The Female Dramatist : Profiles of Women Playwrights from Around the World from the Middle Ages to the Present Day [Hardcover]

Elaine T. Partnow (Author), Lesley Anne Hyatt (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

How nice to have, all in one volume, this wonderful compendium of playwrights who "just happen" to all be women. Undoubtedly, some have been missed, as the author herself recognizes in her foreword, but the coverage is excellent: six centuries, more than 200 female playwrights, and 50 illustrations. Of special help is a time line that begins with Hrosvitha von Gandersheim (German, c.935-1000 (circa) and ends with Fatima Gallaire-Bouregaa, a contemporary Algerian-French playwright. Bibliographies are also provided for each dramatist, but unfortunately not all are complete, particularly in the case of those women who were particularly prolific. One hopes that they will all be complete in the second edition of this welcome addition to our drama collections. Recommended for public and academic libraries.?Susan L. Peters, Emory Univ. Lib., Atlanta
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Female playwrights have been largely overlooked in anthologies and criticism, so this reference work on more than 200 such women is a delight. Partnow has 25 years of stage and film experience and has edited three anthologies of women's quotations.

Criteria for selection include significant body of work, influence, professional staging, innovative approach, present availability of work in English, and critical review. While most playwrights covered are twentieth-century Americans, there is representation from all continents and from 1000 A.D. onward. The earliest is medieval dramatist Hrotsvitha von Gandersheim; the newest is Belgian Michele Fabien, born in 1970. The author does not intend to be exhaustive, but she does manage to include some fairly obscure folks, such as British dramatist Susanna Centlivre, author of The Busie Bodie (1709) and The Wonder! A Woman Keeps a Secret (1714), and Aldona Liobyte, born in Latvia in 1915. Well-known women such as Agatha Christie, Lorraine Hansberry, and Jean Kerr are included as well.

Entries are alphabetically arranged and vary from a quarter page to three pages. Approximately a quarter of the entries have portraits. Information includes personal history, contributions to the field, a selected list of plays and other works, and selected secondary materials. Some entries open with excerpts from plays. The writing is accessible^-clear and concise, not pedantic.

The book also includes a time line (with representative male playwrights interspersed), a supplemental index of other women playwrights, a bibliography, and a general index. Although the time line lists the nationality of each playwright, a separate nationality index would have been useful. The supplemental index lists 140 additional women who have "not yet created a sufficiently significant body of work" or for which the editor was unable to find sufficient information. Obviously, "significant body of work" refers to drama for the stage, since among these 140 women are Maya Angelou, Edna O'Brien, and Sonya Sanchez.

Many of the women covered here can be found elsewhere, but because it brings such a range of female dramatists together into a single volume, this resource should be a welcome addition in high-school, public, and academic libraries.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 271 pages
• Publisher: Facts on File (June 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0816030154
• ISBN-13: 978-0816030156
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 8.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #730,453 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Elaine Bernstein Partnow is an author, an actor, a quotologist, an editor, and a public speaker especially noted for her living history portrayals of notable women and for the nationally acclaimed book "The Quotable Woman, The First 5,000 Years" (Facts On File. 6th ed., 2010). A collection of almost 20,000 quotations from 167 nations by over 5,000 women, it has been in print since 1977. Other quotations collections include "The Quotable Jewish Woman" (Jewish Lights Publishing, 2004), "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Great Quotes for All Occasions" (2008), and most recently, "The Little Book of the Spirit for Women" (Fall River, 2010). Among her other works are "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Your True Age" (2009), "The Female Dramatist" (1998), "Everyday Speaking for all Occasions for Women" (1998), and "The MacMillan Book of Photographic Artists and Innovators"(1983).

Elaine has brought some of her dozens of portrayals of fabulous women to tens of thousands of women, men and children internationally at more than 500 venues. She has taught acting at all levels, including challenged children, and directed teenagers in stage plays. She has written, produced and acted in her own one-woman show, "Hear Us Roar, A Woman's Connection"; and was commissioned to write and perform "Hispanic Women Speak." She has a screenplay and two novels under her belt and continues to write both fiction and nonfiction as well as work as an editor and writing coach.

She teaches a variety of courses in adult extension--from how to get published to public speaking techniques. Included in several editions of Contemporary Authors, Who's Who of American Women and Who's Who in Entertainment, Partnow has been the on-line columnist of "Women of Wisdom" for the award-winning web site, www.feminist.com.

Elaine currently lives in Los Angeles with her photographer husband and two dogs. She has done volunteer work as an educational interpreter for two park systems, mentored at the schools, and, with her rat terrier, Deva, has made pet therapy visitations. You can find out more about Elaine and contact her at her websites: www.TheQuotableWoman.com and www.EditingByElaine.info.