Feminist Futures?
Performance Interventions Series Editors: Elaine Aston, University of Lancaster, and Bryan Reynolds, University of California, Irvine Performance Interventions is a series of monographs and essay collections on theatre, performance, and visual culture that share an underlying commitment to the radical and political potential of the arts in our contemporary moment, or give consideration to performance and to visual culture from the past deemed crucial to a social and political present. Performance Interventions moves transversally across artistic and ideological boundaries to publish work that promotes dialogue between practitioners and academics, and interactions between performance communities, educational institutions, and academic disciplines. Titles include: Alan Ackerman and Martin Puchner (editors) AGAINST THEATRE Creative Destructions on the Modernist Stage Elaine Aston and Geraldine Harris (editors) FEMINIST FUTURES? Theatre, Performance, Theory Leslie Hill and Helen Paris PERFORMANCE AND PLACE Forthcoming titles: Lynette Goddard STAGING BLACK FEMINISMS Identity, Politics, Performance Amelia M. Kritzer POLITICAL THEATRE IN POST-THATCHER BRITAIN Performance Interventions Series Standing Order ISBN 978-1-4039-4443-6 Hardback 978-1-4039-4444-3 Paperback (outside North America only) You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a standing order. Please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to us at the address below with your name and address, the title of the series and the ISBN quoted above. Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS, England
Feminist Futures? Theatre, Performance, Theory Edited by Elaine Aston and Geraldine Harris
Introduction, selection & editorial material Elaine Aston & Geraldine Harris 2006 All other chapters Palgrave Macmillan Ltd 2006 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2006 978-1-4039-4532-7 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2006 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 978-1-4039-4533-4 ISBN 978-0-230-55494-8 (ebook) DOI 10.1057/9780230554948 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Feminist futures? : theatre, performance, theory / edited by Elaine Aston and Geraldine Harris. p. cm. (Performance interventions) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Women in the theater. 2. Feminist theater. 3. Feminist drama, English History and criticism. I. Aston, Elaine. II. Harris, Geraldine (Geraldine Mary) III. Series. PN1590.W64F44 2006 792.082 dc22 2005055268 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06
To feminist futures
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Contents Acknowledgements Notes on Contributors ix x 1 Feminist Futures and the Possibilities of We? 1 Elaine Aston and Geraldine (Gerry) Harris 2 Navigating Postfeminism: Writing Out of the Box 17 Janelle Reinelt 3 Citizenship and Gender in Asian-British Performance 34 Meenakshi Ponnuswami 4 Curious Feminists 56 Leslie Hill and Helen Paris 5 Bad Girls and Sick Boys : New Women Playwrights and the Future of Feminism 71 Elaine Aston 6 Predicting the Past: Histories and Futures in the Work of Women Directors 88 Aoife Monks 7 The Screens of Time: Feminist Memories and Hopes 105 Sue-Ellen Case 8 Africa Lives On in We: Histories and Futures of Black Women Artists 118 SuAndi 9 The Politics of the Personal: Autobiography in Performance 130 Dee Heddon 10 Performing in Glass: Reproduction, Technology, Performance and the Bio-Spectacular 149 Anna Furse vii
viii Contents 11 It is Good to Look at One s Own Shadow : A Women s International Theatre Festival and Questions for International Feminism 169 Elaine Aston, Gerry Harris and Lena Šimie 12 Gendering Space: The Desert and the Psyche in Contemporary Australian Theatre 190 Joanne Tompkins 13 Angry Again? New York Women Artists and Feminist Futures 209 Lenora Champagne, Clarinda Mac Low, Ruth Margraff and Fiona Templeton Bibliography 223 Index 234
Acknowledgements This collection would not have been possible without the funding assistance of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the inspiration from artists and participants in our Women s Writing for Performance project. A big thank you to our administrator Susie Wood for her assistance and her patience. A special note of thanks to all the scholars and practitioners who got involved in and contributed to this project especially artists Lenora Champagne, Clarinda Mac Low, Ruth Margraff and Fiona Templeton, who turned out on a freezing-cold Sunday afternoon in New York to talk feminist futures. Also thanks to all of our colleagues in Theatre Studies and the Nuffield Theatre and to Mike Bowen of the Lancaster TV unit for his patience and good humour in helping with audio technology. Finally: for Gerry, as ever, thanks to Colin Knapp (for the sentimental, which excludes Colin himself see Jacques Brel, La chanson des vieux amants). For Elaine a thank you to my mother June for her continued love and support, and to Maggie and Daniel for surviving burnt dinners and office days, but without whom nothing would make any sense at all. ix
Notes on Contributors Elaine Aston is Professor of Contemporary Performance at Lancaster University where she researches and teaches feminist theory, theatre and performance. Her authored studies include Sarah Bernhardt: A French Actress on the English Stage (Berg, 1989), Theatre as Sign-System with George Savona (Routledge, 1991), An Introduction to Feminism and Theatre (Routledge, 1995), Caryl Churchill (Northcote, 1997; 2001), Feminist Theatre Practice (Routledge, 1999) and Feminist Views on the English Stage (Cambridge, 2003). With Gerry Harris she is currently leading a three-year AHRC-funded project, Women s Writing for Performance. Sue-Ellen Case is Professor and Chair of Critical Studies in Theatre at UCLA. Her books include Feminism and Theatre (Routledge,1988), The Domain-Matrix: Performing Lesbian at the End of Print Culture (Indiana University Press, 1996) and From Alchemy to Avatar: Theatre, Science and the Virtual (2006). She has edited several critical anthologies and play collections including Split Britches: Lesbian Practice/Feminist Performance (Routledge, 1996), Performing Feminisms (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990) and a series of critical collections entitled Unnatural Acts: Theorizing the Performative (Indiana University Press). She is also the author of numerous articles on German theatre, feminist performance and lesbian theory. Anna Furse is an award-winning director and writer of over 50 textdriven and devised works. A classically trained dancer influenced by study with Peter Brook, Grotowski and new dance forms, she has developed her own training methodology that creates theatre from the body outwards. Artistic directorships include the feminist company Blood Group, Paines Plough and her new company Athletes of the Heart. Her published plays include Augustine (Big Hysteria) (Harwood Academic, 1997) and Gorgeous (Aurora Metro, 2003). Her productions have toured Europe, Asia and the United States. She has taught for 27 years in the United Kingdom and internationally. She is currently a full-time lecturer in the Department of Drama at Goldsmiths College, University of London, where she directs the MA in Performance. Geraldine (Gerry) Harris is a senior lecturer in Theatre Studies at the University of Lancaster. Published work includes articles and book x
Notes on Contributors xi chapters on topics ranging from female performers in nineteenth-century French popular theatre to issues for contemporary performance practice. She has written two monographs, Staging Femininities: Performativity and Performance (Manchester, 1999) and Beyond Representation: The Politics and Aesthetics of Identity in Television Drama (Manchester, 2006). Since the 1980s she has also engaged with practice as a writer and devisor/ director. With Elaine Aston she is currently working on a three-year AHRC-funded project, Women s Writing for Performance. Dee Heddon is a senior lecturer in Theatre Studies at the University of Glasgow. Her research on autobiographical performance has appeared in various journals including Studies in Theatre Production, Research in Drama Education, Performance Research, New Theatre Quarterly and in anthologies including Auto/biography and Identity (Manchester, 2004) and Modern Confessional Writing (Routledge, 2005). Dee s autobiographical performance practice includes Forward to Sender (2002), Following in the Footsteps (2003) and One Square Foot (2004). She is also co-author of Devising Performance: A Critical History (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005). Leslie Hill and Helen Paris are writers, performers, filmmakers and co-directors of Curious (www.placelessness.com). Curious was formed in 1996 and has since toured over 30 performance and film and video projects in Europe, North America, Australia, Brazil, China and India. Their solo performances Smoking Gun (Hill) and Family Hold Back (Paris) were recently presented by the Sydney Opera House. Their new film, Red Lantern House, was shot on location in Shanghai with support from the British Council Artist Links programme. Curious recently received an artist residency in Paris at Couvent des Récollets, supported by the French Ministry of Cultural Affairs and the Mairie de Paris. They have published a joint-authored book Guerilla Performance: How to Make a Living as an Artist (Continuum, 2004) and have co-edited a critical anthology Performance and Place (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006). Leslie Hill is a NESTA Dream Time Fellow. Aoife Monks is a lecturer in theatre at the School of English and Humanities, Birkbeck College, University of London. She previously taught at the Department of Film, Theatre and Television at the University of Reading. Aoife s research interests centre on the actor s body in performance and she is currently working on a monograph analysing the use of costume and make-up in contemporary theatre practice. Other research interests include the work of the Wooster Group and the contemporary performances of Irishness. She has published articles in
xii Notes on Contributors Modern Drama, Australasian Drama Studies and New England Theatre Journal. She has also worked as an intern with the Wooster Group in New York. Meenakshi Ponnuswami is Associate Professor of English at Bucknell University, where she teaches dramatic literature and theatre history. Her scholarly work has focused on representations of history in contemporary British theatre. She has written on Howard Brenton, Caryl Churchill and other contemporary British dramatists. These publications include a chapter in The Cambridge Companion to Modern British Women Playwrights (Cambridge University Press, 2000) and she has edited the critical collection Contemporary British Theatre: The New Left and After (Routledge, 2002). She is currently studying the plays of Winsome Pinnock. Janelle Reinelt is Associate Dean of Graduate Studies and Professor of Drama at University of California, Irvine. She is the current President of the International Federation of Theatre Research and co-editor with Brian Singleton of the book series International Performance and Culture (Palgrave Macmillan). Her books include The Cambridge Companion to Modern British Women Playwrights with Elaine Aston (Cambridge University Press, 2000), After Brecht: British Epic Theatre (University of Michigan Press, 1994), Crucibles of Crisis (University of Michigan Press, 1996) and Critical Theory and Performance co-edited with Joseph Roach (University of Michigan Press, 1992; 2006). She is a former editor of Theatre Journal. Lena Šimie is a performance artist and is currently undertaking a practice-based PhD in the Institute for Contemporary Arts at Lancaster University. Lena was born in Croatia and trained in theatre directing and acting at the Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts in Bratislava, Slovakia, and the London Academy of Performing Arts. Recent performance projects include Medea/Mothers Clothes, Magdalena Makeup and Joan Trial; a series of interventions into female archetypal figures. Lena has collaborated with the Bluecoat Arts Centre in Liverpool, the Nuffield Theatre in Lancaster and the Art Workshop Lazareti in Dubrovnik. She has toured her performances nationally and internationally. SuAndi is of Nigerian and British heritage and has been a Performance Poet since 1985. Her collections of poems include Style (Purple Heather & Pankhurst Press, 1990), Nearly Forty (Spike Books, 1994), There Will Be No Tears (Pankhurst Press, 1996) and I Love the Blackness of my People (Pankhurst Press, 2003). She has also created work for the Live Art stage and her last ICA commission, The Story of M, received critical acclaim in the United Kingdom and North America. In addition she has written
Notes on Contributors xiii two librettos, The Calling (BBC Philharmonic, 2005) and Mary Seacole Opera (2000), which toured Britain after a West End opening. Her work has been recognized with a NESTA Fellowship in 2005, The Big Issue Community Diploma 2003, The Windrush Inspirational Award 2003 and the OBE in the Queen s 1999 New Year Honours List, following her Winston Churchill Fellowship in 1996. Since 1985, SuAndi has been the freelance Cultural Director of Black Arts Alliance. BAA is the United Kingdom s largest and longest surviving network of Black artists. Joanne Tompkins teaches drama at the University of Queensland, Australia. Her books on post-colonial, intercultural, and multi-cultural theatre and theory include Post-Colonial Theatre with Helen Gilbert (Routledge, 1996) and Women s Intercultural Performance with Julie Holledge (Routledge, 2000). She is currently completing Unsettling Space (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006). In addition to theoretical research on spatiality, she generates virtual-reality models of actual theatres for both research and for practical applications. She has completed a five-year term as co-editor of Modern Drama, which also included co-editing Modern Drama: Defining the Field with Ric Knowles and W. B. Worthen (University of Toronto Press, 2003).
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