GETTING INTO THE ACT Women Playwrights in London 1776–1829: OCCUPATIONAL HAZARDS

ABSTRACT: Throughout the preceding quarter of the 18th.c in London there was a notable course in the  number of created dramas written by women. In fact, it was the largest showing since women had entered playwriting for the first time over one hundred years before. Getting Into the Act argues that this infusion was intimately connected to developments in theatre management, and particularly to the career of David Garrick. Garrick’s management of the Drury Lane Theatre made it possible for a number of female playwrights to secure a foothold in the profession. But as these women rapidly emerged from contingency status into full-fledged professional membership, their very success began to undermine the prevailing expectations around gender. By 1829, the momentum of this earlier period was broken, and in critical discourse and public memory, these female playwrights had all but disappeared.
KEY WORDS : Women Playwrights, theatre management, female playwrights, Hannah Cowley, Hannah
More, Frances Brooke, Sophia Lee, Elizabeth Inchbald, Frances Burney and Joanna Baillie.