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Male polish: Play reading puts men at the nail salon

Male polish: Play reading puts men at the nail salon
Photo by Jason Speakman

Boys will be girls!

A Park Slope theater company will conduct a gender-swap experiment this month, presenting a reading of a play about women at a nail salon with seven female actors on June 24, and seven male actors on June 25. The writer of “Pick a Color” says that she wants to see if her play about women is still seen as a feminist work when men are in the roles.

“I was wondering if feminist work was stories of women being powerful, or if it could also be stories that privileged women’s emotional lives,” said Emily Feldman. “I wondered if that would open up the space for there to be more conversation of what makes a ‘woman’s play’ or if it raises it to the realm of men’s drama.”

The male actors of the Piper Theatre Company will play female characters, and the script will not change to accommodate the different demographic of the cast.

“The only thing that’s essential is that the actors play the emotions and the conversations in the play as honestly and compassionately as possible,” wrote Feldman in the script.

The playwright came up with her play’s casting switchup while in a nail salon, where a boisterous young man intruded on the usually all-woman space. His very presence disrupted the discussions between women, she said.

“A nail salon is a place where you let another person clip your toenails and massage lotion into your hands. It’s a woman’s world where people take gentle care of one another’s sensitive parts. It’s a place where you can overhear some very personal anecdotes. I didn’t like that there was a loud bro sitting close to me,” Feldman said. “The code felt broken. The conversations were different before and after he was gone.”

The results of the experiment will have her tweaking her script according to audience and actor reactions, she said.

“That’s what you learn from a reading — the audience response. That’s also part of the experiment — watching it in a room full of people and watching how it’s received.” Feldman said.

“Pick a Color” at Spoke the Hub [748 Union St. between Fifth and Sixth avenues in Park Slope, (718) 408–3234, www.pipertheatre.org]. June 24 and 25 at 8 pm. $15.