Split Britches

Split Britches is an American performance troupe, which has been producing work internationally since 1980.[1][2]

Founding and members

Split Britches was founded by Peggy Shaw, Lois Weaver, and Deb Margolin in New York City in 1980.[3] Shaw and Weaver met in Europe when Weaver was touring with an earlier troupe, Spiderwoman Theater. [citation needed, personal anecdote].

Peggy Shaw (b. 1946) is a theatre artist whose work combines butch identity and dry humor. She has most recently produced a solo show, RUFF (2012), on having a stroke.[4] at Dixon Place, a dedicated LBGTQ performance venue in NYC. Directed by Weaver, RUFF is touring in the UK, USA and to Canada (2013–14).[5] [6]

Lois Weaver is a performing artist whose work is recognized as seminal in creating a template for lesbian performance methodologies. She is touring a show called What Tammy Found Out (2014),[7] and is Professor of Contemporary Performance in the Department of Drama, Queen Mary, University of London.[8]

Deb Margolin, no longer a member of Split Britches, is a renowned performance artist, currently a professor at Yale University.

Methodology and concepts covered

Split Britches has worked with concepts of lesbian, queer, dyke, butch and femme identities and cultures [1] in a context of American feminism and live arts movements which emerged through the 1970s. In Split Britches: Lesbian Practice/Feminist Performance, critic and theorist Sue-Ellen Case aptly sums up the importance of the trio in the development of contemporary lesbian performance: "the troupe created a unique 'postmodern' style that served to embed feminist and lesbian issues of the times, economic debates, national agendas, personal relationships, and sex-radical role playing in spectacular and humorous deconstructions of canonical texts, vaudeville shtick, cabaret forms, lip-synching satire, lyrical love scenes, and dark, frightening explorations of class and gender violence."[9]

Geraldine Harris, in an article on this troupe, describes the focus in their work on borders, as they often take on ideas of duality,[2] with concepts of butch/femme highlighted in their work, as are concepts around class, classism, and LGBTQ oppression.

Split Britches' work comes from a tradition of performance art that is documented academically by the field of performance studies. Their work is cited as indicative of lesbian art which brings up issues of subjectivity.[10] It has been central to the development of feminist performance theory, for example in the pioneering work of Jill Dolan on the feminist spectator,[11] Sue-Ellen Case on butch/femme aesthetics[12] and Alisa Solomon[13] and Kate Davy[14] on feminist performance contexts.

Shows

RUFF, 2012–present[15]

What Tammy Found Out, 2012–present

Lost Lounge, 2009–present

Miss America, 2008–present

Retro-Perspective, 2007–present

MUST, 2007–present

Diary of a Domestic Terrorist, 2005

What Tammy Needs to Know, 2004

To My Chagrin, 2003

Miss Risque, 2001

It's a Small House and We Lived in It Always, 1999

Little Women, 1998

Little Women, The Tragedy, 1998

Salad of the Bad Cafe, 1998

Valley of the Dolls, 1997

Faith and Dancing, 1996

Menopausal Gentleman, 1996

Lust and Comfort, 1994

You're Just Like My Father, 1993

Lesbians Who Kill, 1992

Anniversary Waltz, 1990

Belle Reprieve, 1990

Little Women, The Tragedy, 1988

Dress Suits for Hire, 1987

Patience and Sarah, 1987

Upwardly Mobile Home, 1984

Beauty and the Beast, 1982

Split Britches, The True Story, 1980

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 Split Britches: Lesbian Practice/Feminist Performance, edited by Sue-Ellen Case, Routledge, 1997.
  2. 1 2 Harris, Geraldine (February 2011). "Double Acts, Theatrical Couples, and Split Britches’ ‘Double Agency’" (PDF). Split Britches: 211–221. Retrieved 2014-02-02.
  3. ↑ "Split Britches website". Splitbritches.wordpress.com. Retrieved 2014-02-02.
  4. ↑ Isherwood, Charles (January 13, 2013). "A Deadpan Look at Life Before and After a Stroke". The New York Times.
  5. ↑ "La MaMa RUFF". La MaMa Experimental Theater Club. Retrieved 25 April 2014.
  6. ↑ "Peggy Shaw RUFF The Arches, Glasgow". The Arches, Glasgow. Retrieved 25 April 2014.
  7. ↑ Weaver, Lois. "What Tammy Found Out, Performing the Issue, Public Address Systems". Lois Weaver. Retrieved 25 April 2014.
  8. ↑ "Professor Lois Weaver, BA (Radford University, Virginia USA)". Queen Mary, University of London. Retrieved 2014-02-02.
  9. ↑ Wray, B.J. (2002-12-11). "Split Britches". glbtq: An Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Culture. Retrieved 2014-02-02.
  10. ↑ Davis, Gill "Goodnight Ladies: on the Explicit Body in Performance", New Theatre Quarterly, XV, No.58 (1999), p.187.
  11. ↑ Dolan, Jill (1988). The Feminist Spectator as Critic. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0472035193.
  12. ↑ Case, Sue-Ellen (1989). ‘Toward A Butch-Femme Aesthetic’ in Lynda Hart, ed., Making a Spectacle: Feminist Essays on Contemporary Women’s Theater. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. pp. 282–99. ISBN 978-0-472-09389-2.
  13. ↑ Solomon, Alisa (1985). "‘The WOW Cafe’". TDR: The Drama Review 29 (1): 92–101.
  14. ↑ Davy, Kate (2011). Lady Dicks and Lesbian Brothers: Staging the Unimaginable at the WOW Café Theatre. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. ISBN 978-0-472-05122-9.
  15. ↑ "Split Britches, Discography". Split Britches. Retrieved 25 April 2014.

References

External links

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