Finding African American plays which are intellectually stimulating, yet relatable to the everyday African American is quite a challenge. This is in part because much of what is written and considered by mainstream America to be quality African American theater, is either not written by African Americans, not written in a manner which many of them will easily relate to it, or is not written about the “Black experience” which is the reality for an overwhelming majority of African Americans. Often the plays utilize language which appeals to mainstream America and educated African Americans; however, is somewhat foreign to the overwhelming majority of African Americans, many who are socially and economically deprived. For any writer, considering one’s audience is vitally important. For the African American playwright who gains popularity, there is always the scarlet letter worn of representing the entire race and knowing that whether good, bad, or indifferent, his/her works will be a badge that will be linked to all African Americans. For most educated African Americans, there exists this inner conflict of existing in two worlds, neither of which they truly feel at home. There is always the underlying challenge of whether the work should be simply entertaining or whether it must possess some didactic message which will change the world for the African American race. Having lived and survived the “Black experience,” which for many involved socially and economically disparaging environments, the African American writer feels like he/she is betraying the race if they do not write works with the primary goal of uplifting the race. This dissertation provides three plays addressing the African American experience. With the subtitle “Black Voices,” they address the three primary groups in the African American community – women, men, and children. To ensure that quality African American plays exist which chronicle the “Black experience” without regard to the perception from mainstream America is vitally important. This dissertation addresses some of the reasons why many African American playwrights have challenges with audience and provides plays by the author which bravely address some of the “hidden bruises” within the African American community.

A peça Doubt, a Parable (2004) de John Patrick Shanley revisita o mundo que ele conheceu quando criança – o bairro do Bronx dos anos 1960. A história se desenrola em uma comunidade escolar católica ítalo-irlandesa e o enredo diz respeito a uma dúvida – que se transforma em crença – por parte de uma das personagens, Irmã Aloysius, a diretora da escola. Ela acredita que o Padre Flynn esteja molestando sexualmente o único aluno negro da escola. A peça é uma construção em aberto, que permite a cada leitor/espectador construir sua própria interpretação dos fatos. Além de ser o autor da peça, Shanley também transformou seu texto teatral em roteiro para o cinema, e atuou como produtor da peça e roteirista e diretor do filme Dúvida, de 2008. Nesta dissertação examino as estratégias utilizadas por Shanley para manter a possibilidade de interpretação aberta quando ele traduz sua obra para mídias diferentes – na página, no palco, no cinema. Ao empreender tal análise, considero pertinente explorar padrões contemporâneos sobre questões como verdade, dúvida e certeza, porque as mesmas encontram-se imbricadas com o construto artístico examinado, favorecendo assim um olhar atento sobre o papel do autor e do leitor nesse processo. Para investigar as construções ideológicas que definem os elementos de dúvida e certeza, utilizo o conceito de Paradoxo do Imaginário, como proposto por Castor Bartolomé Ruiz (2003), dando especial atenção às questões relacionadas com o simbolismo da dúvida, tal como pode ser percebido na obra de Shanley. / John Patrick Shanley’s play Doubt - a Parable (2004) revisits the world he knew as a child, which is the Bronx of the 1960’s. The story centers upon a Catholic Irish-Italian school community, and the plot relates to a doubt - that grows into belief, and ends up as certainty - on the part of Sister Aloysius, the principal of the school, who is persuaded that Father Flynn, the vicar, has been harassing the only Black student in the school. The play is an open-ended construct, allowing each reader/spectator to build their own interpretation of the facts implied. Shanley is more than the author of the play. He has also worked as the producer of the play on the stage and he turned the story into a movie screenplay, Doubt, and has worked as a director to the movie. In this thesis I examine the strategies used by Shanley to keep the possibility of interpretation open as he translates his own work into different media, on the page, on the stage and on the screen. As I do that, I also consider the contemporary standards regarding issues as truth, doubt, certainty, especially as they constitute themselves aesthetically in the fictional world, thus reexamining the role of the author and the role of the reader in the process. So as to investigate the ideological constructions that define the elements of doubt and certainty I refer to the concept of “paradoxes of the imaginary” as proposed by Castor Bartolomé Ruiz (2003), with special attention to questions concerning the symbolism of doubt as perceived in Shanley.

A peça Doubt, a Parable (2004) de John Patrick Shanley revisita o mundo que ele conheceu quando criança – o bairro do Bronx dos anos 1960. A história se desenrola em uma comunidade escolar católica ítalo-irlandesa e o enredo diz respeito a uma dúvida – que se transforma em crença – por parte de uma das personagens, Irmã Aloysius, a diretora da escola. Ela acredita que o Padre Flynn esteja molestando sexualmente o único aluno negro da escola. A peça é uma construção em aberto, que permite a cada leitor/espectador construir sua própria interpretação dos fatos. Além de ser o autor da peça, Shanley também transformou seu texto teatral em roteiro para o cinema, e atuou como produtor da peça e roteirista e diretor do filme Dúvida, de 2008. Nesta dissertação examino as estratégias utilizadas por Shanley para manter a possibilidade de interpretação aberta quando ele traduz sua obra para mídias diferentes – na página, no palco, no cinema. Ao empreender tal análise, considero pertinente explorar padrões contemporâneos sobre questões como verdade, dúvida e certeza, porque as mesmas encontram-se imbricadas com o construto artístico examinado, favorecendo assim um olhar atento sobre o papel do autor e do leitor nesse processo. Para investigar as construções ideológicas que definem os elementos de dúvida e certeza, utilizo o conceito de Paradoxo do Imaginário, como proposto por Castor Bartolomé Ruiz (2003), dando especial atenção às questões relacionadas com o simbolismo da dúvida, tal como pode ser percebido na obra de Shanley. / John Patrick Shanley’s play Doubt - a Parable (2004) revisits the world he knew as a child, which is the Bronx of the 1960’s. The story centers upon a Catholic Irish-Italian school community, and the plot relates to a doubt - that grows into belief, and ends up as certainty - on the part of Sister Aloysius, the principal of the school, who is persuaded that Father Flynn, the vicar, has been harassing the only Black student in the school. The play is an open-ended construct, allowing each reader/spectator to build their own interpretation of the facts implied. Shanley is more than the author of the play. He has also worked as the producer of the play on the stage and he turned the story into a movie screenplay, Doubt, and has worked as a director to the movie. In this thesis I examine the strategies used by Shanley to keep the possibility of interpretation open as he translates his own work into different media, on the page, on the stage and on the screen. As I do that, I also consider the contemporary standards regarding issues as truth, doubt, certainty, especially as they constitute themselves aesthetically in the fictional world, thus reexamining the role of the author and the role of the reader in the process. So as to investigate the ideological constructions that define the elements of doubt and certainty I refer to the concept of “paradoxes of the imaginary” as proposed by Castor Bartolomé Ruiz (2003), with special attention to questions concerning the symbolism of doubt as perceived in Shanley.

A peça Doubt, a Parable (2004) de John Patrick Shanley revisita o mundo que ele conheceu quando criança – o bairro do Bronx dos anos 1960. A história se desenrola em uma comunidade escolar católica ítalo-irlandesa e o enredo diz respeito a uma dúvida – que se transforma em crença – por parte de uma das personagens, Irmã Aloysius, a diretora da escola. Ela acredita que o Padre Flynn esteja molestando sexualmente o único aluno negro da escola. A peça é uma construção em aberto, que permite a cada leitor/espectador construir sua própria interpretação dos fatos. Além de ser o autor da peça, Shanley também transformou seu texto teatral em roteiro para o cinema, e atuou como produtor da peça e roteirista e diretor do filme Dúvida, de 2008. Nesta dissertação examino as estratégias utilizadas por Shanley para manter a possibilidade de interpretação aberta quando ele traduz sua obra para mídias diferentes – na página, no palco, no cinema. Ao empreender tal análise, considero pertinente explorar padrões contemporâneos sobre questões como verdade, dúvida e certeza, porque as mesmas encontram-se imbricadas com o construto artístico examinado, favorecendo assim um olhar atento sobre o papel do autor e do leitor nesse processo. Para investigar as construções ideológicas que definem os elementos de dúvida e certeza, utilizo o conceito de Paradoxo do Imaginário, como proposto por Castor Bartolomé Ruiz (2003), dando especial atenção às questões relacionadas com o simbolismo da dúvida, tal como pode ser percebido na obra de Shanley. / John Patrick Shanley’s play Doubt - a Parable (2004) revisits the world he knew as a child, which is the Bronx of the 1960’s. The story centers upon a Catholic Irish-Italian school community, and the plot relates to a doubt - that grows into belief, and ends up as certainty - on the part of Sister Aloysius, the principal of the school, who is persuaded that Father Flynn, the vicar, has been harassing the only Black student in the school. The play is an open-ended construct, allowing each reader/spectator to build their own interpretation of the facts implied. Shanley is more than the author of the play. He has also worked as the producer of the play on the stage and he turned the story into a movie screenplay, Doubt, and has worked as a director to the movie. In this thesis I examine the strategies used by Shanley to keep the possibility of interpretation open as he translates his own work into different media, on the page, on the stage and on the screen. As I do that, I also consider the contemporary standards regarding issues as truth, doubt, certainty, especially as they constitute themselves aesthetically in the fictional world, thus reexamining the role of the author and the role of the reader in the process. So as to investigate the ideological constructions that define the elements of doubt and certainty I refer to the concept of “paradoxes of the imaginary” as proposed by Castor Bartolomé Ruiz (2003), with special attention to questions concerning the symbolism of doubt as perceived in Shanley.

This dissertation offers an analysis of the image of loss in modern American drama at three levels: the loss of physical space, loss of psychological space, and loss of moral space. The playwrights and plays examined are Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie (1945), Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman (1949), Marsha Norman's 'night, Mother (1983), and Paula Vogel's How I Learned to Drive (1998). This study is the first scholarly work to discuss the theme of loss with these specific playwrights and works. This dissertation argues that loss is a central trope in twentieth-century American drama. The purpose of this dissertation is to analyze how the image of loss is modified and transformed in each playwright's work leading these images to reveal an emotional truth that transcends the plight of particular individuals or families and casting a universal appeal to a diverse audience. Chapters examine specific themes related to the theme of loss. As part of the critical methodology, the live spectacle of performance has been acknowledged. This study analyzes how Williams, Miller, Norman, and Vogel modify and transform the image of loss by focusing on the myth of the American dream, illusion versus reality, empowerment, and the complexity of human relationships. Although these plays are meant first and foremost to be appreciated as theater, that is to say "live performance," this study deals with these plays as drama, that is, as written texts. The audience observing the "live" spectacle and the reader of the text are both challenged to define their "own space." Williams, Miller, Norman, and Vogel, modify and transform the image of loss to reveal a common humanity that is not only a force in their work, but also a strong presence in the works of American dramatists as diverse as Eugene O'Neill and Adrienne Kennedy. From domestic drama to the drama of social and political criticism, Williams, Miller, Norman, and Vogel along with a medley of American playwrights, have taken the genre of American drama from backseat status (secondary to the novel and poem) into the forefront of recognized American literature.