2024 ATHE The Outstanding Book Award, shortlisted
2023 George Freedley Memorial Award, Finalist
As feminism gained prominence in twentieth-century popular culture, dramatic conventions progressed accordingly, offering larger and more diverse roles for women characters. Feminist Rehearsals documents the early stages of feminist theatre in Argentina and Mexico, revealing how various aspects of performance culture鈥攕pectator formation, playwriting, professional acting and directing, and dramatic techniques鈥攑aralleled political activism and championed the goals of the women鈥檚 rights movement. Through performance and protest, feminists enacted new identities and pushed for myriad social and legislative reforms during a time when women were denied suffrage and full citizenship status. Together, feminist theatre and demonstrations politicized women spectators鈥 collective presence and promoted women鈥檚 rights in the public sphere.
鈥淭his study provides a deserved platform for female artists and activists who continue to exert influence over our understanding of the role of the arts in inspiring a questioning of dominant patriarchal values. Most importantly, it will update everyone鈥檚 ideas of what constitutes a theatre history in the dynamic field that is Latin American theatre, especially as it relates to feminist movements across the Americas.鈥濃擜nalola Santana, author, Freak Performances: Dissidence in Latin American Theater
鈥Feminist Rehearsals is an impressive study of the political, sociocultural, and intellectual struggles women playwrights, actresses, and activist pioneers experienced during the early twentieth century in Argentina and Mexico. With a fresh look at feminist theory and practice, Farnsworth offers a crucial analysis regarding the role women had in the public sphere through the lens of theatre and performance studies.鈥濃擯aola Hern谩ndez, author, Staging Lives in Latin American Theater: Bodies, Objects, Archives
鈥淎n authoritative, nuanced, and thoughtful analysis of the role of feminist political and aesthetic movements in Argentina and Mexico, Feminist Rehearsals offers new insights into how women in the Americas create space for feminist spectatorship in the twentieth century. This book is for anyone engaged in feminist performance scholarship.鈥濃擡. J. Westlake, Ohio State University
鈥淔arnsworth鈥檚 profound work in creating a kind of narrative path is remarkable. . . . The historical approach provides exciting research that is relevant to the academic and artistic community and anyone interested in this field. The appendices also make a significant contribution to documenting theatrical production in these two countries. In this way, Feminist Rehearsals broadens world knowledge on both feminism and theater in Latin America, mainly in Argentina and Mexico.鈥濃MEDIENwissenschaft
鈥Feminist Rehearsals offers a nuanced, complex, and well-documented education in the evolution of women's rights from the nineteenth century through suffrage in Argentina and Mexico. May Summer Farnsworth delivers a tour de force with this history of women's activism and the many linkages between theatre and legislative debates in furthering social change. . . . Feminist Rehearsals is rich in fact-finding and storytelling, uncovering a trove of dramatic literature and performance in the struggle for women's rights. And as if this were not enough, to the reader's delight, Farnsworth includes appendixes with excerpts of select plays expertly translated into English by the author herself.鈥濃Theatre Survey
