SPOILED – the Film Version. Watch it NOW!

I first began developing the concept that would become SPOILED when I lived in India. I became convinced we needed to look at gender-based violence from a male perspective; it was clear we needed to do more to understand how our societies produce attitudes and behaviors so hostile to women and gender-nonconforming people. Some of you will remember the premiere of SPOILED in 2015 in NYC. Others will recall that UN Women USA was planning to promote a live showing of SPOILED in 2020 during CSW (pre-COVID!) Yet events every day, every week, right here in the USA, remind us…

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SPOILED – My Play Lives Again in 2020

You've thought about violence against women - but have you thought about it from the perspective of men? Men are, after all, the perpetrators the vast majority of the time. How can we possibly begin to understand the issue if we only look at half the picture? SPOILED, my vision for a play exploring this theme with examples from India and the US, came to fruition in 2015 when actor and playwright Elizabeth Hess crafted a one-woman show around the idea. But the issue is unfortunately pretty damn timeless, and the Hess Collective has been able to rework it to…

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SPOILED

Spring 2020: Our play SPOILED is heading to La Mama in NYC! Over 5 years ago, I originally conceived of the idea of a theatrical work exploring violence against women around the world, but told from the male perspective. My research and personal experiences told me that this viewpoint was critically important to understand – and that theater was a perfect vehicle to do this. Teaming up with experienced playwright and actor Elizabeth Hess helped create the original version of SPOILED, a one-woman play dramatizing real stories from India and the US. This latest version now includes a larger cast…

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End Campus Rape

Annie E. Clark and Andrea Pino are the inspiring forces behind the Department of Education's investigation into over 55 US colleges and universities for violations of Title IX, which bans discrimination based on gender in schools receiving federal funds. The schools are being investigated for their handling - mishandling? - of rape cases on campus. Clark and Pino are also featured in the excellent documentary, The Hunting Ground, and founders of endcampusrape.com. If you can see the movie anywhere, go. You will think differently about colleges, campus security, fraternities, and college athletics as well. And you'll feel inspired by what…

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News Flash!

SPOILED on Screen   A video of SPOILED will be shown TONIGHT - Friday, March 6 - in New York at the International Conference on Masculinities. We are thrilled to be a part of this large gathering of social scientists, policy makers, practitioners, researchers, and activists, all working together to enhance gender justice. Here's some of the info from our program to put the performance in context. Violence, Masculinity, and the Making of SPOILED All the stories in SPOILED are based on recent incidents in India and the USA. Two girls, living in a home with no toilet, were raped and…

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SPOILED – Staged Performances

Thanks to the wonderful support from many colleagues, family, and friends, SPOILED will be on the stage in workshop performances In New York this February. We received great comments at the reading this month and rehearsals are beginning now. Will you be in New York on February 15, 16, or 17? Come to Stage Left Studio! Tickets for the February shows can be purchased through Stage Left Studio, here: Tickets: SPOILED Still interested in supporting the play - and the cause - but can't make it to the show? We need donations NOW to bring SPOILED to conferences later this spring. We…

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SPOILED: Backer’s Reading January 14

SPOILED, the theatrical performance I've been working on for over a year, is on the way to the stage.  Read on and please, help us produce this work! Performance and Tax-deductible Donations: See Stage Left Studio (Contributions to Cheryl King, our Producer. Note "Spoiled" in the Artist line.) The issue: We know that rigid gender roles contribute greatly to violence against women. But we’ve found that rigid and distorted gender roles really damage both sexes – so we need to understand and involve men in conversations about the roots of this violence. By looking at events in the world’s two…

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Spoiled: September

  First reading of SPOILED Friday September 26  - 7 PM Theaterlab 357 West 36th Street NYC, 3rd Floor Performed by Elizabeth Hess, Talkback after the performance moderated by Karen Hilbe   A Performance in Pre-Production What Are We Doing to Our Men? An Exploration of Men’s Attitudes and Gender-Based Violence Summary: SPOILED: A theatrical exploration of masculine self-image and its connection to violence against women (VAW) in India and the USA. Project in Development: What’s up with men these days? In India and the US, the world’s largest democracies, recent acts of violence against women have catapulted onto the…

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SPOILED Reading & Welcome to PM Modi

No, there isn't really a connection between our first very successful reading of SPOILED on Friday and the arrival of Prime Minister Narendra Modi this weekend.  Or is there? Our reading was a benefit and fundraiser for the League of Professional Theater Women's International Award, given this year to Colombia's Patricia Ariza. We were thrilled to receive incisive feedback from our first public audience. SPOILED covers some pretty heavy material - rape, domestic violence, infanticide, abduction: this is not necessarily the stuff of an evening's entertainment. But these stories - all taken from real events - are interwoven with windows…

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First Reading of Spoiled

Friday, September 26 at 7 PM Theaterlab 357 West 36th Street, 3rd Floor Tickets $15 A benefit for the League of Professional Theater Women's Gilder/Coigney International Award. For the past two years, I've been following recent trends in violence against women (VAW) in India and the US: reading about the background, talking to people, researching, writing, arguing. Along the way it became apparent that the focus was NOT really women, it was men. What captured my attention were the social and cultural forces that produced male abusers. Where had these men and boys come from? Teenagers, especially in India, were…

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