Caryl Churchill (born September 3, 1938) is an English writer of stage plays known for her use of non-realistic techniques and feminist themes. She is acknowledged as a major playwright in the English language and a leading woman writer. She is classed as a Post-modern playwright due to her themes and techniques such as use of multi-role and fragmented narrative. The difference between Churchill and a Modernist, Bertolt Brecht for example, is that although Churchill uses many similar techniques, Modernists set out to create a new art form beyond drama, whereas Churchill is using previous techniques to enhance drama. September 3 is the 246th day of the year (247th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1938 (MCMXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... The term writer can apply to anyone who creates a written work, but the word more usually designates those who write creatively or professionally, or those who have written in many different forms. ... A stage play is a dramatic work intended for performance before a live audience, or a performance of such a work. ... Feminism is a social theory and political movement primarily informed and motivated by the experience of women. ... Template:Unsourced A playwright, also known as a dramatist, is someone who writes dramatic literature or drama. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Postmodernism (sometimes abbreviated pomo) is a term applied to a wide-ranging set of developments in critical theory, philosophy, architecture, art, literature, and culture, which are generally characterized as either emerging from, in reaction to, or superseding, modernism. ... This article focuses on the cultural movement labeled modernism or the modern movement. See also: Modernism (Roman Catholicism) or Modernist Christianity; Modernismo for specific art movement(s) in Spain and Catalonia. ... Bertolt Brecht (born Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht February 10, 1898 – August 14, 1956) was an influential German socialist dramatist, stage director, and poet of the 20th century. ... This article focuses on the cultural movement labeled modernism or the modern movement. See also: Modernism (Roman Catholicism) or Modernist Christianity; Modernismo for specific art movement(s) in Spain and Catalonia. ...

Churchill was born in London, England. During World War II her family emigrated to Montreal, Canada, where she attended Trafalgar School for Girls. She returned to England to attend university, and graduated from Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford in 1960 with a degree in English Literature. She also began her career there, writing three plays for performance by student drama groups: Downstairs, You've No Need to be Frightened and Having a Wonderful Time. London (pronounced ) is the capital city of England and the United Kingdom. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Combatants Major Allied powers: United Kingdom Soviet Union United States Republic of China and others Major Axis powers: Nazi Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Harry Truman Chiang Kai-Shek Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tojo Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead... Motto: Concordia Salus Coordinates: Country Canada Province Quebec Founded 1642 Established 1832 City Mayor Gérald Tremblay Area    - City 366. ... Lady Margaret Hall is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. ... The University of Oxford, located in the city of Oxford in England, is the oldest university in the English-speaking world. ... 1960 (MCMLX) was a leap year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1960 calendar). ... The term English literature refers to literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; Joseph Conrad was Polish, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Edgar Allan Poe was American, Salman Rushdie is Indian. ...

In 1961 she married David Harter, a lawyer also from Oxford, and began raising three sons. She also began to write short radio plays for the BBC including The Ants (1962), Not, Not, Not, Not Enough Oxygen (1971), and Schreber's Nervous Illness (1972). 1961 (MCMLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1961 calendar). ... The British Broadcasting Corporation, invariably known as the BBC (and also informally known as the Beeb or Auntie) is the largest broadcasting corporation in the world, employing 26,000 staff in the UK alone and with a budget of £4 billion. ...

Churchill wrote Owners, her first stage play, in 1972. Churchill's basic socialist views are very apparent in the play, which is a critique of the values that most capitalists take for granted: being aggressive, getting ahead, doing well. She served as resident dramatist at the Royal Court Theatre from 1974-1975, and later began collaboration with theatre companies such as Joint Stock Theatre Company and Monstrous Regiment (a feminist theatre union) which used an extended workshop period in their development of new plays. Churchill continued to use an improvizational workshop setting in the development of some of her plays. 1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ... Socialism refers to a broad array of doctrines or political movements that envisage a socio-economic system in which property and the distribution of wealth are subject to social control. ... Capitalism is an economic system in which the means of production are mostly privately owned, and capital is invested in the production, distribution, and other trade of goods and services for profit in a market. ... The Royal Court Theatre is a non-commercial theatre in Sloane Square, in the Chelsea area of London noted for its contributions to modern theatre. ... 1974 (MCMLXXIV) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... 1975 (MCMLXXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday. ... The Joint Stock Theatre Company was founded in London 1974 by David Hare, Max Stafford-Clark and David Aukin. ... Monstrous Regiment is an abbreviation of the title of a misogynist 16th century tract by John Knox, the full title of which is, The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women (the women in question were Mary, Queen of Scots and Mary Tudor). ... Philosophically, improvisation often focuses on bringing ones personal awareness into the moment, and on developing a profound understanding for the action one is doing. ...

Her first play to receive wide notice was Cloud Nine (1979), set partly in a British Colony in the Victorian era, which examines the relationships involved in colonization, and utilizes cross-gender casting for comic and instructive effect. It has been suggested that Colonisation be merged into this article or section. ... Queen Victoria (shown here on the morning of her Ascension to the Throne, 20 June 1837) gave her name to the historic era The Victorian Era of Great Britain marked the height of the British industrial revolution and the apex of the British Empire. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Colonialism. ...

In time Churchill's writing became less and less inhibited by realism, and the feminist themes were also developed. Top Girls (1982) has an all-female cast, and focuses on Marlene, who has sacrificed a home and family life to achieve success in the world of business. Half the action takes place at a celebratory dinner where Marlene mixes with historical and fictional women who achieved success in a man's world, but always at some cost; the other half in Marlene's family, where the cost is being paid. In The Skriker (1994), Churchill utilizes an associative dream logic which some critics found to be nonsensical. The play, a visionary exploration of modern urban life, follows the Skriker, a kind of northern goblin, in its search for love and revenge as it pursues two young women to London, changing its shape at every new encounter. Realism is commonly defined as a concern for fact or reality and a rejection of the impractical and visionary. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ...

Serious Money (1987) is a verse play that takes a satirical look at the stock market, and received enormous acclaim, partly because it played immediately after the stock market crash of 1987. Her 2002 play, A Number, addresses the subject of human cloning. Churchill also wrote television plays for the BBC, and those and some of her radio plays were later adapted for the stage. The World According To Ronald Reagan, a satirical map by Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist David Horsey Satire is a technique used in drama and the performing arts, fiction, journalism, and occasionally in poetry and the graphic arts. ... The New York Stock Exchange A stock market is a market for the trading of company stock, and derivatives of same; both of these are securities listed on a stock exchange as well as those only traded privately. ... Black Monday (1987) on the Dow Jones Industrial Average A stock market crash is a sudden dramatic decline of stock prices across a significant cross-section of a market. ... 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ... Human cloning is the creation of a genetically identical copy of an existing, or previously existing, human being or growing cloned tissue from that individual. ... Radio drama (audio drama), which had its greatest popularity in the United States and in most other countries before the spread of television, depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine the story in her or his minds eye. In the television era, some audio...

Plays

This is a list of Churchill's plays originally written for the stage. The dates are the date of first performance or first publication, whichever is earlier.

• Downstairs (1958)
• Having a Wonderful Time (1960)
• Owners (1972)
• Objections to Sex and Violence (1975)
• Light Shining in Buckinghamshire (1976)
• Vinegar Tom (1976)
• Traps (1977)
• Cloud Nine (1979)
• Three More Sleepless Nights (1980)
• Top Girls (1982)
• Fen (1983)
• Softcops (1984)
• A Mouthful of Birds (1986)
• Serious Money (1987)
• Ice Cream (1989)
• Mad Forest: A Play from Romania (1990)
• Lives of Great Poisoners (1991)
• The Skriker (1994)
• Blue Heart (1997)
• Hotel (1997)
• This is a Chair (1999)
• Far Away (2000)
• Thyestes (2001) - translation of Seneca's play
• A Number (2002)
• Drunk Enough to Say I Love You? (2006)

Vinegar Tom is the title of a 1976 feminist play by British playwright Caryl Churchill. ... Cloud 9 is a 1979 play by Caryl Churchill. ... Top Girls is a 1982 play by Caryl Churchill. ... A Mouthful of Birds is a 1986 play with dance by Caryl Churchill and David Lan, with choreography by Ian Spink. ... Serious Money is a satirical play written by Caryl Churchill first staged in 1987. ... Far Away is a 2000 play by British playwright Caryl Churchill. ... In Greek mythology, Thyestes was the son of Pelops, King of Mycenae, and Hippodamia and father of Pelopia and Aegisthus. ... Bust, traditionally thought to be Seneca, now identified by some as Hesiod. ... A Number is a 2002 play by Caryl Churchill which addresses the subject of human cloning. ...

External links

• Caryl Churchill at www.contemporarywriters.com
• Fuller list of works, including radio and TV, with summaries
• Caryl Churchill's A Number in Washington, D.C.