Eight months pregnant, Ann Filmer is uniquely suited to oversee the fourth annual Estrogen Fest.
'It's perfect. It creates a good vibe for going into motherhood,' said Filmer, who with Kimberly Senior is co-directing the female-centric extravaganza of music, theater, dance, poetry, visual and performance art pieces.
This year, Prop Thtr's Estrogen Fest 2005: Changing the Rules ( May 13 through June 5 at the Storefront Theatre ) includes two themes, each explored by an eclectic group of artists.
'History, Fantasy and Myth' looks at real and unreal women from the mysteriously vanished Amelia Earhart ( Is she drinking daiquiris in the Bermuda Triangle? Find out in Miriam Weisfeld's 'A Brief Message from Amelia Earhart' ) to Mary Tyler Moore ( Did the perky reporter make it after all? Jan Slavin and Megon McDonough ask this and other questions as they twirl through the land of sitcom women in 'Boomer Culture Medley' ) .
The second program, 'We're Still Here' plunges into the thicket of social mores, and includes 'Hoo-doo-the-Voodoo' ( Martie Sanders' true tale of finding a voodoo doll in the kitchen wall of a Chicago apartment ) and the enigmatically titled 'Funk Cloud,' in which Laura McKenzie demands: 'Are you ready to fight the stank?'
No doubt, some will question if the world needs an Estrogen Fest, and indeed, if such a fest isn't discriminatory. After all, there isn't a corresponding Testosterone Festival, is there?
'Testosterone fest is every day, isn't it?' responds Filmer. 'In politics and arts and just about everywhere, it's all white, hetero men who are in charge.'
Statistically—in terms of politics, arts and media in general—Filmer's dead-on.
All one has to do is sample a few statistics ( for example, the ratio of female to male editors at the self-proclaimed World's Greatest Newspaper; or the number of Oscar-winning female directors since the Academy was founded; or the fact that, goddammit, we're still only making about 76 cents for every dollar the men bring in ) to see the microcosm that defines the macrocosm of the world.
That said, Estrogen Fest doesn't exclude men. Increasingly high-profile playwright Brett Neveu's latest, The Avon Lady, a piece about 'make-up and manipulation, circa 1976' is on the docket.
And in Fear of Scars, Sean Graney, acclaimed impresario of the Hypocrites Theatre Company, looks at a woman pregnant with twins who refuses to follow doctor's orders and undergo a Cesarean Section in order to save her babies.
'The idea came from a story I heard on the radio, about a woman who refused a Cesarean, and then one of her twins died,' Graney said. 'My immediate reaction was that's a pretty cruel thing to do. But the more I thought about it, the more I thought she probably had her own, valid reasons for doing what she did.'
Graney comes to Estrogen Fest 2005 after years as a spectator at the festivals.
'Most theater in this city is a testosterone festival; I think that's pretty obvious. This ( Estrogen Fest ) is needed,' he said.
Estrogen Fest does not unilaterally 'celebrate women,' an aspect of the festival that both Graney and Filmer praise.
'They bother me, festivals that 'celebrate women,'' Filmer said. 'They sound like, oh, hooray, let's build up our egos because they're so small. I'm more interested in showing the dark sides of women too, of expressing ourselves in all our complicated ways.'
Estrogen Fest runs in tandem with another female-centric series of productions, Women at the Door. That festival, a showcase for female playwrights, is produced by Famous Door Theatre and will include readings of new plays by Susan Nussbaum, Alice Austin and Andrea J. Dymond at 7:30 p.m. May 23-25.
Women at the Door and Estrogen Fest 2005 will be at the Gallery 37 Storefront Theatre, 66 Randolph St. For complete schedule of Estrogen Fest 2005, log on to www.estrogenfest-chicago.com .
For more information about Women at the Door, log on to www.famousdoortheatre.org or call ( 312 ) 942-9497.
