The Role
of Females in the Origin of Dramatic Storytelling
In the origins of drama and dramatic
storytelling in Africa and throughout other cultures with continuous rituals,
ceremonies and culture, the influences and contributions of females probably outweigh
those of males. This is simply because as primary caregivers for over 70,000 years,
females have been the primary custodians and communicators of knowledge,
stories, dances and rituals over the history of humans. Some the oldest stories
which have been passed down through oral traditions (sometimes known as
orature) and rituals by women are the Ananse tales from the Akan peoples who
originate from the West African regions now known as Ghana. The call and
response technique is often used in female dramatic storytelling. Dramatic
storytellers sometimes are known in Africa as griots. One good source of information is Finnegan’s Oral Literature in Africa (2012).
On other continents, females in Indigenous
cultures have been the caretakers of stories, characters, rituals and ways of
passing down stories of country, people and ways of being.
The myths of
Iroquois are great Native American creation feminine stories. These stories are still told, danced, sung and acted out in ceremonies.
The Dreamtime
stories of Australia have been passed down through song and dances done by
women for at least 30,000 years. Some of the oldest include the Gagudji story
of the fertility mother Warramurrungundjui.
The Awakening section of the Opening ceremony of the Sydney Olympics
give some sense of the ceremonies and rituals which females have been caretakers
of.
Female Performers,
Directors and Performance Makers in Ancient Mesopotamia & Ancient Egypt
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Enheduanna is
probably the earliest poet, playwright and musical lyricist whose name we have
recorded. She was born in the Sumerian city state of Ur (an ancient city of
Mesopotamia situated in modern day Iraq halfway between Baghdad and the head of
the Persian Gulf and today known as Tall al Muqayyar) in the 23rd
century BC.
As a royal daughter
holding the title of EN, she was appointed to the role of high priestess and it
was while in this role that she wrote, performed and had others perform, the
ritual devotional hymns, devotions, scenes and poems many of which were written
to the Goddess Inanna. In her lifetime, she composed some 42 temple hymns which
were sung and acted out in ritual dances and performances. Of her own work, she
is quoted as saying: “My king, something has been created that no-one created
before.”
No record remains of
how her hymns and poems were performed or presented. The performative aspects
of her work are evident in the words, images and rhythms of her language. Some
of her remaining hymns and verses which are available in translation are:
Nin-me-šara, "The Exaltation of
Inanna" (153 lines written in the first person about her exile from Ur and
Uruk), In-nin ša-gur-ra (incomplete
but 274 lines remain), In-nin me-huš-a, "Inanna and
Ebih", The Temple Hymns and
Hymn to Nanna.
In Ancient Egypt, in the Old Kingdom (2663BC to
2195BC) around the times when the Pyramids were built, females were organized
in groups to perform ritual storytelling and dances. These groups were known as
kheners and they performed in the
royal courts. The organisers and
choreographers of these groups could be argued to be the first female directors
and they were known by titles such as ‘Overseer of the Royal Khener’. The female
dominance of these rituals and dances declined by the end of the Old Kingdom.
In the
temples, females would dance and perform stories to worship deities. Mostly the
stories and rituals were danced and sung and the ‘audiences’ were probably exclusively
female. Sometimes these rituals were of a more public nature and men and women
would sing, dance and perform acrobatics in processions and other parades. At
festivals and specific rituals, females would play a uniquely specific role. At
the Festival of Osiris, two virgins would have enacted and performed in The
Lamentations of Isis and Nephthys. Here is translation of the text.
Imagine the role of females in enacting out this play:
There is also evidence in tomb friezes and
papyrus pictures that women performed at family banquets and funeral events.
While most these women seem to be Egyptian, some seem to be of Nubian origin
(present day Sudan). The style of performance depicted in the evidence seems to
indicate that the performances were highly stylized but this could be due to
the Ancient Egyptian artistic perspective of using profile head views with the
body facing the front and the absence of the portrayal of depth of field.
The Role
of Women in Ancient Greek Theatre and Drama
Although female characters are portrayed in
many if not most Ancient Greek plays, these roles would have been performed by
men at the time. The place of women in Ancient Greek society and their role in
society was strictly controlled. It was considered ‘dangerous’ to have women
perform. We are not entirely sure if women were allowed to attend performances
of Ancient Greek drama but the common consensus at the moment seems to be that
married women of a high status were allowed to attend performances of Tragedies
with their husbands. Women were definitely not allowed to attend performances
of comedies.
Another
interesting prospect for female performances comes from the theory that lyric
poetry was often read out aloud and performed in the houses in the gynaikônitis (women's quarters) or in the
courtyards of private houses. These texts were read with specific actions and
tones and sometimes different people took on different parts. Some theorists
suggest that the poetry of the Ancient Greek female poet Sappho (630BC –
570BC), who lived on the island of Lesbos, was performed in this way. Her work
was probably accompanied by music from a lyre. Some suggest that she was exiled
in around 600BC due to private or ‘chamber’ performances of her erotic poetry.
In contemporary times, Sappho is often seen as a symbol of female homosexuality
and the term lesbian is often seen as alluding to Sappho and her origins on the
island of Lesbos. While much of this is conjecture, it is interesting to
consider Sappho as the first feminist performance artist and the mother of
‘queer’ performance.
Women in
Early Indian Drama
Many accounts of theatre and women in theatre,
leave out the early origins of Indian theatre and drama as past down to us
through the Nāṭya Śāstra
as well as oral and dance traditions. The Nāṭya Śāstra is a treatise on performing arts
compiled somewhere from 500BC to 200BC. The format and practical nature of this
treatise suggests that some female writers, compilers and or performers may
have been involved in the compilation of this important performance treatise.
Since females sung, danced and performed as characters in many of the earlier
forms of Ancient Indian drama, we can assume that they had some dramaturgical
function in the development of the Nāṭya Śāstra.
Female and male
parts are evident in the performances in Ancient India. Separate training for
female and male parts is also dealt with in the Nāṭya Śāstra. The text
emphasizes the importance of different roles in developing a performance
including writing, auditing, directing and performing so we may be able to
assume that female directors start to emerge in the performing arts in India
during this period. Certainly females would have been involved not just as
actors, dancers and singers but also as teacher trainers, scene and dance
directors and costume and set designers. Here is a link to some websites with
some information, videos and pictures of the Nāṭya Śāstra
Women in
Drama in Ancient Rome
There seems to be no evidence to suggest that
females performed in early Ancient Roman dramas around 200-100BC. Female roles
were normally played by male slaves who wore masks. The structure of the cavea or audience area within this
period suggest that a separate area was designated for women to view plays both
of a tragic and comic nature.
The tradition of female ‘chamber theatre’ where
female writers would perform their poems or stories to all female audiences in
their houses probably persisted in this period and some exponents of this may
have been Cornelia Africana (190BC to 100BC approx.). This tradition may have
been continued by other female writers such as Julia Balbilla (72CE-130CE
approx.).
By 100BC, female actresses (known as mima) start to appear in performances in
Ancient Rome for the first time. In the secular performances during the
Festival of Floralia (the Goddess of flowers and procreation) women (usually prostitutes)
were paid to perform without masks realistic scenes and sometimes sex acts on
stage. These scenes were probably mimed and the actresses would not speak. The
demeaning nature of this life meant that by the arrival of Christianity to
Rome, the only escape for some of these women was to embrace the church and
Christianity. Some actresses mentioned in the history of Ancient Rome include
Claudia Acte (a Greek slave of the Emperor Nero), St Pelagia of Anitoch and
Theodora of Constantinople, who later married Emperor Justinian and became
Empress of the Eastern Empire. She banned pimping and brothels, made laws to
allow women to perform in public and made laws to allow women to inherit
property and have some say in civil life.
Women in
Early Chinese Drama and Opera
There are no records of early performances in
Ancient China that mention females. The development of more composite
performing arts forms by the Tang Dynasty (618-907AD) mean that we have some
documents which suggest female singers started to perform around 750AD in
Canjun Operas. The later development of comic opera forms seems to suggest that
men were dressed up as women to mock them, so we may assume that females did
not perform in the comic opera forms. The
performance training institute of the Emperor Xuanzong during this dynasty,
which was called Liyaun (the Pear Garden), seemed to have both male and female
performers.
Women in
Early Arab and Turkish Drama
There is no evidence to suggest that females
did not attend the performances of early Turkish puppet drama and the early
Arabic Ta'ziyah passion plays. Indeed, early Ta'ziyah
would often have forty or fifty scenes and the staging suggests that a male
choir or chorus would chant or sing between scenes and that this would be
answered by singing, chanting or wailing of a female chorus on the other side
of the stage. So there were female performers in early Ta'ziyah drama. The
early Egyptian shadow puppets and the puppet plays of this period also known as
the Khayal al-zill which loosely translates as
‘the shadows of the imagination suggest that female puppeteers created and
performed some of the characters. The same is probably true of the early
Karagoz Turkish puppetry.
In Arabic
storytelling form, the Hakawati started
to dominate as a storytelling format from around 900AD. The prominence of
female characters in this form especially as storytellers as evidenced in the
most famous Hakawati stories One Thousand and One Nights make it highly likely that female
storytellers or Al Hakawati were
performing during these times.
References & Teaching Resources
African Storytelling
Finnegan, R. (2012). Oral literature in Africa. Open
Book Publishers.
Utley, O. (2008,
September 1). Keeping the Tradition of
African Storytelling Alive. Retrieved from http://teachersinstitute.yale.edu/nationalcurriculum/units/2009/1/09.01.08.x.html
Australian Indigenous Storytelling and Dances
McKay, H.
(2017, February 12). Australian
Aboriginal Storytelling. Retrieved from http://www.australianstorytelling.org.au/storytelling-articles/a-d/australian-aboriginal-storytelling-helen-mckay
Ancient Mesopotamian and Egyptian Rituals, Dance and
Storytelling
Binkley, B. (2004). "Reading the Ancient Figure of Enheduanna". Rhetoric before and beyond the Greeks. SUNY Press. p. 47.
Dalglish, C. (2008). Humming The Blues: Inspired by Nin-Me-Sar-Ra, Enheduanna's Song to Inanna. Oregon: CALYX Books. ISBN 978-0-934971-92-8.
De Shong Meador, B. (2001). Inanna, Lady of Largest Heart: Poems of the Sumerian High Priestess Enheduanna. University of Texas.
Weigle, M. (Autumn 1978). "Women as Verbal Artists: Reclaiming the Sisters of Enheduanna". Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies. 3 (3): 1–9.
Ritual
Dance of Ancient Egypt. (2012, April 23). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtTnpaO3DQA
Spenser,
P. (2005, May 1). Female Dance in Ancient
Egypt. Retrieved from http://www.raqssharqisociety.org/femaledanceancientegypt.pdf
Women in Ancient Greek Theatre
Massimino,
K. (2012, October 22). Greek Drama and
the Role of Women in Ancient Greece. Retrieved from https://prezi.com/m9ch5zcxnynx/greek-drama-and-role-of-women-in-ancient-greece/
Women in Early Indian Drama
Mainkar, T.G. (1978). Sanskrit Theory of Drama and Dramaturgy: The Theory of Samdhis and the
Samhyangas in Bharata’s Natyasastra. New Delhi: Ajanta Publications.
Also try:
Natya Shastra. (n.d.) In Wikipedia. Retrieved May 1, 2017, from
Women in the Theatre of Ancient Rome
The Actresses Who
Scandalised Ancient Rome. (2012, March 10). Retrieved from https://eternallyrome.wordpress.com/2012/03/10/female-actresses-in-ancient-rome/
Women in Early Chinese Opera and Drama
Jin Fu. (2012) Chinese Theatre (3rd Edition).
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Tan Ye. (2008). Historical Dictionary of Chinese Theatre. Hong
Kong: Scarecrow Press.
Here is a webpage with a
short but useful brief history of Chines Opera:
Women in Early Arab and Turkish Drama
Allan, R.
(2000). History of Arab Theatre. An
Introduction to Arabic Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Here is a
webpage with a short thumbnail history of theatre if the Arab world:
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