The Second Coming of Joan of Arc and Other Plays [Paperback]

Carolyn Gage (Author)

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

From 1989 to 1991, Carolyn Gage was the Artistic Director of No to Men, a radical feminist theatre company in Ashland, Oregon. In two years, the theatre produced nineteen different plays, including ten one-acts, two musicals, and a one- woman showall written by Gage. She has written the first textbook/manual on Lesbian theatre, Take Stage! How to Produce and Direct a Lesbian Play, a book which challenges the structures and values of traditional theatre. Gage has toured nationally in her award- winning one-woman show, The Second Coming of Joan of Arc.

Gage has won the Oregon Playwrights Award, the Walden Writer's Fellowship from Lewis and Clark College, the Oregon Institute of Literary Arts Writer's Grant, and the Oregon Arts Commission Individual Artist Grant. Her short stories, poems, reviews, and political essays have been widely published in journals, anthologies, and women's publications, both nationally and internationally.

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Herbooks (November 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0939821060
• ISBN-13: 978-0939821068
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,296,723 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Artistic Triumph, May 4, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Second Coming of Joan of Arc and Other Plays (Paperback)

The "true" stories are unimportant to know and/or believe in reading this work -- what matters are the stories that these women set forth and proclaim -- which are true statements as to the treatment of women -- and that Gage does with a frightful power that will shake you to your core.

I highly recommend this book -- and if you ever have a chance to see one of the plays from it performed -- do so!

4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An outrageous shout!, October 31, 2001

By 

Adriano Steinway Chan (Ribeirão Preto SP Brazil) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Second Coming of Joan of Arc and Other Plays (Paperback)

Carolyn Gage is a very talented playwright. She is undoubtly one of the most gifted writers of this generation. Gage invites us to stand against a male-dominant world in which women are not allowed to have their own voice. In this aspect, the author makes sure to build a great esthetic, literary and dramatic portray of women's cognitive world. Therefore, the lesbianism turns out to be the most sensible and inteligent expression of female needs. It's not a mere accident. It's a way of protecting voices of womanhood. Naive people can be shocked by the deconstruction of Joan. Does it matter wheter it is true or not? Is there a single truth? The facts are always controversial. And Gage's plays are an outrageous shout of this reality.Joan of Arc is a legend. Jeanne Romee is the person behind the myth. That is the subject Gage tries to apreehend. And she does it magnifically. When we read Gage's Joan we are before a woman. Not a saint.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant feminist imagination, November 13, 2003

By 

Les Bearbun (Northeastern US) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Second Coming of Joan of Arc and Other Plays (Paperback)

I was fortunate enough to see "The Second Coming" produced with the author in the lead role. What a fabulous experience! This play is firmly situated in literary tradition as it imagines the circumstances of Joan's life, as a woman of her time. Gage's feminist politics are uncompromising in this piece, as in all her work, as she fearlessly names patriarchy as responsible for the ills women suffer. The other plays in this book are equally good and powerful in that several of them are brief and would not be difficult to stage. While this book is an excellent read, the real power of this work is as performance. Women need more roles, better roles, real roles, in theater, and this book has them. Gage's gift for seeing and giving voice to the feminist potential in every story is on display in this remarkable book.