50 Women in Theatre

Since 1660 when actresses first began performing on the English stage, women have forged bright careers in theatre, while men called the shots. Four hundred years of women playwrights, from Aphra Behn to Caryl Churchill, yet plays by women make up less than a quarter of staged productions in the UK, leading to a scarcity of roles for women. With women buying most of the tickets, theatre productions risk losing their relevance to modern culture if they fail to represent the many and varied lives of women. With an overview of post-war theatre and 25 exclusive interviews with leading women theatre-makers, this book inspires us to create a truly equal and inclusive theatre today. Features 25 pioneers including: Joan Littlewood, Jocelyn Herbert, Ellen Stewart, Gillian Lynne, Cicely Berry, Julia Miles, Thelma Holt, Chita Rivera, Judy Dench, Glenda Jackson, Barbara Ann Teer, Caryl Churchill, Yvonne Brewster, Robyn Archer, Eve Ensler, Garry Hynes, Nica Burns, Gcina Mhlope, Yvette Nolan, Meera Syal, Bunny Christie, Sonia Friedman, Audra McDonald, Rose Fenton/Lucy Neal Including interviews with: Nina Lee Aquino ◉ Sudha Buchar ◉ Moira Buffini ◉ Paule Constable ◉ Denise Gough ◉ Jill Greenhalgh ◉ Vicky Ireland ◉ Jude Kelly ◉ Bryony Lavery ◉ Rachel Maza ◉ Kumiko Mendl ◉ Katie Mitchell ◉ Marsha Norman ◉ Lynn Nottage ◉ Kate O'Donnell ◉ Winsome Pinnock ◉ Emma Rice ◉ Daryl Roth ◉ Jenny Sealey ◉ Saviana Stanescu ◉ Michelle Terry ◉ Kate Waters and more...

Author: Susan Croft
Publisher: Supernova Books
Published: 05/25/2021
Pages: 256
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.75lbs
Size: 9.80h x 6.80w x 0.80d
ISBN: 9781913641054

About the Author
Croft, Susan: -

Susan Croft is a writer, historian, curator and researcher. She worked in the USA with the Omaha Magic Theatre in the early 1980s, returning to Britain to work as a dramaturg with small-scale theatre companies and founding New Playwrights Trust, of which she was Director from 1986-89. She taught Creative Arts (Performance) at Nottingham Trent University and then was Senior Research Fellow in Performance Arts at Manchester Metropolitan University to 1996. From 1997-2005 she was Curator of Contemporary Performance at the Theatre Museum where she worked on the National Video Archive of Performance. She has written extensively on women playwrights, including: 'She Also Wrote Plays: an International Guide to Women Playwrights from the 10th to the 21st Century' (Faber and Faber, 2001).

She also runs the project Unfinished Histories: Recording the History of Alternative Theatre, with Jessica Higgs, a major initiative to record oral histories and preserve archives of the alternative theatre movement from the 1960s to the 1980s.For Aurora Metro Books, her other books are 'Classic Plays by Women' (2010), 'Votes for Women and other play's (2009) and 'Art, Theatre and Women's Suffrage', written jointly with Irene Cockroft (2010).

Robson, Cheryl: - Cheryl is a film-maker, writer and editor who worked at the BBC for several years and then taught film-making at the University of Westminster. Her acclaimed music documentary 'Rock n Roll Island' aired on BBC4 in 2020 and was named a Sunday Times Critics Choice programme. In addition, she has created a publishing company, publishing over 200 international writers. As a writer, she has won the Croydon Warehouse International Playwriting Competition, been longlisted for the Bruntwood Playwriting Prize and had several plays produced on the London fringe. She ran a theatre company and worked as a dramaturg for several years in the 1990s developing new plays by women. As an editor she has edited '50 Women in the Blues' and '50 Women Sculptors', as a co-editor, she has published 'Celluloid Ceiling: women film directors breaking through', the first global overview of women film directors and 'Silent Women; pioneers of cinema' voted best book on silent film in 2017. In 2019 she was a finalist in the ITV National Diversity Awards for Lifetime Achievement. www.cherylrobson.netWoddis, Carole: - Woddis was born in Nottingham and educated in Switzerland, McGill University, Canada and Warwick University where she read a BA in History/French. She has been a Theatre journalist and critic for over 30 years. London reviewer and feature writer for Glasgow's The Herald for 12 years and for many other newspapers and magazines, she also reviews for various theatre websites. Books published include: The Bloomsbury Theatre Guide with Trevor T Griffiths; a collection of interviews with actresses, Sheer Bloody Magic (Virago) and Faber & Faber's Pocket Guide to 20th Century Drama with Stephen Unwin. For ten years she was a Visiting Tutor in Journalism at Goldsmiths College and for three years with City University, London. Prior to all of that she worked with the RSC, National Theatre, Round House and Royal Ballet as a PR and as an administrator for other theatre and dance organisations. She has also lived and worked in Montreal and Texas;
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