Gequality

GENDER EQUALITY

 

Effemera Theatre Company aims to play a significant role in the dramatic representation of complex female characters and characteristics for the (largely female) UK theatre audience. Our approach is a positive redress of gender-balance on stage, using the deconstruction and repopulation of male-dominated histories, to focus on the women who were always there, but whose contributions to their various eras have been mostly overlooked, unpenned, disproportionate, sometimes criminalised and performed for centuries in England, by cross-cast male actors. Our objective is to create and present stages where factual and fictional histories are representatively balanced across class and social divides - exploring themes of female experience, communication, equity, inequality, ingenuity and resilience, among other things.

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Effemera will always prioritise the involvement of our audience members, feeding their minds, senses and emotions with imaginative, thought-provoking, often funny and sometimes challenging, entertainment. Our production style will be defined by orchestrated detail - every micro-second of performance fine-tuned and focused by director and actors, executed with physical and vocal dexterity throughout. Complex plotlines will be newly woven with spontaneity by the cast, from every ‘curtain up’ to every ‘curtain call’. Each character and relationship therein, will have been researched and developed in depth, refined towards distinctive, vivid portrayals; each scene and ‘piece of business’ flavoured with its own unique atmosphere.

Within the limitations of budgets - our sets, costumes, lighting, sound and publicity material will be designed, constructed, operated and stage-managed by professional artists and technicians, all working collectively towards a unified goal of excellence.

Rehearsals and meetings will be conducted according to industry standards, with respectful encouragement for our team members. Casting and recruitment will be undertaken with a policy of broad-spectrum representation.

 

ETHICS

The Effemera Theatre Company, it’s volunteers, employees and contractors will be expected to ‘tread lightly’ on the Earth, be conscious of Gaia’s environmental vulnerability, and opt for minimal pollution in the execution of their work. We will also seek to avoid using costumes, props and onstage foodstuffs which result from exploitative animal husbandry.

 

Helen Alexander – Artistic Director