CROSSING THE STAGE Cross-dressing in theatrical performance has generated a controversial, and at times contentious, debate during the last decade. Are cross-dressed women making politicized statements about gender hierarchies? Are male drag artists subverting traditional masculinity, or are they cruelly parodying a hackneyed and stereotypical vision of female beauty? This volume brings together for the first time essays which focus on cross- dressing in theater, cabaret, opera, and dance. The essays raise issues which range from the significance of the cross-dressed classical Greek actor to the Renaissance tradition of adolescent boys playing female roles; from Restoration breeches roles to the contemporary phenomenon of “voguing.” Crossing the Stage illuminates the way in which current theoretical and pedagogical scholarship on the politics and discourse of the body bears on the significance of the cross-dressed performer from psychoanalytical, social, historical and feminist perspectives. Crossing the Stage is a major source book on theatrical cross-dressing and includes a full bibliography to supplement the collection. It will be essential reading for all performance specialists and those interested in issues of gender and representation. Contributors include Jean Howard, Jill Campbell, Lynn Garafola, Laurence Senelick, Marybeth Hamilton, Elizabeth Drorbaugh, Peggy Phelan and Alisa Solomon. Lesley Ferris is Director of Theater at Memphis State University. She lived and worked in London for twelve years, has directed on the London Fringe and the Edinburgh Festival and was a Senior Lecturer and Acting Head of the School for Drama at Middlesex Polytechnic (now University). She has published various articles and her book Acting Women: Images of Women in Theatre was published in 1990. CROSSING THE STAGE Controversies on cross-dressing Edited by Lesley Ferris London and New York First published in 1993 by Routledge 11 New Fett
