Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 487-506). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2000. / Title from title page of PDF (viewed 2008/12/10). Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 487-506).

ix, 81 p. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / Many plays with adult themes involve a child character in order to help present controversial issues. Little is written, however, concerning the ethics surrounding the involvement of children in adult-themed plays, and there is no formal code or guide for theatre companies to follow when choosing to work with a young actor on one of these complicated scripts. There is little dispute that children have a strong effect on an audience when they appear onstage, but the argument as to how a child actor might be adversely affected by their participation has not been fully explored. The focus of this study is on four different case studies of children involved in regional theatre productions of plays with different adult themes, such as war, death, sex, and violence. From these observations, I will propose an effective guide for theatre companies to use when involving a child actor in an adult-themed play. / Committee in Charge: Dr. Theresa May, Chair; Dr. Sara Freeman

Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 78-81). Also available online in Scholars' Bank.

This thesis involves a study of theatre in early 17th century London, focussing on the work of the boy companies. These were theatre companies made up entirely of child actors, who performed on the stages of the private theatres up until about 1609. The attitude that I take is that the performances staged by these companies constituted a separate theatre-form or performance-practice of its own, and accordingly I approach the plays put on by these companies as being part of a specific repertoire, the study of which nevertheless bears wide implications for our understanding of the culture of early modern London. Regarding their performances in terms of the possibilities which they offered for the de-familiarisation of cultural practices, of selfconsciously staging conventions in high relief, I have followed a seam of scepticism surrounding the representation of identity in this culture. My 'thesis' is that within the cultural practice that this theatre constituted there was an acute awareness of the inconsistencies and evasions which existed within the strategies of self-fashioning in the urban setting, an awareness which was ironically distinguished by a highly ambivalent theatricality. The first chapter involves a reading of one of the last and certainly most demanding plays written for this theatre, Epicoene or The Silent Woman by Ben Jonson. Growing out of Jacques Lacan's studies of subjectivity and the subjective gaze, I approach this playas a performance-text which directly and self-consciously addresses issues of performance and dramaturgy. In chapter two I site the space of the theatre itself with reference to other available 'playing spaces', in particular the banqueting-house and the city itself, as I draw in other plays of the repertoire. The thesis concludes with a discussion of the body of the child as being constructed in this culture as an ambiguous site of passivity and self-avoidance, out of which I turn to deal with the constituting and performing of male and female gender.