This guest post is written by Hunter Scott, Marissa Price and Stephanie Anderson, Honors students in GW’s Generic Theatre Company.
Hello UHPers! Here’s a smart person question: How do you pronounce “Generican?” That’s who we are – Marissa Price, Hunter Scott, and Steph Anderson – UHPers that have all found a home at GW within Generic Theatre Company. However, we still get a little confused sometimes about what to call ourselves: “Gener-I-can?” “Gen-ER-ican?” Or, “Genericite,” the poor oft-ignored version, probably because it sounds like a tiny parasitic insect? (The consensus is on the second option so far).
Anyways, Generic, founded in 1985, is GW’s oldest student theatre company. Marissa is this year’s Co-Executive Producer, Hunter is Co-Artistic Director, and Steph is Assistant Technical Director. We put on 2-4 shows per semester, plus the all-freshman-acted-and-teched Freshman Showcase in fall and 24-Hour Play in spring. As a company, we tend to produce darker shows that are intellectual and often very new – even student written! Of course, these trends aren’t rules, and we also decide shows based on themes that we organically derive from the directing proposals we receive each semester. That’s why we’re writing this now: we are super excited about our theme of “Strong Women” for this season, and its final show, I Am My Own Wife!
For our season this semester, we received a number of very strong proposals, and ultimately chose The Diary of Anne Frank, directed by Rachel Bell, Steel Magnolias, directed by Henry Morillo, and I Am My Own Wife, directed by Max Young-Jones. Anne Frank is of course incredibly famous, and many of you are probably familiar with Steel Magnolias, a 1980’s dramedy about six women in a Louisiana hair salon and their support of each other through life’s twists and turns. I Am My Own Wife is about a transgender woman, Charlotte, who survives through Nazi and Soviet regimes with a furniture museum and gay club in her basement in East Berlin. The show is acted entirely by one person, who plays almost 40 different characters from around the world. Anne Frank and Steel Magnolias have already gone up very successfully, but I Am My Own Wife is going up this weekend, on Thursday the 5th at 7pm, and Friday and Saturday at 8pm, in the Lisner Downstage!
 
We chose these shows because they all showcase very strong women – though in a way that emphasizes how non-universal the characteristics of strong women are. There are no stereotypes in our season: each protagonist is strong in her own completely unique and powerful way. We hope that the UHP can come and enjoy Charlotte’s own unique strength this weekend with us three and the rest of Generic.
If you enjoy the show, come audition for our shows next semester, and become a “Generican” yourself! BTW – if you figure out how to pronounce it, let us know.