Date of Award

2015

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Myhill, Nova

Keywords

Theater, Feminism, At the Foot of the Mountain, Shaw, Peggy, Gender

Area of Concentration

Humanities

Abstract

This thesis examines the notion of feminist theater in two chapters. The first chapter looks at the theater collective At the Foot of the Mountain as representative of second wave or cultural feminist theater in the United States. Through a collaborative working method and aesthetic vision informed by feminism, At the Foot of the Mountain strove to create theater as part of a uniquely “female culture.” The second chapter presents an understanding of feminist theater in response to the essentializing tendencies of cultural feminism. That is, if a collective structure represents the universalized sisterhood of cultural feminist theater, solo performance represents a third wave or deconstructive approach. Peggy Shaw demonstrates such an approach in her one-woman show, You’re Just Like My Father. As Shaw confronts and foregrounds the position of the spectator via Brecht, she destabilizes the gaze directed at her as a female performer, as well as the idea of gender as a fixed essence.

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