Vanessa Gilbert is the associate artistic director of Perishable Theatre, in Providence, Rhode Island. She is also a founder of Blood From A Turnip, Rhode Island’s only late-night puppet salon, and a member of El Studio La Mano, a confederacy of designers and theater artists who create objects and events.
This month, Perishable presents their 8th annual Women’s Playwriting Festival, featuring three one-acts in one evening–Pretty Speeches by Katerie Morin, In The Wild by Crystal Skillman, and Finding Life by Caridad Svich–as well as a gallery exhibit and humanity discussions. I caught up with Vanessa a few days before the Festival’s opening, during the tizzy of tech week.
Why “Perishable”?
It’s two-fold, really. First it comes from Edward Gordon Craig, who said that all theater is perishable. Then, David Elliot founded the theater as a children’s touring company with adult actors. They came into town and unrolled a big rug, told a story with sticks for props, and then rolled the rug back up and moved on. That was 18 years ago, so it’s kind of an oxymoron now.
What’s in store for audiences at this year’s festival?
Three wildly different plays, performed all in one night. First, they’ll go through a woman writer’s life, from age seven to sixty–in 18 minutes. Then they’ll decipher the precise world of Pretty Speeches, when a businessman hires a private detective to trail his wife. Finally, we move into the woods, with a play that travels progressively up a mountainside. These pieces are all done in the same space on the same night. For me, there is such an amazing diversity of voices…just a multitude of perspectives.
How have you seen work by women change over the past eight seasons?
Well, mainly the changes have been in who is submitting to us. This year we had 260 submissions from seven countries and four continents. We get the gamut. The biggest change, I guess, is in me–the reader. As a woman born in 1970, I have this naive idea that I’ve never been oppressed, but I think this is a really magical place for women.
You work hard. Do you play hard too?
One of the wonderful things about working in the theater is that at least half of the job is play. Theater artists are people who are still keyed into something organically mischievous.
How does your summer look?
I’ll be directing a play in the fall, so I’ll be doing a lot of prep. I’m hoping to sleep a lot and go to the beach. And I’m thinking about writing an adaptation of Jane Eyre for stage and puppets.
What do you splurge on?
I bought a really nice pair of shoes; they are my associate-artistic-director shoes. That, and lipstick.
What are you reading these days?
The America Play, again, by Suzan-Lori Parks. I’m also reading about cluster marketing–What America Buys and What it Says About Us. Also this great book, Mothers of Invention, about all these things that were invented by women–like the brassiere and the disposable diaper–and this woman in Rhode Island who created these disposable plates so she could counterfeit money.
