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Constructing the Spectator: Reception, Context, and Address in Lesbian Performance

1986; The MIT Press; Volume: 10; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/3245613

1086-3281

Kate Davy,

Theatre and Performance Studies

In the spring of 1985 a headline appeared on the cover of The New York Native-a gay newspaper-that proclaimed Peggy Shaw: Master of Lesbian Theatre. Shaw is a member of Split Britches, a company that grew out of the WOW Cafe (Women's One World), a lesbian performance venue on New York's Lower East Side. That summer Shaw predicted that the 1985-1986 season would be remembered as the year of the lesbian. She was right. Compared to a dearth of lesbian performance only a couple of years ago, lesbians and lesbian experience have been visible in a range of performance contexts from small theatres like WOW, and clubs in the East Village like the Chandalier, to Jane Wagner's and Lily Tomlin's hit show on Broadway.