Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Theatre and Drama., 2009. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Jul 14, 2010). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-12, Section: A, page: 4529. Adviser: Rakesh H. Solomon.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-07, Section: A, page: 2584. Adviser: Leon Chai. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 197-207) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

This dissertation is concerned with the depiction of the historic events of July 20, 1944, their representation and reception in West German Theater, and analyzes the plays of Karl Michel's Stauffenberg (1947), Walter Erich Schäfer's Die Verschwörung (1949), Walter Löwen's Stauffenberg. Tragödie (1949-1952), Peter Lotar's Das Bild des Menschen. Eine Geschichte unserer Zeit (1952), Wolfgang Graetz' Die Verschwörer (1965), Hans Hellmut Kirst's Aufstand der Offiziere (1966), and Günther Weisenborn's Walküre -44 (1966). The consolidation of the Third Reich and the progressive seduction of millions consequently led to the resistance of a few. The more totalitarian a state is, the larger the differences between the government and opposition, and the more determined the resistance against it. The resisters turned their value systems inside out. They deviated from everything they had previously stood for as members of the Officers' Corps and the national-conservative elite. This is unparalleled, not only in Germany, but in military history as well, and therefore deserves reverence. A few Germans took on personal responsibility for events of the time; they accepted their fate as leaders knowing that they might forsake their own lives, and those of their families. In that respect, the unsuccessful assassination attempt and the failed coup are secondary to the catalytic effect that these events had on eventual post-war German Society: the democratic state can therefore not reflect enough upon these men and women, their motivation, and contribution to the andere Deutschland. The failed coup of July 20, 1944 is the most prominent example of German resistance against the NS-Regime and at the same time a symbol for the failure of the entire German resistance. The failure however may be seen as positive, since it avoided a revival of the devastating stab-in-the-back myth, and prevented Hitler from becoming a martyr. This dissertation confronts different levels of history and methods of dealing, arranging, and manipulating a historic event in literary representations, and situates the plays in the context of the popular historic drama. The connecting factor between the classic historical drama and the documentary July-drama is the historic topic. In both, the author plays with some aspect of world history. The seven plays, whose reception indicate societal developments in early post war Germany, are discussed in a predominately socio-political and historical context as a contribution to the cultural memory of the German resistance to Hitler. The complex moral responsibility, the theological question of legalizing the murder of a tyrant, the uneasy juxtaposition of unconditional obedience and critical thinking that lead some to disobedience, others to collaboration, are topics in world history that are of interest to any generation and culture. The answers to these problems and the background of the particular playwright, affect the depiction of the conspirators, who in extremes may be seen as heroes or traitors.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2007. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-07, Section: A, page: 2945. Adviser: Peter A. Davis. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 247-263) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

The meaning of democracy was contested theoretical and political terrain in classical Athens. In this dissertation I examine three contending theoretical views of democracy found in the works of three Greek thinkers--Thucydides, Aeschylus and Plato--present at the height of Athenian democracy. I show that each view draws upon competing conceptions of nature, language, truth, and power in order to claim the contested terrain. I argue that the heroic view of democracy, portrayed in Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War, saw politics as the means by which states achieve immortal glory through feats of war which simultaneously destroy them. In this view political power was delivered by the unified voice--the single identity--of the Athenian assembly produced by the power of persuasion. I interpret the tragic view, represented by Aeschylus' Oresteia, to criticize the heroic tradition of politics as dangerously unbalanced. The Oresteia offers an alternative view of democracy in which multiple voices divided against themselves produce not weakness but balance as a shield against the loss of limits implied in the heroic view. I argue that the ambiguity of language, and the ambiguous identity it produces, is affirmed by tragedy to be a source of political strength and not a sign of political disintegration. The Platonic view articulated in the Republic opposes both the heroic view of politics and its tragic revision. I contend that the Republic, while appearing to oppose democracy, actually seeks to place it on a more secure foundation grounded in the logical concept of identity and rational thought applied to the soul. I argue that the Platonic attempt to found political order on the twin concepts of logical and psychological identity maintained by rational thought and language actually recapitulates on a grand scale the same dangers it identifies in its heroic opponents. And I suggest in conclusion that our Platonic legacy may effectively blind us to the dangerously heroic trajectory of the modern political state.

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This thesis has two aims: to make an original contribution to knowledge by demonstrating the importance of theatrical rivalry to the development of drama in the Carolean period (the reign of Charles II), and to re-evaluate the managerial career of Thomas Killigrew (1612-1683). This is the first detailed survey of the circumstances in which the King's Company and the Duke's Company competed and an analysis of the troupes' devices of plotting and counter-plotting during their twenty-two years of stage rivalry from 1660 to 1682. As well as charting the stage rivalry between the two companies, my dissertation argues that Killigrew was a competent but unscrupulous and devious playhouse-manager. A close analysis of his managerial career will show how Thomas Killigrew was the central figure in the Carolean stage rivalry in London and how he helped to shape the future of English theatre. The survey starts from Killigrew's beginnings as the manager of the King's Company from 1660 and concludes in 1682 when the King's Company was effectively taken over by its rival, the Duke's Company, to make one United Company, thus ending the span of theatrical competition in the Carolean period. Each chapter is divided in accordance with the beginning and end of significant events of rivalry and are organised chronologically at different phases of the competition. The first chapter provides the historical background of the establishment of the patent grants and the gradual consolidation of the monopoly over dramatic entertainment in London. In charting the initial stages of the development of the King's Company and the Duke's Company from 1660 to 1663, this chapter argues that it was largely due to Thomas Killigrew's underhandedness that the King's Company began the competition in an advantageous position. The second chapter focuses on the theatrical competition from 1663 to 1668. Until 1663 both companies were busy consolidating their duopoly and the competition between the two managers ended abruptly with William Davenant's death in 1668. In the survey of the Killigrew-Davenant rivalry, this chapter's overall aim is to argue for narrowing of the wide chasm often described between the managerial skills of the two managers. Chapter three explores the period from when Mary Davenant, Thomas Betterton and Henry Harris took over the management of the Duke's Company to the burning of the King's Company's playhouse in 1672. It argues that the competition in this period was evenly matched. This chapter also revises the perceived style of management adopted by both Betterton and Killigrew. The chapter argues that Betterton was perhaps less involved in the most audacious project of the Duke's Company during these years: the building of three theatres including the Dorset Garden Theatre. In the case of the latter, this chapter argues that Killigrew continually took risks at other people's expense and was little concerned with the well being of his staff and shareholders as long as the company gained notoriety and retained its success. The penultimate chapter of the dissertation covers the time span from the Bridges Street Theatre's fire to the ousting of Killigrew as the manager by his own son, Charles Killigrew. It argues that this was the crucial period in which the Duke's Company began clearly to surpass its rival. This chapter qualifies the orthodox view that the King's Company simply lost its battle against the Duke's Company by demonstrating that the two companies also had to contend with a large number of foreign troupes and the rising popularity of music concerts. The final chapter explores the period from when Charles Killigrew took over the management of the King's Company to the amalgamation of the two acting troupes in 1682. It demonstrates the negative effects of the political turbulence of the Popish Plot and the Exclusion Crisis on both the troupes' plays and players. The chapter also argues that Charles Killigrew was not as charismatic or manipulative as his father, and that he greatly contributed to the demise of the King's Company. In conclusion, this is strictly a study of theatre history that looks at the importance of management and company rivalry to the development of Carolean drama. At its peak in the 1670s, the Carolean period produced on average twenty new plays per season. The highly competitive nature of the rivalry between the King's Company and the Duke's Company and how the respective managements responded to the success or the failure of the other theatre is the background against which one must read the plays of the Carolean period. Thomas Killigrew, whose managerial career spanned the longest in the Carolean years, was an influential figure in the period and whose innovations and difficulties as a manager had a direct effect not only on theatre history but also on the dramatic traditions of the seventeenth century.

In seventeenth-century France a new type of theatre was established to correspond to the ideals and taste of the dominant social group. As part of the process a particular ideal was forged for the new-style actor. Moulded by classical writings on acting and actors which suggested that the; style of serious, cultured acting operated within the same aesthetic as that of oratorical delivery, this ideal similarly identified refined acting with principles of pronuntiatio and the bienséance acceptable in contemporary formal discourse As a result of this identification no separate art of acting was considered necessary in seventeenth-century France, the rules and principles of expression of emotion in oratorical delivery being accepted as valid for serious acting. It is to these rules and. principles therefore that recourse must be made if the style of seventeenth-century acting and the approach of the actor at this period are to be appreciated. Study of seventeenth-century French treatises on oratorical delivery indicates the extent to which expression of emotion was considered to require study and practise of basic principal which would enable the speaker to evoke a particular passion by appropriately moving tones and accompanying gesture, and yet at the same time remain within a socially-acceptable range. Interpretation of seventeenth-century writings Oil actors and acting in light of these principles highlights the declamatory nature of serious acting of this period. The actor was understood to approach his role with a view to representing and thus exciting passions through effective vocal variation and suitably decorous accompanying gesture (body-language). Attention was focused upon the actor's voice, upon his moving tones and cadences, and upon the grace with which he used his body to reinforce such emotional portrayal. During the eighteenth century this conception-of acting and the style it had produced were called into question. Acting began to evolve its own aesthetic, an aesthetic based upon impersonation of character through personal identification and experience of the effects of emotion in real life. Study of rules to regulate emotional expression and imitation of the best models were abandoned in favour of cultivation of artistic sensibility: recourse to the imagination and personal sensitivity. In the process emphasis shifted from the voice to non-linguistic ways of showing feeling on the stage, and gestural expression released itself from subjection to social bienséance and enriched its range and potential. Evidence of these trends as well as fidelity to or reaction against principles of bienséance may be traced in writings on acting and delivery of the first half of the eighteenth century. At the beginning of the century acting theory was still rooted in and patterned on the model of pronuntiatio. By 1750 it had established its worth as an independent art with principles more directly based upon the dramatic experience.

In 1961 Martin Esslin created the term 'Theatre of the Absurd' as a working hypothesis, a device with which to make fundamental traits present in the plays of a number of France-based dramatists accessible to discussion by tracing the features they had in common. Despite the popularity of Esslin's study, there has been no comparable discussion of England-based absurdism. An explanation for this lack of critical attention may be found in the dogged insistence amongst scholars that there are only two absurd playwrights in the English theatre before 1967. My first aim in this thesis is to redress the imbalance in critical literature, to demonstrate that there existed in England, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, an indigenous expression of absurdism far broader and significantly more complex than that which has been recognised by theatrical reviewers during the past thirty years. Having identified an indigenous absurdism, I go on to challenge the generalisations and over-simplifications surrounding the English 'absurd', which are a product of its critical marginalisation and neglect. I discuss the complexities of the evolution of the English 'absurd', and the ramifications of its development, paying due regard to the theatrical, historical and social factors which shaped its early growth. The playwrights who represent the genre are examined in tum, and attention is devoted to the details of the development of an absurd dynamic within their works. The study falls into three parts. Part I attempts to explain why the English 'absurd' had such a limited impact within its own country up until the late 1960s. It is revealed that many of the writers of the English 'absurd' were incapable of divorcing their plays from the social-orientated drama which dominated English theatre in the late 1950s. The cross-fertilization of an overtly social theatre and absurdism resulted in an expression of the genre which was modified and, to an extent, compromised by its adherence to external, political realities. The focus shifts, in the second part, to accommodate those neglected writers of the English 'absurd' who managed to avoid such compromises and who created a more abstract theatre, the aesthetic and epistemological intentions of which resemble those of the French absurd. Part III explains why, despite the relative obscurity of the English 'absurd', a fragmented absurdism managed to be absorbed into the permanent vocabulary of dramatic expression in England in the 1960s. This final section examines the works of a number of non-absurd writers who took on isolated absurd devices as part of an experiment with the parameters of drama, thereby bringing those techniques into mainstream theatre.

Ao final do século XX, o teatro de pesquisa como prática artística tornou-se teatralmente verossímil, culturalmente aceitável e economicamente possível na cidade de São Paulo. Esta dissertação de mestrado procura investigar que condições possibilitaram a consolidação de tal expediente teatral. Uma geração de criadores jovens formados no final dos anos 1980 contribuiu para instaurar novos modos de produção cênica na cidade. Para realizar a análise da cena paulistana na década de 90 do século XX, detenho-me em dois grupos formados no período: o Teatro da Vertigem e a Cia. de Teatro Os Satyros. Analiso a trajetória de cada um dos grupos e busco evidenciar como contribuíram, cada um a seu modo, para a organização de determinadas práticas teatrais na capital paulistana: o Teatro da Vertigem como grupo originado na universidade, e a Cia de Teatro Os Satyros engajada na manutenção empresarial de suas atividades. Ao longo dos anos 1990 e 2000, foi elaborada uma estrutura de modo a assegurar o teatro da pesquisa: políticas de financiamento público; criação de universidades em artes cênicas; definição de uma agenda para pesquisa de linguagem... Experiência social e convenções teatrais misturaram-se, então, num sistema que se modifica constantemente, gerando novos padrões de criação e de produção artística. / At the end of the 20th century, the research theater as an artistic practice became theatrically plausible, culturally acceptable and economically viable in the city of São Paulo. This masters dissertation tries to investigate what were the conditions that enabled the consolidation of such theater resource. A generation of creators young people graduated at the end of the 1980s helped introduce new scenic production techniques in the city. To analyze the São Paulo scene in the last decade of the 20th century, I focus on two groups from the period: Teatro da Vertigem and Cia. de Teatro os Satyros. I analyze the trajectory of each group and try to show how they contributed, each in its own way, to the organization of certain theater practices in the capital city of São Paulo: the theater group Teatro da Vertigem, coming from the university environment, and the theater group Cia de Teatro os Satyros, engaged in the business management of its activities. Over the years 1990 and 2000, a structure was developed so that research could be done: public funding policies; creation of colleges in performing arts; definition of an agenda for language research and so on. Social experience and theatrical conventions were then combined to form a system that is continuously changing and generating new patterns of creation and artistic production.