Split Britches

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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 Theatre. [citation needed, personal anecdote].

Peggy Shaw (b. 1946) is a theatre artist whose work combines butch identity and dry humor, most recently has produced a show, Ruff, on having a stroke[4] at Dixon Place, a dedicated LBGTQ performance venue in NYC.

Lois Weaver is a performing artist whose work is recognized as seminal in creating a template for lesbian performance methodologies. She is currently touring a show called Tammy WhyNot, and is Professor of Contemporary Performance in the Department of Drama, Queen Mary, University of London.[5]

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

Methodology and concepts covered

Split Britches has worked with concepts of lesbian, queer, and dyke 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."[6]

Geraldine Harris, in an article on this troupe, describes the focus in their work on borders, as they often took on ideas of duality,[2] with concepts of butch/femme are 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 indicitiave of lesbian art which brings up issues of subjcetivity.[7]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Split Britches: Lesbian Practice/Feminist Performance, edited by Sue-Ellen Case, Routledge, 1997.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Harris, Geraldine (February 2011). Double Acts, Theatrical Couples, and Split Britches’ ‘Double Agency’ (PDF). Split Britches. pp. 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. ↑ "Professor Lois Weaver, BA (Radford University, Virginia USA)". Queen Mary, University of London. Retrieved 2014-02-02. 
  6. ↑ Wray, B.J. (2002-12-11). "Split Britches". glbtq: An Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Culture. Retrieved 2014-02-02. 
  7. ↑ Davis, Gill "Goodnight Ladies: on the Explicit Body in Performance", New Theatre Quarterly, XV, No.58 (1999), p.187.

References

  • Split Britches: Lesbian Practice/Feminist Performance, edited by Sue-Ellen Case, Routledge, 1997. ISBN 9780415127653

External links

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