LEADER 04830oam 22006734a 450 001 9910735592803321 005 20250927011805.0 010 $a9780472904099 010 $a0472904094 035 $a(CKB)5680000000311810 035 $a(MdBmJHUP)musev2_113373 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC31893939 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL31893939 035 $a(ODN)ODN0011588470 035 $a(EXLCZ)995680000000311810 100 $a20111109d2010 uy 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aur|||||||nn|n 181 $ctxt$2rdacontent 182 $cc$2rdamedia 183 $acr$2rdacarrier 200 10$aLady Dicks and Lesbian Brothers $eStaging the Unimaginable at the WOW Cafe Theater /$fKate Davy 205 $a1st ed. 210 $aAnn Arbor $cUniversity of Michigan Press$d2023 210 1$aAnn Arbor :$cUniversity of Michigan Press,$d2010. 210 4$dİ2010 215 $a1 online resource$cillustrations 225 0 $aTriangulations: lesbian/gay/queer-- theater/drama/performance. 300 $aIncludes index. 311 08$a9780472071227 311 08$a047207122X 311 08$a9780472051229 311 08$a0472051229 327 $aIntroducing WOW: "A miracle on E. 4th Street" -- Women are laughing again: allied faces -- Sex, drag, and rock 'n' roles: the festivals -- Feminist space and a system of anarchy: the storefront -- Staging the unimaginable: New York's East Village club scene -- Challenging whiteness: the fourth-floor walk-up -- "Learning to walk on our hands" -- Appendix: WOW Production history. 330 $a"Out of a small, hand-to-mouth, women's theater collective called the WOW Cafe located on the lower east side of Manhattan, there emerged some of the most important theater troupes and performance artists of the 1980s and 1990s, including the Split Britches Company, the Five Lesbian Brothers, Carmelita Tropicana, Holly Hughes, Lisa Kron, Deb Margolin, Reno, Peggy Shaw, and Lois Weaver. The WOW (Women's One World) Cafe Theatre appeared on the cultural scene at a critical turning point in both the women's movement and feminist theory, putting a witty, hilarious, gender-bending and erotically charged aesthetic on the stage for women in general and lesbians in particular. The storefront that became the WOW Cafe Theatre saw dozens of excitingly original and enormously funny performances created, performed, and turned over at lightning speed--a kind of "hit and run" theater. As the demands on the space increased, the women behind WOW organized as a collective and moved their theater to an abandoned doll factory where it continues to operate today. For three decades the WOW Cafe has nurtured fledgling women writers, designers, and performers who continue to create important performance work. This book provides a critical history of this avant-garde venture whose ongoing "system of anarchy" has been largely responsible for its thirty-year staying power, after dozens of other women's theaters have collapsed. WOW artists were creating a wholly original cultural landscape across which women could represent themselves on their own terms. Parody, cross-dressing, zany comedy, and an unbridled eroticism are hallmarks of WOW's aesthetic, combined--importantly and powerfully--with a presumptive address to the audience as if everyone onstage, in the audience, and in the world is lesbian. The author's research included in-depth interviews with WOW veterans; newspaper reviews of the earliest productions; and rare, unpublished photographs. The book also includes a chronology of productions that have highlighted WOW's performance schedule since the early '80s."--Publisher 410 0$aTriangulations: Lesbian/Gay/Queer Theater/Drama/Performance Series 606 $aMusic-halls (Variety-theaters, cabarets, etc.)$2fast$3(OCoLC)fst01030677 606 $aLesbian theater$2fast$3(OCoLC)fst00996507 606 $aThea?tre lesbien$zNew York (E?tat)$zNew York 606 $aLesbian theater$zNew York (State)$zNew York 606 $aMusic-halls (Variety-theaters, cabarets, etc.)$zNew York (State)$zNew York$xHistory$y20th century 606 $aLesbian theater groups$2homoit$3https://homosaurus.org/v4/homoit0000789 607 $aNew York (State)$zNew York$2fast 608 $aHistory. 615 7$aMusic-halls (Variety-theaters, cabarets, etc.) 615 7$aLesbian theater. 615 6$aThea?tre lesbien 615 0$aLesbian theater 615 0$aMusic-halls (Variety-theaters, cabarets, etc.)$xHistory 615 7$aLesbian theater groups. 676 $a792.02/2 686 $aPER000000$aPER011020$aSOC017000$2bisacsh 700 $aDavy$b Kate$01379376 801 0$bMdBmJHUP 801 1$bMdBmJHUP 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910735592803321 996 $aLady Dicks and Lesbian Brothers$93418999 997 $aUNINA