ABSTRACT
This essay argues for Jill Dolan's (b.1957) importance as a founder of the field of feminist performance criticism. Dolan's book The Feminist Spectator as Critic (1988/1991) is significant for its delineation and assessment of the strains of U.S. feminist thought prevalent in the 1980s; as an archive of the work of marginalized artists; and as a model for how feminist spectators might engage material feminism to critique theatre and performance. Dolan's two major theories of spectatorship—the feminist recuperation of Brecht's theories she presents in The Feminist Spectator and the concept of the “utopian performative” she offers in Utopia in Performance (2005)—changed the landscape of theatre and performance criticism. Throughout her career, Dolan has engaged a range of audiences with her writing; this commitment is part of her feminist ethos.
