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Dramatic Literature, Criticism and Theory Commons™
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Articles 1 - 29 of 29
Full-Text Articles in Dramatic Literature, Criticism and Theory
Rewriting Hell: Adaptation, Hope, And The 'American Dream' In Practice-As-Research, Karli Jean Lonnquist
Rewriting Hell: Adaptation, Hope, And The 'American Dream' In Practice-As-Research, Karli Jean Lonnquist
Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters
Contemporary theatrical adaptation involves deconstructing, reimagining, and rewriting historical plays for modern audiences. Adaptation appropriates theatrical conventions, changes the lens through which the audience may view the play, and offers new entry points into thinking and practice. Adaptation asks, “why this source as theatre now?” and proposes that history provides tools for engagement with contemporary issues. By employing a Practice as Research methodology, which positions creative processes such as script development, rehearsal, or play development as research methods, I investigated the art of historical adaptation. I adapted No Exit, a 1945 existentialist play by Jean-Paul Sartre, into a new play …
A New Exit: The Impact Of Historical Play Adaptations On Modern Audiences, Karli Jean Lonnquist
A New Exit: The Impact Of Historical Play Adaptations On Modern Audiences, Karli Jean Lonnquist
SURF Posters and Papers
Contemporary theatrical adaptation involves deconstructing, reimagining, and rewriting historical plays for modern audiences. Adaptation appropriates theatrical conventions, changes the lens through which the audience may view the play, and offers new entry points into thinking and practice. Adaptation asks, “why this source as theatre now?” and proposes that history provides tools for engagement with contemporary issues. By employing a Practice as Research (PaR) methodology, I will investigate the art of historical adaptation and adapt No Exit, a 1945 existentialist play by Jean-Paul Sartre, through the lenses of constructivism and performance studies. I will develop my script through collaborative workshops, stage …
Little Shop Of Patriarchy : Analyzing Constructed Vs. Essential Gender Roles, Taylor Gadsden-Deterville
Little Shop Of Patriarchy : Analyzing Constructed Vs. Essential Gender Roles, Taylor Gadsden-Deterville
Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters
Frank Oz’s Little Shop of Horrors (1986) is more than a silly kooky musical. The comedic plot dramatically dances with themes of domestic violence, poverty, and sexism. For this project, my poster will explore the expectations and representations of femininity and masculinity set up at the film's beginning versus the end. The film’s context will connect to research involving gender essentialism (innate, biological sex) and gender constructionism (socially constructed gender roles). I will analyze the roles of Seymour, Audrey, and Orin to exhibit how they discover their constructed and essential gender identities. The film represents Audrey as a ditsy hyper-feminine …
Was It Good? A Look At The Golden-Ticket Question Of Societal Preferences In Theatre, Carina Leland
Was It Good? A Look At The Golden-Ticket Question Of Societal Preferences In Theatre, Carina Leland
Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters
What makes theatre “good?” There are some common answers that critics and the public agree upon, but the guidelines of good theatre have changed greatly throughout history. Many playwrights and critics have created philosophies that attempted to define popular theatre in their time or according to their personal views. Today’s opinion on “good” has its own set of characteristics that the majority of society enjoys, which is unique from any historical manifesto. Furthermore, our modern consensus doesn’t take into account the wildly different nature of individual preferences; while I enjoy light-hearted coming-of-age stories, others find deeper satisfaction from a thought-provoking …
"Old Cod": The Power Of Storytelling In Conor Mcpherson's The Weir, Sarah Johnson
"Old Cod": The Power Of Storytelling In Conor Mcpherson's The Weir, Sarah Johnson
English (MA) Theses
This paper examines the representation of Irish storytelling in Conor McPherson’s 1997 play The Weir. Drawing on postcolonial theory as well as the historical context of Ireland during the play’s release, I argue that The Weir is uniquely positioned at the intersection of traditional and modern values. Further, I assert that fairy legend is a tool used by the play’s characters to both understand and escape a fluctuating cultural landscape, and ultimately, a way to articulate their own values. Using textual analysis, I examine the rhetorical choices of the play’s storytellers and compare it with established conventions of Irish …
Behind The Scenes: Shining A Spotlight On Veiled Theatre Workers, Ariel Bradshaw
Behind The Scenes: Shining A Spotlight On Veiled Theatre Workers, Ariel Bradshaw
Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters
My thesis aims to highlight traditionally underrepresented theatre artists. I wish to dive deeply into the many backstage, or “veiled” workers, who continue to go unacknowledged. Why is there an aspect of “veiled” theatre created to stay hidden? Even in technical theatre, some specialties receive more credit or recognition than others. For example, the Tony Awards offer categories for direction, sound, light, costume, and scenic design, yet no award for stage management. How are institutions working to create more representation in an intentionally hidden space? This project will specifically focus on the representation of stage managers, arguably the most invisible …
The Virtue Of Humour In King Lear, Kent R. Lehnhof
The Virtue Of Humour In King Lear, Kent R. Lehnhof
English Faculty Books and Book Chapters
"As the essays in this volume by Carolyn Sale and Katie Adkison clearly demonstrate, King Lear is centrally concerned with virtue. France makes it a priority when choosing Cordelia for his wife, telling her ‘Thee and thy virtues here I seize upon’ (1.1.250).1 Similarly, Cornwall cites Edmund’s ‘virtue and obedience’ when deciding to ‘seize on’ Edmund as his own (2.1.115, 118). The fact that characters as opposite as Cordelia and Edmund are alike ‘seized’ upon on account of their virtue underscores how difficult it can be to determine who and what is truly virtuous. Lear highlights this very problem when …
Sweat Equity: Lynn Nottage's Radical Dialectic Of Deindustrialization, Jocelyn L. Buckner
Sweat Equity: Lynn Nottage's Radical Dialectic Of Deindustrialization, Jocelyn L. Buckner
Theatre Faculty Books and Book Chapters
"Lynn Nottage has devoted her career to researching and telling stories of Black individuals and communities with expressed interest in laborers, advocating for their agency, humanity, and legacy. In her second Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Sweat, Nottage dramatizes more recent US history, illuminating the lives of workers marginalized by the deindustrialization of the Rust Belt in the early 2000s. Sweat is emblematic of Nottage's sustained effort to deploy playwriting as activism and stand in solidarity with those whose stories she chooses to tell. As a constant theme in her works, Lynn Nottage's stories align with marginalized workers' efforts and histories, …
Sweet Fooling: Ethical Humor In King Lear And Levinas, Kent R. Lehnhof
Sweet Fooling: Ethical Humor In King Lear And Levinas, Kent R. Lehnhof
English Faculty Articles and Research
"In recent years, scholars have increasingly put the works of William Shakespeare (1564-1623) in dialogue with the ethical philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas (1905-1995)... The majority of these Shakespearean references are to Hamlet and Macbeth, but contemporary critics working in the vein of Levinas have tended to favor King Lear. No Shakespearean play has been subjected to Levinasian analysis more fully or more frequently.5 This critical proclivity is not unwarranted, for Shakespeare's tragic play and Levinas's ethical writings tell the same basic story: that of the egoist who heedlessly pursues his own interests until he is until he …
Marina Y Cleopatra En El Escenario Teatral, Jon Paul Lawton
Marina Y Cleopatra En El Escenario Teatral, Jon Paul Lawton
World Languages and Cultures Student Papers and Posters
Cleopatra and Doña Marina come from distinct time periods in world history— respectively, the declining Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt and the age of the Spanish conquest. Literature has been inspired by these historical figures, creating various interpretations of this Egyptian queen and Aztec translator. Fundamentally, these two personalities share similarities: both women fall in love with foreign invaders and harness influence in the political arena of their times. For this, they must rectify their romantic desires with loyalty for their home countries. The plays Todos los gatos son pardos by Carlos Fuentes and Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare reveal …
“It’S War That's Cruel”: The Evolution Of Wartime Representation And ‘The Other’ In The American Musical, Leana Sottile
“It’S War That's Cruel”: The Evolution Of Wartime Representation And ‘The Other’ In The American Musical, Leana Sottile
War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses
Musical theater has historically been a venue for Americans to come to terms with our past and present on both a national and an individual level as it stages and restages war mythology on the Broadway Stage. As the nation has won, lost, and abandoned foreign conflicts, the connotation, remembrance, and commemoration of war in American memory has shifted from romanticizing former conflicts to renegotiating their memory. Thus, this project examines how twentieth-century war memory is represented in the American musical, starting in the 1940s and continuing up to the present day. To do so, the phenomenon will be examined …
Twinship And Marriage In The Comedy Of Errors, Kent R. Lehnhof
Twinship And Marriage In The Comedy Of Errors, Kent R. Lehnhof
English Faculty Articles and Research
This article proposes that Shakespeare uses twinship and marriage in The Comedy of Errors to reflect on the importance of individuality and interrelation in the formation of identity. Specifically, this article shows how The Comedy of Errors sets the twin relation against the marital relation, ultimately implying that marriage—imperfect, everyday marriage—has as much subjective impact as the extraordinary bond between identical twins. As amazing as it might be to see two persons sharing "one face, one voice, one habit," The Comedy of Errors suggests that the twin relation does not surpass in significance the equally marvelous relation whereby husband and …
Terrence Mcnally’S Universalizing Model: The Role Of Disability In Andre’S Mother; Lips Together, Teeth Apart; And Love! Valour! Compassion!, Alexa Burnstine
Terrence Mcnally’S Universalizing Model: The Role Of Disability In Andre’S Mother; Lips Together, Teeth Apart; And Love! Valour! Compassion!, Alexa Burnstine
English (MA) Theses
In his works such as Andre’s Mother; Lips Together, Teeth Apart; and Love! Valour! Compassion!, playwright Terrence McNally utilizes categorically gay themes such as homophobia and living with HIV and AIDS in a time when little was understood about the illnesses. For these reasons, McNally critics customarily analyze McNally’s plays with a queer theory lens. This work examines those same topics and others, but with a critical disability lens. Inspired by Robert McRuer’s analytical partnership of queer, AIDS, and disabilities studies, this work assesses McNally’s use of various types of languages and finds the figures who are …
Healing Through Creativity And Creation: Drama Therapy As Treatment For Individuals With Eating Disorders, Hayley Werner
Healing Through Creativity And Creation: Drama Therapy As Treatment For Individuals With Eating Disorders, Hayley Werner
Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters
For those living with eating disorders, intervention and effective treatment can mean the difference between life and death. Conventional treatments, such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, forms of talk therapy, and Nutritional Counseling, focus solely on the psychological patterns or nutritional science of eating disorders. Though these treatments are effective for some individuals, there is a gap in treatment options that address both the mind and body as one and appeal to the humanity of patients outside of their disorder(s). Herein lies the power and potential of integrating drama therapy as a widely available treatment. Drama therapy …
El Otro Lado De La Máscara De Lorca: Federico, En Carne Viva, Polly J. Hodge
El Otro Lado De La Máscara De Lorca: Federico, En Carne Viva, Polly J. Hodge
World Languages and Cultures Faculty Articles and Research
José Moreno Arenas (Albolote, Granada) lleva casi cincuenta años escribiendo piezas teatrales y escenificando sus obras. Con la celebración del estreno de su última creación teatral, Federico, en carne viva, en Los Ángeles, California (6 de octubre, Frida Kahlo Theater), Moreno Arenas comparte con nosotros su paseo por los textos y campos de Lorca para poder retratar a esta figura mítica con la luz enfocada al otro lado de su máscara.
Kinship And Twinship In Jacob And Esau, Kent R. Lehnhof
Kinship And Twinship In Jacob And Esau, Kent R. Lehnhof
English Faculty Articles and Research
"The implications of these early stage directions are upheld and amplified elsewhere in the play. In what follows, I demonstrate this to be the case by reviewing some of the ways the interlude seeks to justify Jacob’s usurpation, most interestingly in its systematic and strategic deployment of kinship ties and familial terms. After explaining how the play leverages family relations to elevate Jacob and overthrow Esau, I concentrate on one family relation in particular: namely, the complicated bond between twin brothers. As I will make clear, the interlude’s treatment of twinship raises pressing questions about the way wealth, affection, and …
Theology, Phenomenology, And The Divine In King Lear, Kent R. Lehnhof
Theology, Phenomenology, And The Divine In King Lear, Kent R. Lehnhof
English Faculty Books and Book Chapters
"In what follows, then, I would like to think through Levinas's ideas on transcendence and ethics in such a way as to map out a new pathway for approaching Shakespeare's great tragedy. As unorthodox as it may sound, I propose to shed light on the darkling religiosity of King Lear by turning-not to the theological doctrines of early modem Christians-but to the postmodern ethics of a twentieth-century Jew."
“We Are Going Live In 3, 2, 1...”: Examining Liveness Amidst Streaming Technology, Jessica Jeanne Johnson
“We Are Going Live In 3, 2, 1...”: Examining Liveness Amidst Streaming Technology, Jessica Jeanne Johnson
Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters
The products of the theatre, film, and television industries are becoming increasingly homogenized. The modes of entertainment which feature a live audience experience (film and theatre) have seen a gradual decrease in ticket sales to these experiences, while simultaneously there has been a rapidly increasing number of subscriptions to streaming services providing access to productions from all three mediums (film, theatre, television). This fact represents the public’s divergence from the idea of traditional “liveness.” Many scholars believe that liveness has the ability to manifest itself in many mediatized forms (such as in 3D, surround sound, etc.), and while this is …
Antitheatricality And Irrationality: An Alternative View, Kent Lehnhof
Antitheatricality And Irrationality: An Alternative View, Kent Lehnhof
English Faculty Articles and Research
"Over the last three decades, antitheatrical authors like Stephen Gosson, Phillip Stubbes, and William Prynne have become increasingly visible in the literary and cultural studies of the early modern period. Even so, the tendency has been to treat these authors as ideological extremists: reactionary hacks whose opposition to stage plays originates in outrageous ideas of the self, impossible notions of right and wrong, and bizarre beliefs about humanity’s susceptibility to external suggestion. This characterization can be traced back to several of the pioneering studies in the field, including Jonas Barish’s The Antitheatrical Prejudice (1985) and Laura Levine’s Men in Women’s …
El Metro En El Teatro Y El Teatro En El Metro: Un Escenario Laberíntico De Múltiples Velocidades, Polly J. Hodge
El Metro En El Teatro Y El Teatro En El Metro: Un Escenario Laberíntico De Múltiples Velocidades, Polly J. Hodge
World Languages and Cultures Faculty Books and Book Chapters
"En esta investigación se explora el metro como un espacio teatral único y laberíntico. El metro se revela como un espacio ambiguo: es un lugar brindado con la capacidad de fomentar relaciones amorosas y transformativas entre los seres humanos; a la vez se concibe como un sitio condenado a destruir lazos personales al fomentar comportamientos de decepción y violencia aplastando cualquier esperanza para el espíritu humano. El metro, como espacio urbano recóndito y específicamente localizado bajo la tierra, con sus connotaciones que giran alrededor de la oscuridad, la clandestinidad, el secreto, el misterio y el crimen, es el escenario laberíntico …
"Pitiful Creature Of Darkness": The Subhuman And The Superhuman In The Phantom Of The Opera, Jessica Sternfeld
"Pitiful Creature Of Darkness": The Subhuman And The Superhuman In The Phantom Of The Opera, Jessica Sternfeld
Music Faculty Books and Book Chapters
"This chapter focuses on The Phantom of the Opera, the megamusical that perhaps most boldly faces the idea of disability head-on, as it stars a character whose face, as one journalist described it, looks 'like melted cheese' (Smith, 1995). The musical's approach to the Phantom's disability is remarkably layered and inconsistent; the Phantom is portrayed in numerous ways (monster, criminal, genius, god, ghost) and his physical disability blurs regularly with his 'soul;' which is where numerous characters locate the origin of his problems. His face and its famous mask covering are both feared and thrilled over, but with a reassuring …
Living Between The Lines: Intersectionality And Self-Actualization In Shakespeare's Plays, Morgan L. Green
Living Between The Lines: Intersectionality And Self-Actualization In Shakespeare's Plays, Morgan L. Green
Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters
More than four hundred years after his death Shakespeare is still the most performed playwright in the English-Speaking World, and even in some cultures vastly different from Shakespeare’s England. Theatre companies continue to make him relevant by exploring new themes and tailoring the productions to the social mores of contemporary audiences. One particular theme being examined more and more by both scholars and theatre artists is diversity and the role of identity in Shakespeare’s works. Three works in which this can be easily examined are Antony and Cleopatra, The Merchant of Venice, and Othello with particular attention paid to …
The Rape Of Blanche: An Examination Of Critical Analysis & Sexist Overtones, Audrey Thayer
The Rape Of Blanche: An Examination Of Critical Analysis & Sexist Overtones, Audrey Thayer
Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters
The first people to ever listen to the words of A Streetcar Named Desire were two women, Margo Jones and Joanna Albus. Tennessee Williams read them an uncompleted first draft of the play. Margo Jones was “supportive of the play but urged him to rewrite it and to soften Blanche's hysteria. He listened, and ignored her” (Rader 199). The very first people who were privy to the violent, sensual, chaotic world of Blanche and Stanley were two women who found fault in Stella's character. They saw her hysteria, no doubt an unbecoming trait, as “far out,” or perhaps unbelievable. Much …
Ships That Do Not Sail: Antinauticalism, Antitheatricalism, And Irrationality In Stephen Gosson, Kent Lehnhof
Ships That Do Not Sail: Antinauticalism, Antitheatricalism, And Irrationality In Stephen Gosson, Kent Lehnhof
English Faculty Articles and Research
Stephen Gosson's similes, particularly in 1579's The Schoole of Abuse, commend affective restraint, value stasis over motion, and idealize immobility. Combined with his Platonic mistrust of emotion and his dislike of stage plays for the emotional response they provoke, his criticisms can be seen to express a desire to slow cultural change and social mobility. The effect of this in The Schoole of Abuse is that it deprives objects and agents of their essential identify by removing the action that best defines them, implying that to become our best selves, we must give up the very qualities that define us.
Relation And Responsibility: A Levinasian Reading Of King Lear, Kent Lehnhof
Relation And Responsibility: A Levinasian Reading Of King Lear, Kent Lehnhof
English Faculty Articles and Research
Emmanuel Levinas’s ideas about intersubjectivity can change our reading of Shakespeare by putting philosophical pressure on Shakespeare’s dramatization of human relatedness in The Tragedy of King Lear (1607–8). Even though Levinas does not discuss Lear at length in any of his published work, this difficult philosopher and this difficult play have much to say to one another. Levinas can be fruitfully brought to bear on Shakespeare’s great tragedy, generating fresh and productive ideas about its most pivotal moments, its most perplexing questions, and its most popular interpretations. In addition, Levinas can provide a useful frame for discussing the nature of …
Acting, Integrity, And Gender In Coriolanus, Kent Lehnhof
Acting, Integrity, And Gender In Coriolanus, Kent Lehnhof
English Faculty Articles and Research
Shakespeare's Coriolanus... anticipates and corroborates modern-day analyses emphasizing the sociopolitical dimensions and determinants of antitheatrical discourse. In the present essay, I would like to shift my focus from questions of class/status to questions of sex/gender, endeavoring to trace the links between Coriolanus’s antiperformative zeal and his ultra-masculine identity. For though it is true that Coriolanus opposes the dissimulation of others on political grounds (i.e., it creates social confusion), what causes him to reject play-acting in his own person is the sexualized fear that it will unman him (i.e., turn him into a squeaking virgin or crying boy). In this manner, …
Incest And Empire In The Faerie Queene, Kent Lehnhof
Incest And Empire In The Faerie Queene, Kent Lehnhof
English Faculty Articles and Research
"When considered in the context of Elizabeth's effort to silence all discussion of incest, Edmund Spenser's courtly epic aiming to cultivate favor with the monarch looks like a disastrous miscalculation, for incest appears throughout The Faerie Queene. Indeed, incest sits at the center (both literally and figuratively) of the Book of Chastity, the very book wherein Spenser encourages Elizabeth 'in mirrours more then one her selfe to see.' In the present essay, I investigate the apparently illogical and impolitic prominence afforded to incest in book three of The Faerie Queene, ultimately arguing that the imperialist logic underpinning the epic is …
'Rather Say I Play The Man I Am': Shakespeare's Coriolanus And Elizabethan Anti-Theatricality, Kent Lehnhof
'Rather Say I Play The Man I Am': Shakespeare's Coriolanus And Elizabethan Anti-Theatricality, Kent Lehnhof
English Faculty Books and Book Chapters
In the second act of Shakespeare's Coriolanus, the hero is informed that his acceptance as a Roman consul is dependent upon donning the robe of humility and petitioning the common people in the market-place for their ratifying vote. Coriolanus recoils from the custom, outraged at the idea of acting a part—complete with costume, dialogue, and stage directions— that does not correspond with his inner truth. At this moment and others, Coriolanus echoes the anti-theatricalist rhetoric of Elizabethan pamphleteers like the popular and prolific Stephen Gosson. In many ways, Coriolanus serves as a stand-in for the anti-theatrical ideology of Gosson and …