Description: Since 1660 when actresses first began performing on the English stage, women have forged bright careers in theatre, while men called the shots. With an overview of influential women in post-war theatre and 25 exclusive interviews with leading women theatre-makers, this book inspires us to create a truly equal and inclusive theatre today.
Brief description: Cheryl is a film-maker, writer and editor who worked at the BBC for several years and then taught film-making at the University of Westminster. Her acclaimed music documentary 'Rock n Roll Island' aired on BBC4 in 2020 and was named a Sunday Times Critics Choice programme. In addition, she has created a publishing company, publishing over 200 international writers. As a writer, she has won the Croydon Warehouse International Playwriting Competition, been longlisted for the Bruntwood Playwriting Prize and had several plays produced on the London fringe. She ran a theatre company and worked as a dramaturg for several years in the 1990s developing new plays by women. As an editor she has edited '50 Women in the Blues' and '50 Women Sculptors', as a co-editor, she has published 'Celluloid Ceiling: women film directors breaking through', the first global overview of women film directors and 'Silent Women; pioneers of cinema' voted best book on silent film in 2017. In 2019 she was a finalist in the ITV National Diversity Awards for Lifetime Achievement. www.cherylrobson.net
Review Quotes:
"Or how about celebrating achievement? Part of a series called '50 Women in ...', 50 Women in Theatre must have been good fun and rather satisfying to research and assemble. It consists, after a detailed introduction, of 50 short celebrations of the contributions made to theatre by women since 1945. And they are wonderfully diverse both in terms of who they are and what they've achieved. Thus we go from choreographer Gillian Lyne to producer Thelma Holt, director Jenny Sealey and voice guru Cicely Berry. Actors include Audra McDonald, Meera Syal, Glenda Jackson and Judi Dench. We also read about producers such as Nica Burns, actor/directors like Michelle Terry and playwrights including Moira Buffini and Bryony Lavery.
Some of these accounts are written in the third person (Caryl Churchill, Sonia Friedman) not least because some of them are dead (Joan Littlewood, Jocelyn Herbert) or, presumably, preferred not to be interviewed. Others are presented as "in their own words" and written at greater length usually in a question and answer format.
It's an attractive hard back book on shiny paper with lots of coloured photographs so it would make a good present."