My thesis argues that a critical study of the gay themes and issues in Finn’s work – both obvious and otherwise latent – elucidates historically specific and significant queer texts and subtexts, along with queer modes of reception. Queerness makes meaning of and in Finn’s works; reciprocally, Finn’s works also shape constructions and understandings of queerness in return. My thesis takes on queerness as the central lens through which to read Finn’s 1998 off-Broadway musical A New Brain. I provide queer readings of various aspects of the show; in other words, I queer the musical. In my first chapter (“Stories of Illness”: How AIDS Choreographies Haunt A New Brain), I investigate HIV/AIDS choreographies from both the concert stage (Neil Greenberg’s 1994 Not-About-AIDS-Dance) and the streets (ACT UP’s street protests in the ’80s and ’90s), alongside David Gere’s book How to Make Dances in an Epidemic: Tracking Choreography in the Age of AIDS, to determine patterns in movement vocabularies, aesthetics, definitions, and metaphors for HIV/AIDS-afflicted bodies and narratives. After describing and analyzing these performances, I then read Graciela Daniele’s choreography from the original 1998 off-Broadway production of A New Brain as AIDS choreography. I explain how the music, libretto, and choreography encourage an audience member to view the protagonist’s AVM as a metaphor for AIDS. In my second chapter (“I Should Try to Locate Roger”: Locating the Gay Male in Musical Theatre through Interpellation, Formation, and Simulation), I explain how A New Brain operates in a larger project of defining and shaping the gay male throughout the history of U.S. American musical theatre, specifically in the 1990s. I read D.A. Miller’s essay Place for Us with Louis Althusser’s “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses” to illustrate how the Broadway musical hails a gay male subject into being. I include Baudrillard’s “The Precession of Simulacra” to pose that the construction of the gay male exists without a true origin or reference point; instead, the idea of the gay male is formed in a feedback loop between gay men in the real world (offstage) and the gay male characters represented onstage. I include Miller’s examination of three musicals of the 1970s and ’80s to provide a trajectory of gay male representation. Afterwards, I situate A New Brain in context with other gay musicals of the ’90s. From these musicals, I delineate the various narratives Broadway provided for gay male life in the period and compare how these shows represent gay males. My third chapter (“Where the Hell’s My Sense of Humor?”: Camping in the Hospital) argues that in A New Brain, the liminal space created by Gordon’s AVM serves as a productive camp/site for coping with his serious brain injury and questioning societal norms. With Gordon’s rejection of a camp strategy, audiences can drop their earnest responses to Gordon’s crisis and take pleasure instead in the camp aspects of the musical. Despite losing access to the neuroqueer camp/site after emerging from his coma, Gordon still ultimately learns to embrace camp. This lesson extends beyond Gordon; in fact, all of the characters in the musical articulate their newfound camp perspective. Camp creates a community of tangentially related individuals through their shared queer outlook on life. The musical offers this camp approach to its audiences, encouraging them to adopt camp in their own lives outside of the theater. With these approaches outlined above, my thesis provides an angled analysis of Finn’s work from queer perspectives, expanding the existing generalized, queer-averse body of scholarship. My specific focus on A New Brain not only brings attention to a neglected work in Finn’s oeuvre but also illustrates how understanding A New Brain is essential to understanding Finn as a whole. Examining both the original and recent revival productions presents how the reception and meaning of Finn’s work has changed over time. Finn’s musicals also become a case study for larger inquiries into the state of musical theatre and queer politics and histories. Studying A New Brain provides a new brain for thinking about and through William Finn. / A Thesis submitted to the School of Theatre in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. / Spring Semester 2019. / April 16, 2019. / AIDS, camp, musical theatre, queer, William Finn / Includes bibliographical references. / Aaron C. Thomas, Professor Directing Thesis; Mary Karen Dahl, Committee Member; Chari Arespacochaga, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_709814 |
| Contributors | Richardson, Nicholas Kristofer (author), Thomas, Aaron C. (Professor Directing Thesis), Dahl, Mary Karen (Committee Member), Arespacochaga, Chari (Committee Member), Florida State University (degree granting institution), College of Fine Arts (degree granting college), School of Theatre (degree granting departmentdgg) |
| Publisher | Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text, master thesis |
| Format | 1 online resource (112 pages), computer, application/pdf |
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