William Hemmig - Performing Arts Librarian Send feedback to jdshep@rci.rutgers.edu June 2006

Research Resources: Subject Research Guides: Finding Aids:

Plays and Performance Texts by Selected Contemporary Women Writers With Holdings Information for the Rutgers University Libraries

Women playwrights and performance artists continue to be underrepresented in both production and publication. Many plays and performance texts by women are published in anthologies and journals, increasing the difficulty of locating them. This finding aid is a guide to locating published texts by selected women playwrights and performance artists active since 1960 in the collections of the Rutgers University Libraries. It will be expanded periodically to include additional writers.

Artists Represented

Laurie Anderson [NEW] Jane Chambers Caryl Churchill Kia Corthron Migdalia Cruz Maria Irene Fornes Holly Hughes Adrienne Kennedy

Emily Mann Lynn Nottage Suzan Lori Parks Sonia Sanchez Anna Deavere Smith Megan Terry [NEW] Paula Vogel Wendy Wasserstein

Would you like to suggest other women playwrights or performance artists to be added to this guide? Please send email to whemmig@rci.rutgers.edu.

Additional Resources

Databases (Rutgers restricted access)

• Black Drama: 1850 to the Present
• Contemporary Authors
• Literature Resource Center

Books

Contemporary Women Dramatists
(London; Detroit: St. James Press, 1994).
  Douglass Ref PR736.C58 1994

Craig, Carolyn Casey. Women Pulitzer Playwrights: Biographical Profiles and Analyses of the Plays
(Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 2004).
  Alexander Stacks PS338.W6C73 2004

Croft, Susan. She Also Wrote Plays: An International Guide to Women Playwrights from the 10th to the 21st Century
(London: Faber and Faber, 2001).
  Douglass Ref PN6119.8.C76 2001

Gavin, Christy. American Women Playwrights, 1964-1989: A Research Guide and Annotated Bibliography
(New York: Garland, 1993).
  Alexander, Dana and Kilmer Stacks PS338.W6G38 1993
  Camden and Douglass Ref PS338.W6G38 1993

Interviews with Contemporary Women Playwrights
(New York: Beech Tree Books, 1987).
  Alexander and Douglass Stacks PN471.I58 1987

Partnow, Elaine. The Female Dramatist: Profiles of Women Playwrights from the Middle Ages to Contemporary Times
(New York: Facts on File, 1998).
  Camden and Douglass Ref PN471.P37 1998

Peterson, Jane T. Women Playwrights of Diversity: A Bio-Bibliographical Sourcebook
(Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1997).
  Camden, Dana and Douglass Ref PS338.W6P48 1997

Web Sites

• Artslynx International Theatre Resources: Playwrights, Lyricists, Composers
• Native American Women Playwrights Archive (NAWPA)
• Women of Color, Women of Words

Rutgers University Libraries Subject Research Guides

• Literatures in English
• Theater and Dance
• Women's Studies