A SOURCEBOOK OF FEMINIST THEATRE AND PERFORMANCE A Sourcebook of Feminist Theatre and Performance brings together key articles first published in The Drama Review (TDR), to provide an intriguing overview of the development of feminist theatre and performance. Divided into the categories of “history,” “theory,” “interviews,” and “texts,” the materials in this collection allow the reader to consider the developments of feminist theatre through a variety of perspectives. This book contains the seminal texts of theorists such as Elin Diamond, Peggy Phelan, and Lynda Hart, interviews with performance artists including Anna Deveare Smith and Robbie McCauley, and the full performance texts of Holly Hughes’ Dress Suits to Hire and Karen Finley’s The Constant State of Desire. The outstanding diversity of this collection makes for an invaluable sourcebook. A Sourcebook of Feminist Theatre and Performance will be read by students and practitioners of theatre and performance, as well as those interested in the performance of sexualities and genders. Carol Martin is Assistant Professor of Drama at Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. WORLDS OF PERFORMANCE What is a “performance”? Where does it take place? Who are the participants? Not so long ago these were settled questions, but today such orthodox answers are unsatisfactory, misleading, and limiting. “Performance” as a theoretical category and as a practice has expanded explosively. It now comprises a panoply of genres ranging from play, to popular entertainments, to theatre, dance, and music, to secular and religious rituals, to “performance in everyday life,” to intercultural experiments, and more. For nearly forty years, The Drama Review (TDR), the journal of performance studies, has been at the cutting edge of exploring these questions. The Worlds of Performance Series is designed to mine the extraordinary riches and diversity of TDR’s decades of excellence, bringing back into print important essays, interviews, artists’ notes, and photographs. New materials and introductions bring the volumes up to date. Each Worlds of Performance book is a complete anthology, arranged around a specific theme or topic. Each Worlds of Performance book is an indispensable resource for the scholar, a textbook for the student, and an exciting eye-opener for the general reader. Richard Schechner Editor, TDR Series Editor Other titles in the series: Acting (Re)Considered edited by Phillip B.Zarrilli Happenings and other Acts edited by Mariellen R.Sandford The Grotowski Sourcebook edited by Richard Schechner and Lisa Wolford A SOURCEBOOK OF FEMINIST THEATRE AND PERFORMANCE On and Beyond the Stage Edited by Carol Martin London and New York First published 1996 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003. Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 © 1996 Carol Martin, selection and editorial matter; Jill Dolan, Introduction. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A sourcebook on feminist theatre and performance: on and beyond the stage/edited by Carol Martin; with an introduction by Jill Dolan. p. cm.—(Worlds of performance) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-415-10644-3 (alk. paper).—ISBN 0-415-10645-1 (pbk.: alk. paper) 1. Feminist theatre—United States—History. 2. Feminism and theater. 3. Women in the theater. I. Martin, Carol, 1952– . II. Series. PN2270.F45S68 1996 96–17794 792'.082–dc20 CIP ISBN 0-203-42654-1 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-73478-5 (Adobe eReader Format) To R.S. CONTENTS List of Illustrations ix List of Contributors xi Editor’s Introduction xv Acknowledgments xviii Introductory Essay: Fathom Languages: Feminist Performance Theory, Pedagogy, and Practice Jill Dolan 1 PART I: HISTORY 1 Art Versus Business: The Role of Women in American Theatre Helen Krich Chinoy 23 2 Women for Women Charlotte Rea 31 3 The WOW Cafe Alisa Solomon 42 4 Notes on Lesbian Theatre Emily L.Sisley 52 5 Women at the Helm: In Leadership Posts Once Reserved for Men, They’re Challenging Our Assumptions About Sex and Power Misha Berson 61 PART II: THEORY 6 Bearing Witness: Anna Deavere Smith from Community to Theatre to Mass Media Carol Martin 81 7 In Defense of the Discourse: Materialist Feminism, Postmodernism, Poststructuralism…and Theory Jill Dolan 94 8 Motherhood According to Karen Finley: The Theory of Total Blame Lynda Hart 108 vii viii CONTENTS 9 Brechtian Theory/Feminist Theory: Toward a Gestic Feminist Criticism Elin Diamond 120 10 Reading Past the Heterosexual Imperative: Dress Suits to Hire Kate Davy 136 11 Feminist Theory, Poststructuralism, and Performance Peggy Phelan 157 PART III: INTERVIEWS 12 Anna Deavere Smith: The Word Becomes You An Interview by Carol Martin 185 13 Robbie McCauley: Obsessing in Public An Interview by Vivian Patraka 205 14 Holly Hughes: Polymorphous Perversity and the Lesbian Scientist An Interview by Rebecca Schneider 239 15 Karen Finley: A Constant State of Becoming An Interview by Richard Schechner 254 PART IV: TEXTS 16 Dress Suits to Hire Written by Holly Hughes (Co-created with Lois Weaver and Peggy Shaw) 267 17 The Constant State of Desire A Text by Karen Finley 293 Index 304 ILLUSTRATIONS 8.1 Karen Finley in the Philadelphia Inquirer Sunday magazine. 109 8.2 Karen Finley in the Philadelphia Inquirer Sunday magazine. 110 8.3 The Theory of Total Blame. 116 10.1 Linda yaps in Michigan’s lap as Deeluxe lies dead with Little Peter still at her throat. 144 10.2 Stargazing with a flashlight. 152 11.1 Gautam at the 1986 ISTA Congress in Denmark. 161 11.2 The hallway seduction scene from The Man Who Envied Women. 165 11.3 The Man Who Envied Women: Jack and Jackie’s dual seduction. 166 11.4 The Man Who Envied Women: the connection between psychoanalytic and cinematic projection. 167 11.5 Yvonne Rainer in The Man Who Envied Women. How can an “averted” woman be re-presented? Sideways? 169 11.6 Angelika Festa in “You Are Obsessive, Eat Something.” 172 11.7 Untitled Dance with Fish and Others: Angelika Festa hanging from a pole for 24 hours. 174 11.8 Untitled Dance with Fish and Others: projected images, videotapes, and video monitor. 175 12.1 Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992: Anna Deavere Smith as Katie Miller. 190 12.2 The Rodney King story, told by divergent people and embodied by Smith in Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992. 196 12.3 The Rodney King story, told by divergent people and embodied by Smith in Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992. 197 12.4 Anna Deavere Smith as Anonymous Hollywood Talent Agent in Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992. 200 13.1 Indian Blood (The Kitchen, 1987): McCauley speaks about her obsession with connecting with her ancestors. 218 13.2 Indian Blood (The Kitchen, 1987): McCauley speaks about her obsession with connecting with her ancestors. 219 ix x ILLUSTRATIONS 13.3 McCauley and father, Robert McCauley, used in My Father and the Wars. 222 14.1 Holly Hughes in World Without End. 242 15.1 Karen Finley tossing candies at the audience in The Constant State of Desire. 257 16.1 “Marineland?” 278 CONTRIBUTORS Misha Berson is the head theatre critic of the Seattle Times and a part-time instructor in the Drama Department of the University of Washington, Seattle. She edited the 1990 anthology, Between Worlds: Contemporary Asian American Plays (New York: Theatre Communications Group). Helen Krich Chinoy, Professor Emeritus, Theatre Department, Smith College, edited Women in American Theatre with Linda W. Jenkins; this article is an abridged version of her introduction to the first edition, 1981 (New York: Crown Publishers); an expanded, paperback edition appeared in 1987 (New York: Theatre Communications Group). Kate Davy is Professor of Theatre and Dean of the School of Fine Arts at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She’s working on a book entitled The WOW Cafe: Genealogy of the Women’s Theatre. Elin Diamond is an Associate Professor of English at Rutgers University. She is completing her book, Unmaking Mimesis, and is the editor of Performance and Cultural Politics (Routledge, 1995). Jill Dolan is the author of The Feminist Spectator as Critic (UMI, 1988; University of Michigan Press, 1991) and Presence and Desire: Essays on Gender, Sexuality, and Performance (University of Michigan Press, 1993). She is Professor of Theatre and Executive Officer of the Theatre Program at the CUNY Graduate Center and the President-Elect of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education. She is a past president of the Women and Theatre Program of ATHE. Karen Finley’s The Constant State of Desire premiered at The Kitchen in New York City in December 1986. Karen Finley has performed it in San Francisco, Chicago, New Orleans, Boston, Washington DC, Milwaukee, Berlin, Helsinki, and other American and European cities. Lynda Hart is Associate Professor of English/Theatre Arts at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of Fatal Women: Lesbian Sexuality and the Mark of Aggression (Princeton and Routledge, 1994), co-editor with Peggy Phelan of Acting Out: Feminist Performances (University of Michigan, 1993), and editor of Making a Spectacle: Feminist Essays on Contemporary Women’s Theater (University of Michigan, 1989). xi xii CONTRIBUTORS Holly Hughes’ other plays include: The Well of Horniness, The Lady Dick, Into Temptation, World Without End, No Trace of the Blonde, and Clit Notes.