Korean 279 Paper

Donald Kirby
KOREAN
KOREAN_279_PAPER
Split Britches is an American performance troupe, which has been producing work
internationally since 1980.Academic Sue Ellen Case says "their work has defined the issues
and terms of academic writing on lesbian theater, butch-femme role playing, feminist
mimesis, and the spectacle of desire".In New York City Split Britches have long standing
relationships with La Mama Experimental Theatre Company, where they are a resident
company, Wow Café, which Weaver and Shaw co-founded, and Dixon Place.== Founding ==
Split Britches was founded by Peggy Shaw, Lois Weaver, and Deb Margolin in New York City
in 1980.Shaw and Weaver met in Europe when Weaver was touring with Spiderwoman
Theater and Shaw with Hot Peaches.The company started while Weaver and Shaw were
performing in Spiderwoman Theater's performance of "An Evening of Disgusting Songs and
Pukey Images”.This was the first time Spiderwoman had presented lesbian content and
introduced Peggy as a Spiderwoman performer.During this time in the summer of 1980,
Weaver began to write a performance about her 2 aunts and great aunt in the Blue Ridge
Mountains of Virginia called Split Britches, The True Story.Split britches is a reference to the
type of pants women wore while working in the fields, which allowed them to urinate
without stopping work.The name of the company has been said to mimic the “split pants” of
poverty and comedy.The performance was originally developed with Spiderwoman
performers and was performed at the first WOW (Women's One World) Festival, founded
by Shaw and Weaver, in 1980.Following a subsequent run of the performance in 1981,
Weaver and Shaw decided to leave Spiderwoman, and one of the Spiderwoman performers
they had been working with declined to continue with them.This led them to ask Margolin,
who was a writer, to assist with writing the script, and Margolin became a part of the
company for many years.The final version of Split Britches was performed at the Boston
Women's Festival in Spring of 1981 and at the Second WOW festival in Fall of 1981.The
script was first published in Women & Performance, and premiered on public television in
1988, directed and produced by Mathew Geller in association with WGBH/WNET Television
and the NYFA ‘Artists New Works Program'.Early on in the company determined they
would not spend time trying to apply for grants to support their performances, and would
instead work outside of these systems using their own finances from jobs to support their
performance work.This is due to a belief stated by Shaw that, "it's easier to get a job than a
grant".This held true for the beginning of the company's existence, but as they became more
established they began to apply for grants.== Members ==
Peggy Shaw (b.1946) is a theatre artist whose work combines butch identity and dry
humor.Her most recent solo show, RUFF (2012), relates her experience having a stroke.The
performance was directed by Lois Weaver and toured internationally.Lois Weaver is a
performing artist whose work is recognized as seminal in creating a template for lesbian
performance methodologies.Her recent solo work has centered around the persona Tammy
WhyNot, a 'former famous country-western singer turned lesbian performance
artist'.Weaver is Professor of Contemporary Performance in the Department of Drama,
Queen Mary, University of London.Weaver most often acts as the director for Split
Britches.Deb Margolin, no longer a member of Split Britches, is a renowned performance
artist, currently a professor at Yale University.She was primarily the wordsmith of the
troupe, known for transforming visions into the final script.Margolin worked with Split
Britches on Split Britches (1981), Beauty and the Beast (1982), Upwardly Mobile Home
(1984), Little Women (1988), and Lesbians Who Kill (1992).The company engaged in a
number of collaborations, including working with Isabel Miller and Holly Hughes to create
Dress Suits to Hire (1987), with the Bloolips in Belle Reprieve (1991) and with James Neale-
Kennerley in Lust and Comfort (1995).== Impact and Significance ==
Split Britches has worked with concepts of lesbian, queer, dyke, butch and femme identities
and cultures in a context of American feminism and live arts movements which emerged
through the 1970s.In Split Britches: Lesbian Practice/Feminist Performance, critic and
theorist Sue-Ellen Case aptly sums up the importance of the trio in the development of
contemporary lesbian performance: "the troupe created a unique 'postmodern' style that
served to embed feminist and lesbian issues of the times, economic debates, national
agendas, personal relationships, and sex-radical role playing in spectacular and humorous
deconstructions of canonical texts, vaudeville shtick, cabaret forms, lip-synching satire,
lyrical love scenes, and dark, frightening explorations of class and gender violence."The
troupe uses these performances to create a safe space in which non-normative sexualities
and genders can occur in peace, and it is praised for having maintained a theater space for
women's artistic endeavors.Geraldine Harris has placed the work of the troupe in a
"postmodern Brechtian tradition", and in an article on this troupe, describes the focus in
their work on borders, as they often take on ideas of duality.With concepts of butch/femme
highlighted in their work, as are concepts around class, classism, and oppression.Harris also
explains that the troupe opposes the gender binary as a mode of political performance.Split
Britches also examines the fetishization, objectification, and narcissistic misidentifications
that cannot be separated from love, passion, and desire.The shows are often praised for the
deconstructive and transformative lenses through which they are written.

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Donald Kirby

performing in Spiderwoman Theater's performance of "An Evening of Disgusting Songs and

introduced Peggy as a Spiderwoman performer.During this time in the summer of 1980,

poverty and comedy.The performance was originally developed with Spiderwoman

by Shaw and Weaver, in 1980.Following a subsequent run of the performance in 1981,

established they began to apply for grants.== Members ==

performance was directed by Lois Weaver and toured internationally.Lois Weaver is a

WhyNot, a 'former famous country-western singer turned lesbian performance

artist'.Weaver is Professor of Contemporary Performance in the Department of Drama,

Britches.Deb Margolin, no longer a member of Split Britches, is a renowned performance

Kennerley in Lust and Comfort (1995).== Impact and Significance ==

deconstructions of canonical texts, vaudeville shtick, cabaret forms, lip-synching satire,

Britches also examines the fetishization, objectification, and narcissistic misidentifications

deconstructive and transformative lenses through which they are written.

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