History
The Camenae Ensemble was born of need. Early in this millennia a group of women began to meet in each other's living rooms. Highly trained theatre professionals exasperated not only by the male dominated industry - but also by the fact that women's theatre tends to be feminist and exclusionary. There seemed to be no middle ground.Roles for women are still hard to come by, and 90% of the theatre produced today is either written or directed by a man. Camenae was born to become the middle ground, to become a voice for the unvoiced. Camenae decided that 51% of every show had to be women run, on stage or off, leaving plenty of room for the employment of men, but guaranteeing that women would be predominantly showcased. Women are also favored as top picks for playwrights and directors, but we decided that men could have those jobs too, as long as a male director was looking into a woman's work, or that a man's work was directed by a woman. Complicated, but that's what happens when you try to find equality. Complications.
It's about the art more than anything else. But we'll get back to that.
We want to make it clear that when we talk about being a women's theatre company, it is not in any way exclusionary to men. On every single one of our productions men have been there, behind the stage or on it, and this year we welcomed men to our ensemble.
Camenae went on to incorporate and produced:
- Triple Goddess in June of 2003
- The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus in October of 2003
- Ophelia in January of 2004
- Hot Chicks in May of 2004
- Can You Hear Their Voices in November of 2004.
Then complications. There were conflicts within the ensemble, burn out, had we lost our way? So we took some time off to reevaluated our situation, and are back, more determined than ever to produce good works of art that showcase the woman artist.
So we start small with a reading of Vox Pandora in June of 2005 Abbie Hoffman Festival performance of Change in August of 2005.
And we will move on, because it is about the art. We are intrigued by age old questions of drama and comedy, and we will fight for the obscure poet, storyteller, comedian. We are enthralled with the burgeoning population of women writers, directors, and designers. We want to offer a place to play, a place to work, and a place to make good art.
History
Mythology
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