Contemporary Women Playwrights

Breaking new ground in this century, this wide-ranging collection of essays is the first of its kind to address the work of contemporary international women playwrights. The book considers the work of established playwrights such as Caryl Churchill, Marie Clements, Lara Foot-Newton, Maria Irene Fornes, Sarah Kane, Lisa Kron, Young Jean Lee, Lynn Nottage, Suzan-Lori Parks, Djanet Sears, Caridad Svich, and Judith Thompson, but it also foregrounds important plays by many emerging writers. Divided into three sections-Histories, Conflicts, and Genres-the book explores such topics as the feminist history play, solo performance, transcultural dramaturgies, the identity play, the gendered terrain of war, and eco-drama, and encompasses work from the United States, Canada, Latin America, Oceania, South Africa, Egypt, and the United Kingdom. With contributions from leading international scholars and an introductory overview of the concerns and challenges facing women playwrights in this new century, Contemporary Women Playwrights explores the diversity and power of women's playwriting since 1990, highlighting key voices and examining crucial critical and theoretical developments within the field.

Explores how women playwrights illuminate the contemporary world and contribute to its reshaping

In this collection of interviews, 30 women discuss some of the important issues in theater today: the position of women in the theater, gender bias in reviewing, censorship and self-censorship, racism, and women writing about domestic violence, birth and other taboo subjects. They also deal with the idea of a female aesthetic, the sources of women dramatists' imagery and language, their place as women playwrights in the tradition of women's writing. These playwrights reflect a complex, resonant impulse to illuminate the varied spectrum of female experience, and also cherish daring, innovative, challenging political plays that represent a successful rebellion against their own censorial impulses. The interviewees cover a wide spectrum of American, British, and international playwrights, including Marsha Norman and Beth Henley, Emily Mann, Caryl Churchill, Ntozake Shange, and China's woman dramatist Madame Bai Fengxi. ISBN 0-688-04405-0: $25.00.

In this collection of interviews, 30 women discuss some of the important issues in theater today: the position of women in the theater, gender bias in reviewing, censorship and self-censorship, racism, and women writing about domestic violence, birth and other taboo subjects. They also deal with the idea of a female aesthetic, the sources of women dramatists' imagery and language, their place as women playwrights in the tradition of women's writing. These playwrights reflect a complex, resonant impulse to illuminate the varied spectrum of female experience, and also cherish daring, innovative, challenging political plays that represent a successful rebellion against their own censorial impulses. The interviewees cover a wide spectrum of American, British, and international playwrights, including Marsha Norman and Beth Henley, Emily Mann, Caryl Churchill, Ntozake Shange, and China's woman dramatist Madame Bai Fengxi. ISBN 0-688-04405-0: $25.00.

This Companion, first published in 2000, addresses the work of women playwrights in Britain throughout the twentieth century. The chapters explore the historical and theatrical contexts in which women have written for the theatre and examine the work of individual playwrights. A chronological section on playwriting from the 1920s to the 1970s is followed by chapters which raise issues of nationality and identity. Later sections question accepted notions of the canon and include chapters on non-mainstream writing, including black and lesbian performance. Each section is introduced by the editors, who provide a narrative overview of a century of women's drama and a thorough chronology of playwriting, set in political context. The collection includes essays on the individual writers Caryl Churchill, Sarah Daniels, Pam Gems and Timberlake Wertenbaker as well as extensive documentation of contemporary playwriting in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, including figures such as Liz Lochhead and Anne Devlin.

This volume addresses the work of women playwrights throughout the history of the American theatre, from the early pioneers to contemporary feminists. Each chapter introduces the reader to the work of one or more playwrights and to a way of thinking about plays. Together they cover significant writers such as Rachel Crothers, Susan Glaspell, Lillian Hellman, Sophie Treadwell, Lorraine Hansberry, Alice Childress, Megan Terry, Ntozake Shange, Adrienne Kennedy, Wendy Wasserstein, Marsha Norman, Beth Henley and Maria Irene Fornes. Playwrights are discussed in the context of topics such as early comedy and melodrama, feminism and realism, the Harlem Renaissance, the feminist resurgence of the 1970s and feminist dramatic theory. A detailed chronology and illustrations enhance the volume, which also includes bibliographical essays on recent criticism and on African-American women playwrights before 1930.

Four Caribbean Women Playwrights aims to expand Caribbean and postcolonial studies beyond fiction and poetry by bringing to the fore innovative women playwrights from the French Caribbean: Ina Césaire, Maryse Condé, Gerty Dambury, Suzanne Dracius. Focussing on the significance of these women writers to the French and French Caribbean cultural scenes, the author illustrates how their work participates in global trends within postcolonial theatre. The playwrights discussed here all address socio-political issues, gender stereotypes, and the traumatic slave and colonial pasts of the Caribbean people. Investigating a range of plays from the 1980s to the early 2010s, including some works that have not yet featured in academic studies of Caribbean theatre, and applying theories of postcolonial theatre and local Caribbean theatre criticism, Four Caribbean Women Playwrights should appeal to scholars and students in the Humanities, and to all those interested in the postcolonial, the Caribbean, and contemporary theatre.

Creating a Profession: Disparate Voices of Indian Women Playwrights is a collection of plays demonstrating a broad variety of contemporary perspectives as told through the eyes of the women who created them. The anthology is enhanced by significant interviews between each writer and the editor and an introduction filled with information about the profession of playwriting throughout India. Details include the challenges of multiple languages throughout the country, the lack of funding and rehearsal spaces, the role of censorship, the need for specific training, and the influence of gender upon these writer’s ability to find what one woman called “brain space” given the continuation of traditional gender expectations.