The intent of this thesis was to test the feasibility of constructing performance-for-development narrative using a constructive logic approach. I created an equation which expressed the sum of non-human-elements as the sum of a narrative with each element serving as a variable. I used a review of persuasion literature to provide insight into the selection and manipulation of each variable. I provided my family as a hypothetical example and used my knowledge of their preferences and communication styles in conjunction with the literature and the equation to craft a narrative which might increase pro-school attitudes in other families like my own. I found that there exists a narrative comprised of only non-human elements that are likely to yield change in an audience given a specific situation, and that a constructive logic approach can be used to craft performance-for-development narrative.

Tony Kushner's two-part play Angels in America uses stereotypical depictions of gay men to deconstruct traditional gender dichotomies. In this thesis, I argue that Kushner has created a continuum of gender performativity to deconstruct these traditional gender dichotomies, thereby empowering the effeminate and disempowering the masculine. I closely examine Kushner's use of Brechtian and Aristotelian tenets in the first Broadway production of the play to demonstrate that Kushner sought to induce social awareness of gay male oppression, contingent on the audience's perception of Kushner's deconstruction of the traditional gender dichotomy. I also scrutinize the role of the closet and its implications in the play, primarily analyzed with Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick's theoretical framework, suggesting Kushner's partiality to openly gay men who can actively participate in the cessation of gay male oppression.

This thesis applies qualitative literary analysis and ethnographic methods to examine the portrayal of Appalachia in the operas Susannah and Cold Mountain. The operas were premiered almost 60 years apart, yet they share many themes that epitomize roles, patterns, and stereotypes within the Appalachian region. One theme observed is the role and expectations of Appalachian women and how they have developed over time, as the plots are placed roughly a century apart. The depictions of Appalachian religious traditions and representations of violence are also explored as these themes play a considerable role in Susannah and Cold Mountain. By analyzing the representation of Appalachia in these operas, this study places the significance of opera among other forms of media and drama that are evaluated in the field of Appalachian Studies. Susannah and Cold Mountain depict some historically founded representations of Appalachian culture, yet some stereotypes also appear and are evaluated.

This written portion of my thesis documents how I, as Director, set about to bring J.M. Barrie’s classic, Peter Pan to the contemporary stage. I take the reader through my in-depth research into Barrie’s many adaptations of his story, seeking an understanding of the evolution of Peter Pan and noting major elements that were retained across time and those that were changed, in search of the “true” story of Peter Pan. I explore how my discoveries informed design choices, were folded into rehearsals, and ultimately arrived on stage. In seeking the backbone of a classic, the vast interpretive history of Peter Pan and its many adaptations also gave me a sense of freedom to make my own changes. I discuss the major re-imagining of Tiger Lily and the Redskins to become the collaboratively created Never Landers, a dance ensemble of otherworldly characters sprung from the land itself. I explore the major themes I identified in the play and discuss decisions to bring darkness, longing and loneliness to the stage rather than glossing over the complex elements of the story in order to create something cute for children. Finally, I offer an exploration of the production process as a major collaboration with many artists and consider various elements of my collaborations with the design team, fight director, dance choreographer, and the actors.

As a passing glance at the popular texts of any given period reveals, the subject of vengeance is nearly inescapable; on billboards, websites, and year end lists, revenge represents a curious constant even amid disparate media. This study explores the cultural commonalities that align revenge texts of the English Renaissance and exploitation films of late 20th century America. As in-depth inquiry reveals, numerous ideas and narrative tropes popularized during the Early Modern period are pushed to their logical extremes in these films. The central factor that aligns London during the Renaissance and New York at the cusp of the 1990s relates to traumatic, far-reaching changes in the urban landscape and its uses. There is an observable preoccupation, on the part of playwrights and filmmakers, with the subject of vengeance as tied to notions of locality, space, and rightful ownership.

This paper represents the final culmination of a theater senior project. The project consisted of an analytical research paper, performance in a mainstage department production, and supporting process documentation. I portrayed Myrrha, Hunger, Zeus, and others in a production of the play Metamorphoses. Through research on Mary Zimmerman’s 1998 play Metamorphoses, adapted from the works of Roman poet Ovid, this thesis grapples with the historical meaning of the myth of Myrrha. A polarizing figure, Myrrha was cursed to fall in lust with her father. By exploring of portrayals sexual assault onstage, I tackle themes of audience relationships to trauma and taboo subjects. I seek to understand the importance of her story in a modern context, specifically considering the #metoo movement and increasingly public discussions around sexual violence, rape culture, and systematic oppression. I stress our responsibility to understand how codifying stories on stage impacts audiences. This project also contains my conceptualization for the characters I portrayed in Metamorphoses, my rehearsal journal, and post-show reflections. In these sections, I detail the acting theory behind my characters as well as the steps we took to adapt Metamorphoses for our community.

This thesis analyzes the representation of disability in adaptations of Shakespeare’s Richard III in order to propose a theory of Prosthetic Adaptation. Ian McKellen and Richard Loncraine’s film adaptation, and Patrick Warren’s manga adaptation, are closely read through the lenses of Adaptation Theory and Critical Disability Studies. Prosthetic Adaptation is the use and incorporation of disability in adapted texts in such a way that both the text and the portrayal/reading of the disability are mutually transformed. Close reading analysis is conducted with both Critical Disability Studies and Adaptation Studies lenses. The transformation of the texts and disability work together to push the boundaries of their genre/medium that they have been transformed into, using those broken boundaries to comment on disability itself. McKellen and Loncraine’s film uses archetypes of war films and shifts in tone to comment on the dangers of the disability stereotype and spectacle in film; Warren uses color and form to create a strong visual metaphor of the invisibility of disability to the able-bodied eye, commenting how disability is erased and removed from sociocultural context. It is through these commentaries that both the concept of disability and the texts themselves experience a broadening of potential meanings and a reshaping of boundaries.

Exploring the process of designing, producing, directing and starring in a multimedia feminist re-interpretation of Shakespeare's Hamlet set in a contemporary social media landscape.

French Canadian playwright Joseph Armand Leclaire (1888-1931) was very well known and respected in his time. Although he wrote over thirty plays, lyrics to several songs and an abundance of political poems, most of his work has been lost and Leclaire himself seems to have been forgotten. Several of his plays were produced at the time they were written, including his 1916 play La petite maîtresse de l'école (later published in 1929 as Le petit maître d'école), but none have been presented postumously nor have any been translated. This M. F. A. thesis presents the first ever translation and adpatation of Leclaire's play, titled in English as The Little Schoolmaster. The first half of the thesis provide historical context for the play's significance, as well as information about Armand Leclaire and the changes he made to his own work between the original 1916 version and the 1929 published version. The thesis then analyses the creative acts of translation and adaptation, proposing a new model of translation for a linguistically rich audience. Through this new model of translation-adaptation for a bilingual spectrum, the thesis concludes by demonstrating that dramaturgy can serve as a dynamic instrument for communities to engage in the exploration of bilingual and bicultural identity.

The purpose of this chapter is to acquaint the reader with the general scope and trend of Maxwell Anderson's work in order to give a more complete conspectus for the discussion of his plays. By so doing a foundation will be laid for a more intelligible discussion of the specific aspects of the seven plays concerned in the thesis proper, the title of which is, "An Essay on Character Portrayal, Style, and Technique of' Writing in Maxwell Anderson's Biographical Plays in Verse."