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Modern British Playwriting: The 1980s equips readers with a fresh assessment of the theatre and principle playwrights and plays from a decade when political and economic forces were changing society dramatically. It offers a broad survey of the context and of the playwrights and companies such as Complicite and DV8 that rose to prominence at this time. Alongside this it provides a detailed examination based on fresh research of four of the most significant playwrights of the era and considers the influence they had on later work. The 1980s volume features a detailed study by four scholars of the work of four of the major playwrights who came to prominence: Howard Barker (by Sarah Goldingay), Jim Cartwright (David Lane), Sarah Daniels (Jane Milling) and Timberlake Wertenbaker (Sara Freeman).This is an authoritative and stimulating reassessment of British playwriting in the 1980s.

Feminist Views on the English Stage, first published in 2003, is an exciting and insightful study on drama from a feminist perspective, one that challenges an idea of the 1990s as a 'post-feminist' decade and pays attention to women's playwriting marginalized by a 'renaissance' of angry young men. Working through a generational mix of writers, from Sarah Kane, the iconoclastic 'bad girl' of the stage, to the 'canonical' Caryl Churchill, Elaine Aston charts the significant political and aesthetic changes in women's playwriting at the century's end. Aston also explores writing for the 1990s in theatre by Sarah Daniels, Bryony Lavery, Phyllis Nagy, Winsome Pinnock, Rebecca Prichard, Judy Upton and Timberlake Wertenbaker.

This work is a unique collection of key articles on feminist theatre and performance form The Drama Review (TDR). Carol Martin juxtaposes theory and practice to provide an exceptionally comprehensive overview of the development of feminist theatre. This outstanding collection includes key texts by theorists such as Elin Diamond, Peggy Phelan and Lynda Hart and interviews with practitioners including Anna Deveare Smith and Robbie McCauley. It also contains full performances texts by two of the most influential and controversial practiitioners of feminist theatre: Dress Suits to Hireby Holly Hughes and The Constant State of Desireby Karen Finley. A Sourcebook on Feminist Theatre and Performanceis an essential purchase for students of theatre studies, performance studies and women's theatre.

The authors explore a range of different approaches to the languages of theatre, including translation and interpretation of the art form, along with languages, performance work, body language and gesture. Considered alongside the related social issues of race, class and dialect, the following questions emerge: * What is the role of language in theatre today? * Whose language is English; what other languages do women making theatre use? * What does it mean to write about, photograph and video live performance? * What is the future for women's theatre in an international context increasingly united by new technologies but divided by new issues of cultural diversity? Goodman and de Gay analysis covers issues that are central to current courses in Theatre and Performance and Women's Studies. They assess the forms which women as theatre-makers have chosen to explore in the age of new technology, and look at some of the different definitions of 'theory' offered by theatre-makers and critics including Caryl Churchill, H#65533;l#65533;ne Cixous, Luce Irigiray and Julia Kristeva.

Essential for students of Theatre Studies, this series of six decadal volumes provides a critical survey and reassessment of the theatre produced in each decade from the 1950s to the present. Each volume equips readers with an understanding of the context from which work emerged, a detailed overview of the range of theatrical activity and a close study of the work of four of the major playwrights by a team of leading scholars. Chris Megson's comprehensive survey of the theatre of the 1970s examines the work of four playwrights who came to promience in the decade and whose work remains undiminished today: Caryl Churchill (by Paola Botham), David Hare (Chris Megson), Howard Brenton (Richard Boon) and David Edgar (Janelle Reinelt). It analyses their work then, its legacy today and provides a fresh assessment of their contribution to British theatre. Interviews with the playwrights, with directors and with actors provides an invaluable collection of documents offering new perspectives on the work. Revisiting the decade from the perspective of the twenty-first century, Chris Megson provides an authoritative and stimulating reassessment of British playwriting in the 1970s.

This textbook introduction to current feminist theories maps the development of feminist thought and suggests future directions. Reflecting the diversity of feminist theory, and its multiple practices and approaches, the chapters range across the humanities and social sciences covering: social theory; theory and economic change; political theory; jurisprudence;anthropological theory; psychoanalytic theory; theories of gender; lesbian theory; postmodern and cultural theory; black theory; literary theory; linguistic theories; media and film theory; postcolonial theory; perspectives on science; theorising the personal; methodologies/epistemologies; and women's studies.