More Pie, Please

This month, 20% Theatre Company Twin Cities is doing a show called Perfect Pie by prominent Canadian playwright Judith Thompson. Written by a woman and starring four female actors, the play suits the company’s mission perfectly—and that mission is to help provide employment for women in the theater arts.

After reading in 2002 that women hold only 20 percent of professional theater jobs, write a mere 16 percent of professionally produced plays, only 17 percent of which are directed by women, company founders Claire Avitabile and Blythe Davis decided they wanted a bigger piece of the theatrical pie. And so, in 2006, 20% Theatre Company Twin Cities was formed as a sister branch to the original 20% in New York City and the secondary one in Chicago.

20% Twin Cities’ cause célèbre—to produce new and progressive plays by female, transgender, and gender-queer theater artists—is still relevant: The most recent statistics for women employed in theater are abysmally similar to those in 2002. But each 20% theater serves its community in a different way.

“The [different] 20% Theatre companies work completely independently of each other, and our missions have different twists,” Avitabile explains. “For example, 20% Twin Cities encourages participation by the GLBT community, whereas the others don’t explicitly include or involve GLBT folks.”

Originally, Avitabile was going to start her branch near her alma mater, Smith College, but decided she wanted to leave the East Coast. “My options were San Francisco—too expensive and too close to my dad—and Chicago, where 80 percent of Smith theater grads go. I didn’t want to deal with the catty competition there. I fell in love with Minneapolis’s landscape, water, arts, and GLBT community.” Minneapolis is also where she met Davis. They married in July.

Perfect Pie tells the story of two childhood friends whose adult lives have diverged on very different paths. Estranged for more than a decade, the two women are drawn back into their tragic past through an awkward reunion, flashbacks, and, yes, pie baking. Thompson, long considered one of Canada’s top dramatists, creates deeply psychological characters that often exist on the fringes of society. Hers is a world where everyone is capable of evil, where fear and unpredictability rule their actions and experiences, and where the dark side of human nature often rears its ugly head. Avitabile warns that Perfect Pie warrants an R or PG-13 rating and deals with issues such as child abuse, seizure disorders, and sexual assault.

“I’m known for producing and directing rarely produced or directed plays by well-known writers,” says Avitabile. “Most companies that produce Thompson focus on The Crackwalker or White Biting Dog. Perfect Pie has rarely been done—not because it’s not a great play, but because somehow the others became more popular.” She says the same goes for Paula Vogel’s Hot ’n’ Throbbing, which 20% produced last summer. (Vogel’s How I Learned to Drive is more popular.) Hot ’n’ Throbbing is about domestic abuse, and Avitabile ended up casting one of the key roles with a transgender actor—a first for 20% Twin Cities. “I [originally] cast a teen boy who was then taken away from the play once a parent read the script,” Avitabile says. “We were a week away from starting rehearsals and I was in a panic. I advertised needing a ‘fourteen-year-old boy’ and I encouraged FTM [female-to-male] transgender actors to audition, as well as petite female actors.” The production was riveting. The recent production of Sarah Kane’s ode to suicide, 4.48 Psychosis, was similarly affecting.

Last year, 20% Twin Cities was chosen by Curve magazine as one of the foremost lesbian regional theaters in the country and topped its list of “Local Playhouses We Love.” While 20% may focus on people on the margins, it is definitely a company on the verge—and Perfect Pie provides an excellent opportunity to sample their work.

Jan. 16–31. Minneapolis Theatre Garage, 711 Franklin Ave. W., Mpls., 612-227-1188. Benefit gala/silent auction on Jan. 17.