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Thesis advisor: Scott T. Cummings / This Senior Honors Thesis evolved from a personal fascination with the intersection of art and science both in drama and on a grander theoretical scale. It is a three-part investigation with each part written in different voice with a different intention. The first is a short personal introduction offering insight to the genesis of the project. This is followed by a comparative dramaturgical analysis of two science plays, Bertolt Brecht's GALILEO and Michael Frayn's COPENHAGEN, examining the role of science in drama. The final component is a philosophical dialogue on the model of Brecht's MESSINGKAUF DIALOGUES which articulates larger philosophical questions in an examination of the similarities and differences between science and art. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2006. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theater. / Discipline: College Honors Program.

The relationship between history and memory is long and complex. While some theorists argue that they are at odds with one another, this thesis explores the necessary relationship between the two. Using Michael Frayn's 1998 play, Copenhagen, and the scrapbook of a Danish police officer and resistance fighter during World War II, the author posits the central role of uncertainty in the negotiation of individual memory and history. The position of the observer or witness to history affects the way the past is remembered and recorded. Individual witnesses, even and perhaps especially where they stray from the accepted historical narrative, testify to something that would otherwise be lost: the nature of the event. The observer therefore plays an important role in interpreting the testimony according to its place in the flow of time.