Edward Gorey (1925–2000) is primarily known as an enigmatic artist, author, and personality. All told, Gorey wrote and illustrated over one hundred books during his lifetime and designed book covers for countless others. He has an enormous cult following of fans that buy up his numerous books and prints and make pilgrimages to his old home, now a museum, to learn and lurk where he lived and worked in the later stages of his life. What is mostly unknown—both to Gorey aficionados and scholars—is that Gorey wrote, directed, designed, and acted in a wide variety of plays and theatricals throughout his life. Despite Gorey’s reputation as artist and author, his sizable work in the theatre, and his notable fan base, there is virtually nothing written about his theatre work from a scholarly perspective. Gorey produced “more than a dozen full-length plays and ‘entertainments’ for Cape Cod theatres, plus half a dozen shorter pieces” —almost all original works—in Cape Cod between 1987 and 1999. He played an active role in these productions, writing, directing and designing many, and even creating an original and unique puppet troupe—La Théâtricule Stoïque—that became a signature aspect of this work. What were these plays and entertainments like? Did they share characteristics with his books? How would knowing more about these performances change the conversation about Gorey’s work? I also began to question how these performances might exist beyond the confines of any given production—if there was some way that one could experience them outside of the original performances. While these questions initially centered on Gorey, how might they also extend to other performances? Can performances stretch beyond the boundaries of a given space and time in a way that pushes past the experience of the text or extant ephemera? And, in line with the dark and somewhat mysterious nature of Gorey’s art, what theatre might still be present after human actors have finished? Can there be disembodied theatre? Do performances continue after they end? My dissertation will delve into the theatrical and literary art of Edward Gorey, bringing Gorey into theatre history as a popular and well-known artist, even if he is largely unknown to scholarship to date. Just as importantly, Gorey will also serve as a case study for an exploration of the ontological nature of performance, especially as performance merges with public history. Gorey is an ideal case study for this exploration because Gorey’s work in the theatre can still be accessed through various public history sites, and I will consider the different ways that the items and sites preserve and showcase these performances. With this work I hope to bring attention to a tremendous artistic talent, as well as contribute to the way we conceive of the potential of performance to endure beyond the liveness of the theatrical encounter. With this investigation I am testing to see if the spectral meanings of a performance can be transmitted through disembodied means such as archival materials and things on display. I imagine disembodied theatre takes place away from the theatre, in spaces of public history such as a library, archive, or museum space. This is a crucial question in this investigation and one that I will suggest an answer to in the following chapters. I suggest that disembodied performance can exist, but these traces of performance must be available to view and interested spectators must be willing to use their imagination to fill in the gaps left by such materials. This dissertation seeks to both closely analyze Gorey’s theatre work in order to make his plays more well-known, and to test the limits and possibilities of disembodied theatre. / A Dissertation submitted to the School of Theatre in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester 2018. / April 3, 2018. / Edward Gorey, Museum Studies, Performance Studies, Public History / Includes bibliographical references. / Beth Osborne, Professor Directing Dissertation; Jennifer Koslow, University Representative; Mary Karen Dahl, Committee Member; Samer Al-Saber, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_653430 |
| Contributors | Gunn, Anthony (author), Osborne, Elizabeth A., 1977- (professor directing dissertation), Koslow, Jennifer Lisa, 1970- (university representative), Dahl, Mary Karen, 1945- (committee member), Al-Saber, Samer (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, doctoral thesis |
| Format | 1 online resource (146 pages), computer, application/pdf |
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