ABSTRACT
This chapter provides detailed case studies of four long-running feminist companies: Women’s Theatre Group, Monstrous Regiment, Gay Sweatshop and Siren, all of which were founded in the 1970s by women who had been active in the theatre and politics of the late 1960s (Anne Engel, Susan Todd, Michelene Wandor, Gillian Hanna, Mary McCusker, Kate Owen, Nancy Diuguid, Tash Fairbanks and others). All four groups are still in operation in 1992, though all have been threatened by funding cuts and Siren is temporarily inactive. As noted in the introduction, Women’s Theatre Group has recently changed its name to The Sphinx; the name WTG is used, however, in discussion of the company’s work. The first three of these companies have received critical attention, particularly in Itzin, Case, Keyssar, and Wandor.1 Siren has received less attention, at least in ‘academic’ sources. This chapter adds to existing sources by investigating issues such as the nature of women’s levels of involvement in the defining and negotiating power dynamics within the groups, approaches to the redefinition of styles and themes for feminist theatre, and responses to the current funding crisis.
