Fatherhood Erased: Exploring the Paternal Voice in the Theatrical Adoption Narrative

abstract: This essay addresses the gender disparity in adoption scholarship and narratives, which predominantly focus on the women of adoption. While acknowledging the increasing prevalence of open adoption, the essay highlights the continued marginalization and stereotypical representation of both birth and adoptive fathers in theatrical narratives. The author analyzes three plays, Aishah Rahman's Unfinished Women Cry in No Man's Land While a Bird Dies in a Gilded Cage , Lisa Loomer's Expecting Isabel , and Daf James's On the Other Hand, We're Happy , and argues that these works reveal significant gaps in the nuanced portrayal of fathers in adoption. Ultimately, it calls for a more balanced and complex understanding of fatherhood within evolving kinship networks created by open adoption.