The Westbeth Playwrights Feminist Collective was a group of professional women playwrights in New York active from 1971 to 1975. They wrote and produced feminist plays and were one of the first feminist theatre groups in the United States to do so. [1] The members' individual works had been produced at the Public Theater, La Mama, Joe Chaikin’s Open Theater, Caffe Cino, [2] Circle Repertory Company, Mark Taper Forum, Lincoln Center, and New York Theater Ensemble.
The playwrights' group was one of the first feminist theatre groups in the country. [3] Original members included Helen Duberstein, [4] Helene Dworzan, Patricia Horan, Gwen Gunn, Christina Maile, [5] Sally Ordway, [6] Dolores Deane Walker, [7] and Susan Yankowitz. Megan Terry and Dacia Maraini were among the guest playwrights.
Their Advisory Board included Gloria Steinem, Muriel Rukeyser, Eleanor Perry, Florynce Kennedy, along with Margaret Croyden, Alice Denham, Elizabeth Fisher, Ellen Frankfort, Carol Greitzer, Tania, Alix Kates Shulman, and Anita Steckel.
The plays of the Westbeth Playwrights Feminist Collective featured such women's issues as religious patriarchy, work-place discrimination, dominance/submission relationships, historical figures, masquerade, and sexual harassment.
Subsequent to their first production, RAPE-IN, the plays transcended the limiting context of agit-prop theatre by discarding the revenge themes current in much feminist writing at the time, and instead strove to accurately reflect the complexity of women’s lives and celebrate their accomplishments.
The company was especially noteworthy for writing about women's issues with lacerating humor in often absurdist situations. Christopher Olsen in his book, Off Off Broadway 1968 -1970 The Second Wave (2011), [8] noted the playwrights’ abilities to balance a serious social message about the marginalization of women with a sense of humor and a commitment to good writing. [9] Linda Killian, in analyzing the group’s first production, RAPE-IN, wrote that they “used humor, anger, and horror, sometimes in combination, sometimes alone. [10]
Kevin Sanders, in his 1973 WABC Eyewitness News review of WICKED WOMEN stated: “Their two earlier highly successful shows, RAPE-IN and UP!–AN UPPITY REVUE! were sharp, perceptive and fiercely satirical representations of a contemporary feminist viewpoint – a tradition maintained in this new show [Wicked Women]." [11] Gloria Rojas of WNEW-TV Midday Live, New York agreed: “Wicked Women is outrageous, funny and, to me, a little shocking.” [12]
The group’s productions were widely and positively reviewed, and, with its theatrical emphasis, [13] it became one of the first feminist theater groups reviewed in the New York Times on an ongoing basis. Howard Thompson in his NY Times review called the Collective's productions, "witty and original.". [14] Mel Gussow said that the Collective's productions work both as "a course in consciousness raising and a call to arms." [15] Debbie Wasserman in her Show Business review of The Wicked Women Revue noted, “It is certainly a pleasure to see a crusading group which doesn’t use its crusade as an excuse for bad theatre, but rather uses good theatre to assist its crusade.” [16]
Because it was specifically a women's playwrights’ and producing group, the Collective hired professional actors, and group members did not perform. [17]
While the Collective used both male and female actors - unusual for feminist stage productions in the 1970s [18] – the company offered serious employment opportunities for women stage managers, directors, producers, and lighting designers. Many women currently working in theatre credit the Collective for giving them their first real job experience in theater. All productions featured original songs composed and performed by women musicians. The playwrights strongly believed in collective creation among women and operated a separate theater workshop to explore new works.
Not limited to theater productions, the playwrights group branched out to produce poetry readings, and film screenings. As a preamble to the opening of JUMPIN’ SALTY - a show about historic women in Greenwich Village – they organized a march [19] through downtown Manhattan complete with speakers at numerous historic sites. These included the site of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, Margaret Sanger’s office, and Henrietta Rodman's [20] Feminist Alliance office at McDougal St., the former Café Society location at Sheridan Square where Lena Horne sang, Bessie Hillman's [21] Women's Trade Union League, and a location of Harriet Tubman's Underground Railroad. [22] In 1974-75, the Collective sponsored a nationwide playwriting contest for women playwrights. The prize was a theatrical production in New York City.
As the work of the group grew, so did its administrative needs. At any one time, the Advisory Board of the Westbeth Playwrights Feminist Collective was filled with women dedicated to good writing who were concerned with women's issues. These included Margaret Croyden, author; Alice Denham, author; Elizabeth Fisher, author and founder of Aphra Feminist Literary Journal; Ellen Frankfort, author and journalist; Carol Greitzer, [23] New York City Councilwoman; Florynce Kennedy, women’s rights activist and civil rights lawyer; Eleanor Perry, screenwriter; Muriel Rukeyser, poet; Alix Kates Shulman, author; Anita Steckel, [24] artist; Tania, artist; and Gloria Steinem, author and founder of Ms. Magazine.
In May, 1974, the Collective hired Nancy Rhodes as Administrative Director. Subsequently she founded the Encompass New Opera Theatre and has continued for the past thirty years as Artistic Director of that opera company.
The Westbeth Playwrights Feminist Collective, was partially funded as a not-for-profit theater company by the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts. [25]
The name of the group is derived from Westbeth Artists Housing – an affordable housing complex for artists in New York City, where most of the playwrights lived and worked, and which made accessible to the Collective free rehearsal space, and sometimes, production space.
Rape-In, the playwrights’ first show, began as a workshop project at the suggestion of a male playwright in a then-mixed Westbeth playwrights' group. But it was the women who wrote on the theme, and when they did, they discovered they were all feminists. [26]
The Collective also presented the work of other feminists:
After five years of theatre productions, the Westbeth Playwrights Collective disbanded, each member to pursue individual careers - some as playwrights, poets, television and nonfiction writers. Others, perhaps encouraged by the avenues of opportunity they had striven to open, became bishops, attorneys, landscape architects, publishers, printmakers, and videographers.
Recently a group of Collective playwrights and directors met in an hour-long videotaped interview to recall the above events.
Due to the historic presence of the Westbeth Playwrights Feminist Collective in the early days of the Women's movement, the New York Historical Society gathered material - photos, correspondence, scripts, and ephemera - of the Westbeth Playwrights Feminist Collective to add to its collections.
Abstract: Records of the short-lived but groundbreaking Westbeth Playwrights' Feminist Collective, one of the earliest feminist theater groups in the United States. Incorporated 1972 and dissolved 1976, the WPFC was headquartered at the historic Westbeth Artists' Housing on West Street, Manhattan, and produced plays by feminist authors focused on issues central to the women's movement like sexual harassment and workplace inequality. The collection includes scripts, publicity material, articles and reviews, some correspondence, ephemera, and photographs of select production scenes and WP members.
Quantity: 1.04 Linear Feet (in 3 boxes)
Call Phrase: MS 3056
Historical Note: The Westbeth Playwrights' Feminist Collective (WPFC) — named for its headquarters in the Westbeth Artists' Housing (in the historic Bell Telephone Laboratories Complex at 445-465 West Street, Manhattan) — was one of the earliest feminist theater groups in the United States. Incorporated on 19 October 1972, its founding members included the multi-talented playwrights Helen Duberstein, Hélène Dworzan, Patricia Horan, Gwendolyn Gunn, Christina (a.k.a. Chryse) Maile, Sally Ordway, Dolores Deane Walker, and Susan Yankowitz. Its Board of Sponsors, a who's who of American feminism of the day, included theater critic Margaret Croyden, activist Florynce Kennedy, poet Muriel Rukeyser, and Ms. magazine co-founder Gloria Steinem.
The plays of the WPFC focused on issues at the core of the women's movement like sexual harassment, workplace inequality, dominance and submission, and the exclusion of female celebrants by the religious patriarchy. Productions were staged in several Manhattan venues, among them the Theater for the New City, Joseph Jefferson Company, and, at Westbeth, the Westbeth Cabaret and Gallery Theater. Titles include "Rape-In" (May 1971), "Up! An Uppity Revue" (February 1972), "Wicked Women Revue" (January 1973), "? ! A Revue" (May 1973), "We Can Feed Everybody Here" (January 1974), "What Time of Night It Is" (May 1974), "Medea" (January 1975), and "Jumpin' Salty" (April 1975). As publicity for "Jumpin' Salty" — which showcased the lives of notable women in American history such as birth control advocate Margaret Sanger and the largely female victims of the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire — the WPFC organized a march through Greenwich Village, with stops to hear speakers at sites connected to the women and events.
The WPFC staged a production of the Gertrude Stein-Virgil Thomson opera based on the life of Susan B. Anthony, "The Mother of Us All" (April–May 1976). They also sponsored readings by poets, Judy Grahn and Honor Moore, and hosted screenings of the work of women filmmakers.
Archival references and material:
Joseph Chaikin was an American theatre director, actor, playwright, and pedagogue.
Susan Keating Glaspell was an American playwright, novelist, journalist and actress. With her husband George Cram Cook, she founded the Provincetown Players, the first modern American theatre company.
Westbeth Artists Housing is a nonprofit housing and commercial complex dedicated to providing affordable living and working space for artists and arts organizations in New York City. The complex comprises the full city block bounded by West, Bethune, Washington and Bank Streets in the West Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City; the complex is named for the streets West and Bethune.
Dacia Maraini is an Italian writer. Maraini's work focuses on women's issues, and she has written numerous plays and novels. She has won awards for her work, including the Formentor Prize for L'età del malessere (1963); the Premio Fregene for Isolina (1985); the Premio Campiello and Book of the Year Award for La lunga vita di Marianna Ucrìa (1990); and the Premio Strega for Buio (1999). In 2013, Irish Braschi's biographical documentary I Was Born Travelling told the story of her life, focusing in particular on her imprisonment in a concentration camp in Japan during World War II and the journeys she made around the world with her partner Alberto Moravia and close friends Pier Paolo Pasolini and Maria Callas. In 2020 she adheres to Empathism.
Sheila Callaghan is a playwright and screenwriter who emerged from the RAT movement of the 1990s. She has been profiled by American Theater Magazine, "The Brooklyn Rail", Theatermania, and The Village Voice. Her work has been published in American Theatre magazine.
Alix Kates Shulman is an American writer of fiction, memoirs, and essays, and a prominent early radical activist of second-wave feminism. She is best known for her bestselling debut adult novel, Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen, hailed by the Oxford Companion to Women's Writing as "the first important novel to emerge from the Women's Liberation Movement."
Nightwood Theatre is Canada's oldest professional women's theatre and is based in Toronto. It was founded in 1979 by Cynthia Grant, Kim Renders, Mary Vingoe, and Maureen White and was originally a collective. Though it was not the founders' original intention, Nightwood Theatre has become known for producing feminist works. Some of Nightwood's most famous productions include This is For You, Anna (1983) and Good Night Desdemona (1988). Nightwood hosts several annual events including FemCab, the Hysteria Festival, and Groundswell Festival which features readings from participants of Nightwood's Write from the Hip playwright development program.
Marguerite Duffy, known professionally as Megan Terry, was an American playwright, screenwriter, and theatre artist.
The Ivey Awards were an annual award show, celebrating Twin Cities professional theater. Established in 2004, the non-nomination based awards served to recognize outstanding achievements within the past theater season in direction, performance, design, etc. The awards were founded by Scott Mayer and administered by a panel of local theater professionals and theater patrons. The Iveys ceased in 2018 due to lack of funding.
WP Theater is a not-for-profit Off-Broadway theater based in New York City. It is the nation’s oldest and largest theater company dedicated to developing, producing and promoting the work of Women+ theater artists of all kinds at every stage in their careers. Currently, Lisa McNulty serves as the Producing Artistic Director and Michael Sag serves as the Managing Director.
Honor Moore is an American writer of poetry, creative nonfiction and plays. She currently teaches at The New School in the MFA program for creative nonfiction, where she is a part-time associate teaching professor.
Rick Shiomi is an internationally recognized, award-winning Japanese Canadian playwright, stage director, artistic director and taiko artist, and a major player in the Asian American/Canadian theatre movement. He is best known for his groundbreaking play Yellow Fever, which earned him the Bay Area Theater Circle Critics Award and “Bernie” Award. Over the last couple decades, Shiomi has also become a notable artistic and stage director. He directed the world premiere of the play Caught by Christopher Chen for which he received the Philadelphia Barrymore Award Nomination for Outstanding Direction. He is currently the Co-Artistic Director of Full Circle Theater Company.
Myrna Lila Lamb was an American playwright.
Alma De Groen is an Australian feminist playwright, born in New Zealand on 5 September 1941.
Spiderwoman Theater is an Indigenous women's performance troupe that blends traditional art forms with Western theater. Named after Spider Grandmother from Hopi mythology, it is the longest running Indigenous theatre company in the United States.
WOW Café Theater is a feminist theater space and collective in East Village in New York City. In the mid-1980s, WOW Cafe Theater was central to the avant garde theatre and performance art scene in the East Village, New York City. Among the artists who have presented at the space are Peggy Shaw, Lois Weaver, Patricia Ione LLoyd, Lisa Kron, Holly Hughes, Deb Margolin, Dancenoise, Carmelita Tropicana, Eileen Myles, Split Britches, Seren Divine, and The Five Lesbian Brothers.
Martha Boesing is an American theater director and playwright. She was the founding artistic director of the Minneapolis experimental feminist theater collective At the Foot of the Mountain.
Sue Perlgut is a second-wave feminist who was a central figure in It's All Right To Be Woman Theatre, a women's theater collective founded in 1970 in New York City that operated without a director.
Feminist theater grew out of the wider Political theater of the 1970s, and continues to the present. It can take on a variety of meanings, but the constant thread is the lived experience of women.
The Women's Interart Center was a New York City–based multidisciplinary arts organization conceived as an artists' collective in 1969 and formally delineated in 1970 under the auspices of Women Artists in Revolution (WAR) and Feminists in the Arts. In 1971, it found a permanent home on Manhattan's far West Side. A trailblazing women's alternative space, the Center provided exhibition and performance venues, workshops, and training courses for artists in a wide range of media for over four decades, with a focus on developing women's skills, bringing their work to the public, and fostering innovation. Prominent visual artists exhibited at the Interart Gallery, which in 1976 mounted the first ever festival of black women's film. The Interart Theatre—the Center's off-off-Broadway stage—and its productions won numerous honors. The Center hosted the Women's Video Festival for several years and ran a video program responsible for a variety of notable works.