Peggy Shaw and Lois Weaver of Split Britches, use a mixture of subtle, manipulative gestures and forceful, straight-forward speech to honestly connect the old American to our current state of the country in Miss America. From their costumes and vocal tone to their movements and dancing styles, Shaw and Weaver manifest the common battle between old and new, and masculine and feminine. Audience participation, music and use of technology are also key elements in this absurd pageant that keeps the crowd guessing and delivers a message of change.
Miss America is a peculiar romp that tells the story of a reporter and the uncommon
women she reports on. Shaw, the Miss America pageant winner, is imagined to be an eight feet tall woman with massive hands and feet, yet the most beautiful woman in the world. Weaver, the reporter, not only resembles a washed-up beauty queen, but expresses her desire to become Miss America herself and win the talent contest with an exotic strip tease. Like the strip tease, both Shaw and Weaver are in search of something new, a change, since they cannot return to the way life used to be in the good ole U.S. of A.
Shaw and Weaver complement each other perfectly because their characters are so different. Shaw’s Miss America character is very subtle, shy with a strong, sharp silhouette. Shaw natural appearance is quite rough and masculine. She uses her form to her advantage and
plays up the idea that her character could be a man. She wears a black suit that is far too short for her and constantly adjusts and pulls her suit to make it perfect or try to make it fit. Shaw’s motions are very agitated, jerky and frequent, like the sparks in a fire. However, her facial features and vocal tone are expressionless and monotone. For example, before the show even started, Shaw took a seat on a bench in the corner of the stage and sat there, almost motionless, checking the audience briefly with no emotion at all.
On the hand, Weaver plays a character quite the opposite. She wears an oversized, torn fur coat with slinky black dress and plastic tiara. Rather than physicality, her character is driven by her forceful and absurd speech. Her character is constantly begging for attention. For instance, towards the beginning of the production, Weaver stands in front of a screen with a hurricane projected on it and a fan blowing in her face. She reports on the conditions of the storm, but as metaphors for the way the United States has become corrupt in the last decade. She speaks in loud, harsh tones complemented by swinging head movements and sharp, dramatic hand gestures. She uses her speech to cover up her really feeling, about how scared she is with the way the world has become. In addition, when the fan is blowing in her face, hairs from her wig constantly fly into her face. She repeatedly flips her hair back over her ears. Using her costume in this specific way helped to define her character. Weaver and Shaw together do a fantastic job playing off of each other for comedic brilliance. Both of their characters convey the same message, but they do so if very opposing ways. While Weaver acts very feminine and boisterous, Shaw’s character encompasses many masculine qualities with slight, manipulative gestures.
Weaver and Shaw’s specific male and female physicalities, continued in their dancing to represent the new step we need to take in America. Shaw came on to her dance by accident. She tripped over her own foot and fell forward. She proceeded to make a dance out of it and related it to how we need a new step forward in America to get out of the terror that has occurred in the last ten years. Her trip led into a fake tap dance that was inspired by music. Her feet in the tap dance, like Shaw’s earlier movements, were very rapid and sparked, like a fire. Again, Weaver’s character had a very different dance style. During slow playing music, Weaver lofts around the stage falling on pieces of the set and brushing off of them, like air. She is light on her feet as if floating. Her flowing dance eventually leads into a strip tease that highlighted the woman characteristics of Weavers character.
Weaver and Shaw also use audience participation throughout the production to bring their characters to life and make them playful and real. For example, in the beginning Weaver enters the space by walking through the audience and taking pictures of them. She also says things about each person in the pictures she takes. This interaction immediately engages the audience and shows off her crazy and worn-out reporter character. These pictures were used at the end of the production in a slide show along with clips from a 1960s television commercial. These uses of technology display juxtaposition between the old America and current America.
In Miss America, Weaver and Shaw use masculine and feminine stereotypes to create characters longing for a chance to become the winner of the Miss America Pageant as well as the way of life Americans lived in the 1950s. Both of their characters convey the same message, but they do so if very opposing ways. While Weaver acts very feminine and boisterous, Shaw’s character encompasses many masculine qualities with slight, manipulative gestures.
Miss America was performed at Open Eye Figure Theatre in November of 2008.
Recommendation: See it!
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