Women We Admire

In addition to being a Fundraising Event for Susan G Komen, Miscalled Simplicity is also participating in a VA State Wide celebration called Mind's Wide Open which "honor[s] contributions by women to arts and culture." 

EC Company Members and Actors were asked to briefly respond to the following question: Who is a woman in the Arts who has or is an inspiration to you? 

Katie Logan, Empty Chair's Head of Education, was the first to respond: 

This year, Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman in the Academy's 82-year lifespan to take home the Oscar for Best Director.  Sure, the media can spin her success in the most delectable of ways: "Female Director bests co-nominee and ex-husband to make Oscar history." The artist who took the stage to accept this honor, however, spoke poignantly about the film she had created. Rather than writing a storyline for herself, Bigelow focused on the story she and her team told in The Hurt Locker. Her unique treatment of war--a topic so often off-limits to women in the arts--quietly reminded us that conflict affects everyone, men and women on both sides of the fighting. The Hurt Locker's protagonists defuse bombs for the U.S. military; Bigelow nonetheless insists on portraying the Iraqis in the film as the humans they are. Spending months in Jordan with her production team, she took the time to understand how it feels to live a daily routine in the midst of violence. The ferocity and intensity of her finished product is matched only by its astute observations and almost lyrical storytelling. 

I admire Kathryn Bigelow for her willingness to let a single image say more than a page of words ever could. I admire her dedication to a project with a difficult shoot and a limited budget. And, perhaps most importantly, I admire her refusal to win and succeed simply as a "Female Director." She reminds us that "Storyteller" is a gender, age, and ethnicity-neutral profession.

Keep checking back for more on ladies that inspire us !