Women's Voices on American Stages in the Early Twenty-First Century

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-ix

   PDF

2. Introduction The Context for Ruhl and Her Contemporaries, or Women’s Playwriting: Strictly Prohibited in the New Century?

   • Leslie Atkins Durham

   Pages 1-11

3. Educating Sarah Ruhl

   • Leslie Atkins Durham

   Pages 13-29

4. Emotional Journeys

   • Leslie Atkins Durham

   Pages 31-52

5. Caring Labor

   • Leslie Atkins Durham

   Pages 53-73

6. Theatrical Devotion

   • Leslie Atkins Durham

   Pages 75-98

7. Mobile Lines

   • Leslie Atkins Durham

   Pages 99-129

8. Natural Forces

   • Leslie Atkins Durham

   Pages 131-158

9. Epilogue: “The Curtain Goes Up”

   • Leslie Atkins Durham

   Pages 159-163

10. Back Matter

    Pages 165-215

    PDF

Women are at the center of American theatre and have the potential to shape the cultural imagination of theatre-goers as a complex new era unfolds. Sarah Ruhl, one of the twenty-first century's most honored playwrights, is read in concert with her contemporaries whose writing also wrestles with the vexing issues facing Americans in the new century.

• stage
• theatre
• women

'In this well-focused, vividly written study focusing on the last decade, Durham examines gender and sexuality, and the evolving nature of feminism . . . The author has provided an essential analysis and opened the door for scholars to delve more deeply into the aesthetics and content arising within this latest movement in contemporary theatre. Summing Up: Highly Recommended. Lower-level undergraduates through faculty, theatre professionals, and general readers.' - CHOICE

Leslie Atkins Durham is Associate Professor of Theatre Arts at Boise State University, USA. Her previous books are Staging Gertrude Stein: Absence, Culture, and the Landscape of the American Alternative Theatre and Theatre Lives: An Introduction to Theatre (co-authored with Sally Shedd).

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