🎭

Influential Female and Diverse Theater Makers

Aug 4, 2024

Lecture Notes: Successful Female Identifying Theater Makers and Cultural Identity in Theater

Introduction

  • Discussing successful female identifying theater makers.
  • Focus on contemporary figures and their contributions.

Female Identifying Theater Makers

Wendy Wasserstein

  • Playwright known for comedic works.
  • Famous for realistic portrayal of women dealing with career, love, children, family, and artistry.
  • Notable Work: The Heidi Chronicles (1989)
    • Won Pulitzer and Tony Awards.

Ann Bogart and Tina Lando

  • Directors who co-created the Viewpoints acting style.
  • Focus on choreography, movement, and ensemble building rather than text and character.

Mary Zimmerman

  • Director known for storytelling and innovative directing.
  • Notable Work: Metamorphoses (2002)
    • Won Tony Award for Best Director.
    • Play involved a swimming pool on stage, used water as a dynamic element.

Julie Taymor

  • Director famous for her work on The Lion King (1998, Tony Award).
  • Known for using Bunraku Japanese puppetry.
  • Involved in controversial Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark production.

Susan Stroman

  • Broadway Director and Choreographer.
  • First female to win Tony for both director and choreographer in the same production.

Black American Theater Makers

August Wilson

  • Known for the Century Cycle – 10 plays set in Pittsburgh, each in a different decade of the 20th century.
  • Created rich, deep Black American characters.
  • Notable Work: Fences (1950s)

Lorraine Hansberry

  • Notable Work: A Raisin in the Sun
    • Based on her grandparents' experiences with racial integration in Chicago.

Black Arts Movement

  • Key Figures: Amiri Baraka and Adrienne Kennedy
  • Celebrated Black culture and identity during Civil Rights Movement.

Suzanne Lori Parks

  • Playwright born in Germany (military family).
  • Notable Work: Topdog/Underdog (2002 Pulitzer Prize)

Lynn Nottage

  • Playwright known for diverse themes.
  • Only female to win two Pulitzer Prizes (2009, 2017).
  • Notable Works: Ruined, Sweat

Asian American Theater Makers

Frank Chin

  • Pioneer of bringing Asian culture to the American stage.
  • Notable Work: Chicken Coop

David Henry Hwang

  • Notable Works: M. Butterfly (1988 Tony Award), Yellowface (2007)

B.D. Wong

  • Successful actor, known for roles in M. Butterfly and TV.

Robert Lopez

  • Filipino-American composer and playwright.
  • Notable Work: Let It Go (Frozen), Avenue Q

Latinx Theater Makers

María Irene Fornés

  • Experimental playwright.
  • Notable Work: Fefu and Her Friends (1977)

Nilo Cruz

  • Notable Work: Anna in the Tropics (2003 Pulitzer Prize)

José Rivera

  • Known for magical realism.
  • Notable Works: Marisol, References to Salvador DalĂ­ Make Me Hot

Quiara AlegrĂ­a Hudes

  • Notable Works: Water by the Spoonful (2012 Pulitzer Prize), In the Heights (2008 Tony Award)

Lin-Manuel Miranda

  • Notable Works: Hamilton (2016 Pulitzer and Tony Award), In the Heights

Indigenous Peoples in Theater

William S. Yellow Robe Jr.

  • Assiniboine playwright and professor.
  • Founded American Indian theater troupe.

Spiderwoman Theater

  • Six indigenous women creating theater, poetry, and music.
  • Notable Work: Power Pipes

LeAnne Howe

  • Notable Work: Indian Radio Days
  • Coined

Full transcript