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.

This master’s thesis documents the dramaturgical exploration of the spring 2018 University of Massachusetts Amherst Department of Theater’s production of gender non-conforming performance artist Taylor Mac’s The Lily’s Revenge. The thesis is separated into two parts. The first half focuses on my dramaturgical analysis of Mac’s play and its exploration of queer temporality and queer embodiment, asserting the importance of queer aesthetics in American drama and its vital role in shaping the future of LGBTQIA+ politics in the United States. The second half includes reflections on rehearsal processes and performances, giving readers and fellow artists examples of the potential of queer dramaturgical practices that are products of LGBTQIA+ theater and politics in the United States. These reflections show the application of research to rehearsal processes into theatrical performances as directed, designed, and performed by graduate and undergraduate students at UMass Amherst Department of Theater, located in Amherst, Massachusetts, thus giving a trajectory of how the queer and feminist theories written into the play are manifested into a full production through collaborative design, movement, staging, and performance. Drawn from my discoveries while working on The Lily’s Revenge as production dramaturg, I have shaped my own style of collaborative “queer dramaturgy” with the director and designers, hopefully, opening new entry points of future explorations for queer dramaturgs to synthesize theory and practice onto the stage with collaborators from all disciplines and identities.

This M.F.A. thesis in dramaturgy presents the first-ever stage adaptation of South African writer Marlene van Niekerk’s 2004 novel Agaat. Van Niekerk is an internationally acclaimed novelist, short story writer, poet, and dramatist particularly known for her lengthy novelistic excavations of Afriakner identity, in which sexuality, race, and gender collide in compelling but fraught ways. Covering nearly fifty-years of South African history—from the establishment of apartheid in 1948 through the nation’s transition to democracy in 1994—Agaat investigates everyday cycles of abuse and intimacy through the story of white farmer Milla de Wet and her coloured adopted daughter-cum-maid, Agaat Lourier. This thesis foregrounds the interconnections between theory and practice by presenting both the adaptation itself and a prolonged engagement with theories of adaptation and dramaturgy. It is framed, then, around a simple question: How might dramaturgy and adaptation, as cultural and artistic processes and products, encounter one another? Through analysis of current discussions in the fields of Adaptation Studies and dramaturgy, and reflections on the particular challenges and possibilities of adapting van Niekerk’s novel to the stage, the thesis argues that adaption can be understood as a mode of encounter that opens up spaces for connection between people, texts, and cultures. A dramaturgical method of adaptation is concerned not with hierarchy, authority, and fidelity, but rather with viewing adaptation as a conversation between a network of resonances. The thesis begins with an overview of van Niekerk’s work and context, moves to an examination of current conversations in Adaptation Studies and dramaturgy, and concludes with a prolonged reflection on the process of adapting Agaat to the stage.

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the theatrical landscape, prompting theatre artists to reinvent how they connect with audiences and each other in physical spaces. While research has delved into post-pandemic theatre making, much of this area remains unexplored, particularly concerning young people, how the loss of community has impacted them, and what society can do to help. This thesis investigates how professional directors and dramaturgs can effectively engage young people in theatre making post-pandemic by drawing on three specific productions — Camelot and Camelittle, WROL (Without Rule of Law), and Alice and the Wonderland Parties. Utilizing theories drawn from The Art of Active Dramaturgy by Lenora Inez Brown and Directing Young People in Theatre by Samantha Lane — this thesis examines how dramaturgical collaboration can be implemented to foster community and positive relationships among young participants in the theatre-making process. The research in this thesis argues that by employing dramaturgical collaboration in the production process, young people can form meaningful connections with their peers, combating the isolation experienced during the pandemic. Beyond the pandemic context, this type of collaboration offers young people avenues for deeper engagement with the theatrical text itself. This thesis contributes to the discourse on post-pandemic theatre-making by providing practical insights into cultivating connection and community among young participants. It highlights the importance of dramaturgical collaboration as an enrichment tool in theatre making and fostering meaningful relationships in a post-pandemic world.

<p>This study focuses on two incarnations of the Cenci legend: Percy Bysshe Shelley’s 1819 verse drama <em>The Cenci</em> and George Elliott Clarke and James Rolfe’s 1998 chamber opera <em>Beatrice Chancy</em>. Shelley composed <em>The Cenci</em> after he discovered an Italian manuscript recounting the life of Beatrice Cenci who, after being raped by her father, plotted the murder of the debauched patriarch and was subsequently executed for parricide. Nearly two centuries later, Clarke and Rolfe created <em>Beatrice Chancy</em>, an Africadianized adaptation of the Cenci legend inspired by Shelley’s play. This study investigates they way in which multiple performance genres re-embody history in order to contest collective memory and reconfigure concepts of nationhood and citizenship. It examines the principles of nineteenth-century closet drama and the way in which Shelley's play questions systems of despotic, patriarchal power by raising issues of speech and silence, public and private. This is followed by a consideration of how Clarke and Rolfe's transcultural adaptation uncovers similar issues in Canadian history, where discourses of domestic abuse come to reflect public constructs of citizenship. Particularly this study examines how, through the immediacy of operatic performance and the powerful voice of the diva, <em>Beatrice Chancy</em> contests Canada’s systematic silencing of a violent history of slavery and oppression.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

Theatre history has long interwoven with the production, consumption, and peddling of alcohol. While the seedier aspects of our past generally go unremembered, we can find traces of them in the culture of the times. If we read Shakespeare through the lens of drinking culture, what can we discover about the play and what can that tell us about how to produce his works today? By looking at the rules and customs surrounding alehouses during the English Renaissance I have analyzed the three plays contained within the Falstaffiad (1 Henry IV, 2 Henry IV, and Merry Wives of Windsor).

The object of this study is to examine the diction of “Scenes of Passion and Despair” by Joyce Carol Oates in an attempt to discover performative attitudes for the interpreter. The discussion centers on the theme of illusion and reality as it manifests itself in the story. Because this theme superimposes itself on diction, it becomes necessary to examine words in detail, searching for the manner in which words are used to create a certain degree of reality for each character of the story. The discovery of these realities reassures the interpreter that his is a faithful rendering of one possible interpretation of the story. A great deal of attention centers on the respective realities of the characters and the narrator in order to facilitate the interpreter in his criticism; one method in which this is accomplished is through an examination of the different realities revealed through diction. These realities pertain either to the narrator or the character of the woman. The final chapter demonstrates the manner in which the preceding study of diction becomes realized and defined in physical performance, thus showing how interpretation acts as one method of literary criticism.

T.S. Eliot is a monumental figure in literature. He distinguished himself as a poet in his youth, as a critic in his middle age, and as a dramatist in his later years. Because of the vitality of Eliot’s early literary works, his dramas are frequently bypassed by critics when discussing the major themes that interested him as an artist. The purpose this study is to examine thoroughly Eliot’s position on isolation and alienation as revealed in his seven plays: Sweeney Agonistes (1926), The Rock (1934), Murder in the Cathedral (1935), The Family Reunion (1939), The Cocktail Party (1949), The Confidential Clerk (1954), The Elder Statesman (1959). Only by a consideration of the whole of his dramatic writings can it be seen that the theme of total isolation and alienation which the early plays have in common with his poetry moves through intermediate solutions in the middle plays to be finally abandoned for an affirmation of human relationships in the later plays. This thesis will attempt to reveal the full pattern of the isolation motif, as well as to explore secondary elements in the dramas that directly relate to it.

In the theatre field, Bertolt Brecht could be counted as a representation of cross-cultural phenomenon. His Verfremdungseffekt theory, Marxist beliefs and wide application of Chinese elements made him a significant stop for every person in theatre who has a passion for Chinese culture. For this reason, I am studying Brecht as a representative innovator who adapted the Eastern Asian elements, especially those from China, into his work, to illustrate this cultural phenomenon and the artistic achievement of his works as well. As an old saying in the Confucian Analects, “Isn’t it delightful to have friends coming from far away? ”, Brecht is like an old friend of China even though he never went to there. Since his works have been introduced into China from 1930s to 1940s, research of Brecht experienced ups and downs through the different political eras. Even now, Brecht’s theory and practice still has a deep impact on the Chinese drama. I particularly focus on Brecht’s works toward China, and try to illustrate them based on the former research from the European and American scholars as well as from Chinese scholars. I will clarify the Chinese traditional philosophy as the foundation of the whole thesis as well as the beginning of the first chapter, and analyze the Chinese-styled abstraction of Brecht’s poetry. In Chapter Two, I will illuminate the interaction between Brecht and traditional Chinese opera based on Huang Zuolin’s research. In addition, I will clarify the long-term misunderstanding that Chinese drama had for Brecht. In Chapter Three, I will focus on A Good Woman of Sichuan and The Caucasian Chalk Circle as representations to interpret the relationship between Brecht’s and the original versions as well as the Chinese philosophy that Brecht’s version has employed. Finally, the conclusion contains not only the summary, but also the possibilities for Brecht research in the future. Hopefully my work could balance both the objective truth and my personal thoughts, and contribute to the ones who may need them in the future.