Dramatic Literature, Criticism and Theory Commons^™

You’Re Invited! Collaborating With Faculty And Students To Create A Successful Library Event, Laura Semrau

Transforming Libraries for Graduate Students

To celebrate the 400^th anniversary of the printing of Shakespeare’s First Folio, the Baylor University Libraries hosted a three-day celebration; “Shakespeare 400” drew faculty members from six academic departments and leveraged the talents of both graduate and undergraduate students. The four main events drew a cumulative crowd of over 200 people. Graduate students contributed to the events through music performance, a dramatic reading, enthusiastic promotion, and engaged participation. This presentation will explore key take-aways for including graduate students in library events.

The success of Shakespeare 400 was largely due to collaborations between the library, faculty members, and graduate …

Puppy Love And [Information] Play: An Intersection Of Theatre, Queer Kink, And Consent, Emily Kitchens

Faculty and Research Publications

This note from the field centers on a nexus of queer kink subcultures and consent-based intimacy work in theatre. I report, investigate and wrangle with the process of incorporating queer kink aesthetics into the production of Love and Information by Caryl Churchill I directed at KSU February 2023. What I have learned and hope to demonstrate throughout the paper, is that queer kink subcultures are often paradigmatic examples of communities built on consent, and we as performing arts practitioners can more visibly expand the margins of our cultural competency dialogues to not only include them but look to them as …

The Importance Of Creation: Lessons From The Collision And Performing Justice Projects, Mariah Johnson

Symposium of Student Scholars

The Collision Project is a performance-based project that introduces young artists to an inspiration which drives them to create their own performative art. During my time participating in Kennesaw State University's 2022 New Connections Collision Project, I had the privilege of working alongside the talented youth graduates in the Department of Justice system. Through my first-hand experience and by examining the works through the lens of Megan Alrutz’s book Digital Storytelling, Applied Theatre, & Youth: Performing Possibility, I learned the importance of personal expression through creation. Projects such as our Collision Project and Alrutz’s Performing Justice Project present highly beneficial …

How Theatre Produced By Autistic People Dismantles The Medical Model Of Disability, Ira Eidle

Symposium of Student Scholars

Autism is a neurodevelopmental disability that has a long history of being misunderstood. Said misunderstandings have led to falsehoods about autism and autistic people. The stigma surrounding autism encourages non-autistic people to see themselves as the best advocates for autism, leading to non-autistic people speaking over autistic people constantly. This has come to be known as the medical model of disability. Most autistic people do not consider autism to be a mental illness or disorder. (Kupferstein 2019) That is why when autistic people become informed on these aspects and band together, those misunderstandings can be mitigated. One such way is …

Too Young Or Too Old? Age And The Politics Of Performing King Lear - Successfully!, Jim B. Wallace

The Kennesaw Journal of Undergraduate Research

“It is sometimes said that the problem with the part of Lear is that by the time you are old enough to play it, you are too old to play it.” (Jonathan Bate)

Theatre critics rarely see an outstanding performance of King Lear. The thesis of this paper is that it is possible to successfully perform the role of Lear however it takes much more than excellent acting skills to do so. To successfully play Lear requires a visceral understanding of the profound psychological and physical changes that generally begin around age sixty-five. This paper demonstrates that what one learns …