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Split Britches is an American performance troupe that has been producing work internationally since 1980. Theater scholar Sue Ellen Case asserts that the group's work "has defined the issues and terms of academic writing on lesbian theater, butch-femme role-playing, feminist mimesis, and the spectacle of desire."[1][2] Based in New York City, Split Britches maintains long-standing collaborations with several institutions, including La Mama Experimental Theatre Company (where they are a resident company), the Wow Café (co-founded by members Peggy Shaw and Lois Weaver), and Dixon Place.[1]

Founding

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Split Britches was founded in 1980 in New York City by Peggy Shaw, Lois Weaver, and Deb Margolin.[3] Shaw and Weaver initially met in Europe during separate tours—Weaver with Spiderwoman Theater and Shaw with the performance collective Hot Peaches.[4] Their collaboration began with Spiderwoman Theater's production An Evening of Disgusting Songs and Pukey Images, marking the first time the company incorporated explicit lesbian themes and introducing Shaw as a performer within the ensemble.[5]

After deciding to depart from Spiderwoman Theater, Weaver and Shaw sought to create new work. When a fellow collaborator from the production declined to join their new venture, they invited Margolin—a writer at the time—to assist in scripting their debut piece, Split Britches. Margolin subsequently became a core member of the company for over a decade.[5]

Split Britches, The True Story

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The name "Split Britches" references the durable, split-seam trousers worn by women working in agricultural fields, enabling them to urinate without interrupting labor. The troupe has also interpreted the title as evoking the "split pants" symbolizing both poverty and comedic absurdity.[6]

The group's foundational work, Split Britches, The True Story, originated in the summer of 1980 when Lois Weaver began crafting a performance piece inspired by her two aunts and great aunt in Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains. Originally developed with members of Spiderwoman Theater, the piece premiered at the inaugural WOW (Women's One World) Festival—co-founded by Peggy Shaw and Weaver—in 1980, with a follow-up staging in 1981.[7]

The finalized version of Split Britches was presented at the Boston Women's Festival in spring 1981 and the Second WOW Festival later that fall.[5] The script was first published in the journal Women & Performance and later adapted for television, premiering on PBS in 1988 under the direction of Mathew Geller through a collaboration with WGBH/WNET Television and the New York Foundation for the Arts' Artists' New Works Program.[1][5]

Operating finances

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Early in their history, Split Britches adopted a self-funded financial model, opting to avoid grant applications and instead support their performances through personal income from non-artistic jobs. Peggy Shaw articulated this strategy by asserting, "It's easier to get a job than a grant." The company maintained this approach during its formative years, operating independently of institutional funding systems. However, as their reputation grew, they gradually began seeking grants to sustain and expand their work.[8]

Artistic themes

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Split Britches engages with themes of lesbian, queer, dyke, butch, and femme identities and cultures[1] within the framework of American feminism and experimental live art movements that emerged during the 1970s. Their performances aim to create safe spaces for the exploration of non-normative sexualities and gender expressions.[9]

Scholar Geraldine Harris situates the troupe within a "postmodern Brechtian tradition," emphasizing their focus on borders and duality in both form and content.[2] Central to their work is the interrogation of butch-femme dynamics, alongside critiques of class, classism, and systemic oppression. Harris notes that Split Britches challenges the gender binary through politically charged performance strategies. The company also examines themes of fetishization, objectification, and narcissistic misidentification, framing these as inextricable from broader human experiences of love, passion, and desire.[2]

Impact and significance

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In Split Britches: Lesbian Practice/Feminist Performance, critic Sue-Ellen Case underscores the troupe’s pivotal role in shaping contemporary lesbian performance, noting their creation of a postmodern style that "embed[s] 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."[10] The company has been widely credited with sustaining vital theatrical spaces for women's artistic experimentation.[6] Their productions are frequently lauded for employing deconstructive and transformative frameworks to interrogate social norms.

Rooted in performance art traditions studied within the academic field of performance studies, Split Britches' work is recognized as foundational to lesbian art that critically engages with subjectivity and identity.[11] Their contributions have been central to advancing feminist performance theory and articulating distinct frameworks for lesbian critical theory. Scholars such as Jill Dolan (in her pioneering analysis of the feminist spectator),[12] Sue-Ellen Case (on butch-femme aesthetics),[13] and Alisa Solomon[14] and Kate Davy[15] (on feminist performance contexts) have drawn extensively on the troupe's work to inform their analyses.

Methodology

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Split Britches employs a collaborative, fragmentary approach to performance creation, integrating games, fantasies, songs, dance, and monologues to interrogate themes such as female desire, power dynamics, and lesbian identity. Scholar Deanna Beth Shoemaker notes that their characters often subvert gender and sexuality binaries, particularly exploring lesbian femme identity both within and beyond butch-femme dynamics.[9]

The company's process typically begins by identifying a personal or cultural fixation—such as figures like Tennessee Williams or Aileen Wuornos—often drawn from popular culture. Peggy Shaw explains that such references allow the troupe to balance queer aesthetics with audience accessibility.[16] Weaver and Shaw frequently draw inspiration from mid-20th century comedy duos like Mike Nicols and Elaine May, whose gendered humor and structural rhythms inform their own work.[17] Subsequent stages involve list-making, where the ensemble catalogs stage ideas, social issues, cultural icons, and narrative themes. Characters are developed as composites of contradictions, which Lois Weaver describes as "loving a part of yourself and your past." Though portraying fictional roles, Weaver and Shaw infuse performances with autobiographical elements, emphasizing what Weaver calls the "option" of artifice in service of crafting emotional truth.[18]

The company then assembles found objects and musical elements before weaving these components into rehearsals. Weaver has historically served as the primary director, shaping the fragmented material into cohesive productions.[1]

In recent years, Split Britches has incorporated community engagement into their methodology, hosting workshops and dialogues often structured through formats from Weaver's Public Address Systems project to foster audience interaction and collective reflection.[19]

Public engagement

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Between 2002 and 2003, Lois Weaver and Peggy Shaw conducted workshops at four women's prisons in Brazil and the United Kingdom as part of Staging Human Rights, a project initiated by People's Palace Projects. These workshops aimed to facilitate discussions about human rights through performance-based activities with incarcerated women.[18]

Controversies

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Split Britches' incorporation of cross-dressing and drag—a prevalent practice in performance art during their formative years—has sparked critical debate. Their 1991 collaborative production Belle Reprieve created with Bloolips (a gay drag performance collective), drew particular scrutiny for its subversion of gender norms. The piece deconstructed the gender binary by featuring female performers in male drag, a reversal of the more common male-to-female drag tradition.[20]

Critics argued that this inversion inadvertently reinforced patriarchal hierarchies by centering male personas as aspirational figures. Others contended that cross-dressing as an artistic device, even when subversive, risked reifying the gender binary that feminist and queer movements sought to dismantle.

Awards

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  • 2017: Innovative Theatre Achievement Award (Split Britches)
  • 2014: Hemispheric Institute of Performance Senior Fellowship (Lois Weaver and Peggy Shaw)
  • 1999: Obie Award – Best Performer (Peggy Shaw, for Menopausal Gentleman)
  • 1991: Obie Award – Best Ensemble (Split Britches and Bloolips, for Belle Reprieve)
  • 1988: Obie Award – Best Performer (Peggy Shaw, for Dress Suits to Hire)
  • 1985: The Villager Award – Best Ensemble (Split Britches)

Shows

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  • Unexploded Ordnances (UXO) (2016–present)
  • RUFF (2012–present)[21]
  • What Tammy Found Out (2012–present)
  • Lost Lounge (2009–2011)
  • Miss America (2008–2009)
  • Retro-Perspective (2007–present)
  • MUST (2007–present)
  • Diary of a Domestic Terrorist (2005)
  • What Tammy Needs to Know (2004)
  • To My Chagrin (2003)
  • Miss Risque (2001)
  • It's a Small House and We Lived in It Always (1999)
  • Little Women (1998)
  • Little Women, The Tragedy (1998)
  • Salad of the Bad Cafe (1998)
  • Valley of the Dolls (1997)
  • Faith and Dancing (1996)
  • Menopausal Gentleman (1996)
  • Lust and Comfort (1994)
  • You're Just Like My Father (1993)
  • Lesbians Who Kill (1992)
  • Anniversary Waltz (1990)
  • Of All The Nerve (1990)
  • Belle Reprieve (1990)
  • Little Women, The Tragedy (1988)
  • Dress Suits for Hire (1987)
  • Patience and Sarah (1987)
  • Upwardly Mobile Home (1984)
  • Beauty and the Beast (1982)
  • Split Britches, The True Story (1980)

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ a b c d e Split Britches: Lesbian Practice/Feminist Performance, edited by Sue-Ellen Case, Routledge, 1997.
  2. ^ a b c Harris, Geraldine (February 2011). "Double Acts, Theatrical Couples, and Split Britches' 'Double Agency'" (PDF). Split Britches. pp. 211–221. Retrieved 2014-02-02.
  3. ^ "Split Britches website". Splitbritches.wordpress.com. Retrieved 2014-02-02.
  4. ^ Freeman, Sandra (2006). Chambers, Colin (ed.). Lesbian theatre. London: Continuum. p. 441. doi:10.1093/acref/9780199754724.001.0001. ISBN 9780199754724. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  5. ^ a b c d Patraka, Vivian M. (2008). "Split britches in split britches: Performing history, vaudeville, and the everyday". Women & Performance: A Journal of Feminist Theory. 4 (2): 58–67. doi:10.1080/07407708908571129.
  6. ^ a b Donkin, Ellen; Clement, Susan (1993-01-01). Upstaging Big Daddy: Directing Theater as If Gender and Race Matter. University of Michigan Press. ISBN 978-0472065035.
  7. ^ "Deb Margolin by Lynne Tillman - BOMB Magazine". bombmagazine.org. Retrieved 2018-03-26.
  8. ^ Memories of the revolution : the first ten years of the WOW Cafe Theater. Dolan, Jill, 1957-, Tropicana, Carmelita,, Hughes, Holly, 1955 March 10-. [Place of publication not identified]: [publisher not identified]. 2015. ISBN 9780472121496. OCLC 933515943.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  9. ^ a b Shoemaker, Deanna Beth. "Queers, monsters, drag queens, and whiteness: unruly femininities in women's staged performances." (2004).
  10. ^ Wray, B.J. (2002-12-11). "Split Britches". glbtq: An Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Culture. Retrieved 2014-02-02.
  11. ^ Davis, Gill "Goodnight Ladies: on the Explicit Body in Performance", New Theatre Quarterly, XV, No.58 (1999), p.187.
  12. ^ Dolan, Jill (1988). The Feminist Spectator as Critic. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. ISBN 978-0472035199.
  13. ^ Case, Sue-Ellen (1989). 'Toward A Butch-Femme Aesthetic' in Lynda Hart, ed., Making a Spectacle: Feminist Essays on Contemporary Women's Theater. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. pp. 282–99. ISBN 978-0-472-09389-2.
  14. ^ Solomon, Alisa (1985). "The WOW Cafe". TDR: The Drama Review. 29 (1): 92–101. doi:10.2307/1145606. JSTOR 1145606.
  15. ^ Davy, Kate (2011). Lady Dicks and Lesbian Brothers: Staging the Unimaginable at the WOW Café Theatre. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. ISBN 978-0-472-05122-9.
  16. ^ "Peggy Shaw by Craig Lucas - BOMB Magazine". bombmagazine.org. Retrieved 2018-03-26.
  17. ^ Mythic women/real women : plays and performance pieces by women. Goodman, Lizbeth, 1964-. London: Faber and Faber. 2000. ISBN 978-0571191406. OCLC 43341587.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  18. ^ a b The applied theatre reader. Prentki, Tim., Preston, Sheila, 1968-. New York: Routledge. 2009. ISBN 9780415428873. OCLC 192042277.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  19. ^ "Split Britches Wants You to Unearth Your Potential". Senior Planet. 2016-09-01. Retrieved 2018-03-26.
  20. ^ Ferris, Lesley (2005-08-15). Crossing the Stage: Controversies on Cross-Dressing. Routledge. ISBN 9781134924530.
  21. ^ "Split Britches, Discography". Split Britches. 2011-02-17. Retrieved 25 April 2014.

References

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  • Gillespie, Benjamin. "Split Britches" in Noriega and Schildcrout (eds.) 50 Key Figures in Queer US Theatre, pp. 223-227. Routledge, 2022. ISBN 978-1032067964.
  • Split Britches: Lesbian Practice/Feminist Performance, edited by Sue-Ellen Case, Routledge, 1997. ISBN 9780415127653
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