Knight, Lesley Anne (2022) A way with words. The art of negotiation and collaboration in the age of the new woman on broadway as seen through the careers of Anne Caldwell, Dorothy Donnelly and Rida Johnson Young 1906-1928. Doctoral thesis, University of West London.

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Abstract

“If you want to see the sign of the times, watch women. Their evolution is the most important thing in modern life." (Editorial, 1912b). This statement, delivered as part of a speech to the Drama League in Boston in 1912, was made by leading American playwright, Rachel Crothers. Crothers’ statement is representative of a social phenomenon in late nineteenth century America wherein the economic transformation and flourishing industry of the Progressive Era opened the way to previously unattainable educational and professional opportunities for women.
The focus of this thesis is on gender equality, business negotiation and creative collaborative working practices on Broadway as viewed from the perspective of the business and writing partnerships of three lyricist/librettists: Anne Caldwell (1867-1936), Rida Johnson Young (1875-1926) and Dorothy Donnelly (1880-1928). They collectively wrote a total of more than forty musical productions, of which twenty were outstanding successes in the twenty-two-year period from 1906-28, for which (during their lifetimes) they received both critical acclaim and significant financial reward. The burgeoning industry in which all three writers were operating was also a fledgling environment with regards to contractual rights for writers, the collective support of Guilds and Unions gaining steady ground through the early years of the twentieth century, their goals often resisted by powerful producers who viewed regulation as a threat to profits.
This interdisciplinary research draws on primary source correspondence, interviews and Language Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) analyses to build profiles of male/female collaboration as part of a linguistic-hermeneutic paradigm for observing negotiation, networking and collaboration in business and creative partnerships. The findings contribute further to Caldwell, Johnson Young and Donnelly’s respective profiles within the early musical theatre landscape on Broadway, creating new perspectives around creative collaboration and the importance of networking and highlights a model of non-gender biased commercial equality pertinent to the ongoing gender pay gap dialogue in the present day.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Identifier:	10.36828/nbku4294
Subjects:	Performing arts > Theatrical events
Depositing User:	Lesley Anne Knight
Date Deposited:	03 Apr 2023 10:09
Last Modified:	03 Apr 2023 10:16
URI:	https://repository.uwl.ac.uk/id/eprint/9904

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