GirlProject
In the recent election, women made huge strides on the national political stage. For the first time in U.S. history, there will be 20 women in the U.S. Senate.
New Hampshire will have the nation’s first all-female congressional delegation — made up of both major parties. And many analysts say it was the votes of women that decided the election overall. Regardless of party, women won big in 2012. And there is no sign of that stopping.
America has yet to elect a female president. Many see that time coming fast. But, as one documentary points out, when boys and girls are young, they both want to be president in equal numbers. By the time they are 15, however, those numbers have changed dramatically. And it is all about how we teach those boys and girls to look at themselves and each other — especially for young women.
Here in Lexington, some people want you to see that there is no reason women should not be anything they want to be. Kentucky Conservatory Theatre is presenting The Girl Project. And Lexington attorney Kathyrn Warnecke Ryan is sponsoring it.
You never know how things will come together in this world. Ryan came to her relationship with the Kentucky Conservatory Theatre in an interesting way. Ryan was already a fan of the popular documentary Miss Representation, which is about the image of women that the media portrays and furthers. The statistic above about boys and girls wanting to be president is from that film. Ryan had looked into getting Miss Representation screened locally in Lexington. She later learned that KCT’s The Girl Project would include, among other things, a screening of Miss Representation. Her interest piqued, Ryan spoke with KCT’s Vanessa Becker and things started to grow.
The Girl Project is a spoken word, movement and multimedia extravaganza that will examine the American female image, the media’s portrayal of girls and women and the internal and external pressures that girls face every day as a product of today’s society. Co-Directors Ellie Clark and Vanessa Becker, Art and Advocacy Director Christy K. Burch and 13 locally and nationally renowned female artists will guide 20 high school-aged girls in year-long workshops to create an original work in which they will share their stories of the pressures of being a young woman in a society that is laden with ideals based on extreme sexism. The project culminates Labor Day weekend of 2013 at the Downtown Arts Center in Lexington. In addition to The Girl Project performances on Labor Day Weekend in 2013, KCT is promoting a citywide awareness of Kentucky’s female artists by encouraging music venues, art galleries, and local businesses to feature female artists throughout the weekend. There will be lots more said about The Girl Project before it is over.
Ryan’s involvement with KCT came through another juncture that Lexington theatergoers will remember. KCT produces the annual Summerfest at the Arboretum. The predecessor to that was the Lexington Shakespeare Festival (LSF). Ryan served on the LSF board, and as its president in 1989 and ’90. Ryan talks about how her background in music and dance has served to bring her to this place where she can help a theatrer program like KCT.
“My brother and I were raised with lots of music playing at home — Dad has an extensive LP collection — and we learned all the lyrics to Broadway shows at a very young age. Traveling in the car for vacation, we would sing those songs or Dad would quiz us on what song was from what show, as a game to pass the time,” she said. “I took dance lessons from the age of 3 to 16, took piano lessons, played the clarinet, was on the speech team in junior and high school, was in two plays in high school.”
This is Ryan’s first outing with KCT. Although she has experience in working with and supporting productions in other capacities, she is stepping out to back this project at this time. She sees it as the right thing to do.
“I am thrilled to be able to support KCT’s work with the girls in The Girl Project,” she said.
Ryan received her bachelor’s degree in business administration from UK, as well as her juris doctor. She opened her own practice.
“I opened my own law practice, partly to provide greater efficiency and personal service to clients in this changed economy and partly to gain greater independence and freedom to express myself in the work that I do and want to do in the future.” Ryan, Becker, Clark and Burch think all women should have the opportunity to do what they want in this world, and the environment that nurtures that. The Girl Project aims to show us what that looks like.