Stage women, 1900-50

Maggie B. Gale is Professor and Chair of Drama at the University of ManchesterKate Dorney is Senior Lecturer in Theatre and Performance at the University of Manchester

This book presents cutting-edge historical and cultural essays in the field of women, theatre and performance. It explore women's networks of professional practice in the performance industries between 1900 and 1950, with a focus on women's sense and experience of professional agency in an industry largely controlled by men.

Introduction - Maggie B. Gale and Kate DorneyPart I: Female theatre workers in the social and theatrical realm1 'Believe me or not': actresses, female performers, autobiography and the scripting of professional practice - Maggie B. Gale2 Female networks: collecting contacts with Gabrielle Enthoven - Kate Dorney3 Past the memoir: Winifred Dolan beyond the West End - Lucie Sutherland4 Off-stage labour: actresses, charity work and the early twentieth-century theatre profession - Catherine Hindson5 'Very much alive and kicking': the Actresses' Franchise League from 1914-28 - Naomi Paxton6 Defending the body, defending the self: women performers and the law in the 'long' Edwardian period - Viv GardnerPart II: Women and popular performance7 Emotional and natural: the Australian and New Zealand repertoires and fortunes of north American performers Margaret Anglin, Katherine Grey and Muriel Starr - Veronica Kelly8 Lily Brayton: a theatre maker in every sense - Brian Singleton9 Aerial star: Lillian Leitzel's celebrity, agency and her performed femininity - Kate Holmes10 Ellen Terry: the art of performance and her work in film - Katharine Cockin11 Mabel Constanduros: different voices, voicing difference - Gilli Bush-Bailey12 The odd woman: Margaret Rutherford - John StokesIndex