Stove’s Goes Digital With Feminist Comedy Show

‘FemCom’ isn’t the only show on campus impacted by the suspension of in-person classes

COURTESY OF NATALIE GRAMMER

It was important to the cast of FemCom to celebrate and show off the work they’d done for the show, despite the class cancellations.

By GILLIAN RUSSO

Though Fordham suspended all in-person classes and campus activities as of March 9, Stove’s Cabin Crew will still hold its annual Feminist Comedy Show, “FemCom,” on Wednesday, March 11, albeit remotely.

The event, originally slated to take place in G76, was moved to the McMahon eighth-floor lounge following the president’s announcement, according to the club’s Instagram story. Hours later, Stove’s updated its story, stating that the in-person show was canceled entirely. FemCom will instead be performed at one of the cast members’ apartments and streamed on social media, according to Stove’s Treasurer Natalie Grammer, Fordham College at Lincoln Center ’21.

FemCom is the club’s annual showcase of female-identifying and non-binary performers. It was started to “give them a supportive space to try out new forms of comedy that they’ve never done before,” according to Grammer, since “the comedy industry has been historically dominated by cis men.” She cited this as the reason Stove’s decided not to cancel the show entirely.

“The women in this year’s show have worked really hard to write some great content to perform … and we want them to be able to show it off,” Grammer said. “Basically, we didn’t want to see the show get sidelined or put off in any way. It’s a lot of fun, it’s super supportive, and it’s kind of like well, yes, it’s coronavirus, but we’re going to do everything in our power to celebrate these hardworking and funny women.”

“We’re worried about signing our commuter performers and club members coming to the show into McMahon,” Grammer said. “So people going to the actual show are cast members, club members and then a few invited guests … Then the thought is to live stream from the apartment onto our Instagram and Facebook.”

Grammer said the club members also plan to post live updates from FemCom to the Stove’s Instagram story, as they do for all their shows, and upload videos of their performances to the club’s YouTube channel so people can watch the show at a later date.

Stove’s is not the only performance organization whose shows have been affected. According to Fordham Theatre Interim Managing Director Stefanie Bubnis, the program has had to put one of its studio shows, “Madeline May Saves the World,” on hold. It was originally scheduled for performance from March 11-13.

Fordham Theatre’s next mainstage show, “To the Bone,” is set to open April 1. All rehearsals are canceled for the week, but the program has no definite plans for further adjustments, according to Bubnis.

“We are hoping to reschedule all events and shows once we have a hard return date,” she said. “We are basically in a holding pattern this week and over Spring Break. We are going to reassess the situation as more details become available to us about the long term University plans.”

She said the program is currently working on contingency plans and will make updates available through the program’s website.

The Fordham/Ailey program also canceled its March 9 benefit concert following the initial suspension of campus activities on March 7.