Contemporary Women Playwrights Into the 21st Century

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.

Penny Farfan is Professor of Drama at the University of Calgary, Canada. She is currently the Editor of Theatre Journal, and has co-edited special issues of Canadian Theatre Review and South Central Review. She is the author of many articles and book chapters on feminist and queer modernism and on contemporary women playwrights. Her book Women, Modernism and Performance was published by Cambridge University Press in 2004.


Lesley Ferris is Arts and Humanities Distinguished Professor of Theatre at Ohio State University, and currently serves as the Director of Ohio State University/Royal Shakespeare Company Programs. Her books include Acting Women: Images of Women in Theatre and Crossing the Stage: Controversies on Cross Dressing. She has directed more than fifty productions in Britain, South Africa and the United States.

Acknowledgements
Notes on Contributors
Introduction; Penny Farfan and Lesley Ferris
PART I: HISTORIES
1. Feeling the Loss of Feminism: Sarah Kane's Blasted and an Experiential Genealogy of Contemporary Women's Playwriting; Elaine Aston
2. Female Alliances and Women's Histories in Contemporary Mexican and Argentine Drama; Ana Elena Puga
3. Chronic Desires: Theatre's Aching Lesbian Bodies; Sara Warner
4. Women Playwrights in Egypt; Nehad Selaiha with Sarah Enany
5. Transcultural Dramaturgies: Latina Theatre's Third Wave; Natalie Alvarez
6. Black Women Playwrights Making History: Katori Hall's The Mountaintop; Soyica Diggs Colbert
PART II: CONFLICTS
7. The Gendered Terrain in Contemporary Theatre of War by Women; Sharon Friedman
8. Enough! Women Playwrights Confront the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict; Amelia Howe Kritzer
9. Women Playwrights in Post-Apartheid South Africa: Yael Farber, Lara Foot-Newton, and the Call for Ubuntu; Yvette Hutchison
10. Writing Across Our Sea of Islands: Contemporary Women Playwrights from Oceania; Diana Looser
11. Ecodramaturgy in/and Contemporary Women's Playwriting; Wendy Arons and Theresa J. May
PART III: GENRES
12. Making the Bones Sing: The Feminist History Play, 1976–2010; Katherine E. Kelly
13. Performing (Our)Selves: The Role of the Actress in Theatre-History Plays by Women; Lesley Ferris and Melissa Lee
14. Historical Landscapes in Contemporary Plays by Canadian Women; Penny Farfan
15. Asian American Women Playwrights and the Dilemma of the Identity Play: Staging Heterotopic Subjectivities; Esther Kim Lee
16. Risking Shame: Affect, Feminism, Performance; Elin Diamond
Bibliography