ABSTRACT
In the study of contemporary feminist theatres, developments in both practice and theory must be taken into account. This book addresses both. But while practice and theory may work together on paper, they rarely do so in the street or on the stage. The discrepancy between vocabularies and priorities which has often been labelled ‘the theory/practice divide’ does complicate any study of feminist theatre. The disjunction between academic and practical approaches to the making and viewing of feminist theatre becomes evident even in the attempt to define the terms for discussion. For example, though nearly all of the women interviewed for this study were supportive of the project, many were reluctant to have themselves and their work pigeonholed into what they tended to view as sterile academic categories, and many were also sceptical about the relevance and value of such theories in general. Several women interviewed were particularly wary of a university-supported study, the subject of which (let alone the women who create it) rarely receives comparable financial and/or creative support; therefore, it was necessary to establish some personal contacts before academic work could begin. Such tendencies are indicative of a situation acknowledged in areas of sociological enquiry but not so widely recognized in the Arts-whereby some of the women who might benefit most in the long term from a study of this kind are in a poor position from which to offer support in the short term. The resulting set of possible divisions between practitioners and academics or theorists is the subject of this chapter, in which the focus is on finding a workable definition of the term ‘feminist theatre’ which incorporates, or at least considers and represents, the views of practitioners.
