The night Fairfield Arts Council presented the movie, Who Does She Think She Is? we had a lot of excitement brewing amongst women and artists in the area. We are a small town-centric arts Council in Fairfield CT, but the viewers came from miles around. We had 30 reservations. 22 additional-bought tickets the night of the performance at the door. We had 5 students and 5 gratis for a total of 68 attendees, plus a 5 female artist panel and a facilitator, from our board and Professor and Director of performing arts dept. at Fairfield University.

The evening had an overall positive feel to it. You could hear audience reactions throughout the movie, people identifying with and or questioning what was being said on screen.

We started the movie at 7pm, it ran till 9pm, then the panel discussion for about 40. minutes after 9. There was a lot of feedback during the panel discussion. More people stayed throughout the panel discussion than left and had comments till the very end, even though it was late for a Tues. night. My assistant sat in the back and as people trickled out, they made a point of going over to her to thank her and share how much they enjoyed it saying that we should do more of this type of thing.

Whether you agree or disagree, movies like this stir up people’s emotions and cause them to voice their own opinions and reactions. Most people have something to say after viewing a movie, many go to dinner afterward to be able to share their thoughts and ideas about the movie. Having the panel discussion afterwards gave everyone that forum. By using the theatre in our building, FAC brought new people to our space and Fairfield Theatre Co.’s, and gave them a feel of the arts area that we created. It was a very inspiring and empowering evening for all who attended.

PS. I forgot to mention there were only 2 men in the audience.

I would like to thank all the area artists who sat on the panel, Marti LoMonaco, facilitator of the panel and Christine Mihalec for going above and beyond what a volunteer does. She even let us use her director’s chairs on stage.  Thanks it was a very enjoyable experience.