Lois Weaver

Lois Weaver (born 1949, Roanoke, Virginia)^[1] is a Guggenheim-winning artist, activist, writer, director, and Professor of Contemporary Performance at Queen Mary University of London.^[2] Her work centres on feminism, human rights and possibilities for public participation. Active for over four decades she is the founding member of significant New York theatre companies Spiderwoman (1976), Split Britches (1980) and WOW (Women's One World Cafe) (1980).^[3] Weaver came to London to take on the role of artistic director for Gay Sweatshop Theatre Company in the early 1990s.^[4] She lives in New York and London.

Performance

Weaver's theatre and performance practice spans collaborative and solo work. She was a co-founder of feminist theatre company Spiderwoman Theatre, whose members focused on using their own stories to address gender roles, economic realities and violence in women's lives.^[5] Weaver, along with Peggy Shaw and Deb Margolin founded Split Britches, an award-winning company who use theatricality to create work that centres on lesbian and queer identities.^[6][7] Lois Weaver has had productive collaborative relationships with theatre and performance artists Holly Hughes, Bloolips founded by Bette Bourne,^[8] Curious,^[9] and Stacy Makishi^[10]

Filmography

• She Must Be Seeing Things (1987), as Jo

Teaching and workshops

Long Table on Live Art and Feminism, 25 April 2014

Weaver developed the Long Table as an experimental open public forum as part of the Restock, Rethink, Reflect series of events at the Live Art Development Agency, Hackney Wick, London.^[11]

References