Amy today we look at the history making Broadway Musical fun home about family, memory, coming out, first love and a daughters relationship with her father. It is the first ever Broadway Musical to feature a lesbian protagonist. From home fun home is based on the memoir by the pioneering graphic novelist Alison Bechdel who will join us for the hour. Made the emotions i was trying to get that in the book and in my own self i feel like when i talked about making it proper funeral for my father i wanted to fully grieve him in a way i had not been able to. His life was a trout in these lies. Amy and we will speak to Jeanine Tesori and lisa kron who just made history as the first allfemale writing team to win a tony award for a musicals score. All that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. In ohio, a grand jury has indicted a university of Cincinnati Police officer on murder charges for shooting sam dubose, an unarmed African American man. Police officer ray tensing fatally shot dubose on july 19, after pulling him over for not having a front license plate. In announcing the indictment wednesday, prosecutor joseph deters called the killing senseless. I have been doing this for over 30 years. This is the most asinine act i have seen a totally unwarranted. It was it is an absolute tragedy. In the year 2015, that anyone behave in this manner. It was senseless. I met with the Family Moments ago. Its just horrible. Amy cincinnati mayor john cranley praised the indictment and compared it to cases in other cities where grand juries chose not to indict officers. We wanted the truth to come out. When you look at, for example the videos in new york earlier this year and you see that no charge was brought, there was a great sense that justice was not done. Amy the prosecutor released footage which shows tensing approaching sam duboses car and telling him that he was stopped for not having his front license plate mounted. The officer asks to see a bottle lying on the floor of the passenger side seat, and dubose hands him an unopened bottle of gin. Then tensing asks to see duboses license. As dubose searches for it, tensing grows agitated and asks him to take off his seatbelt. The bose protests then he turns the key to start the car. Tenzing shoot bows in the head desk shoots shoots dubose in the head. Take your seatbelt off. I did not do anything. Amy officer tensing claims he shot dubose because he was dragged by the car as he drove away. The car did not start moving until after the bose was shot after dubose was shot. Sam duboses 9yearold son samuel, addressed the crowd. He didnt do nothing but shoot him. What is he doing . [indiscernible] they shot him in the head. This dude lied. Amy it is the first time a Police Officer has ever been indicted for murder in the county. In news from the middle east residents are fleeing the kurdish village of amadiya after turkeys heaviest airstrikes in two weeks pummeled the hillside town in northern iraq. Turkey has said the target of the airstrikes are the military camps of the kurdish peoples party, known as the pkk. Residents of amadiya say yesterdays airstrikes struck civilian homes and fields. In news from egypt, the announcement of the verdict in the trial of two al jazeera journalists accused of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood has been abruptly postponed. An Egyptian Court had been due to issue its ruling in the retrial of Mohamed Fahmy and baher mohamed, who each spent more than a year in prison on charges of aiding a terrorist organization before being released on bail in february. Their verdict is now expected august 8. Journalist Mohamed Fahmy spoke out wednesday. I dont know what is going to happen. I am paying for my own legal fees. It has become costly for me on every level. Emotionally, financially. My family i enjoyed my first couple of days of freedom but it is still limited. Amy in news from afghanistan the spokesperson for the National Directorate of security has said there is no doubt that taliban leader mullah omar died more than two years ago. The Afghan Government has said it is assessing the reports. U. S. Intelligence officials are also investigating. On wednesday, White House Deputy spokesperson eric shultz said the reports of omars death are credible. We are aware of reports. We believe the reports of mullah omars death are credible. Im not in a position to comment on the specifics surrounding his death. Amy the fbi has arrested a florida man for allegedly plotting a terrorism attack in support of the selfproclaimed islamic state, after an fbi informant supplied him with a n explosive device. The 23yearold man named Harlem Suarez had been under fbi surveillance for months. Earlier this week, an fbi agent posing as an operative for isil took suarez to meet another fbi agent, who gave suarez an inert explosive device and told him how to use it. When suarez exited the car, the agents arrested him. In news from tunisia, parliament has overwhelmingly passed a new terror law. The legislation allows for police to detain suspects for up to 15 days without giving them access to a lawyer or a judge. It also makes allows prosecutors to seek the Death Penalty in terrorism cases. The new legislation comes after last months deadly shooting in the resort town of sousse, when a shooter killed 38 people, mostly british tourists. In news from the campaign trail, democratic candidate Bernie Sanders has hosted the Biggest Online and grassroots organizing event of the 2016 campaign. Wednesday night, as many as 100,000 people gathered for simultaneous house parties in all 50 states, as sanders supporters look to mobilize the progressive wing of the democratic 20minute livestream address, sanders addressed Police Brutality and the case of sandra bland, an African American woman who died in a texas jail two weeks ago after being arrested for failing to signal a lane change. We are tired of seeing black women assaulted, put in handcuffs and sent to jail and died three days later in the case of sandra bland. For what crime . She did not signal she made a left turn. We are seeing that all over this country. Enough is enough. We have got to come that institutional racism in the United States of america. Amy in california, authorities are investigating a 2milelong oil slick that appeared in the water off the coast of santa barbara. Two kayakers discovered the slick wednesday when they suddenly found their legs and boats covered in oil. The slick appeared about 12 miles away from the site of a massive pipeline spill in may which dumped 100,000 gallons of crude oil onto the beach. Planned parenthoods website was reportedly attacked by antichoice activists wednesday, who took the site offline for hours. The organization tweeted that the site was being targeted by antiabortion extremists. The online attack comes as planned parenthood is under fire from antichoice activists, who are accusing the organization of selling fetal tissue. Planned parenthood has repeatedly said that it shares the tissue with medical researchers, without making any profit. Meanwhile, a California Court issued a restraining order wednesday to prevent the same antichoice group that released edited videos of planned parenthood from releasing videos about a California Company that supplies fetal tissue to medical researchers. Three graduates of the university of virginia have sued Rolling Stone over a now discredited article about an alleged gang rape on the college campus. The article was later retracted after parts of the articles account were found to be inaccurate. The graduates, who were members of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity, have sued both the magazine and the articles author. Meanwhile, Rolling Stone managing editor will dana has announced he is stepping down after 19 years at the magazine. And those are some of the headlines this is democracy now, democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. In a democracy now special, we turn now to the acclaimed Broadway Musical fun home, which swept the tony awards last month. Composer Jeanine Tesori and lyricist lisa kron made history as the first female duo to win a tony award for a musicals score. Fun home is also the first ever Broadway Musical to feature a lesbian protagonist. This is a Video Montage from the hit performance. My dad and i were exactly alike. My dad and i were nothing alike. I guess im older. Its harder when youre older. To be in broken windows, brass been near beenveneer. I know you. I know you. Amy the musical is based on the 2006 bestselling graphic memoir by Alison Bechdel, fun home a family tragicomic. The memoir is a poignant explosion of family, memory, coming out and a daughters relationship with her father. The title comes from the bechdels nickname for their family business, a funeral home. Throughout the memoir, bechdel, the artist and protagonist sketches out her hazy memories of growing up in rural pennsylvania and coming to terms with her sexuality as she tries to make sense of her fathers suicide. Her father was secretly gay and took his life shortly after allison came out as a lesbian. Incidents are told and retold in light of new information, each panel painstakingly drawn in black line art with a graygreen ink wash. In the musical bechtel is depicted by three actresses at different stages in her life. Before fun home, bechdel was best known for her longrunning comic strip dykes to watch out for. Nermeen shaikh and i interviewed bechdel along with lisa kron and Jeanine Tesori who adapted the memoir for broadway. I started by asking alison to talk about her life story as she tells it in fun home. My childhood growing up in pennsylvania with my closeted father. Realizing that i was a lesbian. I was this different kind of kid growing up. It was a story that felt i felt like a could not tell that story for a long time because it was revealing intimate secrets people did not know about my father. People did not know he had killed himself. No one is absolutely certain it was a suicide. Those felt like problematic things to make public. I felt for a long time like this was a story that was important to me personally but also a culturally important story. It showed how differently my generation of gay people could go on to live their lives, as opposed to my fathers generation. I came of age on the other side. I got to be out. Have a whole happy life. My father did not get to do that. It is a book about different historical paths. Amy when did you understand your father was gay . I did not find out until i came out to my family as a lesbian in college. My mother told me. My father never really had a direct conversation with me about it. This all happened in a condensed period of time. I came out to my parents in february and in july my father died. There was a lot of of people in my family a lot of upheaval in my family. The book is a way of going back to sort out that confusing time. Amy what do you think the Different Things are that led you to decide to make these things public . You say it is culturally a very important story. Which is true. To what extent are you preparing yourself to make more revelations about your private life . I think i was preparing to tell the story over the course of two decade of writing my comic strip. I made the decision soon after i got out of college to draw this comic strip. I like drawing cartoons. I was getting very involved in the feminist and lesbian activities. Stuff in new york city. I lived in new york in the early 1980s. I started publishing these cartoons about people like me and my friends. Amy why did you call it dykes to watch out for . Alison something that came off the top of my head. I had a friend in college i would write letters to and started drawing early prototypes. She inspired the silly mood. I labeled one of these crazy lesbians dykes to watch out for number 27. That was the first one i had ever drawn. I did not have 26 other ones. It struck me as funny. It has a double meeting meaning. Look out for them, they are great, look out for them they are in trouble they are trouble. Nermeen you wanted to give your father a proper funeral . Alison when my father died it was under the cloud of these misunderstandings. I felt like people do not know what his life was really like. We had this bizarre, conventional funeral for him in our family funeral home which felt wrong to me. I had grown up in the funeral business and we would always joke about, just how bizarre american morning rituals are mourning rituals are. Amy lets turn to a clip from fun home. Funnel commercial take 7 million thousand. You have to bury your mama, you dont know where to go. Youve got to give. Amy that is from the musical fun home and we will speak with the women who wrote the book, the music, the lyrics. Right now we are talking to Alison Bechdel. Is this far from what you did . Reading the tragic comic. Reading fun home, you guys did perform. Alison we certainly played around in the funeral home. It was this funny stage set. Always waiting for a funeral to happen. We had carts we would push around and play with that the folding chairs went on. A fun place to play. When lisa kron wrote the play she focused on that aspect. Nermeen the song, it all comes back, from the musical. Mi just like you am i just like you . Amy we are talking to Alison Bechdel. Tell us about your dad. When it comes to his secret gay life, it was more than that. Alison my father was a High School Teacher. I later learned he was carrying on with some of his underaged students. Kids in 11th grade or something. He had almost he had got arrested once for buying a kid a drink. Really, i think, it was an issue of him having some sexual stuff going on with this boy. There was this threat that it would become public and what would happen to my family. He was charged with underage drinking, not anything else. My mother was living with this constant anxiety that somehow this would become public. There was a great deal of strain. Amy lets go to the song about your mom. Maybe you can weigh in before we turn to this. Your mother isnt the preeminent figure in the play, the musical. You ended up writing a book about her. She is not the main figure in fun home. Before we talk about this revealing song which is a highlight for the figure who is your mother, talk about her. Alison my mother was an amazing person. I keep thinking what would it be like for her to see this play. She died at skill years ago just before it opened she died two years ago just before it opened to the public. My mother was also an actress. She was a High School Teacher but her passion was for acting. She would often do summer stock. It is funny to me that she has become a character on the stage. I think she would have gotten a kick out of that. Amy how your mother related to your father in raising the three of you. In a sense, she was a counterforce. She knew there was something wrong. Alison yeah. I feel like i could probably write 17 more books about my family and what was going on. My mother, she knew about my fathers relationships with these boys and men. I think she consider leaving at some point but could not. She had three kids. She consulted with the family doctor, her priest, everyone said you have to stay with your husband. She was a beautiful person and she did that she was a dutiful person and she did that. Part of this crazy constellation of events, one of those things was my mother decided she had had it and she asked my father for a divorce. That is part of why we think he probably intentionally stepped in front of the truck. Its striking me as unseemly as going around talking about this. Even though i have written a play, it is painful, intimate stuff. Amy i think thats why it is so powerful. The way you convey it. In cartoons, in a graphic novel so powerful. It changes the whole medium. Even the song about your mom days and days. Lets go to a clip. Days, and days, and days. Thats how it happens. May the lunches and car rides and searched shirts and socks no one clocks the days. Amy this is democracy now. Will be back in a minute we will be back in a minute. Dont you come back here. I didnt raise you to give away your days like me. Amy days and days from the Broadway Musical, fun home. This is democracy now, democracy now . Org. We spend the hour looking at this remarkable Tonywinning Broadway production. In addition to Alison Bechdel we are joined by lisa kron and Jeanine Tesori who just made history by becoming the first female duo to win a tony for best original score of a musical. Jeanine tesori has been described as the most prolific and honored female theatrical composer in broadway history. Her other works include include caroline, or change; shrek the musical; thoroughly modern millie; and violet. Lisa kron wrote the lyrics and the book for fun home, which earned her a tony award for best book of a musical. I asked lisa to discuss the challenges of transforming Alison Bechdels graphic novel into a musical. Lisa the book has an essay quality to it. It feels like it has a straightforward narrative but it does not really. The action of the book is the narrative voice that appears in captions in the book, interrogating, remembering the scenes but interrogating what really happened. Taking the knowledge alison gains later about who her father truly was and remembering scenes she experienced in one way and trying to understand what really happened. The question for us is, how do we theatrical lies that how do we the ettrick oh how do we theatricalize that. Jeanine the idea that they are behaving one way and thinking another way. In that way the juxtaposition of how you traumatize tradramatize a graphic novel. My biggest worry working with these women was being as good as what they had done before. To live up to the book, i have known lisa krons work. Nermeen janine, you said you have been studying your whole life to write fun home. Could you talk about that. How fun home relates to all the previous work you have done. Whether you see it as culminating, following all the works you have done or something completely distinct. Jeanine i look at it and think you are doing all of those things. Shrek, which i had a wonderful time, there were 3d onus. Three fionas. In violet, there was a young violet and an old violet. That violet was the first musical i ever wrote. All of a daughter and a father. Very few if any daughter father relationships that are examined in a dramatic repertoire, certainly in musical theater they are not. Women are not front and center mostly. This was so much i felt i could heal some part of myself. Amy the two of you are the first female duo to win for a musical score and book. [laughter] amy did we see that at the tonys . Lisa every time i lost, it was live. Amy what happened . Lisa it was off air. There is part of the show that happens before. Amy history was made, not on your tv screen. Jeanine that is correct. Even if we had not won, the writers and composers are not there is no theater without writers and composers. Amy i want to go to the clip to the two of you going up on stage. Did they play it at the tonys at all . Lisa it happened in the room. Amy you saw it, but did they take the moment they had not broadcast live and play it in another part . They took a clip. We will play that now so everyone can experience history being made. Lisa i cant believe im standing here. I had never written a musical before. I am so proud to be standing here next to Jeanine Tesori. [applause] i have to give a shout out to john biz eddie and nanci rose. Jeanine my grandfather was a composer in italy. He came to this country to try to fulfill that dream. He died when i mother was five years old, working in a gas station. I did not realize a career in music was available to women until 1981. I saw linda twine conduct. That was my ring of keys moment. A song of identification. For girls, you have to see it to be it. I am proud to be standing here with lisa kron. We stand on the shoulders of other women who came before us, mary rogers, linda twine. Thanksgiving to my family thank you to my family. This award, i dedicate to all of the theater children. Unep during sound check, we miss your bet you manap during bad time amy lisa kron and Jeanine Tesori winning best book and best musical score. Your feelings as he went on stage. Jeanine its all shocking. I am braced for failure always. In my upbringing, work with great ferocity, kindness and low expectations and then put your head down. This musical was the most important thing i have ever written. I know it sounds hyperbolic when i am saying i dont need to write another thing but i feel that way right now. I will write but there is a part of me that is the bottom of the rice cooker has been scraped out. Things ive been looking to express for a very long time. I dont know how i got so lucky as to meet this work with these people at this time. It will never happen again. I treasure it. Lisa awards are a capricious business. They mean a lot and they dont mean anything. In this case, we had the most extraordinary producers and had to rewrite the assumed narrative , that this was not commercially viable. It is a serious piece of work, not Pure Entertainment although it is very entertaining. It was written by women because it not only focuses on women characters but lesbian characters. It puts lesbian protagonist a butch lesbian protagonist. Even when we were selling tickets on broadway, the question was being asked, do you think this will work on broadway . Our Marketing Team and press team did an incredible job of working to turn around that set of assumptions. I feel that one of the important things for us about winning that award was that it confirmed that success. If we had not won, people would have reverted back and said this is not viable. That felt very gratifying and that felt. Jeanine beautifully said. Ive been searching and that was perfectly said. Amy baking of things being perfectly rendered. Speaking of things being perfectly rendered. This is from fun home at the tourney awards. In this panel, me and my dad in a diner. My dad and i both grew up in the same small pennsylvania town. I did not know it but both of us were gay. Wheres your barrettes . We were exactly alike. Keep the hair out of your eyes. We were nothing alike. Do not take it out again. Which was it . You didnt notice her at first but i noticed her the minute she walked in. I never saw a woman who looked like her. It was like i was a traveler in a foreign country who runs into someone from home theyve never met before but somehow just recognized. Someone just came in the door like no one i ever saw before. I feel, i feel i dont know where you came from, i wish i did. I feel your swagger. Your shorthair, your dungarees and your linked up boots. Your ring of keys. Jeanine she set a 11 was my year. Amy tell us about ring of keys. As was not prominent in the graphic novel. Talk about what lisa and janine did with this. Alison this is incredible to me , to see that song performed at the tonys on National Television is mind blowing. Im not always raised for failure but i am always braced for marginality. I expect no one will be interested in my experience. This is a small moment in the book but a big moment for me as a kid. It happened when i was much younger. I was like four or five and i was out with my dad and i noticed this very butch delivery woman. This masculine woman who came into the diner where we were. I have this moment of recognition. That woman, im like that woman. I admired her, i was her. My father saw me noticing her and said, is that what you want to look like . We always had struggles about how i needed to look more like a girl. Amy he was always trying to dress you up. Your dad, not your mom. Alison my father wanted me to wear dresses and have my hair barrette in at all times. Thats a long story. When he said, is that what you want to look like, i said no. But it was. That brief image of that woman was very sustaining for me as i learned i was a lesbian. I had a role model. Here is this child singing and acting that memory from my life. It is so intimate, so powerful, so transgressive and here it is on television. I thought it was supposed to be wrong. You seem ok with being strong. Its probably too jaded to say but i think were alike in a certain way. Your swagger and your bearing and close your wearing. Your shorthair, your dungarees and your linked up boots and your ring of keys. You steal my heart, saying hi. In this luncheon at, why am i the only one who sees your beautiful . I mean handsome. Amy ring of keys sung by sidney lucas. One of the things you said about the performance of the song is that having a child singing about desire in this interesting way is revolutionary. Alison desire and identification and the complex nature of those things. We dont want to think children have sexualities. This child is discovering this part of herself. Nermeen can you talk about what it was like for you to see your life represented in these stages of your life, i child, and adolescent and in the present onstage . Alison ive used the world the word surreal so many times. Me as a college student, as an adult, as a child. These actors are doing something that feels very authentic. It feels like some version of my actual self. It is really weird. Nermeen do you think there is something about the musical form that revealed something to you or showed you something new about your life . Alison i felt like the musical made the emotions i was trying to get at in the book and in my own self, when i talked about making a proper funeral for my father, i also meant i wanted to fully grieve him in a way i had not. His life was shrouded in these lies. I wanted to tell the true story. I tried to do that. Seeing the musical, i felt like i was unprepared for the power music has. It cut to the emotional heart of my story in a direct way that was stunning. Amy Alison Bechdel, author of fun home, a family tragic comic. We will be back with her, lisa kron and Jeanine Tesori who adapted fun home into a Broadway Musical. Are you really here . Joan joan, joan. All my god, oh my god, last night. I got so excited, i was too enthusiastic. Thank you for not laughing, but you left a little bit. What you said was adorable and i just have to trust. Dont think im an idiot or some kind of animal. I never lost control due to overwhelming lust but i must say that im changing my major to joan. Im changing my major to sex with joan. Im changing my major to sex with joan, with a minor in kissing joan. Amy changing my major a tune from the tonywinning Broadway Musical fun home performed last night on nbcs late night with seth meyers. This is democracy now democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. We return to my interview with the graphic novelist Alison Bechdel, author of fun home and lisa kron and Jeanine Tesori who adapted the novel for broadway. I asked Alison Bechdel about the scene around the song changing my major. Talk about this moment because it captures something so important in college. Alison this is my awkward first sexual experience turned into a showstopping broadway number. [laughter] alison these guys completely made this up. [laughter] alison i should have blocked over the details of this encounter. This is my first lover in college, joan. I should show before and after pictures waking up the next morning. Out of that they made this incredible song. Amy how did you and joan feel about it . Alison the real joan came and saw the show and she loved it. But it was insane that there is a song based on her. She recalls not having been quite so confident but i think she actually was she just forgets that part. She was a lot more confident than me. Nermeen you talked earlier about how you are used to your work representing a subculture. Fun home, it seems as though your work has become more main train. More main stream. Alison everyone assumes it is a success but it does feel a little front. A little fraught. Im used to pushing against the mainstream. It is a funny moment for lgbt culture and civil rights right now. I feel like the play and the success of the play is tied into what is happening in the culture , especially with the whole marriage thing. Amy the whole marriage thing youre very much a part of. And you just get married . Alison i did. I have a ring on my finger. Im happy to be married but still am quite ambivalent about the institution. I got caught up. It is exciting to have this be legal everywhere. I wanted to do it. Amy which brings us back to where we started. The comic strip, the series you did and the book that has come of that. The essential dykes to watch out for. Alison our next musical. [laughter] jeanine the ready in 2017. He ready in 2017. Alison one of the themes was the struggle between people who wanted to assimilate and people who wanted to rebel. They did not want anyone to get married. Sort of an ongoing debate for 25 years in my comic strip. I finally capitulated. Amy we just came from charleston South Carolina. The big funeral president obama gave the eulogy for reverend pinckney. Held at the college of charleston. You have an interesting experience with the college just a year ago. Alison my book was taught at the college of charleston. I made a visit a couple years ago. The college was punished for bringing me to campus, giving students this book to read. The trustees were upset about this and took a big chunk of money away from the college for having done this. There was some outcry about this. The cast of the play and me, lisa and jeanine put on a performance to support the people who were supporting the book. It was really amazing. Jeanine he said, why dont we go down and all of a sudden we did. It was this amazing concert. We raised money for them to fight this legal battle. Amy what was your experience like in South Carolina . Especially the students. Alison people were ecstatic we were there. When i had been their previous it was notable to me this was a very conservative place. Im used to going to college is an talking about my work and im usually warmly received. You could tell charleston was a conservative place. It was not that i was not surprised this happened i was not surprised this happened. Amy as we wrap up, do you feel you know your father more after this journey of the book which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize . The family tragic comic. You feel you know your dad anymore after this journey of writing the book and the book coming a musical and so many millions of people experiencing this . Alison do i know him better . I feel like i have increasing understanding of him all the time as i age. Im now much older than he was when he died. He was 44, im 54. Im in a new part of life he never got to have. I feel like i keep learning more a about my dad. Nermeen one of the things that is striking in the stuff i read about you is that your cat is named after the famous british psychoanalyst. In your more recent work, you reference the work of floyd freud as well as alice miller. How psychoanalysis has helped you to understand yourself and come up with a language to reveal what you would like to reveal about yourself. Alison i did write this memoir about my mother which is also a memoir about therapy. Almost an essay about how therapy works. I would not have been able to do any of this work without a lot of time on the couch. Im a big fan of therapy. Ive been in therapy for most of my adult life. People talk about therapy as being selfindulgent but i feel like it is the most radical thing you can do to get in touch with our autonomy and agency. It made me able to do this work. Amy lisa and jeanine how has this changed your lives . Lisa in some ways it has been in some ways it has not. Im working. For me, some people will say that is so musical theater and i think, what do you mean by that . Jeanine i find musical theater which is brilliant american artform knows no boundaries and what it can do. We cannot condescend to it. I think this has met our time. It is a musical of our time. What are the next stages . What can we express . Global and National Conversation , expressing that in musical theater form. It is not marginalized to a particular type of entertainment. It can be really entertaining and funny and speak of the moment. I think that has happened. That come off for me, is everything that, for me, is everything. I am fiercely proud of this work. Anytime anyone says you wrote on home fun home, i think, yes i did. I wrote it with youthful people and we did it with integrity. With Beautiful People and we did it with integrity. Lisa it was the most glorious experience making it. Similar to alison it has placed me in a more central position in my field. One of the things im interested to pursue is this question of parity in the theater. Women are there are remarkable successes and we are one of them but the numbers for women are topping out at roughly 20 . Jeanine in the theater. Numbers of women playwrights and composers whose work is being produced. Women protagonist in place. Ys. Seems to be the study percent ceiling. I think successes are more vivid it leads us to believe numbers are higher than they actually are. I believe theater is a place where we actually could decide to change it because there are so few production slots. Amy why dont we end with a bechtel test . Alison the bechdel test is a joke from an early dykes to watch out for cartoon. A friend of mine in my karate club told me she would only go see a movie if it satisfied three criteria. It had to have at least does the women in it, they had to speak to at least does the women a in it, they had to speak to each other and they had to speak to each other about something other than a man. [laughter] alison this is a feminist joke from the 80s that was in my comment straight and disappeared comic strip and disappeared. It got resurrected in the early 2000. A Younger Generation of feminists latched onto it because they were being told those things in film school, dont have more than two women characters or hollywood will not by your movie. They started using it as a gauge for movies and it got popularized and is still attached to my name which i feel a little sheepish about. It was my friends idea. I think my friend got it from virginia woolf. It is a nice boiled down version of it. Nermeen the title of your next work is secret to superhuman strength. Alison it is not a very political book so far. It is a book about exercise. A memoir comic about my relationship to exercise. I have not quite figured it out. Nermeen do you exercise . Alison i do. Its how i stay sane. Amy Alison Bechdel along with lisa kron and Jeanine Tesori. If you want a copy of todays show visit democracy now . Org. If you use an iphone check out our app at democracynow. Org ios. Democracy now is produced by mike burke, renee feltz, laura gottesdiener, deena guzder, amy littlefield, nermeen shaikh, sam alcoff, robby karran, steve martinez, hany massoud, Juan Carlos Davila and pedro rodriguez. Mike di fillippo and Miguel Nogueira are our engineers. show, the bush presidency is long gone, but the abuses of his socalled war on terror continue. Andrew cockburn discusses whats wrong with the way the u. S. Fights war. And later in the program we look at the story of fahd ghazy, whos been at guantanamo since he was 17. Hes now 30. All that and a few words from me on drones, the United States, and listening. Welcome to our program