Women Centered Plays

This book is a polemic work which gives an alternative perspective on the portrayal of women in selected plays of the celebrated playwrights Rabindranath Tagore, Girish Karnad and Vijay Tendulkar. The author has attempted to intricately analyse the works of the individual playwrights and various characters in their plays. The author has personally interviewed the playwrights Girish Karnad and Vijay Tendulkar and has extracted relevant portions of the interviews as an appendix the book. The book maybe a useful reference material for scholars, researchers and all graduate and under-graduate students of English literature.

Four remarkable short plays for women by award-winning playwright Jane Shepard. All successfully produced in New York, here are two-character pieces that give actresses the chance to shine, in funny, edgy, and sometimes darkly profound works. Plays include comedy and drama, on feminist themes, as well as issues of survivorship, loss, gender orientation, dating, and imagination.

This important, landmark survey dispels the myth that there aren't any good plays for women.

First full-scale revision since 1987.

"A play in poetry about the lives of five women who don't know one another, nor speak to each other. Rather they're telling their life stories to the audience. Each is facing some crisis in life. Erin speaks bitterly of suicide. Kate, near the end of a life in which she always overcame circumstances, is fearful of death. All the voices speak in counterpoint to one another, leaving an unspoken dialogue as they echo one another. The play moves in counterpoint and resonance until the women speak in chorus their voices exchanging scenes from a common history. Then each sees where her life has moved her. In the end these women's voices are no longer isolated, nor are their lives separate. Voices opened to great audience acclaim in New York City." --Descripción del editor.

"Fine reading and a superb resource." -- Ms. "Highly recommended." -- Library Journal "Perkins has chosen the plays well, and her issue-oriented introduction places the women and their works in a literary and historical context." -- Choice "As well as being centered on the black experience, the plays in Black Female Playwrights are centered on the female experience." -- Voice Literary Supplement "Perkins' anthology is valuable for a number of reasons... Perkins' book (which includes a bibliography of plays and pageants by black women before 1950 as well as a selected bibliography of critical works) is a major help in providing access to [the world of black drama]." -- Theatre Journal The need to acknowledge these works was the impetus behind this volume. Perkins has selected nineteen plays from seven writers who were among the major dramatizers of the black experience during this early period. As forerunners to the activist black theater of the 1950s and 1960s, these plays represent a critical stage in the development of black drama in the United States.

Book DescriptionIn this collection of 25 interviews, theater critic Alexis Greene talks with women who write plays for the American stage. She explores topics such as cultural background, playwriting style, the challenges of sustaining a career, and the relationship between life and art. These in-depth conversations provide unique insights into the work, thought processes, and personalities of an extraordinary group of writers. About the AuthorAlexis Greene is chief drama critic for In Theater magazine. Prior to that she was theater critic for Theater on Ms. Taymor's book, Pride Rock: The Lion King on Broadway (Hyperion). Ms. Greene is co-founder of the national service organization Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA) and has taught theater at Hunter College, Vassar College, and New York University. She holds a Ph.D. in Theatre Criticism from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.Week magazine. Recently she collaborated with Julie Taymor.

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.