They represent the schism between the path of the homemaker and the path of the career woman. Avery, meanwhile, is a twenty-one-yearold college student who regards first-wave feminism as ancient history and has uniquely modern views on love and sex that at times seem somewhat foreign to the other three women.

offers definitions of the words and phrases that figure prominently in the feminist and youth lexicons of the last twenty years.

Gwen is the first to discover that she’s not quite as up to date on the vocabulary of 21st century relationships as she thinks she is: CATHERINE: You’re making a reality show with your boyfriend.

AVERY: He’s actually not my boyfriend.

GWEN: They’re “exclusively hooking up.”

AVERY: No. We’re hooking up exclusively.

GWEN: Isn’t that what I said?

AVERY: No. Exclusively hooking up sounds like all we do is hook up. Which it isn’t.

(I.2)

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Catherine is equally perplexed when Avery reveals her fears that Lucas may be having an emotional affair with a girl he met while interning in Los Angeles. “I don’t know if they’re hooking up or not,” Avery explains in Act II, Scene 3. “He better be hooking up with her. If he’s not, I’m definitely screwed.” Catherine responds with incredulity.

“Wait. It’s better if he’s sleeping with her?” Avery, unfazed by Catherine’s comment, breaks down the reasoning that, to her, is completely logical: “If he’s just hooking up, then it’ll end,” she says. “If they’re, like, connecting with hearts and minds… Then I’m fucked.”

PEOPLE • Feminista: (1) A modern feminist. One that shows traits belonging to new and old school feminist thought while exhibiting a hipster-like fashion consciousness that was not present in the last generation of feminists. (2) A third wave feminist. A woman (or man) who actively supports the rights of women in all arenas, regardless of multiple definitions or stereotypes of femininity. [Someone who supports] women’s right to choose to be whatever it is that they desire, whether that is a mother, banker, artist, doctor, teacher, lawyer—or all of the above. A feminista is not necessarily “that girl from Women’s Studies who can’t get a date” or inherently unattractive in any way. She (or he!) is many things or anything, so long as that person actively supports a woman’s right to have the opportunity to do anything she imagines, without societal, cultural, religious and especially political laws or preconceptions limiting her potential. A feminista also supports women’s reproductive rights.

Gwen and Catherine’s confusion is understandable.

Each generation and subculture has its own set of slang terms to describe people, relationships, and concepts. Urban Dictionary (UrbanDictionary.com)

• Riot Grrrl: (1) A grassroots third wave feminist movement deeply connected to the punk rock scene in the early and mid 1990’s. Mostly youth oriented, “Riot Grrrl” was neither an organization

nor a specific thought, but instead thrived on non hierarchal “chapters” set up across America and parts of Europe connecting mostly young women with music, a thriving zine scene, and direct political action. (2) A feminist, who can rock out, have fun, and doesn’t give a shit what anyone else says.

• Femi-Nazi: A derogatory word used by some males to describe any woman who differs from their views on how women should behave and what rights they should have.

CONCEPTS • Sex-Positive Feminism: (1) A type of feminism featuring an approach to sex and human sexuality that embraces the full benefits of sexual interaction as healthy and uplifting, based upon the premise that sexual expression is good and healthy and that societal repression or control of the individual’s sexdrive is bad and unhealthy. The term was coined in the 1981 essay, “Lust Horizons: Is the Women’s Movement Pro-Sex?” by Ellen Willis.

engage in romantic/sexual activity with another at a party/gathering. Usually, one or both partners are under the influence of alcohol, or another judgmentimpairing drug. “Hooking up” usually involves little or no emotional attachment.

• Group Hang: (1) An outing, usually consisting of four people, similar to a double date without it officially being a date.

• Emotional Affair: (1) An affair in which you have mutual feelings for someone NOT your significant other but you never hook up. (2) A pop psychology term which instills a sense of impropriety when describing platonic and courtly love (and other forms of intimate non-sexual association).

• Girl Power: (1) A pop culture motto used to teach feminism to young girls/teenagers. Supposed to promote sexual equality, even though it suggests that females have superior rights to males. Frequently used by females to annoy egalitarian males who try to keep everyone’s voice and rights at an equal. (2) A term originally coined by the Riot Grrrl movement of the early 1990s, then hijacked by British pop group the Spice Girls, who famously used it as their motto.

RELATIONSHIPS • Exclusive: (1) The state of being with one person, and only one person, without labeling yourselves as boyfriend and girlfriend. (2) The state of being in a relationship with someone where you are officially boyfriend and girlfriend, and there is no one else involved. Usually attained after going on a couple of good dates with someone.

• Hooking Up: (1) Any form of getting some type of action. A “hook up” refers to participating in sexual acts when you’re not going out with anyone. (2) Hooking up can mean anything ranging from kissing and touching to intercourse. Vagueness is its hallmark (a girl can say, “I hooked up with so-andso,” and no one knows what she did. It protects you and makes you a player at the same time). (3) To

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SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES CAROL ROSEGG Cast of Rapture, Blister, Burn

ACTING—SCENE STUDY AND CHARACTER ANALYSIS

Part I: Begin preparations to perform the scene by completing the following questions:

Select and perform a scene from Rapture, Blister, Burn. Suggested scenes:

• What are the given circumstances (5 W’s) of this scene?

• Act I, Scene 1—Catherine reunites with Don and Gwen after ten years.

• Act I, Scene 3—Catherine and Don discuss their relationship and Don’s subsequent marriage to Gwen.

• Act II, Scene 2—Catherine, Don, and Gwen decide that Catherine and Gwen will try trading lives.

• Act II, Scene 4—Catherine tries to persuade Don to write a book.

• What is the scene’s primary conflict?

• Objectives: What does my character want in this scene? What does my character want in the play overall?

• Tactics: What is my character doing to get what he or she wants?

• Obstacles: What or who is standing in the way of my character’s efforts to achieve his or her objective?

• Act II, Scene 4—Avery and Alice give Catherine relationship advice.

• Stakes: What is at risk for my character? What is the best thing that could happen if my character achieves his or her objective? What is the worst thing that could happen if he or she fails?

• Act II, Scene 5—Don and Gwen decide to reconcile.

• What adjectives describe my character’s personality? Are there any contradictions?

• Act II, Scene 6—Don tells Catherine he has decided to return to his life with Gwen.

• What statements does my character make about him or herself? What do others say about my character?

• Describe the status of each character in the scene.

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Does anyone have power over someone else?

Part II: Create a biographical sketch of your character by answering the following in first person from the character’s perspective: • Full name and date of birth.

• Where did you grow up? Where do you live now?

• Do you have any siblings?

• Describe your relationship with your parents.

• How did your childhood influence who you are today?

• What is you level of educational attainment?

• When you were a child, what were your dreams and aspirations? Have these dreams changed over time? If so, how and why?

• Do you have any secrets? If so, what are they?

• What is your best quality? What is your worst quality?

• Describe your sense of humor.

• Do you have any hobbies? If so, what are they?

Why do you enjoy them?

• List your favorites: Food, color, music, season.

• If you were an animal, what kind of animal would you be?

ENSEMBLE PERFORMANCE — HISTORICAL INFOMERCIAL An infomercial is a hybrid of television program and advertisement, generally 15-30 minutes long, which presents information about a product, service, or point of view in an entertaining way. Create a short live infomercial performance to teach others about the Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions, its primary writer, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and the goals of the Seneca Falls Convention.

In small groups, read the document. What specific grievances does it express? What social expectations does it consider problematic? What remedies to these problems does the document propose?

Create a short performance that presents two or three of the issues and proposed solutions that the Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions identifies, and the kind of future the convention attendees hoped to create. Performance tools that could be used in the infomercial include, but are not limited to: • Narration (description of or commentary on something that is happening) • Tableau (frozen stage picture that tells a story) • Monologue (speech by one character) • Dialogue (conversation between two or more characters) • Pantomime (telling a story with all movement)

Part III: Put the scene on its feet. How can you use stage pictures to communicate the story of the scene? Consider: • Composition of the onstage images.

• The rhythms of the actors’ movement around the stage.

• The pacing of the dialogue.

• How the actors’ body language and vocal expression reflects the information examined in Parts I and II.

First wave feminism

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CREATIVE WRITING—PLAYWRITING While she was in graduate school, Catherine made the decision to accept a prestigious fellowship post in London despite Don’s rejection from the same program. This led to the end of their relationship and eventually to Don’s marriage to Gwen. In the first scene of Rapture, Blister, Burn, Catherine reunites with Don and Gwen after ten years. Much of the play deals with these three characters wondering what would have happened had they chosen a different path through life.

Imagine how this scene might have played if the characters had made different choices years prior.

Choose one of the following options and rewrite the reunion scene with new history among the three characters.

• Don followed Catherine to London.

• Catherine turned down the London fellowship to stay with Don. • Gwen did not pursue Don while Catherine was away.

• Catherine and Don maintained a long-distance relationship while she was in London.

• Gwen completed her graduate degree.

CREATIVE WRITING—JOURNAL ENTRY During Gwen and Catherine’s attempt to swap lives in Act II, Gwen and Julian move in to Catherine’s New York City apartment. Gwen enrolls in a course at a university in the city while Julian takes acting classes and attends Broadway shows. Initially everything works well, but Gwen soon reports to Don that she is unhappy with the arrangement. Imagine you are Gwen and you are deciding whether to stay in New York City or return home. Write a journal entry in which you explore the following: • What did you hope you and Julian would gain by going to New York?

• How did you feel when you first arrived?

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• What has it been like living in Catherine’s apartment? How is day to day life in New York City different from day to day life in the small college town you call home?

• How has Julian changed since arriving in New York? How do you feel about this?

• What do you like about the class you are taking?

What do you hate about it?

• Do you regret any of the choices you made when it comes to your marriage?

• Have you come to any realizations about what you want out of life?

• What will you do next?

Integrate evidence from the dialogue of Rapture, Blister, Burn into your journal entry.

VISUAL ART—SCENIC DESIGN

In Act I, Scene 2, Catherine admits that she hired an interior decorator and a cleaning woman to work on her apartment in New York City, but is unhappy with the results, saying that it “just looks like a fancy hotel now. It’s cold. You can’t outsource nesting.”

Use this description and your own research to create a scenic design for Catherine’s apartment. What items would be found in the home of a globe-trotting academic like Catherine? How would the arrangement of these items be different if Catherine had done it as opposed to a professional interior decorator doing it? How might an interior decorator who does not personally know Catherine choose to furnish the apartment?

How does the presence of a cleaning woman impact the overall organization of the space? Use photos from magazines and the internet to support your set design.

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING AND VIEWING PLAYS AND LITERATURE • The Trojan Women (Euripides—415 BCE) • Medea (Euripides—431 BCE) • Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen—1813) • Little Women (Louisa May Alcott—1868) • A Doll’s House (Henrik Ibsen—1879) • Hedda Gabler (Henrik Ibsen—1890) • The Odd Women (George Gissing—1893) • A Room of One’s Own (Virginia Woolf—1929) • The Bell Jar (Sylvia Plath—1963) • for colored girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf (Ntozake Shange—1975) • Uncommon Women and Others (Wendy Wasserstein—1977) • The Heidi Chronicles (Wendy Wasserstein—1988) • The Vagina Monologues (Eve Ensler—1996) • Intimate Apparel (Lynn Nottage—2003) • Becky Shaw (Gina Gionfriddo—2008) • The Good Body (Eve Ensler—2010) FEMINISM AND GENDER • A Vindication on the Rights of Women (Mary Wollstonecraft—1792) • Woman in the Nineteenth Century (Margaret Fuller—1843) • Women and Economics: A Study of the Economic Relation Between Men and Women as a Factor in Social Evolution (Charlotte Perkins Gilman—1898) • The Second Sex (Simone de Beauvoir—1953) • The Feminine Mystique (Betty Friedan—1963)

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• Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions (Gloria

• Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of

Steinem—1983)

Raunch Culture (Ariel Levy—2006)

• Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of

• The Porning of America: The Rise of Porn Culture,

Identity (Judith Butler—1990)

What It Means, and Where We Go From Here (Car-

• Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent

mine Sarracino and Kevin M. Scott—2008)

Girls (Dr. Mary Pipher—1994)

• The Rise of Enlightened Sexism: How Pop Culture

• He’s a Stud, She’s a Slut, and 49 Other Double

Took Us From Girl Power to Girls Gone Wild (Susan J.

Standards Every Woman Should Know (Jessica Val-

Douglas—2010)

enti—2008)

• Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society

• How to Be a Woman (Caitlin Moran—2011)

(Editor: Mary Hawkesworth)

• Knowing Your Value: Women, Money, and Getting What You’re Worth (Mika Brzezinski—2012) • Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead (Sheryl Sandberg—2013)

FILM AND DOCUMENTARY • Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977) • 9 to 5 (1980) REPRESENTATIONS OF WOMEN IN POP CULTURE AND MEDIA

• The Color Purple (1985)

• The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty are

• A League of Their Own (1992)

Used Against Women (Naomi Wolf—1991) • Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film (Carol J. Clover—1992) • Bad Girls and Dirty Pictures: The Challenge to Reclaim Feminism (Alison Assiter and Avedon Carol—1993)

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• Working Girls (1986) • G.I. Jane (1997) • Girlfight (2000) • The Hours (2002) • Good Hair (2008) • Miss Representation (2011) • The Punk Singer (2013)

WEBSITES AND PERIODICALS • bitch: feminist response to pop culture (www.bitchmagazine.org) • BUST Magazine (www.bust.com) • Everyday Sexism Project (www.everydaysexism.com) • Feministing: Young Feminists Blogging, Organizing, Kicking Ass (www.feministing.com) • Jezebel: Celebrity, Sex, Fashion for Women. Without Airbrushing (www.jezebel.com) • Lean In (www.leanin.org) • Ms. (www.msmagazine.com) DOCUMENTS • Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions (1848) • Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution (1920) • Equal Pay Act (1963) • Civil Rights Act (1964) • Equal Rights Amendment (written 1923, passed 1972) • Education Amendments of 1972—Title IX (1972) • Supreme Court Decision: Roe v. Wade (1973) • The Pregnancy Discrimination Act (1978) • Violence Against Women Act (1994) • The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act (2009)

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