Split Britches

Since 1981, the Split Britches Company (founded by Lois Weaver, Peggy Shaw and Deb Margolin) has written and performed in trio, duet, and solo, as well as collaborated and performed with other artists. They describe their work in this way: "Our work is rooted in popular culture, but positioned against it. It relies on moments rather than plot, relationships rather than story. It depends on the surprise of transformation rather than the logic of psychological narrative. It straddles the line between performance and theater, exploiting theatricality while exposing the pretense. It is about a community of outsiders, queers, eccentrics. It is feminist because it encourages the imaginative potential in everyone and lesbian because it takes the presence of lesbian on stage as a given." Their vaudevillian satirical gender-bending performances have received numerous awards, including a Jane Chamber award and four Village Voice OBIE awards. Their collection of scripts, "Split Britches Feminist Performance/Lesbian Practice," edited by Sue Ellen Case, won the 1997 Lambda Literary Award for Drama.

www.splitbritches.com | Contact Artist

Copyright Statement: Materials of the Hemispheric Institute Digital Video Library are protected by copyright. They may not be copied, downloaded, or reproduced. The owner of this work has granted NYU Libraries non-exclusive rights to include this material in the Hemispheric Institute Digital Video Library and to make it accessible to the public for educational and research purposes. Requests to purchase or for permission to use the work should be directed to the owner.