Dramatic Literature, Criticism and Theory Commons^™

From Humiliation To Epiphany: The Role Of Onstage Spaces In T. S. Eliot’S Middle Plays, Ria Banerjee

Publications and Research

This essay looks at T. S. Eliot's major dramatic productions from the 1930s-40s: Murder in the Cathedral, The Family Reunion, and The Cocktail Party as a series of investigations into spatial expressions of faith. By using onstage space in unique ways, Eliot encourages audiences to consider the connections between performance and belief, the knowable and unknowable.

French Theater And The Memory Of The Great War, Susan Mccready

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

A systematic examination of the ground on which French-language playwrights chose to stage their confrontation with the war would expose many of the literary and cultural biases on which our collective memory of the Great War is based. Even the brief outline of French-language war plays provided in this essay challenges many of our most cherished assumptions about war experience and the meaning of the Great War.

Arabella’S Valentines And Literary Connections [Dot] Com: Playing With Eighteenth-Century Gender Online, Melanie D. Holm

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640-1830

This article describes two digital assignments that ask students to imaginatively embody characters from eighteenth-century texts written by women in order to cultivate a greater awareness of the critical role of gender and gender critique in these works. The first of these assignments, “Arabella’s Valentines,” asks students to translate dialogue from Charlotte Lennox’s The Female Quixote as humorous Internet memes. The second assignment, “Literary Connections [dot] com,” asks students to imagine how characters from the course archive might represent themselves on an internet dating site. Through creative role-play facilitated by these digital genres, students engage with the texts in stimulating …

Review Of Ill Composed: Sickness, Gender, And Belief In Early Modern England, Amy Mallory-Kani

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640-1830

No abstract provided.

General Editor's Note, Laura Runge

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640-1830

No abstract provided.

Twenty-First-Century Transnational Theatre Development In The Cases Of Théâtre Du Soleil/Aftaab And Sundance Institute East Africa: Cultural Politics, Performance Aesthetics, And Global Circulation, Julia Goldstein

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines two case studies of twenty-first-century transnational theatre development programs in which arts organizations from wealthy countries in the Global North extend resources and support for the professional development of theatre artists in regions in the Global South. The first case study takes up the French theatre company Théâtre du Soleil’s work in Afghanistan, starting in 2005, leading to the formation of the Afghan theatre company Aftaab and the next ten years of Soleil’s support of and collaboration with Aftaab, transpiring both in Kabul and Paris. The second case study examines the Sundance Institute East Africa Theatre Lab …

Acts Of Provocation: Popular Antiracisms On/Through The Twenty-First Century New York Commercial Stage, Stefanie A. Jones

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This is an abolitionist feminist study of the role of liberalism in the twenty-first century political economy. It takes as its object New York City bourgeois cultural productions (in particular Broadway theatre and the New York Times) from approximately 1984 to 2009. It offers insights into important yet widely-misunderstood features of turn-of-millennium US society: class, art, political practice, and war. In order to understand liberalism’s political and economic agenda, I look at how these objects are pitched in the struggle over racism. Sometimes when we say “liberal” we mean it in the philosophical sense, with particular attention to liberal …

Theatre Translation As Historiography: Projections Of Greek Self-Identity Through English Translations During The European Crisis, Maria Mytilinaki

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This project focuses on theatre translation from Modern Greek into English through the examination of three plays translated in the early years of the ongoing Greek crisis (2012-2014). Currently Greek culture is received internationally through two important frames of reference: Hellenism, the admiration for the ancient Greek spirit, and the more recent negative associations with modern Greece provoked by the Eurozone crisis. The three translations I examine challenge these dual external projections onto Greek culture by promoting a more nuanced image that recontextualizes the Greek past. In their capacity to travel between cultures, often in bilingual iterations, these theatrical translations …

The Killing Noise Of The Out Of Style, Bryon E. Reiger

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

N/A

The Force Of Seduction: The Use Of Rape Narratives In The Plays Of Aphra Behn, Caitlyn Piccirillo

Theses and Dissertations

The English Restoration’s heightened interest in sexuality promoted the use of rape narratives on the stage. Aphra Behn, the first woman to earn her living as a playwright, used these narratives in her work (specifically in The Rover and The City Heiress) as a means of social critique.

4000 Matches On Fire At Once: Studies In Memory And Performance, Lauren Chapman

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

In examining the journey that has brought me to the position I am in as a dramaturg, artist, and person, it would be at best rude and at worst irresponsible not to acknowledge the universe of people, productions, and ideas that have molded me. Just as plays are composites and amalgams of ideas, emotions, styles, and themes, so is an emerging dramaturg. My experience is both entirely my own, and not my own at all. In reflecting this experience for my thesis exhibit, I feel it’s important to isolate those individuals and ideas that have molded me.

By presenting their …

The Unkindness Of Strangers: Exploring Success And Isolation In The Dramatic Works Of Tennessee Williams, Chelsea Nicole Gilbert

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis aims to explore the theme of isolation in the dramatic works of Tennessee Williams using his essay “The Catastrophe of Success” as the base theory text. The essay attacks the American idea of success though an in-depth examination of the “Cinderella myth” that Williams claims is so prevalent in both Hollywood and American Democracy. Williams’ deconstruction of this myth reveals that America’s love for stories like it results the isolation of three groups: homosexuals, women and the physically disabled and terminally ill. Williams passes no judgment on his characters, instead showing their lives as they truly are. Through …

Expressions Of Madness In Coloratura Mad Scenes Of Bel Canto Operas, Rachel G. Christenson

Senior Honors Theses

This thesis will explore the musical innovations in the mad scenes of the bel canto composers in the 1800s. It will analyze Gaetano Donizetti’s mad scenes in Anna Bolena (1830) and Lucia di Lammermoor (1835), and Vincezzo Bellini’s mad scenes in I Puritani (1835) to discover how each composer expresses madness through the high and virtuosic voice of the coloratura soprano. The subject of madness is not a new idea in opera. However, the mad scenes of Donizetti and Bellini are the most successful and are often performed in opera houses around the world. Specific attention is given to the …

“A Lion Fell”: Relations Recast And Visions Of Hercules In A Midsummer Night’S Dream, Sam Mccracken

Georgia State Undergraduate Research Conference

No abstract provided.

"We Are Family": The Influences Of American Culture On The Representation Of Family In Modern American Drama, Deandre C. Short

Student Scholar Showcase

The dramatic works that subject usually deals with the family unit reflect a particular issue in American culture—politically or socially. American playwrights often use their work to challenge popular ideologies and values embedded into American society. Often modern American drama incorporates political, social, and cultural issues as a means to develop the relationship between the family unit. The familial relationship(s) in modern American drama are influenced by the political, social, and cultural environments in the United States.

Sibling Affection And Domestic Heterosexuality In Lodovick Carlell’S The Deserving Favorite, Mario Digangi

Publications and Research

Lodowick Carlell’s play The Deserving Favorite (1629) deploys the ideological strategy of using erotic “likeness” to validate marital unions as consensual and erotically compatible. In an era before the normalization of heterosexuality, the play suggests that sexually passionate marital relations earn legitimacy to the degree that they emulate the affectionate relations between women and between siblings. Although eroticized female friendship approaches the ideal of a consensual and sensual partnership, intimate relations between women seem best to thrive in a separatist environment removed from courtly social and economic exchanges, including the marital negotiations crucial to cementing dynastic and political alliances. Brothers …

The Shadow Puppets Of Elsinore: Edward Gordon Craig And The Cranach Press Hamlet, James P. Taylor

Mime Journal

Taylor considers the role that book arts may play in Craig’s theories of the new theatre, or the Art of the Future. He expands our understanding of Craig’s design work to include print culture, examining his engravings for the monumental editions of Hamlet published by Count Harry Kessler’s Cranach Press in 1929–30. Taylor explores the relationship of Craig’s designs for the 1912 Moscow Art Theatre production of Hamlet to his engravings for the German and English-language Cranach Press editions of the play. He suggests that it was only with this print publication that Craig finally achieved the absolute artistic control …

A Love Untaught By Law, Emma Oliver

VA Engage Journal

A self-proclaimed “live and let live” society, Laramie, Wyoming quickly became everything but when studied by the Tectonic Theater Company following the murder of Matthew Shepard. By drawing attention to disturbingly inherent elements of Laramie’s culture including verbal distancing, an elitist sentiment, and the belief that apathy is acceptable, the theater company exposes the hostile climate that has made this Wyoming city nearly unlivable for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning community. In analyzing the language and attitudes of the residents of Wyoming as brought to light in the play The Laramie Project, this paper confirms the danger in …

Ecologies Of The Passions In Early Modern English Tragedies, Roya Biggie

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Ecologies of the Passions recovers a neglected model for understanding early modern relationality, one that turns the seemingly inward experience of emotion outward toward the environment. Drawing on early modern medical texts, I argue that the period’s dramatists imagine bodies as humorally vulnerable to other bodies, both human and nonhuman, within dynamically affective environments. As such, my project illustrates the intimate configurations of human and nonhuman life in early modern tragedies. Building upon recent work in the emerging fields of ecocriticism and affect theory, I argue that the period’s dramatic literature exposes the porous fluidity of the Galenic body—its embeddedness …

Dramatic Form: In Theory And In Practice, Alexander Borrello

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

One of the most essential aspects of any dramatic work is dramatic form - the categorization of whether a given play is a tragedy, comedy, melodrama, or something else. Most dramatists argue that dramatic form is inherent to the play and cannot be changed. Typically, dramatic form is determined by the playwright's choice in writing the play, and many dramatic theorists believe this determination to be unquestionable. One such theorist, Giovanni Battista Guarini, wrote,

" ... And there is no doubt that anyone who imagines that he can make one of these genres slip in its entirety intothe confines of …

Representation In American Theater: The Chicanx Community’S Fight To Express Social And Political Inequalities, Claudia Wagener

Occam's Razor

Theatrical performance has survived for thousands of years and is still studied today by millions of aspiring artists. People have always gathered to tell stories and perform their own works in front of an audience. Since 1948, the Tony Awards have provided recognition to exceptionally original playwrights. The script of a play is often the foundation for a Broadway show, making it highly prestigious to be a recipient of the Tony Award for Best Play. The televised award ceremony brings together the most brilliant minds of Broadway for recognition. Four to five playwrights are nominated per year, but only one …

Simulacrum And Post-Dictatorship Representation Of Violence In Argentina: Translation And Critical Reading Of Eduardo Pavlovsky’S Paso De Dos, Liliya Alexandrovna Galenkova-Riggs

Senior Projects Spring 2017

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature of Bard College.

Light In The Darkness: An Analysis Of The Design And Creation Of Maids, Anna Drew Garrett-Larsen

Senior Projects Spring 2017

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Arts of Bard College.

การศึกษาวิธีการแสดงในละครเวทีประสาทสัมผัสสำหรับผู้ชมวัยเด็กที่มีภาวะออทิซึม, ชนัตถ์ พงษ์พานิช

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

งานวิจัยชิ้นนี้มีวัตถุประสงค์เพื่อวิเคราะห์และสังเคราะห์วิธีการแสดงของนักแสดงในละครเวทีประสาทสัมผัสที่เหมาะสมและสามารถเพิ่มปฏิสัมพันธ์เชิงบวกระหว่างผู้ชมวัยเด็กที่มีภาวะออทิซึมกับนักแสดงได้ เนื่องจากละครลักษณะนี้ยังไม่เคยมีผู้ใดพัฒนามาก่อนในประเทศไทย ผู้วิจัยจึงต้องออกแบบและคิดค้นกระบวนการนำเสนอละครเวทีประสาทสัมผัสก่อน จากนั้นจึงคิดค้น พัฒนาวิธีการแสดงในละครเวทีประสาทสัมผัสขึ้นโดยประยุกต์จากเทคนิคการแสดงแบบด้นสดและแนวทางการบำบัดรักษาแบบซันไรส์ ต่อจากนั้นได้นำวิธีการแสดงที่ได้ออกแบบขึ้นมาใช้ทดลองทำงานกับนักแสดง-กระบวนกร 4 คน จัดแสดงจริงกับผู้ชมกลุ่มตัวอย่างที่มีภาวะออทิซึมจำนวน 10 คน ช่วงอายุ 4 – 18 ปี ละครเวทีประสาทสัมผัสในงานวิจัยชิ้นนี้ชื่อว่า "สวนมีสุข" เป็นละครที่ออกแบบให้ผู้ชมที่มีภาวะออทิซึมมีส่วนร่วมในการทำกิจกรรมที่สัมพันธ์กับเรื่องราวและตัวละครในจินตนาการ บทที่ใช้ในการแสดงดัดแปลงมาจากนิทานภาพเรื่องกบแฮรี่ผู้หิวโหย ประกอบกับการเลือกใช้กิจกรรมละครสร้างสรรค์สำหรับเด็ก ผู้วิจัยได้ปรับเปลี่ยนพื้นที่การแสดงให้เป็นสวนเล็กๆที่มีอยู่ในนิทานภาพ ผู้วิจัยได้สร้างเงื่อนไขและจัดลำดับกิจกรรมให้ผู้ชมกลุ่มตัวอย่างได้ปฏิบัติ เล่นเป็นตัวละคร ร้องเพลง และสำรวจประสาทสัมผัสของตนเองผ่านกิจกรรมต่างๆในโรงละครตามความสนใจ กลุ่มตัวอย่างจะได้ชมละครเวที ความยาว 50 – 60 นาที สัปดาห์ละ 1 ครั้ง ต่อเนื่อง 4 – 6 สัปดาห์ ในแต่ละสัปดาห์จะพัฒนาเรื่องราวอย่างค่อยเป็นค่อยไป ในการทดลองจัดแสดงแต่ละสัปดาห์ ผู้วิจัยได้นำปัญหาที่พบและการประเมินจากผู้เชี่ยวชาญมาปรับวิธีการแสดงที่ได้สังเคราะห์ขึ้นให้มีความเหมาะสมยิ่งขึ้น ข้อมูลที่ใช้ในการวิเคราะห์ผลได้แก่ 1) บันทึกการทำงานของผู้วิจัย 2) บันทึกปฏิสัมพันธ์เชิงบวกของผู้ชมขณะชมการแสดง 3) บทสัมภาษณ์เชิงลึกผู้ปกครองของกลุ่มตัวอย่าง 4) บทสัมภาษณ์เชิงลึกผู้เชี่ยวชาญด้านละครบำบัดที่ได้ชมวีดีโอบันทึกภาพการแสดง เมื่อได้พัฒนาและปรับปรุงวิธีการแสดงในแต่ละสัปดาห์แล้ว ผู้วิจัยได้เรียนรู้ว่าการเป็นนักแสดงในละครสำหรับผู้ชมที่มีภาวะออทิซึมนั้น นักแสดงจะต้องเข้าใจวิธีการสื่อสารกับผู้ที่มีภาวะออทิซึม เข้าใจลำดับกิจกรรมต่างๆ และเข้าใจบริบทของผู้ชมเป็นอย่างดี นักแสดงจะต้องมีพลังหรือคลื่นความคิด ความรู้สึกภายในที่เข้มข้นแต่แสดงออกอย่างสงบเพื่อลดการกระตุ้นเร้าผู้ชมและช่วยให้ผู้ชมสามารถจดจ่อกับการแสดงได้ นักแสดงต้องอยู่กับปัจจุบันในขณะแสดงและมีสมาธิในการสื่อสารกับผู้ชมในรายบุคคล นักแสดงจะต้องมองเห็น ได้ยิน และรับรู้ผู้ชมอย่างชัดเจนเพื่อจะสามารถสังเกตการสื่อสารทางกายของผู้ชมและสื่อสารตอบกลับได้อย่างเหมาะสม วิธีการแสดงที่ได้พัฒนาขึ้นทำให้เกิดตัวละครที่ให้อิสระและเป็นมิตรกับผู้ชม สร้างความไว้วางใจและสร้างพื้นที่ปลอดภัยให้กับผู้ชม ตัวละครจะเป็นแกนนำที่พาผู้ชมไปสู่โลกของจินตนาการอย่างค่อยเป็นค่อยไป ผลการสังเกตปฏิสัมพันธ์ในโรงละครพบว่า ผู้ชมกลุ่มตัวอย่างมีปฏิสัมพันธ์และพัฒนาการทางสังคมที่ดีขึ้นในหลายกรณี จากการสัมภาษณ์ผู้ปกครองพบว่ามีหลายกรณีที่ผู้ชมแสดงสัญญาณของความสุขและความต้องการชมละคร

Miranda: An Exploration Of The Tempest, Lauren Michelle Russo

Senior Projects Spring 2017

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Arts of Bard College.

A Dull Soldier And A Keen Guest: Stumbling Through The Falstaffiad One Drink At A Time, Emma Givens

Theses and Dissertations

Theatre history has long interwoven with the production, consumption, and peddling of alcohol. While the seedier aspects of our past generally go unremembered, we can find traces of them in the culture of the times. If we read Shakespeare through the lens of drinking culture, what can we discover about the play and what can that tell us about how to produce his works today? By looking at the rules and customs surrounding alehouses during the English Renaissance I have analyzed the three plays contained within the Falstaffiad (1 Henry IV, 2 Henry IV, and Merry Wives …

Head In The Game: A One-Act Play, Carolyn Gage

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

Head in the Game is a fifteen-minute, five-character, easy-to-stage-anywhere play that brings audiences into the world of male "pay-to-play" abuse of women, through a fantasy scenario of "boxing girls," women whom men pay to batter. The world of the boxing girls is an apt analogy for prostitution. The play uncompromisingly brings home the point that paying to use someone for sexual gratification is no more "sex" than paying to punch someone is boxing.