Women Writers of the Provincetown Players: A Collection of Short Works

Judith E. Barlow

oct 2009 · State University of New York Press

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Women Writers of the Provincetown Players features thirteen short plays written by women and performed by America's most influential early twentieth-century noncommercial theater, the Provincetown Players. From their beginnings on Cape Cod in 1915 to their disbanding in New York City in 1922, the Players staged nearly one hundred dramas, roughly a third of which were composed by women, and in the process changed American drama and theater forever. Dedicated to fostering new work by Americans, the group attracted an impressive collection of talented writers, and among its offerings were some of the first modernist plays written in the United States.

Chosen for both their artistic merit and their cultural importance, the plays included here range from naturalistic tragedies to poetic allegories to witty satires, and together they provide a valuable look at women's concerns during a period of intense civil rights activity just prior to the granting of female suffrage. In addition to works by well-known writers like Susan Glaspell, Djuna Barnes, and Edna St. Vincent Millay, the book also includes works by such significant but lesser-known figures as Neith Boyce, Louise Bryant, Rita McCann Wellman, and Alice Rostetter, as well as critical-biographical prefaces to each play and an introduction that explains the importance of these plays and the role of early twentieth-century women playwrights in American theater history.

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Judith E. Barlow is Professor of English and Women's Studies at the University at Albany–SUNY. Her books include Plays by American Women: 1900–1930; Plays by American Women: 1930–1960; and Final Acts: The Creation of Three Late O'Neill Plays.