In his works such as Andre’s Mother; Lips Together, Teeth Apart; and Love! Valour! Compassion!, playwright Terrence McNally utilizes categorically gay themes such as homophobia and living with HIV and AIDS in a time when little was understood about the illnesses. For these reasons, McNally critics customarily analyze McNally’s plays with a queer theory lens. This work examines those same topics and others, but with a critical disability lens. Inspired by Robert McRuer’s analytical partnership of queer, AIDS, and disabilities studies, this work assesses McNally’s use of various types of languages and finds the figures who are characteristically presented as the contrast to normalcy are in fact normalized and hegemonized.

Tennessee Williams, Paul Ibell (2016) London: Reaktion Books, 192 pp., ISBN: 9781780236629, p/bk, $19

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The purpose of this study is to show how dramatization of significant historical themes can be more easily realized in high school American history classes.

This article is a comparative study of the critiques of developments in Shona and Swahili poetry that began in 1970s Tanzania and 1980s Zimbabwe, after the introduction of regular patterns in Shona poetry (late 1950s) and of free verse in Swahili literature (late 1960s). These verse forms became the object of heated debate about the nature of ‘tradition’ and of ‘colonial’ innovation among scholars, intellectuals and poets. These debates went beyond notions of stylistic canons; rather, they focused on identity, as closely connected with tradition and the need for decolonization. The problem recognized in this paper is that this criticism became prescriptive, implying the risk of limiting verbal-artistic expression in terms of style and content. This article shows a continuity between these different contexts in relation to critical opposition to stylistic innovation and freedom of (expressing) thought. By comparing the poetry and philosophy of the Tanzanian poet Euphrase Kezilahabi and Zimbabwean poet Chirikure Chirukure, this paper problematizes the terms of these debates and proposes an inductive and aesthetic approach to texts that avoids prescriptivism.

Thesis (M. A. (Northern Sotho)) -- University of Limpopo, 2022 / There is nothing new on earth. Every text is the repetition of another text, or other things already existing. This study reflects on the texts leaning thematically on other texts. It does so by critically examining the intertexts which shaped O.K. Matsepe’s four novels, namely Lešitaphiri (1963), Megokgo ya Bjoko (1968), Kgorong ya Mošate (1962) and Mahlatse a Madimabe (1981). By revealing the intertexts, it is hoped that a maximum understanding of the novels by this outstanding author is reached. Underpinned by intertextual theory, this study adopted a qualitative approach to allow a better understanding of the identified phenomena. The four novels were purposevily sampled due to their relevancy to the topic under discussion. The study employed content analysis to thoroughly analyse data which were collected using a document review method. The discussion and findings of the study clearly indicates that the Bible and culture are the two main sources which influenced Matsepe’s writing. This research contributes to the existing knowledge as it scrutinises Matsepe’s philosophical novels which are still relevant to the current epoch and beyond.

This thesis is the written portion of my experience as a director, staging an adaptation of the traditional Iranian theater form, Ta’zieh, for my thesis project. I start with a brief description of our adapted performance, followed by the inspirations that led to the creation of the piece. I then trace the evolution of the idea from the initial stage to the final performance. I describe the adaptation process in three sections, the story, form, and practice. In each section, in a comparative manner, I write about the ways in which Ta’zieh is traditionally done and elaborate on our decisions while adapting it for a new audience. I explain the challenges of adapting and directing the play outside of its original context and discuss how I worked on making this performance an intercultural experience. I conclude to write how I think these artistic cultural exchanges can connect us between countries and cultures, shed a light on our shared struggles and hopes, and lead us to connect on deeper levels of understanding.

The intent of this thesis is to investigate the prominence of audience ridicule in the French theatre from the medieval sottie to Ionescan Absurdism of the mid-twentieth century. Throughout the history of French drama, playwrights have exploited this tactic with either the purpose of invoking an emotional or intellectual response or inciting a social or political call to action. This exploration takes particular interest in shaming theatrical audiences during periods of political unrest, analyzing the ways in which playwrights employed language, studies of characters, and plot-related content to highlight the prevalent and pervasive ills of society and of humanity. The majority of the literature from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries criticizes the aristocracy, the clergy, and the crown. As we approach revolutionary France, the theatre all but abandons intrigue in favor of the tears that flowed that from the ocean of English Sentimentalism. Melodrama and the well-made play adorned the early-nineteenth century, while the later part of the century brought French theatre Jarry’s pataphysics and his affinity for audience shaming that set the stage for the impending onslaught of twentieth-century ridicule. The avant-garde movement flourished at the beginning of the century with the Dadas and the Surrealists responding to humanity’s response to the War to End All Wars. When Ionesco arrived at the forefront of the French theatre mid-century, he employed the most effective audience ridicule tactics invented by his predecessors and created his Absurdist theatre. Ionesco writes: “take a circle, caress it, and it will turn vicious” (38). From the fifteenth century to the twentieth century, the cycle of audience ridicule was indeed vicious in a theatre that sought to effect positive change in a rapidly changing society.

Theatre criticism has evolved with the advancement of technology and the decline of print journalism. As consumers are given increasing agency by which they can filter the news and reporting they read and occasionally replace it with their own, the idea that a sole voice on a certain topic brandishes more dominance over it than the masses of people involved in its creation and sustainment becomes progressively absurd. Conversely, however, readers rely on theatre critics to make theatergoing decisions for them explicitly because critics are supposed experts on the subject and their opinions are to be respected and observed accordingly. This dichotomy is baffling, but it exists in flux of communication and information that continues to grow as social media develops and becomes ubiquitous. From 1925 onward, Brooks Atkinson, Walter Kerr, Frank Rich, and Ben Brantley have inhabited the same position of chief theatre critic of The New York Times for almost ninety years collectively, yet each critic served very different purposes for their readerships. The prestige that exists around their role did not change over time, but prominence of their publication in popular culture and the utilization and connotation of their criticism did change. The trend is also apparent in the criticism that appears in The New Yorker, particularly because the criticism was not originally consumed for its evaluative and scholarly properties but for its entertainment and cultural magnitudes. The American theatre critic will continue to forge its own prominence in the boundless landscape of the potential of modern technology as it progresses, but ultimately, people will buy tickets, the audience will fill the house, and the show will go on.

There is a societal stigma that villainizes or degrades anyone diagnosed or associated with any mental illness. While many different forms of media have attempted to destroy this stigma through psycho-centric narratives, I wanted to argue that musical theatre has the greatest potential as a live entertainment source to deconstruct and reduce the stigma surrounding mental illness. For my research, I theorized that musical theatre can most effectively change societal stigma about mental illness by communicating a clear understanding of the disease through music, and achieving popularity in the public eye longer than other live forms of theatre. I chose to focus on four of those musicals: Lady in the Dark by Moss Hart, Kurt Weill, and Ira Gershwin which talks about depression and anxiety in the 1940s; Spring Awakening, adapted from Frank Wedekind's original play by Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik, which discusses depression and suicidal tendencies, specifically in students; Next to Normal by Brian Yorkey and Tom Kitt which revolves around bipolar disorder; and Dear Evan Hansen by Steven Levenson, Benj Pasek, and Justin Paul which talks about the prevalence of anxiety disorders in society. With this thesis I wanted to further the progression of destigmatizating mental illnesses through the medium of musical theatre. Through an analysis of these well-known musicals that focus on mental illnesses and the psychological research that follows, I proposed a short song cycle that continues this evolution of mental illness musicals. Through this process, I theorized that musical theatre will decrease the stigma surrounding mental illnesses and will promote treatment and care when dealing with mental illnesses.