Service, art and self-expression

 

In these troubled economic times, the news reports are full of dire predictions about the fate of non-profits of all types, from the organizations supported by United Way to arts organizations of all descriptions. The Baltimore Opera recently declared bankruptcy and the New York Metropolitan Opera has been having a tough year. Here at home, our own Milwaukee Shakespeare has closed its doors after funding bottomed out, and the Greater Milwaukee Committee says that its grant levels this year will be below those of last year. And these are just the most transparent examples of the tightening atmosphere. So it’s remarkable that the Shorewood Players Theatre’s upcoming production of The Women, written by Clare Boothe Luce, is also a fundraiser for Gilda’s Club of Southeastern Wisconsin, a cancer support organization serving communities all over the United States.

Gilda’s Club is named for comedian and actor Gilda Radner, who died of ovarian cancer in 1989. The club takes its name from a quip attributed to Radner: “Having cancer gave me a membership in an elite club I’d rather not be a part of.” The philosophy behind the club was developed by Radner, her husband Gene Wilder and Radner’s cancer psychotherapist, Joanna Bull. The support structure that the club is committed to providing is extremely important to surviving any type of cancer, for all involved.

All of the club’s services and activities are free, so its survival absolutely depends on outside funding. Gilda’s Club of Southeastern Wisconsin is located in a storefront on Oakland Avenue in Shorewood and provides emotional support, educational programs and social activities for men, women and children facing cancer, as well as their families and loved ones. One of Gilda’s Club’s key philosophies is that this kind of support must take place in a warm, welcoming and non-institutional environment – somewhere away from the hospital.

Appropriately, one of the central themes of The Women is the support that the main characters provide to each other. Through all the challenges that the women of Luce’s modern, cosmopolitan world face, they have each other as an antidote to the roles they must assume to the outside world. While many have criticized the play as depicting vain and shallow women with no sense of how privileged their lives are, the Shorewood Players under the direction of Carol Zippel, Windfall Theatre’s Artistic Director, find something very different in the story. Zippel’s vision is of our modern world and the challenges that it poses to all of us, seen from the viewpoint of women and told in spectacularly entertaining fashion.

The entire ensemble is female, and no male characters appear on stage. Both film adaptations of the play (1939 and 2008) have gone so far as to only show pictures of women and to clear the street scenes of all men. Major productions of The Women attract A-list talent, from Norma Shear to Annette Bening and Jada Pinkett Smith. The show holds the record for longest-running non-musical show on Broadway and has enjoyed numerous revivals over the years. Clare Boothe Luce, the playwright, had a successful career as a journalist, serving as both a correspondent for Life Magazine during World War II and later as editor for Vogue and Vanity Fair. Later in her life, she was a member of the House of Representatives serving Connecticut and an ambassador to Italy under President Eisenhower.

Luce’s life was dedicated to art, self-expression and service, as was Radner’s. In 2009, one non-profit group, the Shorewood Players Theatre, will combine those same elements into one important, amazing evening for the benefit of another, Gilda’s Club. In this climate of shrinking donations and uncertain futures, the Shorewood Players are planning to give away all concession sales and about two-thirds of ticket sale profits to Gilda’s Club. They are doing this because they have received so much generous support from the community over their nearly 80 years of operation and feel the obligation – and privilege – to give back. We should all be so unselfish with our resources. VS

The Shorewood Players Theatre will present The Women at the Shorewood High School Auditorium from January 16 through 25. A representative of Gilda’s Club will be on hand before each performance to answer questions and speak about the organization’s mission.