these systems using their own finances from jobs to support their performance work. This is due to a belief stated by Shaw that, "it's easier to get a job than a grant". This held true for the beginning of the company's existence, but as they became more established they began to apply for grants. Members Peggy Shaw (b. 1946) is a theatre artist whose work combines butch identity and dry humor. Her most recent solo show, RUFF (2012), relates her experience having a stroke. The performance was directed by Lois Weaver and toured internationally. Lois Weaver is a performing artist whose work is recognized as seminal in creating a template for lesbian performance methodologies. Her recent solo work has centered around the persona Tammy WhyNot, a 'former famous country-western singer turned lesbian performance artist'. Weaver is Professor of Contemporary Performance in the Department of Drama, Queen Mary, University of London. Weaver most often acts as the director for Split Britches. Deb Margolin, no longer a member of Split Britches, is a renowned performance artist, currently a professor at Yale University. She was primarily the wordsmith of the troupe, known for transforming visions into the final script. Margolin worked with Split Britches on Split Britches (1981), Beauty and the Beast (1982), Upwardly Mobile Home (1984), Little Women (1988), and Lesbians Who Kill (1992). The company engaged in a number of collaborations, including working with Isabel Miller and Holly Hughes to create Dress Suits to Hire (1987), with the Bloolips in Belle Reprieve (1991) and with James Neale-Kennerley in Lust and Comfort (1995). Impact and Significance Split Britches has worked with concepts of lesbian, queer, dyke, butch and femme identities and cultures in a context of American feminism and live arts movements which emerged through the 1970s. In Split Britches: Lesbian Practice/Feminist Performance, critic and theorist Sue-Ellen Case aptly sums up the importance of the trio in the development of contemporary lesbian performance: "the troupe created a unique 'postmodern' style that served to embed feminist and lesbian issues of the times, economic debates, national agendas, personal relationships, and sex-radical role playing in spectacular and humorous deconstructions of canonical texts, vaudeville shtick, cabaret forms, lip-synching satire, lyrical love scenes, and dark, frightening explorations of class and gender violence." The troupe uses these performances to create a safe space in which non-normative sexualities and genders can occur in peace, and it is praised for