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Some recent work of Suvin (indebted to Merleau-Ponty's Phenomenologie de la perception) asserts that two fundamental aspects of the praxis of theatre spectatorship--the non-tactile, inactive physicality of the spectator, and her/his imaginative cognitive participation in the apperception of the performance text--might better be understood when examined with regard to the "apraxias," neurological disorders of purposive physical movement. This thesis follows up this line of thought in examining clinical material on apraxia, both temporally previous and subsequent to Merleau-Ponty's discussion. Additionally, it is contended that various paradigms in Bergson and within modern cognitive science (Edelman, Schacter) may be applied with some utility to the praxis of theatre spectatorship. This may lead to a better understanding of the mental participation of the spectator in the performance text as a modulation of present perception and past subjective experience. Such an understanding is compatible with a semiotic "encyclopedia" (Eco), possibly buttressing it with arguments extrapolated from neurology.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1934. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 222-228).

Presented as Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1934. / Collected series of 4 articles by Lees titled "First nighters of eighteenth century America" issued in Players magazine, each with an individual subtitle. Part I: vol. 12, no. 2 (Nov.-Dec. 1935), p. 4, 35-38 -- Part II: vol. 12, no. 3 (Jan.-Feb. 1936), p. 5-6, 28-30 -- Part III: vol. 12, no. 4 (Mar.-Apr. 1936), p. 7-8 -- Part IV: vol. 13, no. 1 (Sept.-Oct. 1936), p. 4-5, 14. Original thesis title: An introductory study of the American people of the 18th century through their drama and theatrical history. Includes bibliographical references.

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In "Heterodox Drama: Theater in Post-Reformation London," I argue that the specific working practices of the theater industry generated a body of drama that combines the varied materials of post-Reformation culture in hybrid fantasies that helped audiences emotionally negotiate and productively re-imagine early modern English religious life. These practices include: the widespread recycling of stock figures, scenarios, and bits of dialogue to capitalize on current dramatic trends; the collaboration of playwrights and actors from different religious backgrounds within theater companies; and the confessionally diverse composition of theater audiences. By drawing together a heterodox conglomeration of Londoners in a discursively capacious cultural space, the theaters created a public. While the public sphere that emerges from early modern theater culture helped audience members process religious material in politically significant ways, it did so not primarily through rational-critical thought but rather through the faculties of affect and imagination. The theater was a place where the early modern English could creatively reconfigure existing confessional identity categories, and emotionally experiment with the rich ideological contradictions of post-Reformation life.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2009. / Title from PDF title page (University of Texas Digital Repository, viewed on June 1, 2010). Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 369-381).

Thesis (S.T.M.)--Yale Divinity School, 2008. / Description based on Microfiche version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 77-79).

Thesis (S.T.M.)--Yale Divinity School, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 77-79).

Theater of Enigma in Shakespeare’s England demonstrates the cognitive, affective, and social import of enigmatic theatrical moments. While the presence of other playgoers obviously shapes the experience of attending a play, I argue that deliberately induced moments of audience ignorance are occasions for audience members to be especially aware of their relations to others who may or may not share their bafflement. I explore the character of states of knowing and not-knowing among audience members and the relations that obtain among playgoers who inhabit these states. Further, I trace the range of performance techniques whereby playgoers are positioned in a cognitive no-man's land, lying somewhere between full understanding and utter ignorance—techniques that I collectively term “enigmatic theater.” I argue that moments of enigmatic theater were a dynamic agent in the formation of collectives in early modern playhouses. I use here the term “collective” to denote the temporary, occasional, and fleeting quality of these groupings, which occur during performance but are dissipated afterwards. Sometimes, this collective resembles what Victor Turner terms communitas, in which the normal societal divisions are suspended and the playgoers become a unified collectivity. At other times, however, plays solicit the formation of multiple collectives defined by their differing degrees of knowledge about a seeming enigma. In either case, I show that a core achievement of early modern theater of enigma was to link issues of knowledge with issues of belonging—even when that pleasurable sense of belonging is as transient as the occasion of performance.