Playwriting Commons^™

The Significance Of The Influence Of The American One-Act Play On The Little Theatre, John H. Hennessey

Bachelors’ Theses

The purpose of this thesis shall not be t.o prove, that the American one-act play is the only possible type of drama that has a tendency toward a national drama, but rather to bring to light that the American one-act play, through the influence, which it exerted on the Little Theatre, is the driving force, which strives toward this national dramatic movement. That there is a laxity of and a need for a folk­ drama and folk-theatre is taken as an indisputable fact.

The one-act playwrights and their one-act plays are discussed, not from the aspect of a criticism of …

The Technique Of Shakespeare's Early Comedies, Mary Alice Procissi

Bachelors’ Theses

In this thesis I have attempted to trace the dramatic technique of the early comedies of Wiilliam Shakespeare. As a setting for the development of my thesis, "The Technique of Shakespeare's Early Comedies" I have given a brief history of the rise of the Shakespearean drama, showing the relation of the early dramatists to Shakespeare as a writer of comedy, including also a sketch of the Elizabethan theatre. Under the definition of the term technique, I include chiefly a division of his plays into acts and scenes, character drawing, source of plot and treatment of plot.

The Feminine Element In The Plays Of Martinez Sierra, Evelyn Gernand

Bachelors’ Theses

In 1881 in the city of Madrid, the capital of Spain, Gregorio Martinez Sierra was born. When but a lad of eighteen, he married Maria de la OLejarraga, who became a teacher in a normal school. He studied at the University of Madrid, out he did not obtain his degree because he failed in a course in Critical History.

Jean Giraudoux And His Play Siegfried, Gertrude Zivnuska

Bachelors’ Theses

What a privilege it is to come in contact with the author Giraudoux by reading detailed accounts of his eventful life and above all be perusing his works in the exquisite language in which they were written. Since we are not one of the fortunate individuals who is a personal acquaintance of the ingenious author, let us consult the articles and books which contain valuable bits of information about his life and his accomplishments.

Shakespere's Histories As A Dramatic Pageant Of The Middle Ages, Janice M. Wolf

Bachelors’ Theses

"When Shakespeare, Jonson, Fletcher, ruled the stage, They took so bold a freedom with the age, That there was scarce a knave or fool in town Of any note but had his picture down." But William Shakespeare has gone farther than this and has woven into his Histories a beautiful story. A story, or rather a colorful pageant that carries us back several centuries to the time when William Shakespeare lived and Queen Elizabeth ruled England. Between lines he gives us a beautiful picture of merry England and her people. He reveals the customs, beliefs, and ideas of his age …

The Secularization Of The Liturgical Play, Sylvester G. Peters

Bachelors’ Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to trace the origin and development of the drama from the liturgy of the Mass to the time of its complete secularization. I shall endeavor to show the process by which the Church itself, through the introduction of dramatic elements into its liturgy came to make its appeal to mimetic instinct, out of which grew the great popular religious dramas of the miracle plays, with its offshoots in the moralities and dramatic pageants.

The Dramatic Development Of Eugene O'Neill, Fredrich A. Glass

Bachelors’ Theses

The literature of the theatre, the drama, which Is worth reading, seeing and hearing, Is richer and finer In America today than in any other time. No profound search is necessary to discover who is most instrumental in the production of such a dramatic literature in America. Eugene O’Neill comes first to mind, towering, by virtue of his sheer dramatic genius of invention, so far above the others, that his supremacy is unquestionable.

Plot And Character In The Shavian Drama, Arthur Alan Gilbert

Bachelors’ Theses

George Bernard Shaw, as is always the case with people who are unconventional and who broach new doctrines, has become something of a storm-center about which his exponents and opponents rage. Few authors have during their lifetime created the sensation he has done unabatedly since 1890. In his report before the censorship committee which was examining into his plays, he defined what he was doing. "I am not any ordinary playwright in ordinary practice. I am a specialist in immoral and heretical plays."

The Function Of The Comedians In Shakespeare's Plays, Louise Elizabeth Tennessen

Bachelors’ Theses

There is an old adage, "It takes a wise man to make a fool", which is familiar to most of us, but the full significance of the proverb will be comprehended only after reviewing several plays in which the fools carry prominent parts. Tracing the history of the court fool back to the early and middle ages, it has been found that it was customary tor a monarch, prince or a powerful noble to have in his retinue a fool or jester, whose office it was to entertain his master and courtiers. He enjoyed privileges and liberties denied the higher …

Divine Justice In Aeschylean Tragedy, Anton C. Pegis

Bachelors’ Theses

Briefly, then, I intend to give an exposition of the seven extant plays from the point of view of the conflict between divine justice and moral freedom, with an attempt of reconstructing, in the light of criticism, the Aeschylean solution to the problems involved in the investigation. Maurice Croiset has said of Aeschylus that his dramas were revelations on the stage of the divine will; the Aeschylean meditative genius searched for causes, and thus each trilogy " divine l'expose dramatique d'une grande destinee, et, ainsi concue, elle eveilla desormais autant de peosee que d'emotion."

The Characteristics Of The Elizabethan Drama With Particular References To Marlowe, Lyly, Greene, And Kyd, Mary Rose Schwigel

Bachelors’ Theses

Aristotle's simple definition of drama as "imitated human action" has not been bettered. Man cannot escape man even in the drama, and it is the ways of our kind that constitute the essentials of dramatic subject matter. From another well known definition we may gain another point of view. "A drama is an epic told in lyric parts." An epic, in lars, is a narrative poem, a story of deeds told outwardly and objectively by some one who has heard them. A lyrical poem is thew expression of an inner or subjective emotion by one who has felt what he …

Technique Of John Galsworthy's Plays, Eugenia M. Gohla

Bachelors’ Theses

In any consideration of the modern drama we are at once struck by the fact that until quite recently it has been a theme which has rarely been treated seriously. There have been annals of the stage, biographies of players, but, with the exception of the romantic criticism of the Elizabethan and Jacobean dramatists, English drama has not until recently been regarded as worthy of treatment as a subject of literary study. The reason for this was that for a large part of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the drama was, perhaps justly, In vary low repute. It was simply …