'Believe me or not': actresses, female performers, autobiography and the scripting of professional practice / Maggie B. Gale -- Female networks: collecting contacts with Gabrielle Enthoven / Kate Dorney -- Past the memoir: Winifred Dolan beyond the West End / Lucie Sutherland -- Offstage labour: actresses, charity work and th early twentieth-century theatre profession / Catherine Hindson -- 'Very much alive and kicking': The Actresses' Franchise League from 1914 to 1928 / Naomi Paxton -- Defending the body, defending the self: women performers and the law in the 'long' Edwardian period / Viv Gardner -- Emotional and natural: the Australian and New Zealand repertoires and fortunes of North American performers Margaret Anglin, Katherine Grey and Muriel Starr / Veronica Kelly -- Lily Brayton: a theatre maker in every sense / Brian Singleton -- Aerial star: Lillian Leitzel's celebrity, agency and her performed femininity / Kate Holmes -- Ellen Terry: the art of performance and her work in film / Katharine Cockin -- Mabel Constanduros: different voices, voicing difference / Gilli Bush-Bailey -- The odd woman: Margaret Rutherford / John Stokes.
Summary:
This book presents a collection of cutting-edge historical and cultural essays in the field of women, theatre and performance. The chapters explore women's networks of professional practice in the theatre and performance industries between 1900 and 1950, with a focus on women's sense and experience of professional agency in an industry largely controlled by men. The book is divided into two sections: 'Female theatre workers in the social and theatrical realm' looks at the relationship between women's work - on and off stage - and autobiography, activism, technique, touring, education and the law. 'Women and popular performance' focuses on the careers of individual artists, once household names, including Lily Brayton, Ellen Terry, radio star Mabel Constanduros and Oscar-winning film star Margaret Rutherford.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.