The Methuen Drama Handbook of Gender and Theatre (Hardcover)

An authoritative guide to contemporary debates and theatre practices at a time when gender paradigms are both in flux and at the centre of explosive political battlegrounds. The confluence of gender and theatre has long created a site of intense debate about the roles of men, women, and other gendered identifications. Whether it's Shakespeare’s cross-dressed boys or the banning of women in traditional kabuki or on-going reflections of two-spirit ontologies in American Indian and First Nations performances, the matter of gender has frequently taken centre stage. The Methuen Drama Handbook of Gender and Theatre examines how critical discourses on gender (understood through intersectional and transnational frames) intersect with key debates in the field of theatre studies, as a lens to illuminate the practices of both gender and theatre as well as the societies they inform and represent across space and time. Of interest to scholars in the interrelated areas of feminist, gender and sexuality studies, globalization studies, theatre and performance studies, cultural studies, and transnational and diasporic studies, its specially commissioned essays demonstrate how researchers are currently handling theatre about gender issues and gendered theatre practices. While synthesizing and summarizing foundational and evolving debates from a contemporary perspective, this is a collection that offers interpretations and analyses that do not simply look back at existing scholarship, but open up new possibilities, paradigms and understandings of gender and theatre. Featuring a series of essential research tools, including an annotated play list, this is an indispensable scholarly handbook for anyone working in theatre and performance.