Women In Theatre In The 1980's

Women in theatre in the past have tried to become center-stage rather than a prop and now in the present they are more than a spotlight. The changes from 1970’s to 1980’s gave women a feminist thought to a political one, which encountered different types of development of their role and expressed numerous obstacles they faced as a whole. In the article Cunning Stunts shows the drastic change in women theatre form 70’s to 80’s. The article Constructing Experience expresses attitude towards feminism. And in The Difficulties Facing Feminist Theater article details the obstacles and hardship of this great struggle for women in theatre. During the 1970’s when women who wanted to see more of themselves in theatre turned into a feminist group that
consider them to question their role in society. They wanted a change to not only be equal to men but equal in theatre as well.
Because theatre is essentially by definition a public, social, and hence a male-dominated art. It has been run by and for men throughout most of its history and has for the most part, reflected current political and social realities deferring to the taste of the political majority. The article Cunning Stunts: women’s theatre in the 1970’s and 1980’s by Red Chidgey, was about the rise of the feminist movement of theatre. The author Red Chidgey provides a tantalizing window into the history of women’s theatre troupes sharing the multiple changes in a decade. Women like Adele and Jacqueline shared their testimonies on experience in feminist acts and as well as a political issue. In the 70’s the rise of the feminist revolution was performed in theatre as a message and getting it to new audiences. Their goal was to use theatre to question power structures and shake down patriarchy. Other types of theatre performances on the revolution emphasized the art form, exploring the possibilities of female language, buffoonery, wild satire, mockery, and darken hidden desires. It was not until the 1980’s when feminism became
more political. Political theatre influenced people that are able to highlight and define issues by addressing them in the arena of theatrical art, a place where political issues have been examined since the beginning of drama. Political theatre encourages the exploration of universal and central themes and issues to human communities and societies who define themselves as politically conscious.Women politicians started to support women’s theatre groups and invited them to campaign women’s issues on reproductive issues. Politicians felt women should be paid properly as actors and women workers. Then justice finally started to kick in. In theatre there were many roles, characters and other positions that needed to be fulfilled for a scene or performance.
In the past history of theatre most women participated in very little scenes or performances, but when they did they was usually bashed and was seen as the “joke”. They mostly did behind the scene work like; sewing/fitting costumes, doing performing, hairstyling, assisting with stage props, ushers and sometimes technical work such as lighting. It wasn’t until the 80’s women made a name for themselves. The article Constructing Experience by Charlotte Canning was about each generation of women in theatre inventing anew to itself. Charlotte Canning explained how the feminist movement influenced new developments of theatre history. She created The New left which attended ways that women produce and interpret experiences. It was designed to stress the importance of autonomy and self definition. Feminists embraced the importance of lived experience for activism, theory, and history the foreground on personal experience over tradition and abstract knowledge. The development women made were more mental than physical in theatre and in society. They became more aware of society and how it portrayed them to be. They fought back by being less sexual, less of an object and more of a person with morals. They performed roles where they were seen as dominate and much more equal to men. The benefits made women more of a high demand for performances since they created a
name for themselves instead of being the joke of the scene extra. Writers even started to let females co-playwright, then it became women writing and producing plays themselves. There is no such thing as fighting a war for 10 years and not having one scar. Women had a long battle with justice in theatre, from feminist to politics, stage props to producers with every battle they fought was a obstacle they had to over come. They fought back society, stereotypes, and prejudices. All along they stayed faithful and keep faith and courage instilled in them to achieve their one common goal. They got what they deserved. But did they really deserved what they went through? In the article The Difficulties Facing Feminist Theatre by Sandra M. Bemis was about the hardships they face not only as a whole as well as an individual. Sandra Bemis showed how despite the difficulties women goals remained the same and didn't change despite any circumstances.Women went through may critiques with society and their idea of what a women should be. Which was a adapted to apply to the gender roles of women in the household or at work, but also remain sexually. Women was degraded in pornography and was treated like a type of animal. When the try to fight for justice they often got pushed back down not because their class, race, sexuality but because their were females. The most target women that was hit the hardest was African Americans. Not only was they bashed but they had to perform stereotypical black ghetto people.