This thesis details the development of the full-length play, "The Curious Case of Agatha Christie." This hour-long comedic mystery was performed as part of the Big Muddy New Play Festival at the SIUC Department of Theater and Dance in February of 2022. In this comedic mystery, famous crime novelist Agatha Christie goes missing. Avid mystery novel fan and aspiring journalist at lady’s magazine Gentlewomen’s Gazette, Helen Casewell, sets out to uncover the truth behind Agatha Christie’s disappearance. The thesis begins in chapter 1 by discussing the origins for the script and the research process. Next, in chapter 2, the thesis details the writing and editing process which took place over the Fall 2021 semester in the New Play Development class. Chapter 3 of the thesis retells the pre-production process. The production is chronicled in chapter 4. Finally, chapter 5 contains an overview of my professional and creative development during my graduate studies at SIUC.

Playwrights write about what is familiar to them. Their inspiration comes from their childhood, past relationships, and their personal view of the world. But could a playwright write about something to which they have no personal connection? Using the book Triggered: A Memoir of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, I will write a one act play about mental illness. I have no personal experience or personal connection to mental illness, but I will approach the process the same way as an actor does a character. I will go into the writing process as an actor, completing character analyses for the characters and using the information found within the book. I will direct a reading of my play with the goals of educating the audience about mental illness, evoking empathy for the characters within the piece, and proving that a playwright can write about something that is foreign to them, much like an actor can portray a character that is remarkably different from themselves.

During the Fall 2007 semester, I facilitated the devising of a new play with students from a school located in St. Louis, Missouri. As an employee of a mid-America prominent regional theatre company, the organization partnering with the school on this project, I was hired as the teaching artist who oversaw the students' playwriting. Both the school and the regional theatre company hoped my being there would assist the girls in writing a play that connected to their Top 20 Teens curriculum as well as demonstrate the high standards that are expected of them by their school's administration. This is the second year that the school and the regional theatre company partnered on this project, and they discovered last year that the play's use of language and character development suffered due to hands off directing. Neither organization wanted this to happen again and decided that a facilitator needed to work with the girls throughout the entire playwriting process rather than allow the students free reign in hopes that they were challenged to make different decisions from last year's play. The school's student population stems from communities deemed economically disadvantaged, and my role in this project proved challenging due to the fact that I am not from the same population as the students. As a white, middle class female working in an inner city environment, I seem to be endowed with a modicum of perceived power, whether or not I agree with it or want it. In my experience, I have noticed a dynamic permeated by uneasiness due to past, and current, tensions between whites and other races. As a Caucasian entering an inner city environment, I felt like the obvious minority. Resulting from these situations, I assume the role of "other" when entering populations that differ from my own. In the case of the school, I felt my role as "other" increased due to working in an all-female environment with participants drawn from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. My role as "other" sparked the following questions for me: How do I facilitate this project as an "other," and how does this crucial, racial and socio-economic role affect the construction of my sessions with the participants? I was interested in documenting how I perceived this role relative to my participants and the partnering organization during my facilitation and in my conclusions after the project was completed. During my facilitation, I kept a journal that served as a self-action study during all of my sessions with the girls. The "in the moment" writings allowed me to capture those times when my role as "other" directly affected my approach to the facilitating of the playbuilding and the choices I made during the project. Afterward, I developed a conclusion section that was written a few months after the project had ended. I wanted to determine how my perception of "other" shifted, if at all, while I facilitated the project and after I had the time to reflect on the project. I discovered that my perception of "other" did change as I went through this project. During the study, I found myself aware of this shift, but noticed my awareness of power and privilege increased when I had time to reflect on the project months after it had ended. I discovered that I can be "other" in some instances while this role may not be apparent to my participants. My thesis documents how being "other" guided my choices as a facilitator, as well as when it did not seem to be the basis of my decision-making. From this study, I concluded that my being different racially and socio-economically led me to place an unnecessary filter over my work with the playbuilding project which caused me to have many challenges as a white teaching artist working in an inner city setting.

No description available.

Is it possible for a playwright to authentically capture the disabled experience without it becoming privy to stereotypes or utilized as a catalyst for the plot? The thesis aims to challenge the prevalent notion that making the disability intrinsic to a theatrical plot is essential for authentic representation, and instead asserts that authentic portrayal of the disabled experience can exist independently of making the disability a central plot device. To support this claim, In Chapter One, I engage with relevant work in the field of playwriting and narrative media studies, such as the workshop "Inaccessible: Writing Plays with Characters who are Differently Abled" led by Jef Peterson. In Chapter Two, I analyze a range of contemporary American and English scripts from the 21st century featuring characters with disabilities, including Simon Stephen's A Curious Incident of a Dog in the Night-Time. My research converges with creative practice in Chapter Three, with an autoethnographic analysis of my own experience writing an original, full length script entitled When it Rains, which centers on a character living with a disability. In exploring multiple scripts, engaging with academic texts, and reflecting on my own creative process, my research thereby advocates for a more diverse and inclusive portrayal of disability in theatrical narratives.

In this exegesis I have attempted to formulate a primary toolset for dramatic writing that I can apply to create dramatic structure in plays, the chief example being my play Albatross (included herein). This toolset is contingent upon Aristotle's basic tenet of drama, that "tragedy is an imitation of an action" (2002: 10). This exegesis theorises that the work of modern writers on drama such as Spencer, Packard, Catron, Lamott, See, Hicks and many others, fundamentally accords with Aristotle on this point, such that the tools they espouse can collectively be considered a standard set for dramatic writing. Beyond this, my research has led me to believe that there is a primary subset of tools specific to creating dramatic structure. These tools, formulated from dramatic theory, best capture my own way of thinking about my writing practice. I divide them into two types: the first, tools of creation, comprise Theme and Values; Character and their Values; Characters and Action; Character Orchestration and Obstacles; and Event and Significant Change. The second, tools of evaluation, are Passivity; Stakes; and Premise. Together these eight tools have been responsible for creating dramatic structure in the play, Albatross.

In this practice-based thesis I examine how I interpreted the myth of Helen of Troy in solo and collaborative forms of playwriting. For the interpretation of Helen’s myth in solo playwriting, I wrote a script that contextualised in a contemporary world the most significant characters of Helen’s myth which are: Helen, Menelaus, Hermione, Paris, Hecuba, Priam. This first practical research project investigated how characters that were contemporary reconstructions of Menelaus, Hermione, Paris , Hecuba, Priam, Telemachus were affected by Helen as an absent figure, a figure that was not present on stage but was remembered and discussed by characters. For the interpretation of Helen’s myth in collaborative playwriting, I asked three female performers to analyse the character of Helen and then conceptualise and write their own Helen character. The performers’ analyses and rewritings of Helen inspired me to write a script whose story evolved around three Helen characters that were dead and interacted with one another in a space of death. This script formed part of my second practical research project that explored the ways of making Helen’s character present (both scripts that culminated out of my two practical research projects are included in the section of the Accompanying Material). I analyse the process of writing the scripts of the first and second practical research project through the use of Jungian archetype theory. In the first chapter of the thesis, I explore what an archetype is according to Jungian theory and then explain how this theory enables me to comment on the process of reinterpreting the myth of Helen of Troy through the writing of the two scripts. In the second chapter, which is the commentary on the first practical research project, I show how archetype theory provides a theoretical tool with which I can clarify and analyse how I reinterpreted and/or reworked the archetypal emotional energies of Menelaus, Hermione, Hecuba, Priam, Paris, Telemachus in the writing of new characters. In the third chapter, which is the commentary on the second practical research project, I investigate how the archetype theory helped me identify the key emotional experiences of the performers’ Helen characters, experiences which I organised and developed further in the writing of my own Helen characters. I conclude my thesis by arguing that my scripts cannot provide a final interpretation of Helen’s myth because they still lack a certain overarching theme or concept.

Although many critics have commented on various aspects of balance, symmetry, and order in Shakespeare’s As You like It, others have given the impression that the play uses a carefree series of episodes to give the audience lighthearted entertainment. Few, if any have discussed the extent to which these elements are exemplified through the remarkable skill and craftsmanship of the playwright. The coordination of these elements shows that the work is not, as it frequently has been considered, a simple romance, but is rather a superlative exemplification of Shakespeare’s remarkable artistry. Through the use of various devices, Shakespeare constructs for his audience a model of the harmony for which man should strive. One of the most obvious devices used by the dramatist is the groupings found among the characters. In addition, Shakespeare also employs the dual setting of court and country to aid in establishing his ideal of balance and harmony. This model does not degenerate into excessive artificiality, partly because Shakespeare uses both a reconciliation and a synthesis of opposites, and partly because he also utilizes, while gently mocking them, such literary traditions as the pastoral and the Euphuistic. He keeps both his characters and his audience firmly based in reality. Moreover, Shakespeare utilizes the Elizabeth idea of order and the concepts of nature and nurture, as additional means through which he establishes the ideal of harmony. All of these devices are aided by the basic comic structure itself, one which begins in sadness and ends in happiness. With this comic resolution the dramatist establishes his idea of the balance and harmony necessary in society. The play itself becomes a nurturing device, a model of harmony teaching and exemplifying happy reconciliation.

Although there are countless manuals devoted to playwriting, very few take up the craft of dramatic adaptation in a practical context. My rendering of Theodore Dreiser’s Sister Carrie is an exploration of fundamental elements that require consideration when adapting for the stage. My approach to the characters’ inarticulateness reveals an inherent theatricality in the novel, which both respects Dreiser’s themes and makes them accessible through the conventions of the stage. I suggest the craft of dramatic adaptation should strike a delicate balance between being a “pilgrim” toward the intentions of the source and an “outlaw” in its innovative theatrical representation of them.

This thesis details the labors of research and judgment that informed the writing of Matoaka, a Play in Three Acts. Specifically, the thesis explores the historical puzzles surrounding the life of Pocahontas and justifies the decisions made in dramatizing her life in the aforementioned play. Non-fictional works of the last four hundred years are considered, as well as popular dramatic performances of the nineteenth century. These works are examined closely in order to reveal the Pocahontas story as a point of contact between many concurrent social discourses. Reflections are also offered on the production of the aforementioned play and its reception in Petersburg, Virginia, in April and May of 2007. Finally, the production script of the play itself is offered as an appendix