Jessica Silsby Brater's important Ruth Maleczech at Mabou Mines: Woman's Work is the first book devoted to the work of the legendary performer and director … The book offers not biography but rather a historicized thematic structure that provides illuminating connections between works … [It] makes a significant contribution to the growing body of scholarship on female artists who helped to found group theatres in the 1960s and 1970s and who have created in those groups influential interdisciplinary performances.

Modern Drama

Jessica Silsby Brater's examination of the life and work of Ruth Maleczech solidifies Maleczech's role as one of the “Godmothers” of the US experimental theatre movement of the latter half of the 20th century … Brater's documentation and survey of Maleczech's achievements is a fitting tribute to a fearless pioneer of the American theatre.

TDR: The Drama Review