Quotes and Sources Wilmer, S.E. Theatre, Society and the Nation - Staging American Identities.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Print. Pgs 154-171. Rather than a stripper who meakly offers herself to the male viewer, Finlay attacked male oppression and highlighted themes of female degradation, sexual abuse, incest, etc. in her stage persona of an unsocialized woman or banshee. (167) Ironically, Vagina Monologues, in achieving its success, was returning to the radical feminist position: the essentialized and universalized perspective of a womans culture, different and separate from the patriarchal culture of men. (171) Rowson ends her play by having each female subvert an aspect of the traditional role The conclusion is not brought about by traditional male control: instead it is initiated and followed through entirely by women. (35) Gender and Realism in Plays and Performances by Women "The promiscuity stigma assigned to women who have or have had multiple sexual partners is an example of fall-back sexist stereotyping utilized, but not interrogated, in dramatic realism. (41) Meant to be comical, and succeeding as such, this litany of clich insecurities nevertheless reminds us of specific physical attributes about which women often feel or are made to feel self-conscious. What is more, having failed to be included in a beauty pageant, Carnelle assumes she is unattractive; having reached this conclusion, she loses her self-esteem. For not only have Carnelles thighs suddenly become fat, and her hair abhorrent (she has dyed it crimson-red in anticipation of being selected for the pageant); as a result of being excluded from a beauty contest, she believes she is a failure, and that she is unloved. (44) Whether or not Teddy is mentally stable, her method of atonement, or of staving off further guilt, reinforces the assumption that heterosexual sex is something given to men, and so possessed and given away (or sold) by women. Because sex is regarded as a social commodity in this way, both Teddy and playwright Henley know it can be offered as a settlement: compensation for damages inflicted. (51-52) Women in Theatre Although many have been concerned to be thought conventionally respectable in a profession said to be morally dangerous, especially for women, actresses have nevertheless been part of a unique subculture with its own standards. Long before most other women were able to do so, they could dress as they liked, smoke cigarettes, take lovers, have children outside marriage, and live a generally liberated lifestyle. (50) Ironically, however, these free women are the very ones who have embodied for their particular era the accepted image of women the passive heroine, the fallen

woman, the flapper, the gossip, etc. Although their profession permits them greater personal liberty offstage, their sexual attractiveness, their dominant histrionic power, and their vibrant personalities are marketed onstage to convey the social stereotypes fashioned for conventional patrons mostly, although not exclusively, by male dramatists. Onstage, paradoxically, the actress has usually been a "commodity," as Jean Dalrymple once put it. She has been used, manipulated, exploited for her talents in a theatre that has allowed her little say about what she does. The structure of show business has provided the actress few opportunities to express her sense of self, despite the control her magnetism can exercise over audiences. (51) Across the country these and many other notable actresses now began to use their skills to project fresh images of the American woman. Building on this rediscovered heritage, every aspect of acting and actors, as women now began to call themselves, was redefined as the feminist revolution impacted on the theatre in the last decades of the millennium. (51) Article 1 Jill Dolan As liberal feminism gains a foothold for women in the male-dominated institutions of American theatre, however, an insidious backsliding sometimes occurs with regard to feminist politics. Some women in theatre suggest that womens advocacy groups and workshop spaces are temporary measures that will no longer be necessary when women truly achieve parity with men. Many working women playwrights vehemently resist the feminist appellation, because to survive economically their plays must be produced widely in commercial venues. The analogy between feminism and politics is seen as threatening to the universality of their work. (4) Dominant ideology has been naturalized as nonidealogy, since the perceptions of the more powerful have come to serve as standards for the less powerful, who do not have the same access to the media and artistic outlets that create public opinion. Lillian Robinson, working out the basic Marxist tenet of the relationship between base and superstructure, argues that through cultural production the ideas of the ruling class come to be considered normative for the culture at large. Less powerful people are subjected to social structures that benefit the interests of the more powerful. (15) Article #2 Deborah Kolb Miss Crothers sees no simple answer to this tension between motherhood and a career. By making Tom Herford, a highly sympathetic character, she avoids the simplistic approach. As DR. Remington concludes, Men and women will go through hell over this before it shakes down into shape. You're right and she's right and you're tearing each other like mad dogs over it because you love each other. Certainly He and She is the first comprehensive examination of the implications of increasing numbers of women professionals. (157)

Thus the wheel is coming full circle. The modern woman who fought for and won the right to work on a basis of equality with men, the vote, moral as well as economic equality, a creative existence beyond the confines of her home, finds only dust and ashes now at the end of her struggle. Having broken her chains, fought with all her might and main against being possessed, dominated, owned by anything or anybody, she cries out herself for the possession of another human being, for someone to belong to her, someone whose very existence depends on her. (159) Federal Theatre plays with intro from Hallie Flanagan Modern American Drama: The Female Cannon about female re-education of the male, whose perception of women is dreadfully inaccurate and self-interested. (31) Her enthusiasm is contagious, and Murray attempts singlehandedly to revolutionize the importance attached to the American theater: The stage is undoubtedly a very powerful engine in forming the opinion and manners of a people. Is it not then important to supply the American stage with American scenes? (Schlueter, 32) Mrs. Warren also defended those rights for which the Patriots would fight: right of assembly, freedom of the press, freedom from forced servitude, and the right to make just laws. (33) After the revolution (1783-1800), the plays written by Americans occupied a very small part in any theater: the numbers were even fewer for women. (33-34)