“By Women, for Women” is an exciting and innovative new elective in Oak Knoll’s robust Upper School Arts Program. The course presents students with material across various arts disciplines created by women to be performed by women while offering unique perspectives for consumption by a more diverse audience. The course typifies a bold and empowering curriculum that might only be possible in an all-girls environment.

Upper School Music Teacher Sascha Sternecker was inspired to adapt the course for Oak Knoll based initially on the doctoral thesis work of Dr. Shelbie Wahl-Fouts, a professor at Sternecker’s alma mater, Hollins University. 

“Dr. Shelbie Wahl-Fouts was my choir professor while I was at Hollins,” Sternecker explains. “Her thesis focused on choral music written by women composers for women singers. I admired her work and focus on celebrating women in the profession.”

Although designed as a music elective, Sternecker also introduces the class to works created by women playwrights. She recently called upon her Hollins roots to immerse the class in the play Decision Heights by her former classmate Meredith Dayna Levy. Winner of the 2013 Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, the story highlights the friendship and the essential role women played during the Second World War as Women Airforce Service Pilots.

“It fit perfectly because not only was it engaging and uplifting material, Levy is a contemporary playwright,” said Sternecker.”Often, we read plays by deceased authors. I know Meredith personally, so I figured there would be an opportunity for her to connect with the students, and it’s about women in what society traditionally considers male-dominated roles.”

Initially, the students read aloud through the play, taking various roles. They took parts and experimented with vocal performance styles, including Southern accents. Next, Sternecker arranged for the class to participate in a Zoom session with the playwright, during which they had the opportunity to ask probing questions about the characters, staging, symbolism, and common themes.

“I hope the common theme that resonates is this idea that you can build a family out of friends to carry you through life in a way that maybe your blood family can’t,” Levy offered. “Friendship families are just as valid. Also, in competitive environments, women can still be supportive as friends.”

Sternecker hopes her students will take away the notion that although roles for women in the performing arts are growing with new playwrights on the horizon, they have traditionally been fewer than those for males. For example, only 18 percent of Shakespeare’s characters are female. 
As a result, women entering the profession push themselves to compete for available spots. By highlighting powerful stories created by women, for women, students can grow in optimism about the future of women in the arts and grow in their mutual supportiveness.

“I want my students to be aware of how many wonderful places there are for women in the arts,” concluded Sternecker.  “Women supporting women is very powerful, especially as teenagers. At this age, there is a lot of competition and comparison. The more that they can learn to lift each other, be supportive, and engage in those friendships, I think it helps them not just in terms of their achievements scholastically, on the sports field, and stage, but in terms of their sense of self and their mental wellbeing.”