Dramatic Literature, Criticism and Theory Commons^™

Sergi Belbel's Theatre Of Pain, Sharon G. Feldman

Latin American, Latino and Iberian Studies Faculty Publications

Dins la seva memoria ("Within his Memory"), a Catalan play written by Sergi Bel-bel in 1986, begins in total darkness, an imprecise empty void in which the spectator hears only the deep, rhythmic gasps and sighs of the anonymous protagonist. ' As the stage lights slowly rise during this "preliminary" scene, Ell (or, "He," as the protagonist is generically called) is depicted on his knees, masturbating with his back to the audience. At first glance, his violent, self-inflicted pleasure may be interpreted as an ultimate affirmation of life; yet, his autoerotic gestures are also imbued with memories that carry …

December 2004 - Volume Iv, Number 1, Theatre Arts Department

Sides (Newsletter)

SIDES Volume IV Number 1 includes an article welcoming new faculty Allison Cameron, and a piece on the Liz Marfia and Phil Ash wedding on October 10, 2004, attending by 26 Theatre Arts alumni.

2004 Cave Run Storytelling Festival Poster, Cave Run Storytelling Festival Committee (Morehead, Ky.), Morehead Tourism Commission (Morehead, Ky.)

Cave Run Storytelling Festival Posters

Promotional development poster for the Cave Run Storytelling Festival held on September 24 to September 25, 2004. Those performing included: Barbara McBride-Smith, Bobby Norfolk, Charlie Chin, Susan Klein, Beth Horner, Doug Elliott, Willy Claflin, Lyn Ford, and Roy Bookbinder.

Comic Ritual In A Tragic World: Lessons In The Metaphor Of Drama, Daniel Larner

Fairhaven Faculty Publications

Metaphor and drama share an essence: transformation. A metaphor carries one world of meaning to another, enlarging what it comes to by what it brings along with it. What is at stake is a meaning, which is transformed to something quite beyond its original state.

Drama takes an action done by characters, and transforms it from the mundane to the meaningful, carrying meaning from the realm of its factuality to wider worlds. Seen this way, drama transforms all action to the act of understanding, of putting some sort of prop under mere fact, of supplying--by some combination of rational, imagistic, …

Metaphor Ii: Understanding Dramatic Form In The Transportation Systems Of Metaphor, Daniel Larner

Fairhaven Faculty Publications

This paper is a continuation of an investigation into the essence of metaphor. I will argue here that dramatic action seems to epitomize that essence and intensify it. Further, I will argue that the world of tragicomedy is an ancient, almost genetic metaphor for the course of human events and the way of the world. It is a form of perception, a way of knowing. The vitality of contemporary tragicomedy, and the analogy between dramatic action and the metaphors of physics show us how fundamental this view has come to be.

June 2004 - Volume Iii, Number 2, Theatre Arts Department

Sides (Newsletter)

SIDES Volume III Number 2 includes a welcome to new faculty Chris Mitchell and a "Where Are They Now?" section.

The Politics Of Sleepwalking: American Lady Macbeths, Katherine Rowe

Katherine Rowe

No abstract provided.

Post-Franco Theatre, Sharon G. Feldman

Latin American, Latino and Iberian Studies Faculty Publications

In the multiple realms and layers that comprise the contemporary Spanish theatrical landscape, “crisis” would seem to be the word that most often lingers in the air, as though it were a common mantra, ready to roll off the tongue of so many theatre professionals with such enormous ease, and even enthusiasm, that one is prompted to wonder whether it might indeed be a miracle that the contemporary technological revolution – coupled with perpetual quandaries concerning public and private funding for the arts – had not by now brought an end to the evolution of the oldest of live arts, …

Dins La Nostra Memòria, Sharon G. Feldman

Latin American, Latino and Iberian Studies Faculty Publications

L'àmbit espacial de la cultura catalana configura un paisatge fluid i dinàmic, un espai simbòlic d'emoció, percepció i subjectivitat. De la mateixa manera, Barcelona ha sorgit i ressorgit al llarg d'aquest segle i del passat com un espai transcultural fluid de migracions. En una ciutat en què en l'actualitat almenys el 12% de la població prové de fora de les fronteres espanyoles, tot faria pensar que els dramaturgs catalans se senten ara especialmente inclinats a considerar l’espai del pluralisme cultural que és per a'ells «casa seva». Tanmateix, al teatre el procés d'autoreconeixement i el desig d'autoconscienciació es complex. Referintse al …

Plague, Pestilence & Pollution : Berkoff's Collision With Aeschylus And Sophocles, Michelle Aslett

Theses : Honours

Our humanity is bound to perennial themes in drama, so when a classic play is adapted to 'suit' contemporary audiences, the revised version will often reflect the zeitgeist of the times in which it was produced. The magic of retrospection then allows us to examine the social and political particulars that influence the adapted as well as the original work. Indeed, Steven Berkoff's reworkings of both Aeschylus' Agamemnon and Sophocles' Oedipus Rex reflect an unsettled and divided British context in the throes of ideological upheaval during the 1970's and early 1980's. While consistent criticism of leadership and political strife in …

Oskar Blumenthal And The Lessing Theater In Berlin, 1888-1904, William Grange

William Grange

OSKAR BLUMENTHAL (1852-1917) was Berlin’s most feared theatre critic in the early years of the new German Reich. He had the audacity of referring to Goethe as “an egghead” who had no understanding of what made plays effective for audiences, and in other critiques he ridiculed Kleist, Hebbel, and other “important” playwrights—prompting an adversary publicly to call him a “one-man lynch mob.” In the 1880s Blumenthal himself began writing plays, and he was so successful that many self-appointed cultural guardians accused him of damaging the German theatre beyond repair. His became the most frequently performed plays on any German stage …

Deliver Us From Evil: Essays On Symbolic Engagement In Early Drama, Clifford Davidson

Clifford Davidson

The focus of this book is on the reality of evil for medieval and Renaissance dramatists and their audiences. What propels the work beyond similar critiques is the author's insistence that evil is not an outmoded feature of past societies, but an active ingredient of contemporary life. Davidson fast forwards from distant times once described as "calamitous" to a century of far more violence and atrocity - our own twentieth and its overflow. While drawing on Kant to illuminate the kinds of evil portrayed in early drama through Marlowe and Shakespeare, Davidson refers to contemporary events that scream for an …

The Coventry Mysteries And Shakespeare’S Histories, Clifford Davidson

Clifford Davidson

Feminist History, Theory, And Practice In The Shakespeare Classroom, Robert Lublin

Robert Lublin

No abstract provided.