<div>“You remember too much / my mother said to me recently. / Why hold onto all that? And I said, / Where can I put it down?” – Anne Carson.<br></div><div>This is a collection of poems; this is where I can put it down.</div><div><br></div>

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This thesis is an examination of the concept of permeable boundaries as it applies to character and setting in my plays Catch the Wall and 70 Secrets of Marmalade Kittens. The thesis synopsizes each play and catalogues their creation process. It examines the way permeable boundaries can be used to create audience empathy and a wider invitation into the work. The full text of Catch the Wall and 70 Secrets of Marmalade Kittens accompany the thesis essay. / text

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Thesis (M.F.A.)--York University, 2007. Graduate Programme in Higher Education. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:MR29589

Between 2000 and 2015 twelve of the UK’s leading producing theatres premiered twenty three plays by British playwrights where the action was set between 1882-1928. This historical period is significant; in 1882 the Married Women’s Property Act was passed and in 1928 equal enfranchisement for men and women was granted in the United Kingdom, hence, the historical period traces a shift in women’s rights from property ownership to the vote. This thesis investigates narratives within these plays and explores the development of a normative historiography that is drawn on, but predominantly left unquestioned, by playwrights as Britain’s past is reimagined. It is this normative historiography, operating in a theatrical context, which the thesis problematises and interrogates through the lens of contemporary British playwriting. This lens facilitates an exploration of the manner in which the representation of the past mirrors and/or challenges current feminist discourse and considers the cultural implications of the structures and techniques employed to retell women their history through this medium. Scholarship from the fields of academic and popular feminism, theatre studies, history and historiography shape the analytical framework of the thesis. Drawing on literature from these fields, this study conducts historically informed performance analysis that seeks to discover the sociocultural work done by contemporary plays that engage with the past. Archives of thirty British theatres have been surveyed to produce a database of plays that fall within the project boundaries; working with this data, trends and recurring themes have been identified, and subsequently chapters have been shaped to investigate dramaturgical questions in response to the field research. The dramaturgical questions explore: recurring modes of representation in plays that reimagine World War One; the representation of opposition in depictions of historical conflict; the retelling of specific historical narratives in relation to the challenge of staging ideas; and the recurrence of the heteronormative romantic plot. This thesis argues that when the playwright interrogates the normative dramaturgies and tropes they have inherited for historical representation, they assumes the role of historiographer and from this self-reflexive position recurring theatrical conventions for retelling the past are challenged. This perspective shifts attention beyond central patriarchal narratives of the past and facilitates engagement with the multiple avenues of enquiry regarding a historical moment. Engagement with the work of playwrights who foreground a historiographic awareness in their process, further illuminates the dialogue between representations of women in a historical context and contemporary feminist debate.

This thesis details the development of my full-length play Wife/Worker/Whore from outlining and pre-writing to full production at Southern Illinois University over the course of the 2015/2016 school year. In writing Wife/Worker/Whore, I was inspired by Norma Jean Almodovar’s From Cop to Call Girl, in which she details her life as a housewife, police officer and eventually high-class call girl in 1970s Los Angeles. Almodovar’s life story served as the impetus for this script, as I sought to complicate the discourses surrounding prostitution in its various forms. This play, therefore, examines the covert ways in which women are forced to prostitute themselves, even when they don’t call themselves a “whore” by profession. Chapter One includes a statement of the project, the origin, and development of the script, initial structure and plot considerations for the script, research that impacted the creation of the script, character development, and tools for self-evaluation. Chapter Two covers the pre-writing process, feedback from my peers from two in-class readings, notes from my advisor, Jacob Juntunen, and the director, Segun Ojewuyi, about the script’s development and an overall description of the play’s progression through drafts one to eight. Chapter Three describes the design meetings held in preparation for the production of Wife/Worker/Whore. Chapter Four details the audition process as well as rehearsals for the piece. Chapter Five evaluates Wife/Worker/Whore’s production, describes ideas for future productions of the piece as well as possible revisions. Chapter Six concludes the thesis by tracking my progression in the playwriting program over the past three years. It includes my writing growth in terms of structure and developing my artistic voice. It also discusses my professional development over the time in the program, as well as the evolution of my teaching practice. I have also included in the thesis the production script of Wife/Worker/Whore, excerpts from previous drafts of the script, and publicity materials.

<p>A collection of lyric poetry that explores subjective feeling in contrast with public sentiment through the lens of the life and legacy of marine biologist and writer Rachel Carson, including what the idea of “legacy” means for women, science, queerness, and (auto)biography.<br></p>

<div>From the mind</div><div>of a single, long vine,</div><div>one-hundred opening lives</div><div><br></div><div>(Chiyo-Ni translated by Jane Hirshfield and Mariko Aratani)<br></div>