A theatre company is said to be 'bucking the trend' for women in the arts. Scary Little Girls is a feminist theatre company, which started over 20 years ago by creative director Rebecca Mordan - and today (Friday, March 8) we celebrate as part of International Women's Day.
Set up to provide opportunities for women in the creative arts, their mission is to tell underrepresented stories and to give a platform to the voices less heard. And over the years, they’ve carved out a unique space within the national arts agenda.
One of the few feminist theatre companies in the UK, the production company has provided opportunities for hundreds of women to continue their careers in the creative arts. Scary Little Girls has – in the last 12 months alone – worked with over 100 creative arts freelancers across the UK, with a 98% female freelance workforce.
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The touring company has created dozens of paid and voluntary opportunities for women to join them – playing at six festivals including Glastonbury, Green Man and Cornwall-based The Great Estate. Over their 22 years in the arts industry, the theatre company estimates they have provided over 4,000 opportunities for women in the creative arts workforce.
Their work ranges from storytelling events across Cornwall to launching their Mayven festival – a celebration of the power of women in midlife – in San Francisco. They also run the Greenham Women Everywhere project - bringing a hugely important piece of feminist heritage into public access. This National Lottery funded project which saw the team interview almost 200 of the women who formed the Greenham Common Peace Camp between 1981 and 2000.
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Rebecca Mordan, creative director for Scary Little Girls, said: “We are operating in an environment which is not weighted towards supporting women. Working in the creative arts is incredibly challenging for women – it is harder to win funding, opportunities are not as widely available, and women are more likely to hold down a second job while trying to forge their careers in the arts. Women will likely be forced to choose between their career and becoming a parent if they’re working in the creative arts.
“What we try to do at Scary Little Girls is to create supportive communities of women. Whether that’s working for us or coming to our shows as an audience member, women feel good in the company of our work. We exist to provide opportunities for women of all ages – our workforce is 98% female, and we are providing opportunities for women in the creative arts, whether they are directors, writers, producers or performers.”
Kezia Dwyer, documentary film producer, added: "I am the general manager for Scary Little Girls, and I'm based near Brighton. Having just graduated with my masters in directing documentary, I work for Scary Little Girls part-time while also pursuing documentary work. Working with the team in a flexible part-time manner not only supports me financially while I work on creative film projects but also provides me with lots of transferable skills.
"Through this role as general manager, I've been able to learn about funding applications (very relevant for anyone working in the arts), develop ideas for content creation, and put forward documentary proposals (with the hope of developing these into films/content). Scary Little Girls is always open to my ideas about how to bring together my documentary skills and my work for the company, and their consistent support allows me to gain extra strings to my bow while also offering creative opportunities."
The find out more about the work of Scary Little Girls, go here