Playwriting Commons^™

Though The Earth Give Way

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s Fall 2013 performance of Though the Earth Give Way by William Gebby, commissioned and presented by the Taylor Theatre Touring Company.

Though the Earth Give Way is a reimagined telling of the story of King Hezikiah and his resistance of the Assyrian siege of Jerusalem in 701 B.C.. The story is found in the Old Testament, in 2 Kings 18-20 and Psalm 46.

Freud's Last Session

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s Fall 2013 performance of Freud’s Last Session by Mark St. Germain.

Freud’s Last Session focuses on psychoanalyst Dr. Sigmund Freud who has invited Oxford professor C. S. Lewis to his London home. The two men enter debate about the existence of God, love, sex, and the meaning of life – only two weeks before Freud chooses to take his own.

The play was suggested by the best selling book The Question of God by Armand M. Nicholi, Jr..

The Process Of Bringing An Original Playscript To Production--Flamingo & Decatur, Todd Taylor

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The aim of this dissertation is to present my play, Flamingo & Decatur, to the thesis committee, to illuminate the process of writing it, and to place it within the context of the entire body of dramatic writing I've done here at the University of Arkansas.

The dissertation opens with a narrative essay that details the process of bringing Flamingo & Decatur to production. It describes the germination of the idea for the play and follows the process through the initial drafts--detailing the ways in which the script was reshaped through its various iterations. Special attention is given to the …

Caught In The Net--The Development And Production Of An Original Playscript, Prince Duren

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Department of Drama at the University of Arkansas provides students with the opportunity to take part in classes, workshops, stage readings, and productions as part of its new play development process. The purpose of this thesis document is to clearly and concisely track the process of developing, rehearsing, and producing the world premiere of Caught in the Net, a play involving an African American woman whose life is forever changed when she enters into an online relationship. The document also includes research information, the play's most recent draft, and production photos. The play was presented by the University Theatre …

A Mind's Menagerie: The Process Of Projecting The Mind Of A Genius Onto A Stage, Matthew F. Wilson

Matthew Wilson

Tennessee Williams is one of the most famous American playwrights of all time. His language along with his portrayal of themes of desire and things that could have been are the things that for so long have captivated his readers, and his audiences alike. Like most, I am not immune to the genius of this fantastic playwright. The inspiration for my piece A Mind’s Menagerie grew from a seed that was implanted deep within my brain many months ago, while reading his arguably most successful play A Streetcar Named Desire. There is a small four page reading in the end …

The Curious Savage

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s Spring 2013 performance of The Curious Savage by John Patrick.

The Curious Savage is the story of Ethel P. Savage, an elderly lady whose husband has died and left her approximately ten million dollars. When she sets up a memorial fund for average people to pursue their dreams, her three stepchildren commit her to a sanatorium and try to discover where she has hidden the fortune. As the search for the fortune plays out the question becomes who is really crazy, the residents of the sanatorium or Ethel’s stepchildren.

Bear In Mind, Janelle Marxhausen

Gandy Dancer Archives

No abstract provided.

Letters From God To The Civilization, Emily Withers

Gandy Dancer Archives

No abstract provided.

Experimental Ambiguity, Meghan Barrett

Gandy Dancer Archives

No abstract provided.

His Right Eye: A Modern Radio Drama Adaptation Of Edgar Allan Poe’S “The Tell-Tale Heart”, Carson Burkett

Senior Honors Theses

Watching an actor manipulate emotions and physicality to breathe life into a character is extraordinary. Even more impressive is the ability of a performer to do this without being seen. Radio drama is an intriguing aspect of performance that is often underappreciated in current culture, but it can play an incredible role in communicating and allowing for emotion and truth to be presented richly.

Using Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Tell-Tale Heart” as the basis for this thesis, I have written a script for a radio drama that adapts the story for a modern culture. The Department of Theatre …

Grandma’S Dictionary, Leiquan Jeremiah

Academic Symposium of Undergraduate Scholarship

Act 1:

We are introduced to the Baileys who live in a modest neighborhood in Gary, Indiana. The family has lived in the same house for generations.

Grandma Athena is the family glue and holds true to her role. She serves as a mediator and voice of reason for family and friends.

Cecile is the main voice of the play who finds herself learning about different people and their lives by being at the right place at the right time. Besides her bold listening in, she loves to tell people’s stories.

Susie-Ann is Cecile’s long-time, childhood friend. Susie-Ann lives in …

The Art Of Adaptation, Katharine E. Jordan

Honors Theses and Capstones

My honors thesis The Art of Adaptation discusses the process of adapting old stories and theatrical pieces for modern audiences through the exploration of various adaptations (theatrical, operatic, dance and film) of Euripides' Medea. It also touches on my own short, modern, adaptation; FURY: A Rock Musical Inspired by Medea. All of this research was important in making the performance aspect of my capstone the best it could be.

Love Kills: Exploring Young Women In Shakespeare, Malcolm X. Evans

Senior Theses and Projects

Taking a look at how William Shakespeare writes young women (particularly in Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet), Evans puts forth the idea that "love kills." There are no young and strong characters that are powerful, entirely as women, in the works of Shakespeare. To further put forth the idea Evans comments on a production of his own design, by the same name, which brings together the Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet.

Godspell

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s Spring 2013 performance of Godspell by Stephen Schwartz and John-Michael Tebelak.

Gospell is a musical telling the parables and life of Jesus found in the gospel of Matthew.

Sheridan's Promising Tale Is Half Told, Ian Kilroy

Articles

Review of 'Break a Leg', the memoir by Irish theatre artist Peter Sheridan. First published in the Sunday Business Post Magazine.

Suzan-Lori Parks: Essays On The Plays And Other Works Edited By Philip C. Kolin (Review), Jocelyn Buckner

Theatre Faculty Articles and Research

The anthology Suzan-Lori Parks: Essays on the Plays and Other Works offers new perspectives to the growing body of scholarship about Parks’s artistic achievements. The text features a contextualizing preface and twelve new essays about her plays, novel, and screenplays. It also contains two new interviews, one with Parks herself and another with her longtime friend and collaborator, director Liz Diamond, as well as a timeline featuring major productions of her works from her first play reading in 1984, to projects anticipated for future production on stage and screen. While Parks’s works, and works on Parks are widely anthologized in …

The Irish Dracula: A Melodrama In Five Acts, James Doan

Humanities and Politics Faculty Book and Book Chapters

While working on the first volume in the project, The Universal Vampire: Origins and Evolution of a Legend (Rowman & Littlefield, 2013) I decided to try my hand at adapting the novel Dracula to a more literal Irish context. Set in London and Co. Sligo in 1888, it constitutes a prequel to the novel. The play, entitled The Irish Dracula: A Melodrama in Five Acts, received two initial readings: the first with the Irish Theatre of Florida in August 2012 and the second at the American Conference for Irish Studies (ACIS) West meeting in Park City, Utah, in October 2012. …

Lenore: Poe And Baudelaire At Play, Carolyn Martha Fado

Senior Independent Study Theses

This Senior Independent Study Project is a postmodern play inspired by the work of the nineteenth-century poets Edgar Allan Poe and Charles Baudelaire. The scholar Lenore loses her grasp on reality as she studies the work of these two poets and she becomes lost in an imaginary world. This project is collaborative; music composition major Cara Haxo wrote a song cycle based on parts of the script. The play is preceded by a critical introduction.

Framing Anorexia : A Play Script And Multidimensional Investigation Of Anorexia : A Play And Critical Essay, Louise Helfgott

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This thesis explores anorexia nervosa in young people. It comprises two components: a play script, "Frames", about 16-year-old Elizabeth who is combating the disorder, her troubled friend Ben, and their families, and a critical essay that reviews qualitative and quantitative literature about anorexia and contextualises the play in relation to selected narratives, plays and films. In my field research, I interviewed a number of professionals working in the field of anorexia and the essay also discusses their views and insights.

Few plays deal with anorexia in an in-depth manner to explore the onset and development of the illness. "Frames" addresses …

Oh, La La, Rebecca Saunders

Rebecca Saunders

When Brother Burrhead's wife leaves him, he decides to learn French. Is that the way to respond to being abandoned by your wife?! One of his elder sisters certainly doesn't think so. After all, Burr isn't the sharpest tool in the toolbox, or so she claims. But his other sister is a little more willing to sit back and wait and see what happens.