Top Girls Curriculum Guide

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TABLE OF CONTENTS Common Core Standards 3 Guidelines for Attending the Theatre 4 Artists 5 Themes for Writing & Discussion 7 Mastery Assessment 9 For Further Exploration 10 Suggested Activities 18 Suggestions for Further Reading and Viewing 20

Š Huntington Theatre Company Boston, MA 02115 March 2018 No portion of this curriculum guide may be reproduced without written permission from the Huntington Theatre Company’s Department of Education & Community Programs Inquiries should be directed to: Alexandra Smith | Interim Co-Director of Education asmith@huntingtontheatre.org This curriculum guide was prepared for the Huntington Theatre Company by: Lauren Brooks | Education Apprentice Ivy Ryan | Education Apprentice Alexandra Smith | Interim Co-Director of Education

COMMON CORE STANDARDS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS

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.

Reading Literature: Key Ideas and Details 1

Reading Literature: Craft and Structure 5

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Grades 9-10: Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

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Grades 11-12: Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.

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.

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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.

Reading Literature: Key Ideas and Details 2 •

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Grades 9-10: Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shape and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.

Grades 11-12: Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text.

Reading Literature: Craft and Structure 6 •

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.

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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: Key Ideas and Details 3

Reading Literature: Integration of Knowledge and Ideas 7

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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.

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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 9-12: 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

TECHNICAL THEATRE

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

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

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).

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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).

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

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

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

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

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).

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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).

READING AND WRITING SCRIPTS •

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).

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

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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).

GUIDELINES FOR ATTENDING THE THEATRE 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?

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Remind students that because the performance is live, the audience’s behavior and reactions will affect the actors’ performances. 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.

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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!

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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, gum, and drinks should not be brought into the theatre.

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

TOP GIRLS CURRICULUM GUIDE

ARTISTS In response to Churchill’s unique style, director and producer James C. Nicola said, “Most artists — whether painters or novelists or composers — find some sense of what their voices and concerns are in their 20s and 30s, and in their 60s and 70s they’re still doing variations on it.

But it’s not true of her. She’s as fresh and new and unpredictable and inspiring now as she was at the beginning of her working life.”

At age 79, Caryl Churchill continues to be active in the theatre community. Though her last major play premiered in 2016, she continues collaborating with directors on her works and is frequently seen attending opening nights around London.

QUESTIONS: MARC BRENNER

Caryl Chuchill in rehearsal for her play, The Skriker

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Churchill has been applauded for being a “chameleon” who can adapt to ever-changing political and social dynamics. What can artists do to remain relevant? How can they reinvent their work while remaining true to themselves?

2.

Research Epic Theatre and Theatre of Cruelty. What characterizes each genre? Where in Churchill’s writing is there evidence of these influences?

3.

Research the American Theater Hall of Fame. Write an argument explaining why Churchill deserved to be inducted as a member.

PLAYWRIGHT CARYL CHURCHILL British playwright Caryl Churchill is known for her works exploring sexual-political and feminist themes. Born in London in 1938, Churchill lived in Montreal, Canada, from the time she was 10 until the age of 19 when she returned to England to attend university. She graduated from Lady Margaret Hall, a women’s college of the University of Oxford, in 1960 with a BA in English literature. It was during her college years that she began writing plays; her four earliest works, Downstairs, You’ve No Need to be Frightened, Having a Wonderful Time, and Easy Death, were all staged by student theatre ensembles at Oxford. While raising her family in the 1960s and 1970s, Churchill began to write short radio and television dramas for the BBC. She wrote her first stage play Owners in 1972, but it was not until seven years later when she debuted Cloud 9 that she began to receive wide critical acclaim as a playwright.

Churchill is the author of nearly 50 plays and has received numerous awards including the Richard Hillary Memorial Prize (1961), the Obie Award for Playwriting (1981, 1982), the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize (1984, 1987), the Laurence Olivier/BBC Award for Best New Play (1988), the Obie Sustained Achievement Award (2001), and induction into the American Theater Hall of Fame (2010).

Churchill was heavily influenced by Epic Theatre, a genre pioneered

by German playwright Bertolt Brecht, which can be seen in her work’s episodic, didactic form and non-linear timelines. Her later plays, which became progressively more surreal and fragmental, were also influenced by Antonin Artaud and the Theatre of Cruelty. Throughout her career, Churchill has been applauded for her imaginative structures that challenge the idea of what a play is or can be. According to a 1989 New York Times interview, Churchill, who largely avoids the media and has not granted an interview to a major newspaper since the 1990s, explained: “I do enjoy the form of things. I enjoy finding the form that seems best to fit what I’m thinking about. I don’t set out to find a bizarre way of writing. I certainly don’t think that you have to force it. But on the whole, I enjoy plays that are non-naturalistic and don’t move in real time.”

Liesl Tommy

DIRECTOR LIESL TOMMY Liesl Tommy is an award-winning stage director returning to the Huntington Theatre Company having previously directed The Royal Society of Antarctica (Breaking Ground festival of new work – 2015), A Raisin in the Sun (2013), Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (2012), and Ruined (2011). Her credits include productions of Danai Gurira’s Eclipsed (Broadway and The Public Theater) starring Academy Award winner Lupita Nyong’o (Tony Award nomination for Best Director), Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s Appropriate (Signature Theatre), Tracey Scott Wilson’s The Good Negro, UNIVERSES’ Party People, and A. Zell Williams’ Urban Retreat (The Public Theater/NYSF), Les Misérables (Dallas Theater Center), Hamlet (California Shakespeare Theater), The Piano Lesson

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(Yale Repertory Theatre), and John Kander and Greg Pierce’s musical Kid Victory. Tommy is the recipient of an Obie Award, Lucille Lortel Award, Pioneer of the Arts Award, Lillian Hellman Award, Alan Schneider Award, NEA/TCG Directors Grant, New York Theatre Workshop Casting/ Directing Fellowship, and the inaugural Susan Stroman Award from the Vineyard Theater. Tommy facilitated the inaugural Sundance East Africa Theatre Director’s Lab and is a member of the oard of the Sundance Institute. She has worked at Dallas Theater Center, California Shakespeare Theater, Center Stage, Sundance East Africa, and more.

Tommy serves as a program associate and artist trustee at Sundance Institute Theatre Program.

She first stepped into the Huntington Avenue Theatre as a teenager in 1987 to attend a student matinee. “I first encountered the Huntington when I was in high school when we saw August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone. It was an experience that changed my life and opened up my eyes to what theatre could be and what theatre could do,” says Tommy of her experience at a Huntington Student Matinee.

QUESTIONS: 1.

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Director Liesl Tommy’s directing resume includes a diverse group of projects at theatres all over the world, ranging from Shakespeare to musicals to contemporary world premieres. Investigate the other plays Liesl Tommy has directed for the Huntington Theatre Company: A Raisin in the Sun, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, and Ruined. Are there any similarities among these projects? How would you describe Tommy’s body of work as a whole?

In an article in the Huntington Theatre Company’s Spring 2013 edition of its Spotlight magazine, Liesl Tommy describes her visceral and physical aesthetic as a director, “I’m interested in the violence of being a human being, and sometimes that is with actual physical violence onstage, and sometimes it’s just the thing that pulsates underneath every exchange.” How can violence manifest in other ways than literal physical violence? What do you think Tommy means by “the thing that pulsates underneath every exchange”? How do you think this set of principles might translate to this production of Top Girls?

When working on a play, Tommy asks herself the following series of questions, “What is the set in real life, and how do I take it up a few notches? How do these people interact and how do I make it more?

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4. Tommy discovered the power of theatre when she was in high school. Where do you find community and purpose? What activities or subjects are you drawn to? What would you like to try that you haven’t had an opportunity to yet? What from your life now do you hope to carry into your future?

NILE HAWVER

Tommy was born in Cape Town, South Africa under apartheid where she was raised in a colored township outside of the city. When she was 15 years old, her family immigrated to Newton, Massachusetts, where she attended Newton North High School. An early lover of theatre, Tommy would explore the plays on her dad’s bookshelf and persuade her brother into reading the most dramatic scenes from plays including Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and The Glass Menagerie.

One of Tommy’s teachers at Newton North High School asked her to be in a production of for colored girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf by Ntozake Shange for Black History Month.

Tommy immediately discovered the outlet she needed and a sense of community in the theatre. “I instantly found purpose, a common language,” she remembers. “I never ever did anything else. I pursued theatre relentlessly.” After high school, she studied acting in London and subsequently pursued her MFA in acting at a joint program between Brown University and Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, RI. Tommy even performed the role of Pope Joan in a production of Top Girls at Trinity Rep. At Brown, her teachers noticed and encouraged Tommy’s instincts for directing. Tommy slowly made the transition and now directs both new plays and classics worldwide.

I want to see people using language vigorously, smacking out those consonants, getting in each other’s face, and I want to feel like I’m smelling sweat.” How is this style of directing different from realism (when a play mirrors everyday life)? If you were to direct a show, what guiding questions would you ask yourself to keep your production on track?

Director Liesl Tommy

DIRECTOR LIESL TOMMY: ADVICE FROM THE FIRST WOMAN OF COLOR NOMINATED FOR A TONY FOR BEST DIRECTION OF A PLAY BY JERYL BRUNNER (FORBES MAGAZINE – JUNE 29, 2016) JERYL BRUNNER: Why do you love what you do?

TOMMY: I truly believe that theatre and storytelling has the power to change lives. I’ve seen it. I’ve seen people come up to me after Eclipsed and any show that I’ve worked on over the years. You can see in their eyes that something in them has changed.

BRUNNER: What advice would you have for young women who want to move forward in their careers?

TOMMY: The thing that has been most important for me is to fight for confidence. We can self-sabotage. People will be looking for weaknesses anywhere. I believe you have to walk into a room like you own it. Because why shouldn’t you own it?

BRUNNER: How do you do that?

TOMMY: You have to look into people’s eyes, make demands and call them on their bullshit. And because you’re a woman, never let them get away with making you feel like you are less. It is amazing how many people out there want to tell us “no” just because we’re women.

THEMES FOR DISCUSSION AND WRITING Opening of The Clerk’s Tale in the Ellesmere illuminated manuscript of The Canterbury Tales, early 15th century / Huntington Library, Los Angeles

Marlene, a career-oriented woman who has risen within the ranks of the Top Girls Employment Agency, is highly successful in her work but not satisfied in her personal life. Part of her is still running away from Suffolk, the working class town where she grew up, and from the baby she left behind to be raised by her sister. Her “niece” Angie equates Marlene’s success with happiness and the promise of a better life, but her idolization of this lifestyle does not mirror Marlene’s personal experience of isolation and disappointment.

QUESTIONS: 1.

How does the world at large define success? In what ways can the characters in Top Girls be described as successful? Are any of them actually happy? Which is more important happiness or success?

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How would you define success? How would you define happiness?

Do you think it is possible to achieve both? If you know someone who is successful and happy explain a little bit about who they are and what their story is.

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Who or what makes you happy right now? What do you think would make you happy in the long-term?

SUCCESS = HAPPINESS? Some people believe that professional achievements are often equated to personal fulfillment, while others maintain they are not synonymous and professional success does not guarantee happiness. Although many of the women in Top Girls are wildly successful in their careers, only one of the characters actually appears to be happy. Patient Griselda, the last to arrive at the dinner party in Act I, has her life painted by Marlene as “like a fairy story, except it starts with marrying the prince.” As Griselda recounts the story of her life with the marquis, inspired by “The Clerk’s Tale” in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, her unwavering patience and loyalty are revealed as her husband puts her through hell fire to test her fidelity. Griselda’s husband forces her to give up their two children, divorces her, banishes her from court, makes her walk home barefoot in a slip, calls her back to plan his wedding to a new and younger bride, then shocks her by revealing it was all a test: their children are alive, and the couple lives happily ever after. At the dinner party, Griselda is polite, disconnected, and highlights how much her husband must have suffered all those years as he put her through these challenges, instead of sharing any of her internal emotional journey. She may have succeeded as a peasant by marrying a prince and proving her character is beyond reproach, but the text suggests that she has also been emotionally traumatized by this series of events. The cost very well might have been more damaging than she is willing to acknowledge.

Instead, Griselda optimistically focuses on the happiness she has achieved by earning ultimate rewards of status and the most sought after bachelor in the land.

The other guests present at Marlene’s dinner party in Act I are all historically influential and objectively successful women from different cultures and moments in history, however, over the course of dinner, drinks, and dessert, the polished facades of these powerful women are removed, revealing their pain, regret, and frustration with themselves and their lives. Isabella Bird was a well-educated world traveler during the Victorian era with a life full of adventure, yet she yearned for the companionship of her sister Hennie whom she left behind in Scotland. Lady Nijo was a courtesan to a Japanese emperor before later becoming a Buddhist nun, yet she felt trapped in both worlds and experienced lasting heartbreak in her relationships with the men in her sphere. Dull Gret was a fearless and fierce warrior and leader in battle, yet her monologue at the end of Act I reveals that she holds deep anger about all she has seen, perhaps even suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Lastly, Pope Joan used a masculine disguise to rise in status and serve as the Roman Catholic pope for two years, only to see her truth exposed and be stoned to death. For all of these women, success did not bestow happiness.

THE REPRESSION OF FEMINITY When Marlene is promoted to managing director over her coworker Howard, she believes her promotion marks the pinnacle of her life as an independent woman in the 1980s: she not only proved herself a capable employee but also holds a position of power over a man. Does that feeling of success — for Marlene, the other women of the Top Girls Employment Agency, and even for the historical and legendary women of the opening scene — come at the cost of their identities as women?

Did getting ahead mean repressing their inherent femininity?

As women were still new to the corporate workforce when Top Girls was written in the 1980s, a general assumption existed that women needed to adopt male qualities of dress and personality in order to be taken seriously. In Act I, Pope Joan provides a literal living example of this long-held belief, having deliberately hidden her true gender identity to live her adult life as a man rather than as a woman. The women of the agency also repress their femininity in order to manufacture credibility in a male-driven world, embracing more masculine silhouettes through “power dressing.” As Nell, a Top Girls employee, explains in Act II, women were assumed to be fragile, so they felt it necessary to prove their toughness. Nell elaborates on the dynamic between women and masculinity in the workplace, in her analysis of Marlene’s recent promotion over a male colleague, Howard. “Howard thinks because he’s a fella the job was his as of right,” she explains. “Our Marlene’s got far more balls that Howard and that’s that.” Not only does Nell’s statement make clear that Howard felt he deserved the job because he was male, but it also shows how masculine qualities like having “balls” serve as a statement of qualifications in their workplace.

Shona, a woman seeking a job through the agency, also equates masculinity with success. In crafting a fictional account of her previous work experience, she describes more traditionally masculine responsibilities and pastimes: driving, selling large electrical equipment, nights away from home, and regular drinking. Another agency employee, Win, chimes in that she has rejected society’s expectations of women through choices she makes in her romantic life and refuses TOP GIRLS CURRICULUM GUIDE

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to settle down, get married, and “play house.” Win prizes her liberty over expectations associated with traditional femininity, so she pursues casual relationships and remains unattached, thus thwarting the feminine expectations of motherhood and monogamy.

The female Top Girls employees therefore establish their successes in similar fashion to Pope Joan: through imitation. Rather than proving that women are wholly capable with an entirely unique skillset, both biologically and socially, they mimic the successes of men in an attempt to walk an already tried and true path. In the world of Top Girls, it seems ingrained that women must sacrifice everything that makes them female in order to achieve success.

QUESTIONS: 1.

Why might Shona have tried to make her fake resume seem masculine? Do you think she did this consciously or did she unintentionally internalize a male model of success?

2.

Though Nell and Win express little regret over their choices, the women in the play who did actually become mothers tell stories of conflict between their senses of self and their identities as nurturing caretakers. What tough choices did Marlene, Lady Nijo, and Patient Griselda make? Why? How did they feel afterward?

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Do you believe that women still have to prove themselves in the workplace? Think of a recent example, either from your own life or from a TV show or movie, where a woman has had to prove herself as capable as a man. What challenges did she encounter? How did she address them?

4. A. There are countless books and articles written about how women who are aggressive in the workplace are likely to be called “bossy” whereas men who are aggressive are seen as driven and successful. Why do you think this difference in perception exists?

B. Consider the words “bossy” and “nasty.” Do you believe these words are gendered?

FEMINISM AND CULTURAL RELATIVISM In the iconic opening scene of Top Girls, Churchill creates a fantasy conversation that brings together a diverse range of women from past and present. Rebecca Cameron, a comparative drama expert from DePaul University, likens this to the suffrage-era pageants of the early 1900s that brought famous historical women and female martyrs together in a utopian vision of female solidarity. However, as Cameron points out, Churchill challenges this notion of “universal sisterhood” by juxtaposing different cultures that cascade into a cacophony of clashing female voices and opinions.

Rather than bonding over their shared empowerment as women and assumed common goals in reaching gender equality, the women of

Top Girls instead only find common ground in their shared misery as women. The women try to outdo one another in who has the most wretched life, proclaiming dead lovers, bouts of illness, mistreatment by men, and the sacrifices of their children and femininity as evidence. One by one the women express a mutual feeling of emptiness: “I am dead already,” “You thought your life was over,” “You wish it was over” (Act I). Though their similar feelings of dissatisfaction offer a point of agreement, they experience their unhappiness as individuals with no real understanding or acknowledgement of each other’s plight.

Despite hearing each other’s personal stories and sharing their own, the women fail to empathize with one another. Repeatedly, Lady Nijo and Isabella declare one another’s cultures to be “barbaric” with Nijo dismissing Christianity and Isabella subsequently dismissing the practices of the lower classes in “the East.” Similarly, Marlene is critical of Griselda’s husband Walter, characterizing him as a misogynist and abuser despite Griselda’s own glowing view of him. Their lack of empathy, however, is largely due to an inability to see eye to eye across time, place, and culture. The women come from a range of different cultural backgrounds, but although they literally speak the same language in the play, they fail to effectively communicate with one another. When Marlene asks Nijo whether she was raped by the ex-Emperor after she was given to him at age 14, for example, Nijo responds, “No, of course not, Marlene, I belonged to him, it was what I was brought up for from a baby” (Act I). Nijo’s retort demonstrates that critical value statements, such as the parameters of what constitutes consensual sex, are ideas that are culturally defined.

Thus, Churchill challenges the idea of universal sisterhood in a way that echoes arguments against first wave feminism, in which middle-class white women egregiously assumed that they could speak for women of all socioeconomic backgrounds and cultures. By bringing historical figures from different backgrounds into the social climate of 1980s London, it becomes clear that a shared gender experience can be overruled by cultural context.

QUESTIONS: 1.

Why did Caryl Churchill structure the play’s first act so that the women argue and talk over one another?

2.

Do you believe that there’s a universal bond between people of shared gender identity? Why or why not?

3.

Why is it difficult for people to empathize with individuals of different cultures?

4. “Intersectionality” is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as: “The interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender as they apply to a given individual or group.”

Why is it important for social movements such as feminism to be intersectional?

Suffrage Pageant at the Skookum Club in 1913, Don Sherwood Parks History Collection (Record Series 5801-01)

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TOP GIRLS CURRICULUM GUIDE

MASTERY ASSESSMENT The scenes are listed in the order in which they will occur in the Huntington Theatre Company’s production of Top Girls. This may differ from published editions of the play. Compare the sequences of scenes in the Huntington’s production with the order in which they occur in a published version. Why might the director of the Huntington’s production, Liesl Tommy, have wanted to make this change? How does the sequence change your experience of the characters and plot?

ACT I 1.

What is the occasion being celebrated at the dinner party?

2. What is the relationship between the guests?

3. What are the religions of each of the six women eating together?

4. Who is Rocky Mountain Jim? 5. How did dressing as a boy alter Joan’s life path? What did it allow her to do that she wouldn’t otherwise have been allowed to? What were the consequences?

6. What were Lady Nijo’s two professions? How does she feel about each of them?

7. Where has Isabella traveled? Why did she travel the world?

8. How many children did Lady Njio have? Who fathered her children? What was her relationship with the babies after they were born?

9. Who is the last guest to arrive at the dinner party?

10. Marlene describes Griselda’s life as “a fairy story.” What story is Marlene encouraging Griselda to recount? What test did Griselda’s husband put her through? How did it end?

11. What does Joan drunkenly recite?

12. Gret says very little throughout this scene. When she finally does speak, what does she talk about?

ACT II SCENE 1 1.

Who is Joyce?

2. Why does Angie talk about her gran’s picture falling? How is that connected to the dead kitten?

3. How does Kit prove she isn’t afraid of blood? Why does Angie refer to herself as a cannibal?

11. What kind of job is Jeanine looking for? How does she want her next job to differ from her current position?

12. What advice does Marlene give Jeanine at the end of the scene?

13. Who are Win and Nell?

14. What are Win and Nell’s perspectives on male suitors? What are their requirements and current prospects?

15. What is Win and Nell’s profession?

16. Why is Howard bitter? Whose side are Win and Nell on?

17. Why is Louise looking to change jobs after many years at one company? How does she hope her company will react when she leaves?

18. Who is Mrs. Kidd? What is the issue she has come to address? How do Mrs. Kidd and Marlene differ on the matter?

19. Why is Angie at the Top Girls Agency? Does Joyce know Angie is there?

20. What is Shona hiding from Nell in her interview?

21. How did Win wind up working for the company?

ACT III 1.

How are Marlene and Joyce connected? How many years have passed since they last saw each other?

2. What part did Angie play in getting Marlene to come over?

3. What does Angie show Marlene in her bedroom?

4. What are Joyce’s perspectives on Angie’s intelligence, development, and prospects?

5. Who is revealed to be Angie’s biological mother?

6. What are the main points of conflict between Marlene and Joyce? What are their stances?

7. What are Marlene’s political beliefs?

4. To what does Angie refer when she calls Kit’s mom “a slag” and says “she does it with everyone”?

8. What tier of society does Marlene belong to? What tier of society does Joyce belong to?

5. Where is the secret place Angie refers to? What does she believe to be a secret about her aunt?

9. Who are the ‘us’ and ‘them’ referred to by Joyce and Marlene?

6. What does Kitty and Joyce’s conversation reveal about Angie?

7. Why did Angie put on a dress that’s too small for her?

SCENE 2 8. What is the context under which Marlene grills Jeanine with questions?

9. Who has the higher status in this scene?

10. What information does Marlene tell Jeanine to hide?

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FOR FURTHER EXPLORATION MEET THE DINNER GUESTS In the opening scene of Top Girls, Marlene, the newly promoted manager of an employment agency, hosts a celebratory dinner with five legendary and historical dinner guests. Read the introductions of her dinner guests and then answer the questions that follow: 1. ISABELLA BIRD, born in the United Kingdom in 1831, suffered from spinal pain, headaches, and insomnia from early childhood. Her doctors recommended an open-air lifestyle which prompted Bird to not only engage in outdoor activities such as horseback riding and rowing, but also eventually led to her extensive international travels throughout her adult life. In her 73 years, Bird visited Australia, the Sandwich Isles, Japan, China, Colorado, Korea, Morocco, and more. To fund her travels and to provide income for her single sister Henrietta, Bird published letters and journals detailing her journeys. In her later years, following the deaths of Henrietta and Bird’s husband Dr. John Bishop, Bird studied medicine, traveled as a missionary, and experimented as a photographer.

Much of the character’s dialogue in Top Girls comes directly from Bird’s own writings.

2. LADY NIJŌ was born in 1258 to a family that ranked high in the imperial courts and was known for its literary abilities. Due to her mother’s early death, Lady Nijō was brought to the imperial court by her father and raised there from the age of 4. At 14, she was given to retired Emperor Go-Fukakusa as a concubine, and her father died within the year. Due to her unsavory status as an orphan and her affinity for taking lovers while working at the palace, Lady Nijō was never recognized as an official consort of the Emperor. She was eventually expelled from the court in 1283, at which time she assumed the role of a Buddhist nun and wrote her iconic memoir Towazugatari (“An Unasked for Tale,” or known in English as The Confessions of Lady Nijō). Though written in the early 14th century, the memoir was not re-discovered until 1940 and not published until 1950 following the conclusion of WWII. Much of the character’s dialogue in Top Girls is borrowed from English translations of her memoir.

to empirical evidence that the first writings about a female pope were added into Jean de Mailly’s chronicles after his death. According to most other accounts, Joan was a learned woman who disguised herself as a man to study in the Vatican with her lover. Due to her intellectual abilities, she rose through the ranks and was elected Pope.

One day, while making a procession, Joan unexpectedly went into labor.

It was revealed that Joan was a woman, and she and her child were stoned to death.

5. PATIENT GRISELDA is a fairytale character appearing in Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, written in the late 1300s, as well as famous stories by Giovanni Boccaccio (1350) and Charles Perrault (1691).

In Chaucer’s version, Griselda was a peasant woman whom the Marquis of Saluzzo decided to court. The marquis’ only condition for marriage was that Griselda always obey him. Despite the marquis dispelling Griselda’s two children and divorcing her for being unable to bear him a child of status, Griselda maintained trust in and patience with her oncehusband. At the end of the story, the marquis calls Griselda back and reveals he had been harboring their children all along. The reward for her patience and obedience was her restoration as his wife and mother of his children. In Top Girls, Griselda is notably consumed by her love for the marquis and his ability to elevate her from peasant status; as a result, she sees no fault with his extreme tests of her obedience.

QUESTIONS: 1.

Each of Marlene’s dinner guests has endured great sacrifice and hardship. How does Marlene’s status as a working woman in the 1980s compare to the experiences of the other women?

2.

In your opinion, which woman has endured the greatest hardship?

Which woman was most successful in her pursuits?

3.

Why does Churchill select these women in particular? What makes them unique? If you were to host a dinner of fictional and historical people, who would you invite and why?

3. DULL GRET (or Dulle Griet) is a figure of Flemish folklore famously depicted in Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s 1562 portrait, Dulle Griet. In the painting, Dull Gret is shown marching into hell clad in male armor as other women loot a town behind her. It’s believed Bruegel is mocking noisy, shrewish, aggressive women in this painting, playing on the Flemish proverb, “One woman makes a din, two women a lot of trouble, three an annual market, four a quarrel, five an army, and against six the Devil himself has no weapon.” Dull Gret’s mission refers to another Flemish proverb, “She could plunder in front of hell and return unscathed.” In Top Girls, Dull Gret likens hell to her own village, serving as a reminder of the tough conditions that 16th century peasant women endured.

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NILE HAWVER

4. POPE JOAN was alleged to have disguised herself as a man to reign as Pope of the Catholic Church in 9th century Rome. The earliest mention of a rumored female pope appears in the Dominican friar Jean de Mailly’s chronicle of Metz, written in the early 13th century. She is not attributed a name until late in the 13th century when the third version of Martin of Opava’s Chronicon Pontificum et Imperatorum was published.

Most modern scholars believe the story of Joan is fictional due to a 200year gap between her supposed lifetime and any account of her, due to a lack of gaps between the reigns of known popes at that time, and due

The cast of Top Girls: Elia Monte-Brown, Carmen M. Herlihy, Sophia Ramos, Paula Plum, Vanessa Kai, Kiara Pichardo, and Carmen Zilles

5.

“But of course a wife must obey her husband.”

– GRISELDA

When Marlene (played by Carmen Zilles, above) earns a promotion at the Top Girls employment agency, she celebrates by hosting a dinner party with five historical women.

Get to know the guests before seeing Marlene’s present and their pasts converge.

TABLE FOR SIX MEET THE HISTORIC

1.

“I always felt dull when I was stationary. That’s why I could never stay anywhere.”

– ISABELLA BIRD

WOMEN OF TOP GIRLS 4.

2.

“There was nothing in my life except my studies. I was obsessed with the pursuit of truth.”

– POPE JOAN

“The first half of my life was all sin and the second all repentance.”

– LADY NIJŌ

3.

“You keep running on and fighting you didn’t stop for nothing. Oh we give them devils such a beating.”

– DULL GRET

TOP GIRLS CURRICULUM GUIDE

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CHURCHILL’S WRITING STYLE Caryl Churchill’s writing style and her body of work have resulted in her being regarded as a theatrical revolutionary.

One of her clearest and most inventive trademarks is the technique she uses to delineate the interconnected threads of communication in her scripts. Many other playwrights have been inspired by her experimental structure and boundary-breaking content. For creative teams working on Churchill’s scripts, extensive energy throughout the rehearsal process goes into text analysis that focuses on the specificity of conversation and the crafting of timing and overlap.

A speech usually follows the one immediately before it BUT: 1.

When one character starts speaking before the other has finished, the point of interruption is marked / e.g.

ISABELLA. This is the Emperor of Japan? / I once met the Emperor of Morocco.

NIJO. In fact he was the ex-Emperor.

In this scenario, Nijo would begin her line “In fact…” immediately following Isabella’s “. . . Emeror of Japan?” causing it to overlap with Isabella’s “I once met the Emperor of Morocco.”

2. A character sometimes continues speaking right through another’s speech, which is made evident by the character’s first line ending without punctuation and following line starting with a lower case letter: ISABELLA. When I was forty I thought my life was over. / Oh I was pitiful. I was NIJO. I didn’t say I felt it for twenty years. Not every minute.

ISABELLA. sent on a cruise for my health and felt even worse. Pains in my bones, pins and needles…

3. Sometimes a speech follows on from a speech earlier than the one immediately before it, and continuity is marked *: GRISELDA. I’d seen him riding by, we all had. And he’d seen me in the field with the sheep.* ISABELLA. I would have been well suited to minding sheep.

NIJO. And Mr Nugent went riding by.

ISABELLA. Of course not, Nijo, I mean a healthy life in the open air.

JOAN. *He just rode up while you were minding the sheep and asked you to marry him?

In this example, ‘in the field with the sheep” is the cue to both “I would have been” and “He just rode up.”

Margaret Thatcher during her reign as Prime Minister of the UK (1979-1990)

MARGARET THATCHER: THE IRON LADY In Act III of Top Girls, written and set in the 1980s, Marlene and Joyce get into a heated political argument over the United Kingdom’s newly elected first female Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. The great rift between the political leanings of these two sisters mirrors the polarizing divide in the United Kingdom.

MARLENE. And for the country, come to that. Get the economy back on its feet and whoosh. She’s a tough lady. Maggie. I’d give her a job. / She just needs to hang JOYCE. You voted for them, did you?

MARLENE. in there. This country needs to stop whining. / Monetarism is not JOYCE. Drink your tea and shut up, pet.

MARLENE. stupid. It takes time, determination.

No more slop. / And JOYCE. Well I think they’re filthy bastards.

MARLENE. who’s got to drive it on? First woman prime minister. Terrifico. Aces. Right on. / You must admit. Certainly gets my vote.

JOYCE. What good’s first woman if it’s her? I suppose you’d have liked Hitler if he was a woman. Ms. Hitler. Got a lot done, Hitlerina.

Margaret Thatcher served a total of three terms from 1979-1990 and was also the leader of the UK’s Conservative Party from 1975-1990. Thatcher received her popular nickname “The Iron Lady” from a Soviet journalist because of her fierce determination, unyielding will, and uncompromising politics. Although she was the longest serving prime minister of the 20th century, she was detested by people of opposing parties and was eventually ousted from office by members of her own party.

When Margaret Thatcher rose to power in 1979, the United Kingdom was rife with industrial strikes, power cuts, and fears surrounding immigration.

Thatcher immediately went to work – she united the right wing under

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the umbrella of free enterprise capitalism, reduced the influence of trade unions, privatized a lengthy list of industries (including British Telecom, British Gas, British Airways, and Rolls Royce), and scaled back public benefits related to social programs and education. She rejected the popular economic theories of John Maynard Keynes, who advocated for deficit spending during periods of high unemployment, in favor of Chicago economist Milton Friedman’s monetarist approach.

In the words of a close aide, Margaret Thatcher and United States President Ronald Reagan were “political soulmates.” Reagan was elected a year after Thatcher, and they quickly created an alliance that they saw to be a conservative match made in heaven, particularly when it came to international politics. Not only were they partners in diplomacy and policy-making, but they developed strong friendship in the public sphere, seeing themselves and their respective countries as part of a transatlantic alliance. They both attacked what they saw as over-regulation of industries and worked to dismantle government bureaucracies — Reagan focused on telecommunications, the environment, and business, while Thatcher took stands on health care.

Additionally, they were committed to the destruction of Communism and opposing the Soviet Union. The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library recognizes Margaret Thatcher as Reagan’s most prolific correspondent among heads of state and notes that they exchanged hundreds of letters, messages, and telephone calls.

One of Thatcher’s hallmark accomplishments during her tenure was her victory against Argentina to maintain control over the Falkland Islands.

The Falklands War of April — June 1982 was a major turning point in Thatcher’s political career. The conflict began with a surprise attack on April 2, 1982 when Argentine forces descended on the islands, British territories located off Argentina’s coast, to seek their claim. After two days of resistance, Thatcher was faced with a difficult decision between suing Argentina for settlement or embarking on a risky military conflict with little hope of victory. Many political figures argued that battle so far from home was preposterous and a win would be impossible. With her government on the brink of collapse, Prime Minister Thatcher overruled dissenting voices and gave the order for a special task force to set sail immediately with 38 warships, 77 auxiliary vessels, and 11,000 soldiers and marines. She converted a point of national shame for the UK into a point of collective purpose and within two months the UK triumphed. In August 1982, when Top Girls first premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, Thatcher’s popularity was at an all-time high.

In a 1976 speech to the Christian Democratic Union Conference, Margaret Thatcher clearly articulated her capitalist belief that “there are only two political philosophies, only two ways of governing a country.

One is the Socialist-Marxist way in which what matters is not the people

but the State. In which decisions affecting people’s lives are taken from them, instead of being taken by them. In which property and savings are taken from the people instead of being more widely held among them.

In which directives replace incentives. In which the State is the master of the individual, instead of the servant.” By contrast, she described capitalism as “a free economic system” which “not only guarantees the freedom of each individual citizen, it is the surest way to increase the prosperity of the nation as a whole.” Margaret Thatcher stood for everything that Caryl Churchill opposed. For many writers with leftist philosophies, including Churchill, The Iron Lady was the embodiment of the capitalist order that they argued was holding back women, and other marginalized demographics, from achieving equality and success.

Churchill’s writing is imbued with socialist philosophies and critiques on traditionally capitalist values such as being aggressive, getting ahead, and prioritizing oneself. In contrast, Thatcher criticized the messiness of socialism, instead preaching about the importance of the individual and the idea that greatness and success is achieved through individual efforts.

Britain might have had its first woman Prime Minister, but many feminists argued they had ended up with a leader similar to Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth, a woman largely defined by her ambitious cut-throat scheming. During her terms in office, the United Kingdom experienced a shift in cultural values where market principles triumphed over human ones, where millions of people were tossed onto the scrapheap of unemployment. Asked about feminism at her first press conference as Conservative Party leader, she immediately replied, “What has it ever done for me?” Although Margaret Thatcher verbally rejected feminism, she still was a revolutionary who rebuked the idea that a woman’s place was in the home and overcame immense sexist prejudice in the political sphere. Many feminists, however, including Churchill, felt that this progress was miniscule and that the potential for genuinely radical change in the early 1970s had been wasted.

QUESTIONS: 1.

Research Margaret Thatcher’s career prior to becoming prime minister. What was her profession? What accomplishments helped propel her to become leader of her party? What were some of her most memorable and significant accomplishments as prime minister?

2.

What makes a successful political leader? What qualities do you look for in a candidate? What issues are most to you (economy, civil rights, war, health care, women’s rights, foreign policy, etc.)?

3.

Do you identify as a feminist? Why or why not?

NILE HAWVER

The cast of Top Girls: Kiara Pichardo, Elia Monte-Brown, Carmen M. Herlihy, Carmen Zilles, Vanessa Kai, Sophia Ramos, and Paula Plum

TOP GIRLS CURRICULUM GUIDE

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Source: Labour Force Survey, Office for National Statistics

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WOMEN AND WORK

QUESTIONS:

Top Girls premiered in 1982, a time when women were entering the workforce in large numbers and trying to prove themselves equal to their male counterparts. According to the Office for National Statistics, 43.9% of women were employed in the UK at that time, compared to 56% as of November 2017. Moreover, women’s wages relative to those of men were on the rise beginning in the late 1970s.

According to the UK’s National Bureau of Economic Research, the female/male ratio or annual earnings for fulltime workers increased from 60.2% in 1980 to 72.2% in 1999. The change in ratio not only reflects both the large increase in numbers of working women and the slight decline in male employment and wages, but also conveys the increase of women in higher paying professions and managerial roles.

1.

In Top Girls, Marlene receives a promotion over a male colleague, much to the dismay of the colleague’s wife. Why might his colleague’s wife be upset? How does she react? If this situation happened today, do you think she would react the same way?

2.

Read “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All” in The Atlantic (https:// www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/07/why-womenstill-cant-have-it-all/309020/). Do you agree with Anne-Marie Slaughter’s view that women must choose between a career or having children? Do you think that Top Girls playwright Caryl Churchill would agree or disagree with this view?

Unfortunately, women continue to earn less than men overall in 2018.

This difference is often attributed to women’s choice in careers.

According to Mehroz Baig, a communications specialist, women make up over 90% of dental assistants, secretaries, and registered nurses. From 1970 to 2010, secretary, cashier, and elementary school teacher have remained the leading occupations for women. Even though women are the recipients of more than half of undergraduate degrees, they often study the humanities over STEM fields and pursue less financially lucrative careers. The gender gap is not entirely due to choice of professional field, however. In a 2012 study at Yale, researchers created a fake job application and sent it to science professors at top research universities in the United States.

Professors were then asked to evaluate the student’s competency, state how likely they were to hire the applicant, and provide how much they would be willing to pay the applicant. The applications and resumes were identical aside from the fact that half were for an applicant named “John” and half from an applicant named “Jennifer.”

The results, from both male and female professors, demonstrated a bias that favored the male applicant; professors were not only more likely to hire the male candidate but also willing to pay the male candidate a higher salary.

4. Do you believe women can “have it all”? Why or why not?

NILE HAWVER

Gender bias undoubtedly contributes to inequality in the workplace, but what about in women’s personal lives? Many women cite efforts to strike a harmonious work-life balance as a major struggle.

According to Jane Martinson of The Guardian, women in London have a particularly difficult time. As of 2012, fewer mothers worked in London compared to anywhere else in the UK. High costs for child care as well as long commutes and inflexible work schedules make child-rearing in London extremely difficult, especially considering that 31% of families in London are single parent homes.

As demonstrated by Marlene’s own struggle between motherhood and a career in Top Girls, not much has changed since the 1980s.

As Anne-Marie Slaughter explains in her essay “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All,” published in The Atlantic’s July/August 2012 issue, despite a greater acceptance of women in the workplace, there is still not societal support to allow women to simultaneously have aggressive careers while also raising a child. Almost inevitably, having a child either means a choice between taking a back seat on career ambitions and passing up opportunities or missing out on the developmental years of the child’s life. For many women, work-life balance has become a matter of scheduling, forcing many women to struggle with whether children or career should come first.

3. A. According to a December 2014 article in “The Upshot,” a data-driven social research section in The New York Times, working women in France benefit from significant government support and generous family leave policies when they have children. Read the article (https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/14/ upshot/us-employment-women-not-working.html). Compare the French system to family leave policies in the United States. Do you think that the government should provide greater support for women?

B. Working mothers in France receive more government support than those in the US, however, women in France also report having less career mobility and that they are less likely to reach top positions. Many mothers have reported discrimination and lack of promotions due to taking maternity leave or working part time while raising children. Are those repercussions worth it?

Cast member Carmen Zilles

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ICONIC “AGGRESSIVE” WOMEN: THE 1980S – TODAY The employees of the Top Girls Employment Agency, Marlene, Nell, and Win, are stereotype-smashing women who have found success in their industry by outwardly owning their power (nb: this seems unclear). This archetype of an independent female, who asserts herself, takes no nonsense, and flourishes in her profession, has become a staple of Western culture since the 1980s. Women have sky rocketed to positions of power across pop culture, government, business, and various other industries despite sexist prejudice and obstacles of societal norms.

Singer-actress Madonna has been a lightning rod for controversy as an iconic aggressive woman throughout her career. This legendary pop star, who exploded onto the scene in the early 1980s, has been in the driver’s seat of her career for decades. Madonna is best known for embodying sexual freedom, revolutionary fashion, commitment to her craft, and rebellious energy in both her career and personal life. Rolling Stone magazine once referred to one of her tours as “an elaborately choreographed, sexually provocative extravaganza” due to her rejection of censorship and commitment to her authentic voice and vision. She pushed the boundaries with content in her tours and music videos incorporating nudity, bondage, sexual fantasies with religious figures, sadomasochism, and same-sex kissing during a time when all of those topics were considered taboo in public settings. In a 2016 Billboard interview, Madonna provided insight to a formative event that shaped the aggressive nonconformist she became as an adult: “My mother dying and me not being told, and a sense of loss and betrayal and surprise. Then feeling out of control for the majority of my childhood, and becoming an artist and saying that I will control everything. No one will speak for me, no one will make decisions for me . . . I don’t want to have an event that I’m not proud of. It’s like everything that I do. My shows, my films, my house, the way I raise my children.”

By unapologetically paving her own path, Madonna has inspired other pop stars for decades including Nicki Minaj, Britney Spears, Diplo,

Madonna in the 1980s, a fashion icon

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and Tove Lo. Rapper-singer-actress Nicki Minaj reflected in the same Billboard article that Madonna “has always been true to herself as an artist. She does things her way no matter what, and that always inspires me. Because she never backs down from her beliefs and takes risks, she has made history . . . She’s the ultimate boss.” Despite acclaim from fans, critics, and fellow artists, however Madonna has also been made a pariah by religious groups, conservative politicians and social activists, and international censors who objected to her uninhibited, confrontational persona, sometimes resulting in boycotts of her work.

Omarosa Manigault speaking at the 2017 CPAC in National Harbor, Maryland

Women in high-profile business positions have faced similar backlash to their openness about their ambitions using strategic approaches more often associated with ambitious men. Omarosa ManigaultNewman, for example, gained notoriety during her tenure as director of communications for the Office of Public Liaison in the White House during the first year of the Trump administration and as a reality television star, most notably appearing on multiple editions of the business-focused “The Apprentice.” Manigault-Newman is a polarizing figure, framed in an issue of Jet magazine as “the woman America loved to hate.” She was named by E! as reality “television’s number 1 bad girl” and by TV Guide on their the 2013 list of the “60 Nastiest TV Villains of All Time.” Her public persona is that of a cutthroat, outspoken, unapologetically competitive businesswoman, an image she has carried into both in her politics and her presence in pop culture. Manigault-Newman has publicly embraced this reputation as part of her personal brand identity. In her book, The Bitch Switch: Knowing How to Turn It On and Off she claims to have made her mark with her acidic tongue, sharp elbows, trickery to survive-at-all-costs, and by being a cat who could “be just as aggressive as any breed of dog (i.e., our male counterparts).” She embraces the behaviors of powerful men she wishes to emulate, especially the qualities of her former mentor Donald Trump. Manigault-Newman has disagreed, however, with the semantics of being labeled a villain. Instead, she believes those “villainous” qualities simply make her “a shrewd businesswoman,” and argues that men who aggressively pursue their goals are always seen in a positive light, but when a woman behaves the same way, those same qualities are viewed as flaws.

Though they are opposing ends of the political spectrum, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg has expressed sentiments similar to ManigaultNewman’s. In her book, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, Sandberg boldly reignited the discussion around women in the workplace. Before writing Lean In, Sandberg delivered a stirring TED Talk titled “Why We Have Too Few Women Leaders,” which has been

viewed more than six million times as of March 2018. In her talk, Sandberg aimed to illustrate her belief that women inadvertently hold themselves back in their professions and systematically underestimate their own abilities. Her talk encouraged women to “sit at the table,” seek challenges, take risks, and passionately pursue their goals.

Lean In is a continuation of this conversation; it is a combination of Sandberg’s personal anecdotes, employment statistics and data, and social research, aimed at reframing the conversation from what women cannot do to a focus on what they can. Sandberg offers realworld advice on negotiation techniques, mentorship, and creating a satisfying career. She describes specific steps she believes women can take to unite professional achievement with personal fulfillment.

Women in the workplace have experienced many obstacles but also a series of significant triumphs since the 1980s. The archetype of the iconic aggressive woman exists across all professional fields: women who refuse to let less-qualified men lead simply because they are men and reject society’s expectations that they live based on unspoken outdated rules, much like the characters in Top Girls. These are women who defy traditional gender norms and roles to reach their full potential in their respective fields.

QUESTIONS: 1.

Watch Sheryl Sandberg’s TED Talk “Why We Have Too Few Women Leaders.” What three concepts does Sandberg use as the structure for her talk? Do any of her ideas resonate with you? Are there any you disagree with? What advice would you give to solve the issue of the world having too few female leaders?

Sheryl Sandberg giving her TEDTalk in 2010

2.

Name two other iconic aggressive women not mentioned in this article and describe why they fit this category. What are their major accomplishments in their respective fields? What is their public persona? What traditionally masculine tactics have they employed to achieve success? How do they respond to criticism?

3. Does the word “aggressive” have a positive or negative association for you? How does aggression manifest for different genders?

NILE HAWVER

The cast and director of Top Girls: Paula Plum, Kiara Pichardo, Carmen Zilles, Vanessa Kai, Liesl Tommy, Elia Monte-Brown, Sophia Ramos, and Carmen M. Herlihy,

TOP GIRLS CURRICULUM GUIDE

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SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES SCENE STUDY

QUESTIONS:

Marlene and Joyce are sisters with a contentious relationship. Marlene left their working class neighborhood many years ago to pursue a career in London, leaving Joyce feeling abandoned and forced to take on additional responsibilities.

1.

Describe the relationship between Marlene and Joyce. How did you and your partner demonstrate this relationship through tone of voice, body language, etc.?

2.

What does Marlene want? What is she feeling?

3.

What does Joyce want? What is she feeling?

Work with a partner to rehearse and perform the following scene.

Answer the questions that follow, and then perform the scene a second time. Please note that a slash ( / ) indicates that the next line starts.

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MARLENE: I came up this morning and spent the day in Ipswich. I went to see mother.

JOYCE: Did she recognize you?

MARLENE: Are you trying to be funny?

JOYCE: No, she does wander.

MARLENE: She wasn’t wandering at all, she was very lucid thank you.

JOYCE: You were lucky then.

MARLENE: Fucking awful life she’s had.

JOYCE: Don’t tell me.

MARLENE: Fucking waste.

JOYCE: Don’t talk to me.

MARLENE: Why shouldn’t I talk? Why shouldn’t I talk to you? / Isn’t she my mother too?

JOYCE: Look, you’ve left, you’ve gone away, / we can do without you.

MARLENE: I left home, so what, I left home. People do leave home / it is normal.

JOYCE: We understand that, we can do without you.

MARLENE: We weren’t happy. Were you happy?

JOYCE: Don’t come back.

MARLENE: So it’s just your mother is it, your child, you never wanted me round, / you were jealous JOYCE: Here we go.

MARLENE: of me because I was the little one and I was clever.

JOYCE: I’m not clever enough for all this psychology / if that’s what it is.

MARLENE: Why can’t I visit my own family / without all this?

JOYCE: Just don’t go on about Mum’s life when you haven’t been to see her for how many years. / I go MARLENE: It’s up to me.

JOYCE: And see her every week.

MARLENE: Then don’t go and see her every week.

JOYCE: Somebody has to.

TOP GIRLS CURRICULUM GUIDE

4. What is the flow of the scene? Does it have a climax? Where does it pick up speed or slow down? How do the power dynamics between the sisters change?

5.

What does the varying length of the lines in this scene tell you?

Does one character speak more or for longer than the other?

6. What can you and your partner do differently to more clearly convey the characters’ relationship, objectives, and tactics?

CREATING DIALOGUE AMONG HISTORICAL CHARACTERS Choose two of your favorite women who have made history. They can be dead or alive. The only requirement is that they likely never could have met each other because of differences in the era or location in which they lived. For ideas, brainstorm a list of activists, writers, politicians, technological innovators, warriors, muses, scientists, humanitarians, celebrities, artists, royalty, and business pioneers. Then imagine that these two women are on a blind friendship date organized by you. Some questions to mull over: 1.

What would these women talk about? What are their passions?

2.

What do they have in common? Where might they disagree?

3.

What is different about today versus the time in which they lived?

What human advancements would they find surprising?

4. What would they order to eat or drink?

5.

Who are their loved ones and best friends? Who are their enemies?

6. What are their hopes and dreams? What are their fears and obstacles?

Now write how you imagine a conversation between the two of them would go. Get creative — feel free to incorporate famous quotes of their or tag lines, or feel free to invent it all! You decide!

POWER DRESSING

COMPARE AND CONTRAST

Top Girls takes place in the early 1980s. During this time, women were not only entering the workforce in large numbers but also being promoted more frequently into managerial positions. The idea of “power dressing” developed in the late 1970s and early 1980s as a way for women to establish and bolster their authority in professional and political domains traditionally inhabited by men. Power dressing typically recalls elements of male fashion, such as tailored jackets with broad shoulders and lapels, and modifies it with feminine accents, such as a string of pearls. Power dressing was largely inspired by the Chanel suit of the 1920s but later became heavily associated with Margaret Thatcher in the UK in the early 1980s and Hillary Clinton in the US in the late 1990s. Though professionals of all identities certainly still dress to impress, the term “power dressing” is most commonly associated with the 1980s. Some recognizable trends for women at that time included:

Compare and contrast Top Girls with another of Caryl Churchill’s plays (turn to page 20 for a complete list of Churchill’s works). Discuss the subject matter, writing style, characters, and setting.

•

Shoulder pads

•

Pantsuits

UNDERSTANDING CONTEXT

•

Single colored suits

•

Knee length skirts

•

Wide leg trousers

•

Kitten heeled shoes

•

Pointed toe shoes

Audience members sometimes find reading or watching Act I of Top Girls a somewhat jarring experience because Marlene is the only character who appears in the remainder of the play. Moreover, the setting of the play switches sharply from a fantasy moment including women from throughout history to a concrete setting in the UK in the early 1980s. Write a brief essay explaining the purpose of the Top Girls “dinner scene.” Address some or all of the following questions in your response:

•

Pussy bow blouses

1.

How does the dinner scene connect to the rest of the play?

•

Shiny costume jewelry

2.

•

Voluminous hair

Why is Marlene’s involvement in Act I significant? How is she affected by her interactions with the other characters?

3.

How does the scene frame the themes of the play?

IN-CHARACTER RSVP Pick a famous woman from history, literature, or pop culture. Imagine that you are that person and that Marlene has invited you to attend her dinner party. Write a letter to Marlene and the other dinner guests expressing your regrets that you cannot attend and then updates them on what has been going on in your life. Include details about the time period and culture in which you live, information about your family, friends, or colleagues, and an anecdote about a recent hardship that you have endured. What did you learn? How will you move forward? What advice do you have for Marlene as she begins her new position?

4. In what ways do the characters in the scene resemble the characters in the rest of the play? How can double casting help emphasize these connections?

Examples of 1980s power dressing for women, courtesy of Fashion-Pictures.com

Do additional research into women’s professional fashion in the 1980s and create your own contemporary costume design for at least 3 characters in Top Girls. For an added challenge, try designing a costume for one of the historical characters in Act I!

TOP GIRLS CURRICULUM GUIDE

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SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING AND VIEWING WORKS BY CARYL CHURCHILL Downstairs (1958)

RADIO DRAMAS BY CARYL CHURCHILL (ON BCC RADIO)

You’ve No Need to be Frightened (1959)

The Ants (1962)

Having a Wonderful Time (1960)

Lovesick (1969)

Easy Death (1960)

Abortive (1971)

Identical Twins (1960)

Not Not Not Not Not Enough Oxygen (1971)

Owners (1972)

Schreber’s Nervous Illness (1972) – based on Memoirs of My Nervous Illness by Daniel Paul Schreber

The Hospital at the Time of the Revolution (1972) Moving Clocks Go Slow (1973)

The Judges Wife (1972)

Light Shining in Buckinghamshire (1976)

TELEVISION WRITING BY CARYL CHURCHILL (ON BCC)

Vinegar Tom (1976)

“Turkish Delight” (1973)

Traps (1976)

“The After-Dinner Joke” (1978)

Seagulls (1978)

“Crimes” (1982)

Objections to Sex and Violence (1975)

Cloud Nine (1979) Three More Sleepless Nights (1980) Fen (1983) Softcops (1984) A Mouthful of Birds (1986) A Heart’s Desire (1987) Serious Money (1987)

ADDITIONAL SUGGESTED READING •

Superwoman by Shirley Conran

•

“The Clerk’s Tale” in Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

•

A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains by Isabella Bird

•

Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions by Gloria Steinem

•

“Caryl Churchill: changing the language of theatre” by April de Angelis (The Guardian) (https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2012/ sep/07/caryl-churchill-landmark-theatre)

•

“The Mysteries of Caryl Churchill” by Sarah Lyall (The New York Times) (http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/05/theater/ newsandfeatures/the-mysteries-of-caryl-churchill.html)

Ice Cream (1989) Hot Fudge (1989) Mad Forest (1990) Lives of the Great Poisoners (1991) The Skriker (1994) Blue Heart (1997) Hotel (1997) This is a Chair (1999) Far Away (2000) Thyestes (2001) – translation of Seneca’s tragedy A Number (2002) A Dream Play (2005) – translation of August Strindberg’s play Drunk Enough to Say I Love You? (2006) Seven Jewish Children – a play for Gaza (2009) Love and Information (2012) Ding Dong the Wicked (2013) Here We Go (2015) Escaped Alone (2016) Pigs and Dogs (2016)

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TOP GIRLS CURRICULUM GUIDE

NOTES

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GIR ON 18 . 17 L AL LS CRE & 2 ON MA W 5 GS Y 3 MA EPT R. 1 . 28 5& 22

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ES

4 BO HU ST N T I O NG N , M TO A NA 02 V 11 EN 546 UE 06

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