“Feminist Theatre: Past and Present” kicks off with Sept. 30 event

The Second Wave Women’s Liberation Movement gave birth to feminist theatre, bringing its rallying cry — “the personal is political” — to the stage. Through content and form, feminist theatre groups built community and claimed space for women’s voices and experiences to be heard.

In a Sept. 30 webinar, "The Personal is Still Political:" The Evolution of Feminist Theatre, participants will learn about the history of feminist theatre groups and talk politics, aesthetics and the future of feminist performance with some of the genre’s iconic artists and scholars. Register here.

This is the first in a three-part panel series, “Feminist Theatre: Past and Present,” that celebrates of the 50th anniversary of Cornell University’s women’s studies program (now Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies) as well as the 30th year of its Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) academic specialty. Each panel will highlight a different moment in feminist and lesbian performance history along with how artists and scholars interpret them.

This series is sponsored by Cornell’s Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (FGSS) and LGBT Studies programs; Cornell’s Department of Performing and Media Arts; James Madison University; CloseToHome Productions; and the Women and Theatre Program of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education.

Panelists will include Sue Perlgut, founder of It’s All Right To Be Woman Theatre, Roberta Sklar and Sondra Segal of the Women’s Experimental Theatre, Bobbi Ausubel of Caravan Theatre and Martha Boesing of At the Foot of the Mountain Theatre. The panel will be a moderated by Sara Warner, director of the LGBT studies program and associate professor of performing and media arts. 

Find more information including scripts, videos, and suggestions for further reading at www.feministtheatre.com.