What is feminism?

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Feminist Drama

1970’s 1980’s

What is feminism?

        Feminism simply means paying attention to women. Men as well as women can be feminist.

So how does this apply to drama?

        Most plays post1970 were about heroes villains etc. women such as Caryl Churchill and Pam Gems started to change this by writing plays about women and about the social aspects of being a women. This means that women were trying to change theatre to involve the social and everyday aspects of being a woman. Also controversial assets and serious assets of being a women were involved in these plays such as women being equal to men etc.

Male playwrights have mostly dominated the last century and the star role-played by males. However towards the end of the 60’s women started to slowly do their own playwrights and perform their own plays. The modern feminist theatre movement began late 60’s. Their goal was to bring women and their experiences out of the domestic sphere and into the social one. This also encouraged a whole new load of drama groups and company’s devoted to feminist drama, such as The Monstrous Regiment, Joint Stock and Women’s Theatre Season.

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        A few women have become well known for their plays that have furthered feminist performance theory and broadened traditional views of gender roles.

Caryl Churchill:        

                        Caryl Churchill’s plays were based around feminine theory and gender politics. However she did not start straight away by writing plays, as this was a transition from the radio plays she wrote for the BBC and also other shorter plays and scenes where she starting to explore a bit more on different aspects of drama that freed her from the stage “limitations”.

        In the early 1970’s she collaborated with theatre groups such ...

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