THAILAND: By Women, for Women

Many women in Thailand’s theatre industry have not always stepped up to the challenge of writing and directing their own plays. Paul Chen talks to four of them that have, and are inspiring others to do so through the Women in the Moon Festival.  This, held by Crescent Moon Theatre from 7th to 27th of May 2007, is the first of its kind, and drew many participants -- men and women alike -- to the group’s recently-opened Crescent Moon Space.

The festival was organised under the Philippine Educational Theater Association’s (PETA) Mekong Creative Communities: Arts for Advocacy Fellowship 2007, with the support of the Rockefeller Foundation.

Aside from three weeks of acting, directing, story telling and proposal writing workshops, the festival also showcased four stellar performances written and directed by women.

'Linger 2', written and directed by Festival Director Jarunun 'Ja' Phantachat, is a continuation of last year’s Linger, about a conversation between three friends who share their secrets with one another.

Four of the ‘Vagina Monologues' by Eve Ensler made an appearance at the festival, directed by Pampatsa Thooptien. The four were selected and adapted by her to a Thai context, which Thai women can identify with.

The third performance, 'Som Kaolee' (Korean Ginseng), written, directed and performed by Farida 'Fa' Jiraphan and Usawadee 'Ooi' Soonthornkate, is about a rising conflict between two roommates caused by their differences.

Artistic Director Sineenadh 'Nad' Keitprapai wrote and directed Salang (Bitter Love). It's a story about a young man in emotional turmoil over his breakup, who meets an elderly woman who has problems with her husband. They realise that their problems, though different, are in many ways alike.

Ja, Nad, Fa and Ooi share their thoughts on the festival, women in theatre and women in society with Paul in this interview for the PETA Mekong Partnership Project.

Paul: First of all, I’d like to know, what inspires you to write what you have written?

Ja: When I first wrote 'Linger', I was thinking about the three monkey poses (see no evil, hear no evil, do no evil) and compared it with the situation of women nowadays. I also thought about the female characters in fairy tales, like The Little Mermaid. She does  everything for the Prince but doesn’t get any credit.

Nad: The story came to me last year at the Hanoi Lab (The Philippine Educational Theater Association’s Mekong Performing Arts Laboratory 2006) during a clay activity we were doing about a story from our past. It was something under my skin, and I started crying and I tried to stop but I could not, and I had the story but it wasn’t clear yet. So I wrote 'Salang' because I thought it was time for me to get it out of my head.

First, I thought about a man and a woman talking about love, but I also thought about the older generation: my mother’s generation and her mother’s generation, and how they cannot choose. But in our generation, we have education and a chance to choose.

Another thing that I wanted to talk about is the modern woman, but I didn’t want another woman character, I wanted a man with burdens, talking about that woman, because now, women can choose. Men have another role to show this generation gap.

In our family, we have problems, but we have to hide it. Sometimes we see each other but we cannot talk about it. I hope people in the same situation can identify with the story.

Fa: For 'Som' Kaolee, I got inspiration from the violence in the southern part of Thailand. So my question is, is it because of the differences between people that we have this fighting? Can’t we live together peacefully even though we have these differences?

Paul: I understand that there are fewer women directors in the Thai theatre industry. So, what are some challenges that you or other women directors face?

Nad: One thing is that I see a lot of talented women in Thai theatre, but most of them are doing management jobs backstage!

  From my experience, before this, I used to feel uncomfortable directing male characters, because I think I can’t understand the male character and the male way of thinking. It’s difficult, you have to talk with the actor and ask, “how do you feel?” and “what do you  think about this character?”

We have good luck and a good troupe and we work well together, and I can share and talk about my imagination and our direction. But when I work outside of the company I find it difficult.

Ja: I haven’t had discrimination or anything like that. I felt like I got acceptance and respect from my colleagues. I think it’s a very good atmosphere for doing theatre, in every position of the group.

Paul: Okay, that’s really good. What about other advantages?

Nad: I think something really good about being a woman is that we can choose more issues and more situations, and we don’t always have to do the same thing.

Paul: I see. So let’s go back to this festival, what was the main idea and main purpose behind it?

Nad: I have a purpose, and Ja has a purpose. For me, I see that we have a lot of women as theatre artistes, but less of them do the creative work like writing and directing. I want to see more performances that tell a woman’s story, and I want to see more main woman characters. I think in Thai society we have very few stories about women, or the deeper role of a woman.

Ja: I wanted to do this festival to encourage people, especially women, to create and work in any kind of art, and to dare to create something. To dare to write, to direct, to perform, to draw. It’s for the new people that just think but dare not start.

I hope this festival would make them want to start, and keep going, and also encourage the ones who have been working in the field for a while already to keep going.

Nad:  I want to add something. In the theatre scene, it’s very co-operative work, so we don’t really think about the difference between a woman or a man director. But in society, Thai women have problems, even within their families. So for me, I wanted to target that.

Paul: So it’s more about society then. You create your characters based on women in society and their problems?

Ja: Yes. In my play, when you see the character, you will think about a friend. I try to portray the 'city woman' you can find in society.

Nad: In my opinion, most Thai plays have characters that are very special -- sometimes they are not realistic, too good or too bad. I feel that our plays, Ja’s play, Fa and Ooi’s play and my play, talk about women nowadays. The characters you see, they can be you -- or they can be your friends.=