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Neworld
Publication of Inner City Cultural Center
VOL. 4 NO. 5

STAGE VIEWS
by Paula Selleck

Before departure, a guide instructs the audience attending Femina: An Intraspace Voyage at the Women's Building, that this will be a great leap for her-story (as opposed to his-tory). On this "psychic journey" as co-director Terry Wolverton calls it, the players present an expanded definition of lesbianism, according to co-director Ann Shannon. It goes beyond sexual preference to project women as self-perpetuating entities. That is why the eight players teleport themselves to Femina - a place Wolverton says exists because the women created it within themselves. The planet, a distant utopia, is a metaphor for a state of consciousness, intraspace as opposed to outer space.

To get there the directors and cast spent five months in consciousness-raising workshops trying "to forget the world of limitations, " says Wolverton. "We imagined if we could have anything we want what that would be...We spent a lot of time working on how to give up the earth." Fantasy exercises and guided meditation helped. The script developed as a collaboration of those sessions and was loosely based on a short story written two years ago by Ms. Wolverton entitled "A Clear But Distant Memory."

Ms. Wolverton also considers Femina to be a metaphor for the women's movement. In doing so, the play incorporates OVA, Ms. Shannon's acronym for ovular thinking. On a video tape shown to the audience in small groups before they're seated, Ms. Shannon describes ovular thinking as a "wholeness with one's environment, a remembering of one's self-perpetuating unity." Ovular thinking as opposed to linear thinking which is "predictable, one to the other end."

More than a theatrical experience, Famina offers spiritual support for feminist women. The script echoes its group-therapy origins, and the  performance includes much chanting amid a trance-like ambience. Modern dance also tells much of the story. We were introduced to the cast on a tour of a time capsule - a museum containing earthly possessions and profiles of each traveler (a revealing collection assembled by Carol Jefferies). Next, seated on mattresses and folding chairs, we witnessed an improvisational farewell between the voyagers and their loved ones-all female. The journey followed.

The largely female audience, many of whom were patrons of The Women's Building or friends of those connected with the show, regarded the play as an uplifting experience. ERA literature was available afterwards.

***
You have to admit that the notion of redesigning the human body to

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[[caption]] Femina: "We spent a lot of time working on how to give up the earth." [[/caption]]