Performing Women

Abstract

Early in September 1994 I stood holding Oliver, my three-month-old son, and my first published book, Devising Theatre,¹ cradling a sense of both wonderment and achievement. Returning to work in October as a full-time academic at the University of Kent, my life as a working mother began with this research project investigating and pursuing further my longstanding interest in contemporary performance, and in women performers in particular. There has been a proliferation of work in the broad field of gender and theatre, which has attempted to address the issue of women and marginality. I wanted to foreground the voices of performing women within the process of research and writing; to place this research work within the context of a wider feminist project, building and developing out of previous pioneering books, whilst contributing to a new theatre history/her-story. It was within this context that the book was conceived in 1995.