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Même si on les connaît moins, des femmes d'exception ont marqué tous les domaines des arts à toutes les époques. En voici quelques-unes !
Miriam Makeba
1932-2008
MUSIQUE

Miriam Makeba est une des musiciennes africaines ayant le plus marqué le 20e siècle. En 1959, sa carrière va plutôt bien là où elle est née, en Afrique du Sud. Elle décide tout de même d'aller aux États-Unis où elle prend position contre l'apartheid, le régime politique raciste qui sévit dans son pays.

La réaction ne se fait pas attendre. Dès 1960, l'Afrique du Sud la force à l'exil en lui refusant l'entrée au pays. En 1963, ses disques y sont interdits et on révoque son passeport. Elle ne pourra y revenir que 30 ans plus tard.

Malgré cette situation, Miriam Makeba deviendra une grande musicienne. Surnommée " Mama Africa ", elle a marqué pour toujours le style qu'on nomme la " musique du monde ". Sa chanson " Pata Pata " a propulsé sa carrière à l'international. De nombreuses chanteuses ont reconnu avoir été influencées par elle. En 2015, l'artiste Jain a écrit une chanson intitulée Makeba pour lui rendre hommage.

Zaha Hadid
1950-2016
ARCHITECTURE

D'origine irakienne, Zaha Hadid a su imposer son regard de femme dans un monde d'hommes. Architecte reconnue, mathématicienne et artiste, elle a imaginé des édifices impressionnants. Elle fut la première femme à remporter le prestigieux prix Pritzker que plusieurs considèrent comme le " Nobel " de l'architecture.

Parmi ses bâtiments célèbres, on note le Musée national des arts du 21e siècle (le MAXXI), à Rome, un tremplin de saut à ski à Innsbruck, en Autriche, une usine de BMW à Leipzig, en Allemagne, et une halte ferroviaire à Hoenheim, en France. Elle a aussi dessiné des ponts, des écoles, des meubles et des bottes... entre autres !

Yoko Ono
1933-
ART CONTEMPORAIN

La Japonaise Yoko Ono est d'abord connue pour avoir été la compagne du célèbre Beatles John Lennon, mais c'est oublier qu'elle est une artiste à part entière ayant marqué l'art contemporain.

Poète, philosophe, artiste visuelle et conceptuelle, cinéaste, musicienne, Yoko Ono a touché à tout. Dans les années 1960, elle s'est détournée des oeuvres d'art traditionnelles. Elle préférait explorer des oeuvres construites avec l'aide des visiteurs de ses expositions. Ce faisant, elle voulait faire ressortir l'artiste en chacun de nous.

Malgré ses 87 ans, Yoko Ono continue d'être une artiste prolifique et une activiste pour la paix. C'est d'ailleurs pour cette cause qu'elle aura laissé sa marque sur la ville de Montréal en y tenant un " Bed-in for peace " (Au lit pour la paix) à l'hôtel Reine Élizabeth avec John Lennon en 1969.

Frida Kahlo
1907-1954
PEINTURE

Elle est la peintre la plus connue du Mexique. Frida Kahlo est une féministe et une anticonformiste. Pour elle, les obstacles sont faits pour être renversés.

Victime d'un accident grave, elle devra passer beaucoup de temps sur un lit d'hôpital. C'est là qu'elle commence à peindre. Pour l'aider, sa famille fixe un miroir au-dessus de son lit : elle peut donc se prendre comme modèle. Cela marquera sa pratique puisqu'elle produira 55 autoportraits.

Comme elle a eu des problèmes de santé toute sa vie, ses toiles montrent souvent la souffrance physique ou psychologique. On y retrouve aussi des éléments de la culture mexicaine. Grâce à ses oeuvres, la " mexicanité " (le caractère particulier au Mexique) trouvera un écho aux États-Unis, en Europe et au-delà.

Depuis 2010, le billet mexicain de 500 pesos est désormais à son effigie et à celui de son mari, l'artiste Diego Rivera.

Sapphô
612 av. J.-C. - 580 av. J.-C.
POÉSIE

La poète grecque Sapphô choqua en écrivant sur son désir envers d'autres femmes. Même si l'homosexualité était mieux acceptée en Grèce à cette époque, c'était scandaleux qu'une femme l'exprime aussi ouvertement.

On dit d'elle qu'elle n'avait pas son pareil pour décrire le frisson de l'amour. Elle le compare à une brûlure, une métaphore qui aura traversé le temps jusqu'à aujourd'hui.

Le pape Grégoire VII, choqué par les écrits de la poète, aurait tenté de la reléguer aux oubliettes en 1073 en ordonnant qu'on détruise toutes ses oeuvres. C'était négliger à quel point elle avait marqué son temps : plus d'une centaine d'auteurs de l'Antiquité parlaient de Sapphô dans leurs textes.

Ainsi, Sapphô est devenue une véritable légende. Même si elle a vécu il y a près de 2 700 ans, on parle encore d'elle et de nombreux artistes s'en sont inspirés au fil des siècles.

Artemisia
Gentileschi
1593-1653
PEINTURE

C'est une des peintres les plus connues du 17e siècle. Née à Rome, Artemisia avait un père artiste qui lui a appris le dessin et les rudiments de la peinture.

Dans l'Italie de la Renaissance, c'était très difficile pour une femme de mener une carrière d'artiste. Elle a réussi malgré tout, devenant la première femme admise à l'Académie des arts du dessin en 1616.

Dans ses oeuvres, elle montre souvent des corps féminins nus, ce qui était osé pour l'époque. Elle avait un avantage : Artemisia se servait probablement de son propre corps comme modèle ! Ses toiles montrent une perspective féminine dans une Italie où il n'y avait que des peintres hommes. Résultat : de puissants mécènes lui ont commandé des oeuvres représentant des femmes fortes et autoritaires qui n'ont pas peur des hommes.

Elle est de nouveau populaire aujourd'hui. En novembre 2019, un de ses tableaux s'est vendu sept millions de dollars !

George Sand
1804-1876
LITTÉRATURE

Lors de son décès, le grand écrivain Victor Hugo aurait déclaré : " Je pleure une morte, je salue une immortelle ! "

Amantine Aurore Lucile Dupin, connue sous le nom de George Sand, a été la première femme française à pouvoir vivre de son écriture. Féministe, elle en a choqué plusieurs en adoptant un pseudonyme et des vêtements masculins pour propulser sa carrière. Elle avait bien compris que le métier d'écrivain était dominé par les hommes : elle en avait revêtu le costume.

George Sand était une femme libre qui a influencé sa société. Ses oeuvres prônent une plus grande égalité entre les sexes et les classes sociales. Elle a publié plus de 70 romans, en plus de correspondances, de pièces de théâtre et de nombreux articles ! Parmi ses écrits les plus célèbres, on trouve les romans Consuelo et Elle et lui.

Où sont-elles ?

Pourquoi y a-t-il si peu de femmes dans l'histoire de l'art ? Est-ce parce qu'elles avaient moins de talent, que leurs oeuvres dérangeaient moins, qu'elles étaient moins passionnées ?

Bien sûr que non ! La réponse se trouve en grande partie dans le fait que ce sont les hommes qui, depuis de très nombreux siècles, dominent l'espace public, même dans les arts.

Et c'est loin d'être parfait aujourd'hui. Des études démontrent que nous avons souvent un biais inconscient qui tend à favoriser les artistes masculins. C'est pourquoi il faut continuer de combattre les préjugés et tenter de trouver des moyens pour atteindre un véritable équilibre.

Participe à notre concours Mon héroïne !

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Même si on les connaît moins, des femmes d'exception ont marqué tous les domaines des arts à toutes les époques. En voici quelques-unes ! Miriam Makeba est une des musiciennes africaines ayant le plus marqué le 20e siècle. En 1959, sa carrière va plutôt bien là où elle est née, en Afrique du Sud.

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We support arts learning in and out of the classroom. Our resources and experiences for educators and students include tours, professional development, partnerships, and the Art, Books, and Creativity (ABC) arts-integration curriculum.

What We Offer

Stay in the Loop!

Sign up for our quarterly teacher newsletter to learn about upcoming professional development opportunities, programs, and resources.

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Education programming is made possible by the A. James & Alice B. Clark Foundation, with additional support provided by the Marcia and Frank Carlucci Charitable Foundation, the Leo Rosner Foundation, the William Randolph Hearst Foundation, and the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional funding is provided by the Harriet E. McNamee Youth Education Fund, William and Christine Leahy, the Nora Roberts Foundation, Sylvan C. Coleman Trust, and the Junior League of Washington.

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For Educators | National Museum of Women in the Arts

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We support arts learning in and out of the classroom. Our resources and experiences for educators and students include tours, professional development, partnerships, and the Art, Books, and Creativity (ABC) arts-integration curriculum. What We Offer Sign up for our quarterly teacher newsletter to learn about upcoming professional development opportunities, programs, and resources.

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Where are the Women? - Google Arts & Culture

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From forgotten pioneers to iconic trailblazers, celebrate women in arts and culture

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Women in Art: 100 PostcardsBy Rachel Ignotofsky

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Martina Paukova

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March is Women's History Month, so let's look at just a few amazing women artists you can study in your homeschool this month!

Georgia O'Keeffe

O'Keeffe painted cityscapes, landscapes, and even pineapples. She's best known for her large flower paintings that brought the viewer right up into the flower itself - offering a new perspective.

Frida Kahlo

Frida Kahlo suffered from illness and injury for most of her life, but even when she was confined to her home, Casa Azul, she was busy creating. She was bold, eccentric and stylish, and she painted dozens of self-portraits exploring her internal world.

Mary Cassatt

Mary Cassatt was a pioneer of Impressionist art. Being a woman gave her entry into a domestic world that male painters rarely saw. She painted women in society (at the opera and the theater), and she painted women at home (intimate portraits of mothers with their children).

Lee Krasner

Lee Krasner was a cornerstone of the Abstract Expressionist art movement. Although she is often known as Jackson Pollock's wife, she created art before she met him, and after his untimely death. Some say it was her influential connections that made Pollock's art so famous! (We spent a month studying Lee Krasner's art in The Studio! If you plan to join us when enrollment opens, you'll have access to that archived lesson as part of your membership.)

Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun

Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun was a neo-classical painter who is most famous for painting Queen Marie-Antoinette's portrait - over 20 of them - at Versailles.

Cindy Sherman

Cindy Sherman is a contemporary photographer. She stages elaborate 'selfie' style photos where she dresses up in costume and portrays different characters. Her art is humorous, unsettling, and provocative.

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March is Women's History Month, so let's look at just a few amazing women artists you can study in your homeschool this month! O'Keeffe painted cityscapes, landscapes, and even pineapples. She's best known for her large flower paintings that brought the viewer right up into the flower itself - offering a new perspective.

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Written by Shoshana Greenberg

Illustrations by Desiree Nasim

August 15 th, 2016

In March I wrote the feature 7 Women of Theatre History You Should Know, but as I researched those women I knew I would need to write another installment. The more I read about one woman in the theatre, another interesting, little-known woman would reveal herself. As in the first feature, these seven women represent a range of talents and areas of theatre. They have written, directed, and/or started theatre companies. They have worked in New York and across the country. Their work reflects their individual experiences and has influenced the theatre as we know it today. These women-Tisa Chang, Carolyn Leigh, Nina Vance, Rachel Crothers, Ellen Stewart, J.E. Franklin, and Megan Terry-are still only a small percentage of the influential and important women working in theatre in the last century. I hope learning about them inspires you to find out more about their lives and their work and leads you to discover more women in theatre.
(i.) Tisa Chang
"I used to think that life was hills and valleys. Now I think of it as an ongoing spiral. The momentum is to forge forward and upward." -Tisa Chang

The conversation regarding Asian representation in theatre has grown more present in recent years, but Tisa Chang has been creating opportunities for Asian theatre artists for almost four decades. In 1977, Chang founded the Pan Asian Repertory Theatre with the mission to "celebrate the artistic expressiveness of Asian and American theatre artists under the highest standards of professional theatre and professional productions." The theatre company has nurtured many Asian and Asian-American theatre artists and brought Asian theatre traditions to a New York audience, and through touring, around the world. Chang serves as the company's artistic producing director.

The company grew out of Chang's work at La Mama, under the direction of Ellen Stewart. Chang began directing there in 1973 with the Chinese Theatre Group, and she delved into the Asian and Western classics, creating bilingual productions of such plays as A Midsummer Night's Dream and Goldoni's A Servant of Two Masters.

Chang was born in 1941 in Chungking, China and moved to New York when she was 6 years old. Her father, a Taiwanese diplomat and general consul for Nationalist China, had acted in school plays, and Chang was given dance and piano lessons. She attended Performing Arts High School and Barnard College, as well as the HB School of Acting and the Martha Graham School of Dance.

She then began performing as a dancer and in the chorus of musicals. She acted and performed in film and made her Broadway debut in 1970 in the show Lovely Ladies, Kind Gentlemen, a musical set on the island of Okinawa in 1946. The musical closed in less than three weeks. She then appeared on Broadway in the 1977 revival of David Rabe's The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel with Al Pacino.

Using the money she earned from that show, she expanded her company and moved it out of La MaMa and into St. Clement's. Money was tight at first, but the company grew thanks to the commitment of the company members and grants from organizations such as the New York State Council on the Arts. Actor Lucy Liu and Playwright David Henry Hwang got their starts under her directorship.

Chang has said that she not only loves the artistic side of running a theatre but the business side as well. 20 years after its founding, the company had an annual budget of $500,000. Their shows have toured around the world to such places as Egypt and South Africa immediately following the end of Apartheid. They have inspired other Asian theatre companies across the United States.

In 1976 she married Ernest Abuba, an actor originally from Hawaii who was then in the Broadway musical Pacific Overtures. They married in the La MaMa Annex. They divorced in 1990 and have one son, Auric Kang.

In 1988 she received a Theatre World Special Award and in 2012 she received Mayor Bloomberg's American Dreamer "Visionary Award" for Pan Asian's visionary work and advocacy on behalf of NYC's immigrant communities. She still serves as Artistic Producing Director of Pan Asian Rep.
(ii.) Carolyn Leigh
"When I went home, I found that sad to say
You must expect to be forgotten once you've gone away,
And so I couldn't stay
That lonely night when I went home."
-"When I Went Home," a cut song from Peter Pan. Replaced by "Distant Melody."

Carolyn Leigh's accomplishments abound. Her lyrics have been sung by children proclaiming they won't grow up in the musical Peter Pan, by a woman announcing the Dow Jones numbers in the musical How Now, Dow Jones, and by Frank Sinatra. In her career spanning stage, television, and film, she was able to work with a variety of composers, writers, and theatre artists, including Cy Coleman, Moose Charlap, Elmer Bernstein, Neil Simon, Marvin Hamlisch, and Jerome Robbins. She was nominated for two Tony Awards for the scores of Little Me and How Now, Dow Jones, and she was inducted into the Songwriters' Hall of Fame in 1985.

Carolyn Leigh was born Carolyn Rosenthal on August 21, 1926 in the Bronx. She graduated from Hunter College High School in 1944 and went to Queens College and New York University. To earn money, she worked as a typist, radio and advertising copywriter, and secretary, although she said she could not take dictation, and in her spare time she wrote stories and poems. She wrote songs as a kid, but she didn't write lyrics professionally until 1951 when a wrong number put her in touch with a music publisher. The publisher signed her to a contract to write lyrics, and she soon published her first song with composer Henry Glover called " I'm Waiting Just for You." The song became a hit when Pat Boone recorded it six years later.

Leigh's hit song " Young at Heart," which she wrote with Johnny Richards, drew her to Broadway star Mary Martin. Martin asked Leigh to write the lyrics for Peter Pan, a new show she was developing. Though director and choreographer Jerome Robbins called in Betty Comden, Adolph Green, and Jule Styne to help with the score, the songs are split fairly evenly between the two writing teams, and Peter Pan marked Leigh's Broadway debut. She then spent a period of time writing musicals for television, including The Merry Widow, The Chocolate Soldier, Heidi, and The Great Waltz. In this time, she also wrote the hit song " Witchcraft," which Frank Sinatra recorded.

In 1957 she contributed to a Broadway revue called The Ziegfeld Follies of 1957, starring Beatrice Lilly, and in 1960 she wrote another Broadway show with Cy Coleman and book writer N. Richard Nash. Wildcat, directed by Michael Kidd, starred Lucille Ball in her only Broadway show as Wildcat Johnson, who attempts to strike oil. It closed early, but the song " Hey, Look Me Over" was later sung by such talents as Louis Armstrong, Judy Garland, and Bing Crosby. It was then with 1967's How Now, Dow Jones that Leigh was able to write a musical based on one of her own stories. Set on Wall Street, the show follows Kate, who announces the Dow Jones numbers, and her fiancé who won't marry her until the Dow Jones Industrial Average hits 1,000.

Leigh's archives mention at least 10 unproduced musicals for which she wrote the lyrics. In 1969, Leigh's musical version of The Great Gatsby with composer Lee Pockriss and book writer Hugh Wheeler (Sweeney Todd) was supposed to start rehearsals for a spring 1970 Broadway opening, but the musical never opened.

Leigh's work in the mid- to late 1970s included Something To Do: A Salute to the American Worker, which was commissioned by the Department of Labor in 1976, and Hellzapoppin, the 1976 revival of the 1938 musical revue written by the Vaudevillian comedy team of John Sigvard "Ole" Olsen and Harold Ogden "Chic" Johnson with music by Sammy Fain and lyrics by Charles Tobias.

On November 19, 1983, Leigh died in Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City following a heart attack. She was 57. She had been working with Marvin Hamlisch on the musical Smile, and a workshop production had opened at the Union Square Studio earlier that year. Hamlisch later wrote that show with his Little Shop of Horrors lyricist Howard Ashman.
(iii.) Nina Vance
"It's beginning! Do you want a new theater for Houston?"
-Written on the postcards Nina Vance sent out to start a new theatre

"This is your theatre."
-Nina Vance to the audience when she came on stage after one of the Alley Theatre's productions

Nina Vance (pronounced NINE-ah) was one of the early female leaders in the American Regional Theatre movement. In 1947 she started the Alley Theatre in Houston, Texas. With $2.14 in her pocket, she famously bought and mailed out 214 penny postcards to invite theatre artists and potential supporters to join her in the creation of a new theatre-in-the-round.

What began as an 84-seat theatre off an alley (hence the name, suggested by founding member) is now one of America's prominent regional repertory companies and one of the three oldest. In 1968, the Alley Theatre moved into the building it still occupies today, which is next to the Oscar F. Holcombe Civic Center, at the corner of Texas and Louisiana.

Vance was born Nina Eloise Whittington, the only child of Calvin Perry and Minerva (DeWitt) Whittington, on October 22, 1914 in Yoakum, Texas. Raised Presbyterian, she graduated from Texas Christian University in 1935 with a B.A. in Theatre. She continued her theatre studies at Columbia University, the University of Southern California, and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. After completing her studies, she moved to Houston in 1939 and taught drama and speech at Jefferson Davis High School and then at San Jacinto High school, as well as private acting classes.

In 1941 she met Margo Jones, who would eventually found the first regional theatre in Dallas. Jones was running an amateur theatre group called the Houston Community Players, and Vance was acting in the group, as well as in another group called the Houston Little Theatre. Influenced by Jones, Vance went on to direct more than a dozen productions at the Players Guild at the Jewish Community Center between 1945 and 1947, many in-the-round, a style that Jones introduced. The Players Guild folded, but Vance wasn't finished making theatre. She and her friends Vivien and Bob Atfield decided to produce plays in Vivien's dance studio.

The fire marshal forced them out of the dance studio, but they soon reopened in a converted fan factory, where they stayed until their final move in 1968. In 1954, the theatre switched to an equity contract, and had started to produce new plays, including world premieres along with the classics. In 1965 they produced the world premiere of The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds by Paul Zindel, which moved to Broadway and won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Over the years, Vance directed more than 100 plays.

Soon her career expanded. In 1958, the English Speaking Union sponsored her to tour British repertory theatres. In 1959 she received a director's grant from the Ford Foundation. In the early 1960s, President Kennedy invited her to serve on the advisory committee on what would become the Kennedy Center of Performing Arts, and she was the only woman to serve on the United States Commission on International Education and Cultural Affairs. She toured the U.S.S.R. at the invitation of the Soviet Ministry of Culture and the State Department, and observed contemporary Soviet theatre in Moscow, one of only seven American directors to do so. The trip resulted in her bringing the Russian play Echelon to the United States in 1977, which the original director, Galina Volchek, recreated. Vance was also a founding member of the Theatre Communications Group (TCG), a networking organization of professional regional theatres. She has received numerous awards, including the Matrix Award of Theta Phi, the Outstanding Alumni Award of Texas Southern University and the Houston Y.W.C.A. Women of the Year Award.

After a long illness, Vance died on February 18, 1980 at age 66, and the Alley Theatre was renamed the Nina Vance Alley Theatre.
(iv.) Rachel Crothers
"If you want to see the sign of the times... watch women. Their evolution is the most important thing in modern life." -Rachel Crothers, 1912.

Rachel Crothers was one of the most successful female playwrights on Broadway, if not one of the most successful playwrights, period. From 1906 through 1943 she had 24 full-length plays on Broadway, many of which she also directed. A good number of her plays, such as Susan of God and A Little Journey, were hits, and a few were made into films. Today, not many people know her name, but her plays are occasionally revived Off-Broadway and regionally. The New York Times wrote of her: "She was as skillful as she was prolific; when she was at her best she was the season's toast."

Crothers was born on December 12, 1878 in Bloomington, Illinois, the youngest of eight children and the daughter of two physicians, Drs. Eli K. and Marie Louise de Pew Crothers. Her mother was most likely the first female physician in the area. She attended Illinois State Normal School (now Illinois State University) and graduated in 1892. Throughout her childhood she was interested in the theatre and writing plays. At the age of 12 she wrote a five-act play called Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining, or The Ruined Merchant, which was performed in a friend's living room. She was also a member of the Bloomington Dramatic Club.

She then went to elocution school in Boston and returned to Illinois to teach it out of her parents' home. After her father died, she moved to New York City at age 19 and soon joined various theatre companies. Acting turned to writing, and she wrote one-act plays before her first full-length play opened on Broadway in 1906. That play, called The Three of Us, was set in Nevada mining country. The play ran for 227 performances. Her next play, however, The Coming of Mrs. Patrick, only ran for 13.

As America's most prolific female playwright of the time, she would have more successes, and many of her plays would look at women's issues and the double standard that affects women. A Man's World (1909) follows an independent female novelist in Greenwich Village. She also tackled marriage and divorce in such plays as Young Wisdom (1914), As Husband's Go (1931), and When Ladies Meet (1932). Her plays had the distinction of being very well constructed, and while farce and melodrama were popular styles at the time, her plays were more naturalistic and dealt with more serious themes and ideas.

Crothers never married. An independent woman in all areas of her theatrical life, in 1921 she began directing and staged 13 Broadway plays, 11 of which were her own. She also acted as her own agent, manager, and sometimes producer.

She was also a leader in many theatre organizations. During World War I, Crothers founded the Stage Women's War Relief with seven other women. The organization raised more than $7,000,000, and they sewed clothing for the troops. In 1940, she formed the American Theatre Wing, which operated the famed Stage Door Canteen with Antoinette Perry, and was its executive director until 1950.

She briefly went out to Hollywood in the 1930s, working under producer Samuel M. Goldwyn, but quickly returned to the stage, saying that in Hollywood the director and producer trump story.

Crothers died in 1958 at the age of 79.
(v.) J.E. Franklin
"Though some... want escapism in art, others are willing to risk hearing the truth." - J.E. Franklin

J.E. Franklin is another prolific and award-winning playwright mostly unknown in today's theatre landscape, yet she won the 1971 Drama Desk Award for her first major play, Black Girl, which was also produced for television and made into a film. She founded the Blackgirl Ensemble Theatre in New York City and her many plays depict African-American life in the post-Civil Rights era.

Franklin began working on Black Girl in 1968 when the producer of a television series On Being Black was looking for scripts. Black Girl told the story of an aspiring dancer and high school drop-out whose family tries to hold her back from her dreams. The producer insisted on major revisions, so she wrote it as a play.

Black Girl was taped in Boston in 1969 and got mixed reviews when it aired, but producer Woodie King, Jr., who had produced another play of Franklin's for the Mobilization for Youth, wanted to produce it Off-Broadway. It was first done at the Henry Street Settlement's New Federal Theatre and then opened at the Theater de Lys in 1971 to packed houses. It subsequently toured D.C., Baltimore, Chicago, and Detroit. Shauneille Perry, one of the first African-American women to direct Off-Broadway, directed the production.

When a film producer wanted to make a film version, Franklin adapted the script, but she left Hollywood after arguments about casting, delayed payments, and the addition of sex and violence to the script. Ossie Davis directed the film, and it featured Leslie Uggams and Ruby Dee. Black Girl was revived in 1984 as part of the McGinn-Cazale/Second Stage's American Classics revival series.

Jennie Elizabeth Franklin was born August 10, 1937 in Houston, Texas to Robert, a cook, and Mathie, a maid. She was one of 13 children, and her parents worked long hours, one working during the night and one during the day. Franklin's love of stories began in childhood, and she wrote whenever she could. She would hold on to every writing utensil and tablet she could get her hands on, since money was not available for supplies and she would write everywhere: on the sidewalk, on paper bags and napkins, on boxes.

In 1964, she graduated from the University of Texas with a B.A. She took creative writing courses but felt confined by the short story form, so she turned to dramatic writing, which gave her more freedom. Her first play, A First Step to Freedom, was produced in 1964 at the Sharon Waite Community Center in Harmony, Missouri. She then went on to attend Union Theological Seminary.

Her next play, The Mau Mau Room, was produced by the Negro Theatre Ensemble in New York City in 1969, also directed by Perry. After Black Girl came The Prodigal Sister, a musical she wrote with composer and lyricist Micki Grant based on one of her plays. It played the same theatre that Black Girl played, the Theater de Lys, in 1976. Years later, in 1992, her play Christchild opened at the New Federal Theatre in New York City. Other plays include Freedom Rider; Mother, Dear Mother, I Still Think of Thee; I Reckon That's Why They Calls Us Colored; her folk dramas Coming to the Mercy Seat; Precious Memories; Sons and Fathers of Sons; Three in the Key of Race; and her collections of ten-minute plays.

In 1964, she married Lawrence Siegel, and they had a child, Malike. She served on the theatre faculty at Harlem School for the Arts and has taught at the University of Iowa, Brown University, Skidmore College, Touro College, and Herbert H. Lehman College. As a cultural scholar, she was a Eugene O'Neill fellow, a Rockefeller fellow, a Resident Scholar at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, a National Endowment for the Arts/U.S.-MEXICO Artist Exchange fellow, and a John F. Kennedy New American Play Award winner. She also wrote a book, Black Girl: From Genesis to Revelations with Howard University Press in 1977.
(vi.) Megan Terry
"If feminism is going to really move ahead, it's got to explore the possibilities of what a woman could be. We don't know what a woman could be like because we've had so many outlines and definitions forced on us." - Megan Terry

Critic Helene Keyssar called playwright Megan Terry the mother of American feminist drama. Her body of work, which encompasses more than 60 plays, musicals, and theatre pieces, explored feminist issues and contained a range of strong female characters from battered women to prisoners, with ages ranging from teens to the elderly. She was one of the first playwrights to meld these feminist plays with the avant-garde style, bringing in people from the streets and community to act in her plays. She believed each participant would bring their own reality to the play. She is also considered to have written the first rock musical.

Terry pioneered a postmodern technique called "transformational drama," which she defined as, "a dramatic action composed of brief sequences that are suddenly transformed into different sets of characters and circumstances." Transformation was an acting exercise used by the Open Theater, a company with whom she worked closely, in which actors abruptly take on and drop different roles without any accompanying changes in setting, costume, or lighting. Her plays were a series of action blocs rather than sequential scenes, and she allowed the actors to ad lib some of their parts.

Megan Terry was born Marguerite Josephine Duffy on July 22, 1932 in Seattle, Washington to Marguerite Cecilia Henry Duffy and Harold Joseph Duffy, Jr. Though she was first interested in film, her parents introduced her to theatre. She saw her first live production at age 7 at the Seattle Repertory Playhouse, and soon she was making and starring in shows in her neighborhood and at school-acting, designing, directing, writing, and even building sets. When her father returned from World War II her parents divorced, and as a teenager she moved in with her father, who taught her carpentry and brick-laying. She then moved in with her grandparents in Seattle and started working at Seattle Repertory Playhouse with Stanislavski-trained director Florence James and her husband, actor Burton James.

Through her work at Seattle Repertory Playhouse and with Florence James, she saw how one could combine theatre with politics when James ran for office as a progressive party candidate. In the summer of 1950, she studied at the Banff School of Fine Arts and played Hermia in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Later, she would earn certificates in acting, directing, and design from the school.

She started at the University of Washington while still working at Seattle Repertory Playhouse, but in 1951 the House of Un-American Activities Committee shut the playhouse down. Terry then transferred to the University of Alberta in Canada and studied technical direction and set design, but transferred back to the University of Washington when her grandfather became ill.

From 1954-1956, she taught at the Cornish School of Allied Arts and developed a theatre group called The Cornish Players. She wrote and directed four children's shows with them.

After a move to New York City she changed her name to Megan Terry. She wrote more plays but soon grew frustrated with the state of the commercial theatre. In 1963, Terry became involved with the Open Theater along with her theatrical colleagues including Jo Ann Schmidman, who would go on to found the Omaha Magic Theatre in Omaha, Nebraska in 1968. Terry premiered several of her plays with the Open Theater, including Calm Down Mother (1966). Her plays were experimental, using rock music and audience involvement, elements more commonplace today but not so much in the early 1960s.

Her 1966 piece Viet Rock is known as the first rock musical and is most likely the first drama about the Vietnam War. The Magical Realists (1969) was another experimental piece that included dream sequences and songs. In 1970 she won an Obie Award for her play Approaching Simone about Simone Weil.

Terry had left New York a few times in the early 1970s-one time to be the writer-in-residence at Minnesota's Firehouse Theatre-but in 1974 she left permanently. She moved to Omaha, Nebraska and became the playwright in residence at the Omaha Magic Theatre. Her successful play Babes in the Bighouse: A Documentary Fantasy Musical About Life Inside a Women's Prison (1974) took on the subject of women in prison and combines documentary with musical theatre.

She has won numerous awards, including a 1983 Dramatists Guild Award, ATA Silver Medal for "distinguished contributions to, and service in, the American theatre," a Yale and a Guggenheim Fellowship, two Rockefeller Foundation grants, and a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship.
(vii.) Ellen Stewart
"If a script 'beeps' to me, I do it. Audiences may hate these plays, but I believe in them. The only way I can explain my 'beeps' is that I'm no intellectual, but my instincts tell me automatically when a playwright has something." -Ellen Stewart in a New York Times interview

When Ellen Stewart passed away in 2011, the world mourned the loss. She may have run a small off-off-Broadway theatre in the East Village, but the reverberations of that theatre have been felt everywhere from Broadway to small corners of the world. It was a training ground and launching pad for such artists as Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Diane Lane, Sam Shepard, Lanford Wilson, Philip Glass, Richard Foreman (founder of the Ontological Theater Company), and Joseph Chaikin (founder of the Open Theater). Stephen Schwartz's Godspell began at La MaMa and transferred to Broadway, as did Harvey Fierstein's Torch Song Trilogy.

But the theatre also launched Stewart herself. When La MaMa opened in 1961 in a tiny basement apartment on East 9 th Street, Stewart wanted a place for her brother and his friends to develop and present their plays. She didn't have as much of an interest in theatre. She was a dress designer, but she soon also became known as an off-off-Broadway pioneer, producing a wide array of artists and directing shows, presenting more than 3,000 productions, all low budget and experimental. Before many performances she would ring a cowbell from the stage and recite La MaMa's dedication "to the playwright and all aspects of the theatre."

International and multicultural productions filled her stages, and she produced site-specific performances all over the world, including a production of Medea by Andrei Serban, a Romanian director working in the United States, and Elizabeth Swados in Baalbek, Lebanon, in 1972. She won a MacArthur Foundation Award in 1985 and used the money to buy a former monastery in Umbria, Italy, and transform it into an international theatre center. La MaMa was also the first experimental theatre to support full-time resident companies, such as the La MaMa Troupe, Mabou Mines, The Great Jones Repertory (directed by Serban and Swados), and La MaMa Chinatown, which led to Tisa Chang's Pan Asian Repertory.

Stewart was born in Chicago on November 7, 1919. She grew up in both Chicago and Alexandria, Louisiana, and studied at Arkansas State College, thinking she would be a teacher. During World War II she worked as a riveter in a defense plant in Chicago. In 1950 she moved to New York City to go to design school but had to support herself with other jobs, one being a porter and elevator operator at Saks Fifth Avenue.

She started working in fashion design, but her vocation changed with the advent of her new theatre, although she still often designed the costumes. Many called her Mama, so theater was first called Café La MaMa and then La MaMa E.T.C. (Experimental Theater Club). Her neighbors tried to close the theatre down-they thought she was running a brothel-but the shows continued, even if they had to pull audience members off the street. Word of the new theatre spread through the city and soon audiences came on their own. They also began to receive grant and foundation funding.

In 1969 they received a $25,000 grant from the W. MacNeil Lowry and the Ford Foundation that allowed them to move to their current home on East 4 th Street, a former meatpacking plant. They built two 99-seat theatres as well as administrative space. Stewart lived in an apartment above the theatres. In 1974, the converted a television studio space a few doors down into a 295-seat theatre called the Annex that was renamed the Ellen Stewart Theater in 2009. The company also has an art gallery, rehearsal studios, and an extensive archive of off-off-Broadway history.

Stewart continued to serve as artistic director but brought on Mia Yoo as co-artistic director in 2009. She was still producing about 70 shows a year despite health problems. She had heart ailments and died at Beth Israel hospital at age 91 after a long illness. The Ellen Stewart International Award is now given out to "an individual theatre artist or theatre company whose work promotes social change and community participation with a particular focus on the engagement of young people."

Shoshana Greenberg writes musicals, plays, and prose. As a journalist, she has written about theatre and culture for American Theatre Magazine, The Interval, Culturadar, The Huffington Post, and Women and Hollywood. Her musicals include Lightning Man (Ars Nova ANT Fest) and Days of Rage, and her work has been featured in concerts at Lincoln Center, The York Theatre, the Duplex, TriArts Sharon Playhouse, Goodspeed, and The Laurie Beechman. As a playwright, her work includes Lost Girl in Florida Swamp (Fresh Produce'd's monthly performance series) and The Rapture of Our Teeth, a ten-minute parody play (ESPA's Detention Series, published on Indie Theatre Now). She earned her MFA from NYU's Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program after graduating from Barnard College. ShoshanaGreenberg.com; @vmarshmellow

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7 More Women of Theatre History You Should Know

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Written by Shoshana Greenberg Illustrations by Desiree Nasim August 15 th, 2016 In March I wrote the feature 7 Women of Theatre History You Should Know , but as I researched those women I knew I would need to write another installment.

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This Women's History Month, learn about the history of women in theatre.

March is Women's History Month! This is the perfect month to put a spotlight on the history of women in the theatre, because it is a very interesting history...

The Western tradition of theatre has its origins all the way back in ancient Greece and Rome. The Greeks started their theatre practice with tragic plays, which started around 532 BC. The problem was that Greek culture put women in a position of being inferior to men, so womens' role in society was very restricted in many ways. Women were not allowed to be on the stage because it was considered "dangerous." Men played male characters as well as female characters! "The Greeks believed that allowing women to perform publicly would be too dangerous and that having men portray them neutralized the danger." ( Source) So what about the Romans? Well, the Romans had a similar view of women, which made it impossible for them to make it onto the stage. But over time, Roman plays did start to have a few female actors.

Antigone, a female character in Greek mythology and plays. She had a brave and defiant personality. ( Source)

Theatre was an important tradition in Medieval times too. Medieval theatre was certainly an exciting thing, but how much were women involved? The answer... not a whole lot, but sometimes. There was still a perception in society that theatre was something that was better suited for men and not women. One interesting exception was the German writer Hrothsvitha, who "is considered by some to be the first person since antiquity to compose drama in the Latin West" ( Source) She wrote several plays, and her plays tended to present women as people with strong, noble personalities. This contradicted the view of women that most people in her society had, which was that they were weak in character.

In the 17th century in Europe, something great happened: Opera! The great thing about this type of musical theatre was that female singers were included in it. This did not please the strict Christian church, though. Their belief was that it was impure and improper for women to be on the stage. This is why castrati would sometimes sing parts that required a higher voice. These high-pitched men were an alternate choice to women, but that didn't completely stop women from being opera singers. Then, still in the 17th century, the English Restoration period occurred. One big step forward for women in theatre was Aphra Behn, who dared to go against cultural norms by becoming the first professional female playwright. Until then, it was unheard of for women to make a living writing plays! As for female actors, they sometimes played male characters, even though the opposite had happened in the past: "One might expect the admission of women on stage to be related to a demand for greater realism, but the actual result was not only that men and women got to play roles appropriate to their gender, but that the impersonation of the opposite sex could now go both ways." ( Source)

As the years passed, women in theatre were gaining ground slowly but surely, despite the trends and traditions that told women no. This happened in early American theatre as well. There were female playrights, females acting on stage, plays that gave female characters a prominent role, and also, many females in the theatre audience. "Women helped change the dynamic of theater in the second half of the 19th century and were directly responsible for the rise in its popularity." ( Source) While men still had a larger presence in the theatre world, females did some pretty interesting things. One notable example was Victorian-era Burlesque theatre, during the 19th century in both England and America. These flashy, sexy, hilarious shows were parodies of classic stories. Women were often featured in masculine roles. Playing crazy characters and reversing gender norms definitely did not create a respectable repuation for these women... but this was an important step for women because it allowed women to rebelliously break free of many restrictive social expectations.

A Victorian Burlesque actress. ( Source)

More and more types of theatre emerged as time went on. And as theatre expanded in a variety of different directions, women's importance in the theatre was also expanded. There's no question that women are a major part of theatre today, participating in all kinds of ways. But there was not an easy path that led to this point. It's unfortunate that theatre has historically been unfair to women. Still, there were a lot of women who loved theatre so much that they felt the need to defy cultural expectations and join in anyway. Let's be thankful for them. If it weren't for them, today's theatre would look very different!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representation_of_women_in_Athenian_tragedy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre_of_ancient_Rome
http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/2003/07.17/18-crossdressing.html
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ma02/volpe/theater/theater/women.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_theatre
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hrotsvitha
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorian_burlesque

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This Women's History Month, learn about the history of women in theatre. March is Women's History Month! This is the perfect month to put a spotlight on the history of women in the theatre, because it is a very interesting history...

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A great many people have played a part in the history of the RAD, but it is the names of some of the most inspirational women from our past that ring out from our very foundation.

This month, as we move into our new home for dance, we look back at the women who helped shape the RAD, looking through the archives at our new headquarters at some of the objects that reveal more about their stories. We also celebrate the women who are making history today around the world.

We will also be talking to some of the many teachers around the world who may not be making history but are making a difference, whether they are using dance to create a "sisterhood of older women" or to help young students find their voice through dance; RAD teachers use dance to deliver transformational experiences.

Check back here throughout the month and on our social media channels as we look back at artefacts relating to trailblazers such as Genée, Karsavina, and Fonteyn, and shine a light on women who are continuing the shape the world of dance today.

Tamara Karsavina

We were gifted a rare portrait of the legendary ballerina and RAD founder in 2021, that will hang proudly in the foyer of our new home for dance

Our archive also holds the original Queen Elizabeth Coronation Award certificate as presented to Karsavina in recognition of outstanding service to the art of ballet in the year 1954-1955.

Join us to celebrate women that are breaking the bias in dance and beyond.

Dame Antoinette Sibley

Antoinette Sibley was a British ballerina who created iconic roles like Manon for Kenneth MacMillan and Titania ( The Dream) for Frederick Ashton. She had an iconic partnership over 30 years with Anthony Dowell.

She was RAD President from 1991-2012 during which time she was committed to nurturing a passion for ballet in young children to support the future of ballet. In 2012, Frances Segelman created a sculpture of Sibley, which now takes pride of place outside the Wolfson Library in our new home for dance.

Antoinette Sibley sculpture creation

Peggy Whiteley

Peggy Whiteley was the first person to become a member of the RAD, passing her Elementary exam in 1921.

She had her own ballet school in Southsea during the 1930s and volunteered with the Women's Royal Naval Service during the 2nd World War (1939-1945), rising to the rank of Chief Officer.

In 1946 she was appointed by the RAD to conduct 'Refresher Classes for Ex-Service RAD Members', and later became a member of the teaching staff and the first Warden of the Teachers' Training Course (1947-1951).

During the 1950s she was an active member of the Children's Examinations Committee and conducted several overseas tours for the Academy between 1956 and 1961.

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Women's History Month | Royal Academy of Dance

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A great many people have played a part in the history of the RAD, but it is the names of some of the most inspirational women from our past that ring out from our very foundation.

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Sesame Street's Playlist                                  Celebrate Women's History Month

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Sesame Street's Playlist                                  Celebrate Women's History Month

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This month we're honoring the inspiring and powerful women and girls who've helped support Sesame Street's mission of helping kids grow Smarter, Stronger and...

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This book is a tribute to Janet Collins, the first ballerina of color to perform at the Metropolitan  Opera.  Love this story!

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A Dance Like Starlight_One Ballerinas Dream

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Ella Fitxgerald (Little People, Big Dreams_

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 Stories and Activities to Celebrate Women’s History Month with Young Readers-                       by Melissa Taylor 

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 Stories and Activities to Celebrate Women’s History Month with Young Readers-                       by Melissa Taylor 

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Help bring Women's History Month to life by teaching your 5- to 8-year-old child about some amazing women from history and today. For each person of significance, read a picture book and try the related activity ideas. We hope that learning about these role models and connecting with their experiences will inspire your children to break down barriers and face life's challenges with courage and grit.
Activities:
Watch this interview with Misty Copeland to hear about her coming-of-age in the ballet and see clips from some of her most incredible performances, including the one that inspired Firebird.

Misty is a fierce advocate for diverse representation in all mediums. Observe books, toys, and movies that you read, play with, and watch, and see if all races, ethnicities, and genders are equally represented. Do you notice more of one group than others? What do you think needs to change?

Throw on some leggings or a tutu and choreograph your own ballet performance to your favorite song. Misty would be the first to tell you that ballet isn't limited to any one type of music, so choose freely!
Activities:
Despite contributions from women like Ada, women are still underrepresented in STEM fields. With a parent, go online to She Can STEM and read stories about real-life women with fascinating careers in STEM fields. Which career sounds most interesting to you? What activities from these women's childhoods sound fun to try?

Taking a page from Math Geek Mama's book, build a tower with conversation hearts or another favorite snack and try out estimating, measuring, and coming up with techniques to build sturdier towers.

Combine Ada's love for the poetic and scientific by writing a poem about math, science, or computers. Look for inspiration in the picture books and Science Verse.
Activities:
Sacagawea was a member of the Lemhi Shoshone. With your parents, visit Native-Land.ca and put in your address to learn about the Native tribes who first lived in your region.

Check out a foreign-language dictionary from your local library and use it to learn the names of different objects in your house. Translate the names of the objects for your parents or siblings.

Using your tools of choice, create a map of your street or neighborhood, noting as well the different types of flora that exist there.
Activities:
Begin a diary in which you recount the experiences of your day-to-day life. Anne addressed many of her diary entries to her favorite imaginary friend, Kitty. Do you have an imaginary friend or favorite literary character that you might write to?

Visit the Anne Frank House YouTube channel to watch educational videos about Anne's life, and learn more about the concepts of discrimination, prejudice, and antisemitism.

Many brave people helped Anne and her family during a time of great opposition and fear. Why is it important to do the right thing, even when we're scared? How can you help others who might be subjected to prejudice and discrimination?
Activities:
You'll need a blank sheet of white paper and a crayon with no paper covering. Use these to make bark rubbings by putting the paper on the tree trunk and rubbing the crayon over the bumpy surface. Talk about your observations of different designs for different trees.

"Adopt" a tree near your house. Watch it throughout the year. Notice how it changes with the seasons. Draw a picture of it every month for a science journal on your special tree. Discuss how Rachel Carson also observed trees.

Take a nature walk. As you walk, observe and collect interesting things such as pine cones, sticks, stones, and so forth. Use these natural items to make a nature collage.
Activities:
Watch Celia Cruz sing "Contrapunto Musical" and dance along.

Salsa is a style of music and dancing. Listen to more salsa music on Pandora and see which artists you like the best. Don't forget to dance along!

Make homemade rhythm instruments using recycled containers, beads or beans, wax paper, and rubber bands. Create your own salsa music.

Celia Cruz spoke Spanish. If you don't know any Spanish, learn some beginning Spanish words. Try Rockalingua and Basho & Friends videos or Gus on the Go and Spanish School Bus apps.
Activities:
Visit an aeronautics museum in your area. See if you can find a plane that looks like one Amelia Earhart flew.

Have a paper airplane contest. What design flies the farthest? Get folding ideas here.

Put together a balsa wood airplane. Go to the park and pretend you're Amelia Earhart flying across the world.
Activities:
Visit a zoo. Draw pictures and take photographs of the primates. Take notes on your observations.

Watch a short Jane Goodall video about how chimps use tools like humans or Disney Nature's "Chimpanzee" movie.

Pretend play Jane Goodall with your stuffed animals. Add props to make it more realistic such as binoculars, notepad and pencils, and a camera.

Volunteer to help animals at an animal shelter or search for a local community project at Jane Goodall's Roots and Shoots website.
Activities:
Use a photograph to inspire your own self-portrait. On a blank sheet of paper, use pencil to sketch your face. Color in with crayon or paint. Then add flowers or other plants around your face.

Color a Frida coloring page here and here.

Download, read, and play the Frida's World app.

Visit a Latino art museum.
Activities:
Using the Braille alphabet on the back jacket cover of Annie and Helen, write a word or sentence about Helen Keller using Braille dots.

Blindfold your child and lead them around the house, making sure to give clear directions so they don't bump into things or fall. Talk about how it felt for them to experience this.

See "The Miracle Worker" play or movie.

Search for an Alabama state quarter to see Helen Keller's image on it. Start a quarter collection.
Activities:
Take a bus ride. Sit at the very back and imagine that you've been forced to sit there. Then, move to the front. Talk about the emotions you feel and how Rosa Parks might have felt.

Reenact Rosa's bus ride with LEGOs or dolls. Act out what happened at the beginning, middle, and end of her famous bus ride.

Unscramble a Rosa Parks picture and color it in. Optional: Use bright colors for a pop art look. Download the directions and picture here.

Activities:
Pretend play with family or friends (or LEGO people) a democratic judicial system. One person gets to be the judge, two people get to be lawyers, and other people can be the people participating in a trial. Lawyers present their arguments to the judge. Topic ideas: speeding ticket, jaywalking, or theft.

Make a "Family Rules" sign for your house. Have everyone contribute to the list of rules then sign at the bottom. Discuss if you have more of a democracy or a monarchy in your family. Who decides what's fair?

Discuss the difference between fair and equal. Use the example of different age children having different bedtimes.
Activities:
Use fancy lettering and bright colors to create a poster of one of Malala's famous quotes. Discuss what the quote means.

Malala grew up in Pakistan. Visit a Pakistani restaurant or make a Pakistani food dish.

Make a thank you card or drawing for a teacher to show gratitude that you and all children in this country can attend school.

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Stories and Activities to Celebrate Women's History Month with Young Readers | Brightly

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Help bring Women's History Month to life by teaching your 5- to 8-year-old child about some amazing women from history and today. For each person of significance, read a picture book and try the related activity ideas.

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Top 10 Most Influential Women In Music – Joe Bonamassa

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Who are the top 10 most influential women in music? While today, women are more in charge of their careers in the music industry. This wasn’t always the case. There were a lot of women that paved the path ahead of them.

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In 1942, at the age of 17, Maria Tallchief moved to New York City to pursue her dreams of becoming a dancer. With luck, grit, and determination she joined the famed Ballet Russe Monte Carlo as an apprentice and moved quickly through the ranks, dancing first in the corps de ballet and later performing leading roles.  Tallchief is widely considered America's first major prima ballerina.

You can learn more about Maria Tallchief (Osage Nation), featured on a new quarter from the US Mint, and other Indigenous women in our featured biographies this month.
Use the NWHM's compendium of online biographies to spark curiosity and dig deeper into women's impact throughout our shared national history. Explore more here.

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A renowned leader in women's history education, the National Women's History Museum brings to life the countless untold stories of women throughout history and serves as a space for all to inspire, experience, collaborate, and amplify women's impact.