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Women, Collective Creation, and Devised Performance
by Kathryn Mederos Syssoyeva Scott ProudfitThis book explores therole and centrality of women in the development of collaborative theatrepractice, alongside the significance of collective creation and devising in thedevelopment of the modern theatre. Tracing a web of women theatremakers in Europeand North America, this book explores the connections between early twentiethcentury collective theatre practices such as workers theatre and the dramaticplay movement, and the subsequent spread of theatrical devising. Chaptersinvestigate the work of the Settlement Houses, total theatre in 1920s' France,the mid-century avant-garde and New Left collectives, the nomadic performancesof Europe's transnational theatre troupes, street-theatre protests, andcontemporary devising. In so doing, the book further elucidates a history of moderntheatre begun in A History of CollectiveCreation (2013) and CollectiveCreation in Contemporary Performance (2013), in which the seeminglymarginal and disparate practices of collective creation and devising arerevealed as central--and women theatremakers revealed as progenitors of thesepractices.
Women Dramatists, Humor, and the French Stage
by Joyce JohnstonFilling a critical void, this book examines French women dramatists of the nineteenth century who managed to have their works staged prior to the lifting of censorship laws in 1864. Sophie de Bawr (1773 1860), Sophie Gay (1776 1852), Virginie Ancelot (1792 1875), and Delphine Gay de Girardin (1804 1855) all staged successful plays at Paris's top venues (Theatre Francais and Odeon) or at other selective theatres (Ambigu-Comique, Vaudeville, Gymnase) during this period without the aid or protection of a male coauthor. Between 1802 and 1855, all four of these dramatists were heavily involved in the literary scene of their day and hosted their own salons, venues essential for any male author wishing to see his works published and accepted among the public. While not always directly engaged in the politics of the day in their theater, these dramatists were aware of and influenced by the public sphere. Though none staged what today's critics would refer to as overtly feminist drama, through their use of humor, Bawr, Gay, Ancelot, and Girardin all cast aspersion upon patriarchal dominance and reconstructed ideals of womanhood that rejected traditional submissive roles. "
Women in American Theatre (3rd Edition)
by Helen Krich Chinoy Linda Walsh JenkinsNewly revised and expanded, Women in American Theatre is a unique resource that challenges preconceptions by exploring and celebrating the heritage of women in American theater. In this new edition, the editors have collected a series of interviews and essays that address the contributions of women to theater, the recurring patterns of their participation and the problems as well as successes they have encountered in developing their careers. Helen Krich Chinoy is professor emeritus of theater at Smith College, where she taught for over 25 years. Linda Walsh Jenkins formerly was a theater professor at Northwestern University and a dramaturg in Chicago theater.
Women in Congress
by Jules TascaA Hilarious version of Aristophanes' Greek classic. Praxagora, the leader of the women of Athens, plots to take over the government which is run by men and replace it with a new order run by women. Praxagora has the women of Athens dress up as men and vote in congress to turn over the reins of leadership to the women. When this measure is passed, the women unanimously vote Praxagora in as the Chief Executrix. Praxagora and the women then proceed to turn the Greek world topsy turvy legislating free love, male female role reversal and a communistic utopia that brings on the unlikely proceedings to a funny festive conclusion.
Women in Dramatic Place and Time: Contemporary Female Characters on Stage
by Geraldine CousinFirst published in 1996. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
Women in Love: And Other Dramatic Writings (Books That Changed the World)
by Larry KramerScreenplays and scripts from the playwright of The Normal Heart.&“A valuable showcase of an important writer&’s early career.&”—The Bay Area Reporter Larry Kramer has been described by Susan Sontag as &“one of America&’s most valuable troublemakers.&” As Frank Rich writes in his Foreword to this collection of writings for the screen and stage, &“his plays are almost journalistic in their observation of the fine-grained documentary details of life . . . that may well prove timeless.&” The title work, the Oscar-nominated screenplay for Women in Love, is a movie &“as sensuous as anything you&’ve probably ever seen on film&” (The New York Times). The screenplay is accompanied by Kramer&’s reflections on the history of the production, sure to be of interest to any student of film. This volume also includes several early plays, Sissies&’ Scrapbook, A Minor Dark Age, and the political farce Just Say No, illuminating the development of one of our most important literary figures. &“Since his screenplay for Women in Love, Kramer has been a prophet of psychic health and catastrophe among us.&” (from The American Academy of Arts and Letters citation). Women in Love &“A visual stunner and very likely the most sensual film ever made.&”—New York Daily News &“Throughout Larry Kramer&’s literate scenario, the Lawrentian themes blaze and gutter. The sooty mind-crushing coal mines that Lawrence knew like the back of his hand are re-created in all their malignance. The annealing quality of sex is exhibited in the most erotic—and tasteful—lust scenes anywhere in contemporary film.&”—Time
Women in Roman Republican Drama
by Dorota Dutsch Sharon L. James David KonstanLatin plays were written for audiences whose gender perspectives and expectations were shaped by life in Rome, and the crowds watching the plays included both female citizens and female slaves. Relationships between men and women, ideas of masculinity and femininity, the stock characters of dowered wife and of prostitute all of these are frequently staged in Roman tragedies and comedies. This is the first book to confront directly the role of women in Roman Republican plays of all genres, as well as to examine the role of gender in the influence of this tradition on later dramatists from Shakespeare to Sondheim. "
Women in Russian Theatre: The Actress in the Silver Age (Gender in Performance)
by Catherine SchulerWomen in Russian Theatre is a fascinating feminist counterpoint to the established area of Russian theatre populated by male artists such as Stanislavsky, Chekov and Meyerhold. With unprecedented access to newly-opened files in Russia, Catherine Schuler brings to light the actresses who had an impact upon Russian modernist theatre. Schuler brings to light the extradordinary lives and work of eight Russian actresses who flourished on the stage between the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.
Women in Theatre 2#3 (Contemporary Theatre Review Ser.)
by Julia PascalFirst Published in 1996. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
Women, Method Acting, and the Hollywood Film
by Keri WalshWomen, Method Acting, and the Hollywood Film is the first study dedicated to understanding the work of female Method actors on film. While Method acting on film has typically been associated with the explosive machismo of actors like Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro, this book explores an alternate tradition within the Method—the work that women from the Actors Studio did in Hollywood. Covering the period from the end of the Second World War until the 1970s, this study shows how the women associated with the Actors Studio increasingly used Method acting in ways that were compatible with their burgeoning feminist political commitments and developed a style of feminist Method acting. The book examines the complex intersection of Method acting, sexuality, and gender by analyzing performances such as Kim Hunter’s in A Streetcar Named Desire, Julie Harris’s in The Member of the Wedding, Shelley Winters’s in The Big Knife, Geraldine Page’s in Sweet Bird of Youth, and Jane Fonda’s in Coming Home. Challenging the longstanding assumption that Method acting’s approaches were harmful to women and incompatible with feminism, this book argues that some of Hollywood’s most interesting female actors, and leading feminists, emerged from the Actors Studio in the period between the 1950s and the 1970s. Written for students and scholars of Film Studies, Cultural Studies, Theatre and Performance Studies, and Gender Studies, Women, Method Acting, and the Hollywood Film reshapes the way we think of a central strain in American screen acting, and in doing so, allows women a new stake in that tradition.
The Women of Shakespeare (Routledge Revivals)
by Frank HarrisFrank Harris argues that the way women are presented in Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets are a reflection of the real-life women in his life, namely his wife, mother, mistress and daughter. Originally published in 1911, The Women of Shakespeare also analyses the traditional criticism of the time and places his own views in this context. This title will be of interest to students of English Literature.
Women of Trakhis
by SophoclesAmong the most celebrated plays of ancient Athens, Women of Trakhis is one of seven surviving dramas by the great Greek playwright, Sophocles, now available from Harper Perennial in a vivid and dynamic new translation by award-winning poet Robert Bagg. A powerful drama centered on a desperate wife’s attempts to hold onto her wandering husband, the great Herakles, Women of Trakhis is the tragic tale of how age-old jealousy takes down one of the ancient world’s most feared and storied heroes. This is Sophocles, vibrant and alive, for a new generation.
Women of Will
by Tina PackerFrom one of the country's foremost experts on Shakespeare and theatre arts, actor, director, and master teacher Tina Packer offers an exploration--fierce, funny, fearless--of the women of Shakespeare's plays. A profound, and profoundly illuminating, book that gives us the playwright's changing understanding of the feminine and reveals some of his deepest insights. Packer, with expert grasp and perception, constructs a radically different understanding of power, sexuality, and redemption. Beginning with the early comedies (The Taming of the Shrew, Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Comedy of Errors), Packer shows that Shakespeare wrote the women of these plays as shrews to be tamed or as sweet little things with no definable independent thought, virgins on the pedestal. The women of the histories (the three parts of Henry VI; Richard III) are, Packer shows, much more interesting, beginning with Joan of Arc, possibly the first woman character Shakespeare ever created. In her opening scene, she's wonderfully alive--a virgin, true, sent from heaven, a country girl going to lead men bravely into battle, the kind of girl Shakespeare could have known and loved in Stratford. Her independent resolution collapses within a few scenes, as Shakespeare himself suddenly turns against her, and she yields to the common caricature of his culture and becomes Joan the Enemy, the Warrior Woman, the witch; a woman to be feared and destroyed . . . As Packer turns her attention to the extraordinary Juliet, the author perceives a large shift. Suddenly Shakespeare's women have depth of character, motivation, understanding of life more than equal to that of the men; once Juliet has led the way, the plays are never the same again. As Shakespeare ceases to write about women as predictable caricatures and starts writing them from the inside, embodying their voices, his women become as dimensional, spirited, spiritual, active, and sexual as any of his male characters. Juliet is just as passionately in love as Romeo--risking everything, initiating marriage, getting into bed, fighting courageously when her parents threaten to disown her--and just as brave in facing death when she discovers Romeo is dead. And, wondering if Shakespeare himself fell in love (Packer considers with whom, and what she may have been like), the author observes that from Juliet on, Shakespeare writes the women as if he were a woman, giving them desires, needs, ambition, insight.Women of Will follows Shakespeare's development as a human being, from youth to enlightened maturity, exploring the spiritual journey he undertook. Packer shows that Shakespeare's imagination, mirrored and revealed in his female characters, develops and deepens until finally the women, his creative knowledge, and a sense of a larger spiritual good come together in the late plays, making clear that when women and men are equal in status and sexual passion, they can--and do--change the world. Part master class, part brilliant analysis--Women of Will is all inspiring discovery.From the Hardcover edition.
Women of Words in Le Morte Darthur
by Siobhán M. WyattOffering a new reading of Malory's famed text, Le Morte Darthur, this book provides the first full-length survey of the alterations Malory made to female characters in his source texts. Through detailed comparisons with both Old French and Middle English material, Siobh#65533;n M. Wyatt discusses how Malory radically altered his French and English source texts to create a gendered pattern in the reliability of speech, depicting female discourse as valuable and truthful. Malory's authorial crafting indicates his preference for a certain "type" of female character: self-governing, opinionated, and strong. Simultaneously, the portrayal of this very readable "type" yields characterization. While late medieval court records indicate an increasingly negative attitude towards female speech and a tendency to punish vociferous women as "scolds," Malory makes the words of chiding damsels constructive. While his contemporary writers suppress the powers of magical women, Malory empowers his enchantress characters; while the authors of his French source texts accentuate Guinevere's flaws, Malory portrays her with sympathy.
Women On Fire
by Irene O' GardenMonologues Characters: 1-12female . Unit set . This evening of twelve emotionally charged monologues starred Judith Ivey Off Broadway, where its run was extended twice. From ad exec to Midwest mom to care-giver to construction worker, each character is on fire in her own way - with passion, fear, self-discovery, even shopping! Exploring the breadth of women's issues with humor and wisdom, the monologues offer excellent roles for one or more mature actresses. Women on Fire earned the highest rating for audience satisfaction from the Wall Street Journal/Zagat Theatre Survey. . "Bewitching ... astounding ... heartbreaking." - The New York Times ". "Heartwarming, riveting drama." - NYTheatre.com . "Fresh, spirited ... plumbing the secret depths of ordinary women." - Backstage. . "Hot pick." - New York Newsday . . "A rare and exquisite evening.... Lyrical, touching substantial and ultimately profound.... Cancel all other appointments and treat yourself to this extraordinary evening of sublime writing." -Southampton Press . "Passionate and insightful.... Each character is memorable." - Riverhead Independent
Women on the Stage in Early Modern France: 1540-1750
by Virginia ScottFocusing on actresses in France during the early modern period, Virginia Scott examines how the stereotype of the actress has been constructed. The study then moves beyond that stereotype to detail the reality of the personal and artistic lives of women on the French stage, from the almost unknown Marie Ferr_ - who signed a contract for 12 livres a year in 1545 to perform the 'antiquailles de Rome or other histories, moralities, farces, and acrobatics' in the provinces - to the queens of the eighteenth-century Paris stage, whose 'adventures' have overshadowed their artistic triumphs. The book also investigates the ways in which actresses made invaluable contributions to the development of the French theatre in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and looks at the 'afterlives' of such women as Armande B_jart, Marquise Du Parc, Charlotte Desmares, Adrienne Lecouvreur, and Hippolyte Clairon in biographies, plays, and films.
Women, Politics and Performance in South African Theatre Today: Volume 2
by Goodman LFirst Published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
Women, Politics and Performance in South African Theatre Today Vol 3: Volume 3 (Contemporary Theatre Review Ser. #Vols. 9, Pts. 3.)
by Lizbeth GoodmanThis title available in eBook format. Click here for more information.Visit our eBookstore at: www.ebookstore.tandf.co.uk.
Women, Rhetoric, and Drama in Early Modern Italy
by Alexandra CollerSixteenth-century Italy witnessed the rebirth of comedy, tragedy, and tragicomedy in the pastoral mode. Traditionally, we think of comedy and tragedy as remakes of ancient models, and tragicomedy alone as the invention of the moderns. Women, Rhetoric, and Drama in Early Modern Italy suggests that all three genres were, in fact, remarkably new, if dramatists’ intriguingly sympathetic portrayals of and sustained investment in women as vibrant and dynamic characters of the early modern stage are taken into account. This study examines the role of rhetoric and gender in early modern Italian drama, in itself and in order to explore its complex interrelationship with the rise of women writers and the role women played in Italian culture and society, while at the same time demonstrating just how closely intertwined history, culture, and dramatic writing are. Author Alexandra Coller focuses on the scripted/erudite plays of the sixteenth and first half of the seventeenth centuries, which, she argues, are indispensable for a balanced view of the history of drama and its place within contemporary literary and women’s studies. As this book reveals, the ascendancy of comedy, tragedy, and tragicomedy in the vernacular seems to have been not only inextricably linked to but also dependent on the rise of women as prominent stage characters and, eventually, as authors in their own right.
Women Talk Back to Shakespeare: Contemporary Adaptations and Appropriations (New Interdisciplinary Approaches to Early Modern Culture)
by Jo Eldridge CarneyThis study explores more recent adaptations published in the last decade whereby women—either authors or their characters—talk back to Shakespeare in a variety of new ways. "Talking back to Shakespeare", a term common in intertextual discourse, is not a new phenomenon, particularly in literature. For centuries, women writers—novelists, playwrights, and poets—have responded to Shakespeare with inventive and often transgressive retellings of his work. Thus far, feminist scholarship has examined creative responses to Shakespeare by women writers through the late twentieth century. This book brings together the "then" of Shakespeare with the "now" of contemporary literature by examining how many of his plays have cultural currency in the present day. Adoption and surrogate childrearing; gender fluidity; global pandemics; imprisonment and criminal justice; the intersection of misogyny and racism—these are all pressing social and political concerns, but they are also issues that are central to Shakespeare’s plays and the early modern period. By approaching material with a fresh interdisciplinary perspective, Women Talk Back to Shakespeare is an excellent tool for both scholars and students concerned with adaptation, women and gender, and intertextuality of Shakespeare’s plays.
Women Warriors in Romantic Drama
by Wendy C. NielsenWomen Warriors in Romantic Drama examines a recurring figure that appears in French, British, and German drama between 1789 and 1830: the woman warrior. The term itself, “woman warrior,” refers to quasi-historical female soldiers or assassins. Women have long contributed to military campaigns as canteen women. Camp followers ranged from local citizenry to spouses and prostitutes, and on occasion, women assisted men in combat. However, the woman warrior is a romantic figure, meaning a fanciful ideal, despite the reality of women’s participation in select scenes of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. The central claim of this book is the woman warrior is a way for some women writers (Olympe de Gouges, Christine Westphalen, Karoline von Günderrode, and Mary Robinson) to explore the case for extending citizenship to women. This project focuses primarily on theater for the reason that the stage simulates the public world that female dramatists and their warriors seek to inhabit. Novels and poetry clearly belong to the realm of fiction, but when audiences see women fighting onstage, they confront concrete visions of impossible women. I examine dramas in the context of their performance and production histories in order to answer why so many serious dramas featuring women warriors fail to find applause, or fail to be staged at all. Dramas about women warriors seem to sometimes contribute to the argument for female citizenship when they take the form of tragedy, because the deaths of female protagonists in such plays often provoke consideration about women’s place in society. Consequently, where we find women playing soldiers in various entertainment venues, farce and satire often seem to dominate, although this book points to some exceptions. Censorship and audience demand for comedies made producing tragedies difficult for female playwrights, who battled additional obstacles to fashioning their careers. I compare male (Edmund Eyre, Heinrich von Kleist) and female writers’ dramatizations of the woman warrior. This analysis shows that the difficult project of getting audiences to take women warriors seriously resembles women writers’ struggles to enter the ostensibly male domains of tragedy and the public sphere. Published by University of Delaware Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press.
Women Writing and Directing in the USA: A Stage of Our Own
by Kiara PipinoWomen Writing and Directing in the USA: A Stage of Our Own features interviews with some of the most successful theatre artists currently working on and off Broadway and beyond. The book provides an insight on what it means and what it takes to be a successful female-identifying playwright and director in the USA, where the professional theatrical landscape is still mostly dominated by straight white men. The interviews explore a wide range of themes, including if and how the artists’ female perspective influenced their art, the social and cultural significance of their work, and how theatre and women working in theatre can participate in awakening greater social awareness. Readers will learn about some of the most current and relevant American theatre artists, such as Young Jean Lee, Pam MacKinnon, Dominique Morisseau, Rachel Chavkin, and Martyna Majok. Written for students in directing and playwriting courses, Women Writing and Directing in the USA: A Stage of Our Own features inspirational and informative stories that will help young theatre artists find and pursue their artistic voices.
Women's Activist Theatre in Jamaica and South Africa: Gender, Race, and Performance Space (NWSA / UIP First Book Prize)
by Nicosia M. ShakesTheater is an essential theoretical and practical site for forging Black radical thought, Africana feminisms, and womanism. Nicosia M. Shakes draws on ethnographic research in Jamaica and South Africa to analyze the vital relationship between activism and theater production. Concentrating on four performance events, Shakes situates the work of theater groups and projects within a trajectory of women-led social justice movements established in Jamaica, South Africa, and globally from the early 2000s to the present. Her analysis reveals movements driven by Black women’s artistic, intellectual, and organizational labor and focused on issues that range from sexual violence to reproductive justice to the spatial manifestations of racial, gender, and economic oppression. Shakes shows how theater’s political and pedagogical roles become entangled with histories and geographies of oppression and resistance; the identities and connections created by movements of people in the context of colonial and settler colonial histories; and ideas of womanism and feminism.
Women's Intercultural Performance
by Julie Holledge Joanne TompkinsThis is the first in-depth examination of contemporary intercultural performance by women around the world. Contemporary feminist performance is explored in the contexts of current intercultural practices, theories and debates. Holledge and Tompkins provide ways of thinking about and analysing contemporary performance and representations of the performing, female, culturally-marked body. The book includes discussions of: * ritual performance by women from Central Australia and Korea * the cultural exchange of A Doll's House and Antigone * plays from Algeria, South Africa and Ghana * the work of the Takarazuka revue company * the market forces that govern the distribution of women and women's performance. This is an essential read for anyone studying or interested in women's performance.
Women's Playwriting and the Women's Movement, 1890-1918 (Routledge Advances in Theatre & Performance Studies)
by Anna FarkasThe influence of the women’s movement has long been a scholarly priority in the study of British women’s drama of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but previous scholarship has largely clustered around two events: the New Woman in the 1890s and the suffrage campaign in the years before the First World War. Women’s Playwriting and the Women’s Movement, 1890–1918 is the first designated study of British women’s drama from a period of exceptional productivity and innovation for female playwrights. Both the British theatre and women’s position within British society underwent fundamental changes in this period, and this book shows how female dramatists carefully negotiated their position in the heated debates about women’s rights that occurred at this time, while staking out a place for themselves in an evolving theatrical landscape. Farkas also identifies the women’s movement as a key influence on the development of female-authored drama between 1890 and 1918, but argues that scholarly prioritizing of the "radicalism" of work associated with the New Woman and the suffrage campaign has had a distorting effect in the past. Ideal for scholars of British and Victorian theatre, Women’s Playwriting and the Women’s Movement, 1890–1918 offers a new perspective which emphasizes the complexity of women playwrights’ engagement with first-wave feminism and links it to the diversification of the British theatre in this period.