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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Playwriting'
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1
Holt, Gleason. "Digging Into Playwriting." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2018. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/3406.
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The intent of this thesis was to write an original play and detail the writing process. Themes dealt with in Jane (or, Dug In) are family, coping with grief, survivor’s guilt, and exploration (both literal and personal). In addition to the full script, this thesis explores the inspirations for the play and its title. The play’s genre is analyzed, and reasoning is given for this selection. Included are omitted scenes from the latest draft to offer additional insight into the playwright’s previous versions. A reading of the third draft was presented and detailed in this thesis. A section about future scenes and potential projects involving this script are examined.
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Douthit, Lue Morgan 1957. "The teaching of playwriting: as observed in fourteen twentieth-century american playwriting books." Thesis, The University of Arizona, 1990. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/558141.
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Bush, Sophie. "Floating identities : Timberlake Wertenbaker's playwriting." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 2011. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.574606.
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This thesis is a study of the contemporary playwright Timberlake Wertenbaker. Its principal source of research has been Wertenbaker's Archive, held by the British Library. This resource has enabled me to compare Wertenbaker's unpublished and unfinished plays with those for which she is better known, thus building a picture of her playwriting career as a developing process. I address ideas of identity formation and resistance to the imposition of identity, as a theme across Wertenbaker's creative works and a feature of her own life. Covering the whole span of Wertenbaker's writing for the stage to date (1976 to 2009), I discuss her plays chronologically, in order to foreground the development of her career. I offer thematic links across these groupings, which are designed to retain a sense of fluidity. I propose that Wertenbaker's diverse writings of the late 1970s developed into a more coherent, feminism-informed body of plays in the early 1980s. Always keen to avoid the labelling of her work, Wertenbaker seems to have sought to expand, or universalise, these concerns, producing her most popular and well-known works of the late 1980s. These plays, which focus on language, make parallels between the oppression of women and the oppression of whole nations or cultural groups, and move her work along a continuum from issues of gender to those of culture and nationhood. These latter concerns become a recurrent trope in her plays of the 1990s and the turn of the millennium, and are intricately linked with concepts of genealogical reproduction on both a global and a personal scale. Whilst my model divides Wertenbaker's work into sections that do not exist in reality, I imbue this structure with the same sense of mutability and fluidity that, I argue, is crucial to the plays.
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Hamilton, Morven. "Negotiating identity in contemporary playwriting." Thesis, University of York, 2014. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/5937/.
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In this dissertation, I discuss the process of playwriting in Scottish dialect: why Scottish writers choose not to write in Standard English; how and why they choose their specific dialect; what problems lie in the writing of dialect plays; and what problems may arise in performance and production. Following on from that, I also investigate why Scottish playwrights often find themselves excluded from English theatres - particularly from the London stage - and what cultural stereotypes seem to fuel this problem. I have examined Scottish dialect plays and playwrights’ accounts from the 1940s onwards, as well as considering the critical response to these plays. In the light of this contextual background, I also analyse my own personal experience as a playwright over the course of my PhD by Practice at the University of York, and my experience as a Glaswegian playwright at an English university in a traditional English town. My dissertation begins by discussing why Scottish playwrights choose Scottish dialects, focussing in particular on the idea of language survival and resistance to English hegemony. I examine the merits and effects of urban and rural dialects, investigating why rural dialects are now largely neglected and why urban dialects are vital to representations of class and city life in modern Scotland. I scrutinise the problems of writing dialect, and the lack of official spelling and prevalence of profanity in urban dialects, which present particular problems. Audience reception will also be considered, examining the idea that non-Scottish audiences struggle to understand the dialect, and subsequently struggle to understand its humour. Finally, I consider audience responses towards Scottish dialect.
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Gardiner, Paul Dominic. "Teaching playwriting: dramaturgy, creativity, and agency." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/12069.
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This thesis reports on the findings of my study into playwriting pedagogy in NSW secondary schools. Utilising a comparative case study approach, the phenomenological study aimed to gather data on the experience of teachers and students engaged in playwriting pedagogy for the New South Wales Higher School Certificate Drama examination. The research, initially focusing on the impact of performance theory on the teaching and learning experience, revealed the need to attend not only to dramaturgy, but also to the related concepts of agency, creativity, engagement and the teacher-student dynamic. The research findings reflect a reluctance to engage in theory based pedagogy and the teachers adopted what I have called the Noble Savage approach. The teachers, seeing themselves as facilitators rather than teachers, expressed a reluctance to engage in specific teaching in an attempt to protect the students’ independence and original creative voice. The experience of pedagogy observed also revealed that playwriting provided students with an opportunity to demonstrate and develop skills in agency, encouraging them to think deeply and ‘imagine new worlds’ (Freire, 1974). It also provided the students with an opportunity to engage in a creative and independent writing task unique in these students’ school experience. However, my study also observed that the benefits of agency and creativity were not supported by the Noble Savage approach. This thesis argues that current playwriting pedagogy is adversely affected by a conception of creativity that is not supported by some creativity theory. Examining the experiences through Csikszentmihalyi’s (2008) concept of flow, this research identified the importance of skill development in creative tasks and the associated need for rigorous teaching and learning to maintain engagement and skill development. The research also found that despite the professed Noble Savage approach, the teachers were dissatisfied with their practice and upon reflection considered a more structured and theory informed approach would have been more effective. The thesis concludes that greater engagement with theory and the semiotics of theatre will not only improve student proficiency in playwriting practice, but will improve the benefits to students’ agency, creativity and engagement and improve the students’ and teachers’ experience of playwriting pedagogy.
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Mulinder, Guy. "Master of Fine Arts Thesis in Playwriting." Thesis, University of Canterbury. Humanities, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10092/5236.
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Alied, Amani. "A desacralisation of violence in modern British playwriting." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2014. https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/a-desacralisation-of-violence-in-modern-british-playwriting(db408601-4630-46ea-b825-5cf0744e6233).html.
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My thesis journey was initially motivated by an interest in the individual’s search for God, the self and the other (neighbour, men/women and enemy) as represented in the play texts. This call for a personal relationship with the ‘other’ highlights the individual’s feelings of unease and strangeness at a time when, one might argue, the majority belittles the role of religion, in support of scientific discoveries and human rights. Here, the French philosopher René Girard - whose anthropological and scientific interest in violence, religion and human culture has shaped my research - argues that the progress of humankind would not have become a reality without what he terms sacrifice. Here, I should confirm that the main influence on the early steps of finding my research topic were Peter Shaffer, Slavoj Žižek, Julia Kristeva and Mikhail Bakhtin rather than Rene Girard. This thesis explores several interconnected relationships, the most important of which is between humour and violence or forms of ‘sacrifice’ in the plays of six British playwrights – Peter Barnes and Peter Shaffer, Howard Barker and Sarah Kane as well as Caryl Churchill and David Rudkin. It is this strange relationship which leads me later on to uncover and explore the representations of the stranger, the victim/iser and the foreigner in their works. The return of the stranger – the dead, the ashes of victims of extreme violence, the ghosts, the prisoners and the children - is inseparable from the search for individuality in a world ruled by the gods of war, money and dark humour. My research findings are viewed in the light of two narratives: the first is to do with the upper world and the second is to do with the lower as defined by Bakhtin’s idea of the carnival and the culture of folk humour in the Middle Ages. The upper is serious, official, exclusive and authoritative whereas the second is festive, comic, mythical and popular. It is hard to describe the relationship between these narratives as simply oppositional (some say iconoclastic) because they are coexistent and rely on one another. At this point, the different professional and ideological positions of the playwrights are important aspects in arriving at an understanding of the ways they collapse the borders between humour and terror, the banquet and the battle, carnivals and trials, the parade and economic exploitation, clownery and politics. Though these playwrights are not preachers or reformers, they challenge our easy laughter and our role as we witness the risen from the dead, those in the flames or in the future signalling to us to halt our participation and face responsibility for the victims.
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Abelli, Björn. "On Stage! : Playwriting, Directing and Enacting the Informing Processes." Doctoral thesis, Mälardalen University, School of Business, 2007. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-252.
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Within the discipline of information systems sometimes the conception of the main object is that the information system must be computer based. An example of an information system that is non-computer based is the scenic theatre performance. Input is the message or knowledge the participants of the theatre production want to pass over to the audience; output is the information and experiences the performance in itself mediates to the audience. This has been produced through a system development process; although the developers not always have been aware about what development model has been used.
The dissertation combines some of the concepts found in theatre production with traditional system development concepts, and hence introduces new perspectives into the area of information systems. Some of the main findings in the study of theatre productions were the triplicity of a theatre production as a development process, an information system and an organization at the same time; the integrated relations of context, developers and users, which leads to spontaneous changes and overlaps of development roles; and the narrative and dramaturgical approach in the practical use of methods and techniques.
These aspects should be useful also in development of other types of information systems, whether computer based or using other information technologies. The triplicity gives arguments to redefine each of these concepts.
The generalizability of this approach has been validated through a second study, at a folk high school, which showed that models and concepts from theatre productions are possible to generalize to other information system areas than theatre, and that the borders of the organization coincides with the borders of the information system. Especially temporary organizations must be seen as ongoing, continuous development processes.
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Abelli, Björn. "On stage! : playwriting, directing and enacting the informing processes /." Västerås : School of Business, Mälardalen University, 2007. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-252.
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Kelly, Catherine M. "The internal exile : contemporary Irish playwriting and theatrical production." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2001. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.393142.
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In recent years Ireland, North and South, has undergone a period of rapid transition. Social and economic advancements in the South and political developments in the North have brought benefits, but have also created for some a sense of confusion and disorientation. Many have become caught between the residual problems of the past and the impact of the new. In the ongoing process of redefining boundaries and attempting to build a more inclusive society, it is important to be aware of the dislocation which exists among groups and individuals in the current cultural climate. My experience of these changing times has been, broadly speaking, as a female Catholic from a middle-class, nationalist background. It is from this perspective that I have explored a variety of political, religious and gender issues, related to the overriding theme of the internal exile in contemporary Irish theatre. Specific chapters address particular concerns. Chapter one provides a historical and cultural context which seeks to place the theme within the macrocosm of a society undergoing change, in addition to outlining the way in which it is represented in and affected by contemporary Irish drama. Chapter two is entitled 'States of mind and the lyricism of theatrical conventions'. It explores a selection of post-sixties plays and identifies a number of different styles of theatre which are being practised in Ireland at the present time. Chapter three discusses the politics of spirituality in relation to Brian Friel's Dancing at Lughnasa. Chapter four focuses on three plays by Marina Carr and considers the role of women. Chapter five looks at politics and gender in two plays about Oscar Wilde; Saint Oscar by Terry Eagleton and The Secret Fall of Constance Wilde by Thomas Kilroy. Chapter six involves a consideration of the political situation in Northern Ireland in respect of the peace process and post-cease-fire plays by a number of playwrights such as Gary Mitchell, Declan Gorman and Michael Harding.
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Komporaly, Jozefina. "Configurations of mothering in post-war British women's playwriting." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2001. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/34665/.
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While examining a selection of plays centred on the phenomenon of mothering, my thesis also investigates the interaction between theatre and feminism in post-war Britain, aiming to highlight mutual correspondences between women's theatre making and feminist agendas. I focus mainly on the period of second-wave feminism, but I also discuss the decade preceding the appearance of the Women's Liberation Movement, as well as its aftermath up to the mid-nineties. Scrutinising proto-feminist, feminist and post-feminist stances, I argue that several fifties women dramatists anticipated key concerns of the late sixties and seventies; and equally, that many playwrights active after the heyday of second-wave feminism revisited the climate of the seventies in an attempt to evaluate the transformations that have since occurred in women's lives. In this manner, I not only contextualise some of the major achievements and shortcomings of successive feminist interventions, but also elaborate on key changes that have taken place in the negotiation of dramatic form and content. Rather than privileging one dominant theoretical position and adopting its perspective for the purposes of my analysis, I connect the work of playwrights informed by different artistic positions and political convictions, in order to pinpoint the principle of co-existence and multiplicity. This aesthetic and ideological diversity in women's writing for the stage, characteristic of the past five decades, has been confirmed not only by the primary and secondary sources that I drew upon but also by the playwrights themselves, whom I interviewed. For most present-day female dramatists, as this thesis argues, contemporary British women's theatre is a space of experimentation and of confluence - in which the broad range of individual voices can situate themselves next to one another, without the urge to replicate an ultimate direction imposed by hegemonic political constraints or artistic platforms.
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Duffy, Clare Louise. "Applying queer theory about time and place to playwriting." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2012. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/3817/.
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This practice as research contributes a ‘queer-place dramaturgy’ to knowledge about playwriting by creating an intersection of writing queer site specific performance and conventional dramatic theatre practice. It follows the recent shift of focus from queer theorizing of sexuality as a constructed identity, to thinking about what queer use of time and space might be. This shift proposes queerness that is detached, but not completely separated from, sexual identity. This shift also produces a range of kinds of queerness that can be described as odd, imaginative, strange, eccentric, dangerous, threatening wonder-full and abject. I use key works by Sara Ahmed, Jon Binnie, Judith Butler, Michael Foucault and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick to theoretically contextualise these kinds of queer times and places. I materially investigate the theory that there is such a thing as queer time and place through an exercise of writing on a public bench for a prolonged period of time, called the ‘civic couch’ exercise. I found that this small resistance to the apparently politically neutral temporal use of a place could (re) author ‘me’ as queer beyond sexual identity. It also began to (re) author ‘identity’ itself, so that ‘I’ became more and more identified by where I was. This led to a queer practice of co-writing self and place with each time and place. When that text was dramatized the audience were invited to co-author each local place through the play and outside after the performance. This series investigates, through a spiraling structure of research the relationship between direct resistance to homophobia and heterosexism through representation of queer lives, bodies, times and places and an indirect formal resistance to a (hetero) normative construction of ‘reality’. Asking finally the question: How queer can queer writing for conventional theatre practice be in the UK today? This project aimed to bring queer theory into practical contact with playwriting to see what it could change in the form of dramatic theatre. I found that I could (re) shape and guide dramaturgical principles but not fundamentally change or break them. I define what ‘dramaturgical principles’ are in relation to the critical work of Sue-Ellen Case, Elin Diamond, Peggy Phelan and José Esteban Muñoz and argue that ancient concepts of ‘dramaturgical principles’ continue to circulate in postmodern, queer and feminist theorizing about form in theatre and performance. I propose that the lineage of queer writing for theatre maps a negotiation between challenging form and content, which changes significantly from the early twentieth century (and the work of Gertrude Stein and Lillian Hellman) to the emergence of the gay liberation movement in the late 1960s, (and the work of Gay Sweatshop, 1974 -1997), to Performance Art, Live Art and mainstream theatre in the 1990s (and work by Mark Ravenhill, Sarah Kane and Split Britches). I also contextualize this research as practice with contemporary site-specific performance interventions into (hetero) normative uses of public, outdoor places, particularly through the public bench.
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Brook, Simon Richard. "Industrial playwriting : forms, strategies, and methods for creative production." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2009. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/30137/1/Simon_Brook_Thesis.pdf.
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This study, in its exploration of the attached play scripts and their method of development, evaluates the forms, strategies, and methods of an organised model of formalised playwriting. Through the examination, reflection and reaction to a perceived crisis in playwriting in the Australian theatre sector, the notion of Industrial Playwriting is arrived at: a practice whereby plays are designed and constructed, and where the process of writing becomes central to the efficient creation of new work and the improvement of the writer’s skill and knowledge base.
Using a practice-led methodology and action research the study examines a system of play construction appropriate to and addressing the challenges of the contemporary Australian theatre sector. Specifically, using the action research methodology known as design-based research a conceptual framework was constructed to form the basis of the notion of Industrial Playwriting. From this two plays were constructed using a case study method and the process recorded and used to create a practical, step-by-step system of Industrial Playwriting. In the creative practice of manufacturing a single authored play, and then a group-devised play, Industrial Playwriting was tested and found to also offer a valid alternative approach to playwriting in the training of new and even emerging playwrights. Finally, it offered insight into how Industrial Playwriting could be used to greatly facilitate theatre companies’ ongoing need to have access to new writers and new Australian works, and how it might form the basis of a cost effective writer development model. This study of the methods of formalised writing as a means to confront some of the challenges of the Australian theatre sector, the practice of playwriting and the history associated with it, makes an original and important contribution to contemporary playwriting practice.
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Brook, Simon Richard. "Industrial playwriting : forms, strategies, and methods for creative production." Queensland University of Technology, 2009. http://eprints.qut.edu.au/30137/.
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This study, in its exploration of the attached play scripts and their method of development, evaluates the forms, strategies, and methods of an organised model of formalised playwriting. Through the examination, reflection and reaction to a perceived crisis in playwriting in the Australian theatre sector, the notion of Industrial Playwriting is arrived at: a practice whereby plays are designed and constructed, and where the process of writing becomes central to the efficient creation of new work and the improvement of the writer’s skill and knowledge base.
Using a practice-led methodology and action research the study examines a system of play construction appropriate to and addressing the challenges of the contemporary Australian theatre sector. Specifically, using the action research methodology known as design-based research a conceptual framework was constructed to form the basis of the notion of Industrial Playwriting. From this two plays were constructed using a case study method and the process recorded and used to create a practical, step-by-step system of Industrial Playwriting. In the creative practice of manufacturing a single authored play, and then a group-devised play, Industrial Playwriting was tested and found to also offer a valid alternative approach to playwriting in the training of new and even emerging playwrights. Finally, it offered insight into how Industrial Playwriting could be used to greatly facilitate theatre companies’ ongoing need to have access to new writers and new Australian works, and how it might form the basis of a cost effective writer development model. This study of the methods of formalised writing as a means to confront some of the challenges of the Australian theatre sector, the practice of playwriting and the history associated with it, makes an original and important contribution to contemporary playwriting practice.
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Ackerman, Steven Everett. "Working Week." OpenSIUC, 2010. https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/theses/234.
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Working Week began as a need to explore the history of comic books, specifically the superhero genre, but soon transformed into the journey through a child's imagination and its fragile state. The play attempts to connect the creation of a new world and its eventual destruction at the hand of the Comic Book Code Authority and its stringent laws against risqué subject matter, while incorporating the industry's major genres using a language-based form of playwriting. At its most simplistic, it is the story of a child and his imagination fighting for survival against a traditional, formal establishment. The difficulty lies in making a seamless transition in and out of the child's imaginary state as well as presenting an entertaining story fully realized on stage. This thesis follows Working Week from its origin, through the rehearsal process, to its production at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale in the fall of 2009. The introduction is an accompanying essay, written before the production began, discussing personal theatrical ideals. The first part of the thesis, Concepts and Intentions, delves into the inception and the accompanying research. The second part, The Production Process, details the rehearsal process and re-writes. Finally, the third, Reactions, Self Evaluation, and Revision, contains postproduction discussions from the general audience, ACTF respondents, and committee members. In addition, I have included a copy of the production draft of Working Week.
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Kewes, Paulina. "Authorship and appropriation : conceptions of playwriting in England, 1660-1710." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1996. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.361931.
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Liguori, Samantha. "Stingray : an exploration into the art and craft of playwriting." Honors in the Major Thesis, University of Central Florida, 2012. http://digital.library.ucf.edu/cdm/ref/collection/ETH/id/579.
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Cloud Nine by Carol Churchill is a good example of non-linear play structure. Episodic plays are part of an even more disjointed time structure. There are both many different locations and characters in an episodic play; it is similar to a film script for that matter. Onstage, this was a revolution; how can a person be in one city and then the next shortly after? This was the rule of continuity that episodic structure broke. Bertolt Brecht did this throughout his movement in epic theatre, and traces of this structure can also be found as early back as Medieval plays. Therein lays the problem. If there are so many different way to write a play, how is it possible to just pick one? How does one even decide? There are many texts on playwriting that all say something different. In the end, the way you format a play script is decided by the structure in which you are writing your script, whether it be linear, non-linear, and episodic structures. This is an exploration to research possible methods of playwriting in the English language, choose a format, and create a story, ultimately forming a universally acceptable play script for a one-act production. Through my process, I researched various elements about play structure. I researched various types of formatting options found throughout texts, and the formatting options found in different publications of plays. I also researched the options of different software programs I could use to format my play. In regards to the show's content itself, I researched the personality disorders of my main character, John, in order to ensure I am staying accurate to the realistic expectations of the disorder. The possible disorders that might influence John included Bi-Polar disorder, Autism, Alzheimer's, or Narcissistic Personality Disorder. These disorders fit the characteristics of John and further research led me to finally adopt Autism as the end result.; David Ball's Backwards and Forwards: A Technical Manual for Reading Plays, Rosemary Ingham's From Page to Stage: How Theatre Designers Make Connections Between Scripts and Images, and Cal Printer and Scott E. Walter's Introduction to Play Analysis aided in ensuring the translation from the script to the stage works together fluidly. By understanding how the play will be analyzed, the potential flaws with the work can be identified before it is put in front of an audience, publisher, or director. A writer needs to know why they made certain choices with both script and character. When a writer can analyze how their script can be perceived, they can create a more solid structure. It also is useful to utilize available play scripts in order to understand the conventions through example. Works that were useful included: Proof by David Auburn, The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, Equus by Peter Shaffer, The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov, The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler, Doubt by John Patrick Shanley, and Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller. The Vagina Monologues follows the format of episodic structure because of its inconsistencies to time and the multiple characters included in its script. Equus, Proof, and Death of a Salesman are examples of non-linear play structure because of the non-specific timeline the characters follow between past and present. The Glass Menagerie, The Cherry Orchard, and Doubt are all examples of linear structure because a majority of their play's content was written within a specified chronological order.; I researched the historical significance of the car, an all-original, 1969 Stingray Corvette Convertible, in order to allow my characters to speak accurately about their knowledge of the car. I also researched how previous playwrights have accomplished their transitions between the world of the play and a character's alternate reality. This was done in order to provide both a believable and a sly transition so the audience is left unaware until the reveal. In the final stages of this process, I polished the script for inclusion in the Theatre UCF Spring 2012 One-Act Festival (OAF). As stated above, the process of writing a play can be taken down many different avenues; however, the format of a play script is something that remains constant throughout. Knowing the history from where plays derive and which movements created such is just as essential. W. B. Worthen's The Wadsworth Anthology of Drama and Living Theatre by Edwin Wilson and Alvin Goldfarb provide an adequate brevity into the history of theatre. The books Playwriting: Brief and Brilliant by Julie Jensen, Playwriting: A practical guide by Noel Greig, The Art and Craft of Playwriting by Jeffrey Hatcher, and The Elements of Playwriting by Louis E. Catron all provide an introduction to the structured format of the play. These books also contain sections on theory explaining how to create a storyline for a play, how to accomplish believable dialogue, and how to defeat writer's block. Jensen, Catron, and Hatcher all go one step further and take their readers through the processes of publications, copyrights, and productions. Those sources help create the play, but during the editing phase, it is wise to acknowledge how others may study and analyze the work.; Through exploration and research, I plan on combining my two degree tracks, Theatre Studies and Creative Writing, in order to create an original one-act play for production, utilizing the techniques of both fields. My education has been lagging in playwriting, specifically. Neither Creative Writing nor Theatre Studies have any courses geared towards playwriting. Students appear to be taught everything but this aspect. I will, therefore, complete in-depth research in playwriting techniques through literature studies and one-on-one consultations with my professors in both departments. There are many different types of writing structures and play movements. Play scripts can be written in linear, non-linear, and episodic structures. Each structure is measured by the action of a script. The action of a script is developed with each action a character completes that moves the script further along towards a conclusion. Linear structuring of a play is when a majority or all the action of a play occurs in a chronological order. The play, therefore, always will be moving forward in time without any disruptions of said timeline. In a linear play, it does not necessarily mean all the action occurs in this chronological sequence. Comparable to Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie, the entire recollection of Tom Wingfield's story is told chronologically in linear structure, despite the fact that this story is from Tom's memory, about an event he is no longer part of at that time. Non-linear structure occurs when the chronological timeline of a play is broken. The play's action constantly moves backwards and forwards through time. This type of play is based on the ideology of the human thought process. As humans, we may not remember the exact order of how things are remembered; these images and events are distorted somehow by our subconscious in order to remember. Thus, a non-linear play erupts based on the infrequencies of a timeline.B.A.
Bachelors
Arts and Humanities
Theatre Studies
54 p.
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Peacock, Jeffrey. "Ten-Minute Playwriting: A Study of Design, Method, and Structure." Honors in the Major Thesis, University of Central Florida, 2014. http://digital.library.ucf.edu/cdm/ref/collection/ETH/id/1633.
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The purpose of my research was to discover the most effective ways to write ten-minute plays. I adapted various "suggestions" proposed in the many playwriting books I gathered to find the way that worked best for me as an artist. The majority of the books I read suggest writing ten-minute works before attempting a one-act or even a full-length play. My resources yielded a plethora of information on how to actually write a play. Three of my sources that proved to be enlightening were The Art and Craft of Playwriting by Jeffrey Hatcher, Playwriting for Dummies by Angelo Parra, and Naked Playwriting: The Art, the Craft, and the Life Laid Bare by William Missouri Downs and Robin U. Russin. I also attended a master class with playwright Tim Bauer, and he gave me insight on approaching writing ten-minute plays. Through my research, it became evident that the real problem with writing is not so much the structure or the way a person writes, but the actual writing itself. Each of my resources had valuable information that made my job as an artist easier, but none of them, even the tips Bauer gave me, worked one hundred percent of the time. Some plays were easier to write if I wrote them without stage directions first, as Bauer suggested, but others stalled if I didn't write my vision of the stage before actually writing dialogue. The research I have completed can aid a multitude of future creative artists. My Five Tips for Writing and Three Tips for a First Production are useful insights that would have been invaluable had I known them when I started writing.B.F.A.
Bachelors
Theatre
Arts and Humanities
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Dunkley, Christopher. "Theatre and human rights : approaches to playwriting the Kosovo conflict." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2003. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.400917.
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Collins, Stephen. "The commoditisation of culture : folklore, playwriting and copyright in Ghana." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2015. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/6263/.
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In this thesis I consider the interface between copyright law and cultural practice. I argue that the protection of folklore through copyright obfuscates the status of folklore as a generative resource for derivative works in favour of its status as a carrier of national identity, over which states can exercise property rights. Specifically, I analyse the significance of folklore within the playwriting culture of Ghana and discuss how, within this specific context, the introduction of the 2005 Copyright Act (which requires nationals to seek permission and pay a fee to use folklore), rather than incentivising artists to create derivative works from folklore, significantly disrupts the ability of playwrights to continue to create work that reflects the codified theatrical practice established in Ghana post independence. As such, the Ghana Copyright Act, 2005 threatens to jeopardise the fundamental balance in copyright between protection and access, and so the purpose of copyright as a mechanism for incentivising artists. Through exploring the development of the relationship between folklore and copyright and how protection for folklore interacts at the international, continental and sub-regional levels, this thesis examines both the potential impact of the copyright law in Ghana and the efficacy of protecting folklore through a copyright paradigm at all.
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Burton, David. "Playwriting methodologies in community-engaged theatre practice in regional Australia." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2021. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/213228/1/David_Burton_Thesis.pdf.
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This thesis examines playwriting methodologies commonly used in community-engaged theatre practice in regional Australia. Since 2003, the Queensland Music Festival has committed to commissioning original community-engaged works in regional Queensland communities. These works, typically featuring a cast of many hundreds and audiences of many thousands, are unique examples of community-engaged theatre work. Since 2013, Burton has served as playwright on these works and has undertaken practice-based and practice-led research across four case studies, along with complementary interviews. The research positioned the playwright in a dense and complex network of stakeholders in community-engaged practice.
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McCall, Michael. "I am here now: A play – and – Polyvocality, the unhomely, and the methods of Mike Leigh in playwriting: An exegesis." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2018. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/2151.
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The aim of the research was to investigate how the devising methods of theatre and film director Mike Leigh might generate material for a new play text and what the implications were in regards to authorship. Central to the research was an exploration of the collaborative devising processes of Leigh as a point of origin and how this might lead to an intended and deliberate case for a plurality of voices in a written play text. It was conducted with a focus on utilising many voices. In this instance the ‘voices’ were young participants from Perth’s African Australian community. The practice-led research project was principally carried out in two parts – the developing of the play I am here now, inspired by material devised by the experiences of eight African Australians, and the writing of the sole authored play. The thesis outcome captures the conflict between myself as a practitioner playwright and the process in which the play was developed and written in context with Mike Leigh’s devising methods, the wants and needs of the participants, and the question of plurality in theatre writing.
Chapter One of the thesis is a critical examination of how Leigh’s methods assisted in generating raw material, the challenges of practice-led research, and the writing of the play itself. Chapters Two and Four respond to understandings (and misunderstandings) apparent during the creation of I am here now, especially in the devising and writing processes. Chapter Three, in between the development and writing analysis, is the play itself. Chapter Five is an overview of the key discoveries of the project. The thesis examines notions of separation and exile in the migratory experience, Homi Bhabha’s concepts of ‘home’ and the unhomely, and ultimately polyvocality, understood by Mikhail Bakhtin and others, as the multiplicity of voice(s) in a text. What became apparent through the research was a battle between the efficacies of the devising methods – that is, the facilitation of improvisatory workshops emerging from a collaboration with a heterogeneous group of African Australian non-theatre makers – and the skills and techniques used to write the final outcome, a sole authored fictional play. Ultimately the findings of the research is that while the play text is sole authored it contains multiple traces of what the participants offered, which came from our formal and informal meetings, to which I understand speaks of a polyvocality.
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Dow-Hall, Siobhan. "Dialogue not Diatribe: Methods for a practice of socio-humanitarian playwriting." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2017. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/2027.
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This dissertation is the result of a practice-led research exploration of how creative writing practice may be expanded and developed with particular application to the writing of what I refer to as socio-humanitarian drama. I have developed this notion to promote discussion and consideration of specific issues of social justice and human rights within playwriting. While this practice-led research enlisted reflective practice in the task of developing and extending my own writing practice, this dissertation does also outline specific, practical modes of creative process, or exercises, that could be applied more broadly for others who may seek to develop their creative writing practice in the field of issue based theatre. The particular socio-humanitarian concern with which this research is engaged is those behaviours, attitudes and beliefs that perpetuate the acceptance, normalisation and enacting of sexual violence, termed in this research as ‘rape culture’. The research identifies modes and methods of the works of a select community of socio-humanitarian theatre-makers, including the work of Caryl Churchill, version 1.0, Patricia Cornelius and Timberlake Wertenbaker, and experiments with the application of these modes and methods to the writing and development of dramatic writing that draws attention to issues relating to ‘rape culture’. This research also considers what, if any, development of my own creative practice these writing experiments facilitated. The final chapter includes an unproduced play-text that attempts to pull these writing experiments together as a cohesive whole. This research discusses certain works from what I refer to as the community of socio-humanitarian dramatic practice, and identifies methods, constructs and concepts that were employed to develop this form of theatre without resulting in a performance text that was overly didactic. The concern being that issue based dramatic writing that is overly prescriptive with meaning may serve to disaffect and disengage audience reception of an issue, as well as result in a performance work that is artistically limited.
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Stellingwerf, Leean Kim. "The problem with apples an analysis of playwriting and disability studies /." Laramie, Wyo. : University of Wyoming, 2008. http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1594480591&sid=2&Fmt=2&clientId=18949&RQT=309&VName=PQD.
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Murray, Peta. "Things that fall over : Women's playwriting, poetics and the (anti-)musical." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2012. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/53579/1/Peta_Murray_Thesis.pdf.
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Abstract: This study explores the contradictions and ambivalences experienced by a working artist at a time when her age, her gender, and broader cultural shifts are all potential obstacles or liabilities to creative flourishing. It is the product of practice-led research into the creative process from the perspective of the female "late bloomer". In this phrase, I have in mind the mature-aged woman who is, in mid-life, suddenly seized with inspiration and fired with creative energy. At its heart is the question: If an Elizabeth Jolley were in our midst today, would we hear from her? The result is a full-length libretto and accompanying exegetical binoculars in the form of a Preface and an Afterword. The creative work, Things That Fall Over (TTFO) is conceived in two parts: a libretto and oratorio for performance. It begins as a play, but over three acts and into a coda, the work becomes something entirely other - an (anti-) musical.
The work grew from a personal interest in the nexus between women, ageing and creative practice, via investigation into the oeuvre of two Australian artists, Elizabeth Jolley, author, first published at age 53, and Rosalie Gascoigne, sculptor, first exhibited at 58. A second strand of the research grew from a fascination for the stage musical, especially in its more alternative modes as in the hands of Stephen Sondheim, or in more provocative manifestations as witnessed in recent Tony Award winners Avenue Q and The Book of Mormon.
Contextually, this research is conducted at a time when anecdotal evidence suggests that women’s work in the performing arts and in literature is being pushed to the margins after a late twentieth century Golden Age on page and stage. Using hybrid practice-led methodologies - bricolage, log-keeping - and working within queer and feminist paradigms, this study seeks to counter that push with a new work that is all-female, part-pantomime, part monstrous allegory. In illuminating the creative process of a mature-aged playwright it concludes that hybrid and interstitial forms still offer an inclusive and democratic space in which voices that may otherwise be muted will continue to be heard.
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Gardini, Genna. "Handsome Devil: an exploration of contemporary South African girlhood/s through playwriting." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/13293.
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Dudley, David. "THE DEVELOPMENT OF 800 DAYS OF SOLITUDE: A CONJURING: A PLAYWRITING THESIS." OpenSIUC, 2018. https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/theses/2412.
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This thesis document is a presentation of the process and production of my play, 800 Days of Solitude: A Conjuring, which was presented in the Moe Theater Lab March 22 through 25 2018. This play endeavored to tell the story of a young man who was wrongfully imprisoned, and then forced into solitary confinement. Chapter 1 contains a detailed account of the pre-writing process, including early inspirations, impressions of what the play might be, and character bios. Chapter 2 is a narrative account of the writing of 800 Days of Solitude: A Conjuring, along with key inspirations and how I used them to shape the text. Chapter 3 recounts the pre-production process, including production meetings with the director and design team, the process of auditions, and rehearsals. Chapter 4 discusses the production of 800 Days of Solitude: A Conjuring. Chapter 5 is the Conclusion, wherein I reflect on my time before SIU, as well as my time here. I then revisit my goals and weigh in on whether I achieved them. Then I speculate on what the future may bring. This is followed by the Works Cited. Appendix A contains the production script of 800 Days of Solitude: A Conjuring, followed by a gloss of terms. Appendix B contains an early draft of 800 Days of Solitude: A Conjuring.
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Marois, Sylvain. "Quand les héros refusent de mourir." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1997. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/ftp04/mq26239.pdf.
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Tremblay, Nicole. "Un dieu vague, ou, Le marc de café, pièce de théâtre ; suivie de Trajet d'écriture." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1998. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/tape15/PQDD_0011/MQ33792.pdf.
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Harris, Terry Lee. "Guns and Death: A Stage Play." CSUSB ScholarWorks, 2004. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project/2629.
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This project is an examination in playwriting with the end product being a two act play entitled Guns and Death. It includes a study of dialogue and its relationship with body language. The setting for the play presented an additional challenge to overcome and learn from; i.e., the dreaded confined space, generally avoided in theatre because it limits animation and action, and tends to bore the audience for want of more visual variety. This element presented the perfect platform to experiment with word phrases and body language. After doing the research I decided to accomplish my goal of creating visual imagery through words, by using the premise of Antonin Artaud's Theatre of Cruelty which postulates that, "The viewer's senses should be bombarded." This is taken to mean that the senses should be bombarded with reality, or a possible reality in the case of this play, should the death penalty continue to progress along its present course, and the gun control argument continues to stagnate. The dialogue is harsh to strengthen the body language and visual imagery and written to produce particular body movements that will validate the words spoken.
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Eyre, Lucy. "Amnesiac A stage play - and - Playwriting migration: Silence, memory and repetition. An exegesis." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2016. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1925.
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In response to the surging migration phenomenon and growing hostility and restrictions on the movement of people, the stage play, Amnesiac, and exegesis, Playwriting migration: Silence, memory and repetition, explore a different approach to this global dilemma. Rather than focussing on the plight of refugees and asylum seekers, the approach and focus of the thesis centre on Western migration, from slavery and colonialism to corporation migration in the current globalised capitalist system. The research underpinning the approach of the play and essay examines the process of voluntary or obligatory participation in and/or resistance of political, social and economic systems which contribute to the circumstances that cause people to migrate.
The play depicts the workplace and home environments of fictional characters from historical and present-day migrations. Interactions between characters reveal the cumulative effects and fluctuating features of the relationship between oppressor and oppressed. These effects and features manifest in the playwriting, with the blending of repetition, stream of consciousness and memory as a way of understanding character objectives, conflicts, alliances and potential transformations. The results reveal the shifting nature of disempowered peoples and expose the shared experiences of oppressor and oppressed - in particular, the contributing factors of socialisation, domination and greed that are infused in the relationships which ultimately lead to conflict or alliance.
The exegesis examines historical and current events and people that inspired the form and content of the play. The factors that inspired the genre, the world of the play, the characters and incidents are discussed in relation to how social, political and economic systems reflect and reveal ongoing root causes of violence, instability and poverty in developing countries and, indeed, the increase of the same problems in developed countries.
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Donahue, Rodney Randall Londré Felicia Hardison. "Holding Off Hawaii a stage play utilizing the Frank Higgins approach to playwriting /." Diss., UMK access, 2007.
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Thesis (M.A.)--Dept. of Theatre. University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2007."A thesis in theatre." Typescript. Advisor: Felicia Hardison Londré. Vita. Title from "catalog record" of the print edition Description based on contents viewed Dec. 18, 2007. Includes bibliographical references (leaf 84). Online version of the print edition.
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Payne, Benjamin John. "Facing reality: idealism versus conservatism in Australian theatre and politics at the turn of the twenty-first century." University of Southern Queensland, Faculty of Arts, 2005. http://eprints.usq.edu.au/archive/00001484/.
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This dissertation aims to provide an analysis of mainstream Australian playwriting at the turn of the 21st Century. It will argue that mainstream theatre in the 1990s and early 2000s in many ways reflects the concurrent national political developments, in particular the revision of many of the dominant ideals of previous eras, such as those of the sixties. In this dissertation, I will attempt to outline briefly some of the hallmarks of the theatre of the New Wave, and their relation to the broader social movements occurring in Australia at the time. I will trace the beginnings of disillusionment and revising of these ideals in the late seventies and early eighties. The majority of the argument will then discuss the ways in which early nineties theatre engages with and frequently rebuts these earlier ideals, just as nineties politics saw a revision of many of the ideals of the sixties in society as a whole. I will argue that in the latter nineties, mainstream playwrights begin to reverse this conservative shift, reinstating a number of the ideals of the earlier period. I will demonstrate that Australian mainstream theatre at the turn of the century is integrally related to the politics of the society of the time, and that mainstream theatre demonstrates both radical and conservative tendencies through the period under consideration.
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Turner, Catherine. "The dream image and the dread image : dramatists' responses to Helen of Troy." Thesis, University of Exeter, 1996. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.296289.
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Bailey, Kathleen A. "894." ScholarWorks@UNO, 2015. http://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/2056.
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Logan, McCall. "QUEER, FEMINIST THEATRE: THE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS OF SAVAGE DAUGHTER." OpenSIUC, 2021. https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/theses/2891.
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This thesis details the development of Savage Daughter, a full-length play performed over Zoom on March 18th, 2021. Savage Daughter tells the story of queer and BIPOC (Black and Indigenous People of Color) characters who fight for their right to exist in a world controlled by white, cisgender, Christian males. Centering on themes of midwifery, witch trials, and queerness, my play follows Constance’s journey of empowerment. Chapter one provides background information about witchcraft, midwifery, setting, and character development. Chapter two outlines my writing process and the first two workshop readings of the script. Chapter three describes the pre-production which includes casting, design meetings, meetings with the director, and rehearsals. Chapter four analyzes the production and future considerations. Finally, chapter five outlines my experience in the program and my growth as a playwright.
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Hageland, Dustin Aaron. "Full Circle: The Development Process of Small Box with a Revolver." OpenSIUC, 2021. https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/theses/2848.
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This thesis examines the process of bringing Small Box with a Revolver from pre-writing to production at Southern Illinois University in March 2021, and my own growth in that process. I drew inspiration from the general societal behavior during the pandemic and other crises of 2020, as well as absurdist plays like Ionesco’s Rhinoceros and Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. The play was written to my stylistic preference of writing dark comedies about social issues.Chapter One examines where I began and how I developed the plot, characters and stylistic choices. Chapter Two examines the writing process, including initial peer and faculty feedback to the script. Chapter Three looks at the unique pre-production process in trying to bring Small Box with a Revolver to the stage, virtually. Chapter Four details the production itself, what I learned, and what further work I would like to do on the script. Chapter Five details my evaluation of my process throughout the MFA program as a playwright and professional, as well as my final considerations. Also included, is the production script.
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Couper, Nathaniel J. "EGO: WRITING THE PSYCHOLOGICAL PLAY, DIEGO." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2017. https://dc.etsu.edu/honors/407.
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Ego: Writing the Psychological Play, Diego focuses on my analytical research and educational experiences as a Theatre major and Psychology minor as well as my personal journey over a four year period writing the play Diego. Theatre provided background for my writing process, and Psychology provided the basis for the play’s main themes. The play’s major plot as well as many of the characters and relationships came from a notable time in my own life, such that without those dramatic personal events, the inception of the play never would have occurred. I combined my experiences with my knowledge of playwriting and the mind to create a work that, while drawn from some unorthodox methods, holds true to the universality of human struggle.
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Low, Polly. "They reckon I need a dramaturg : examining the value of a dramaturg to both the playwright and the professional theatre company in Australia." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2011. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/507.
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This thesis examines aspects of dramaturgy delivered by a dramaturg, and the practical contributions of dramaturgs to both the writer and the theatre industry in Australia. It investigates elements of the working relationship between dramaturgs and playwrights, looks at the chameleon-like nature of the theatre dramaturg and examines how Australian writers, directors and dramaturgs perceive the role/s of the dramaturg. The thesis is partly a reflective investigation of personal practice, partly an historical investigation of the emergence of Australian ideas about dramaturgy, and partly an active investigation into what can help to make a constructive playwright/dramaturg relationship. A major aim of this investigation is to examine the practical aspects of the dramaturg’s work, and the effect of dramaturgy on playwrights and their scripts. What outcomes of a writer/dramaturg relationship can be observed? Can the effect of discussion and oral examination of a script be measured accurately? Outlining the areas considered by a dramaturg when discussing a script gives an indication of how a playwright is urged to think more deeply about the world of his or her play. Additionally, placing myself in the position of receiving dramaturgical input has expanded my understanding of the doors dramaturgy opens and the dead-end alleys it can warn against. Through my research I have discovered that there are important questions to consider regarding the parameters of the playwright/dramaturg relationship. These considerations need to be addressed at the beginning of any collaboration between a dramaturg and playwright. However the two individuals are also subject to the ambiguous nature of dramaturgy in the Australian setting, which brings external pressures to bear on the relationship by companies and other stakeholders.
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Shum, Wai-chung Chris, and 岑偉宗. "A research on the composing process in playwriting in Chinese of professional playwrights in Hong Kong." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2000. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B31223333.
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Fisher, Brock Leslie. "Wrighting ethnography : processes of collecting and arranging ethnographic plays /." free to MU campus, to others for purchase, 2004. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/mo/fullcit?p3164504.
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Melnik, Laurie. "THE ROLE OF OTHER:AN EXPLORATION OF A FACILITATOR'S ROLE IN PLAYBUILDING WITH ECONOMICALLY DISADVANTAGED ADOLESCENT WOMEN." Master's thesis, University of Central Florida, 2008. http://digital.library.ucf.edu/cdm/ref/collection/ETD/id/3863.
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During the Fall 2007 semester, I facilitated the devising of a new play with students from a school located in St. Louis, Missouri. As an employee of a mid-America prominent regional theatre company, the organization partnering with the school on this project, I was hired as the teaching artist who oversaw the students' playwriting. Both the school and the regional theatre company hoped my being there would assist the girls in writing a play that connected to their Top 20 Teens curriculum as well as demonstrate the high standards that are expected of them by their school's administration. This is the second year that the school and the regional theatre company partnered on this project, and they discovered last year that the play's use of language and character development suffered due to hands off directing. Neither organization wanted this to happen again and decided that a facilitator needed to work with the girls throughout the entire playwriting process rather than allow the students free reign in hopes that they were challenged to make different decisions from last year's play. The school's student population stems from communities deemed economically disadvantaged, and my role in this project proved challenging due to the fact that I am not from the same population as the students. As a white, middle class female working in an inner city environment, I seem to be endowed with a modicum of perceived power, whether or not I agree with it or want it. In my experience, I have noticed a dynamic permeated by uneasiness due to past, and current, tensions between whites and other races. As a Caucasian entering an inner city environment, I felt like the obvious minority. Resulting from these situations, I assume the role of "other" when entering populations that differ from my own. In the case of the school, I felt my role as "other" increased due to working in an all-female environment with participants drawn from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. My role as "other" sparked the following questions for me: How do I facilitate this project as an "other," and how does this crucial, racial and socio-economic role affect the construction of my sessions with the participants? I was interested in documenting how I perceived this role relative to my participants and the partnering organization during my facilitation and in my conclusions after the project was completed. During my facilitation, I kept a journal that served as a self-action study during all of my sessions with the girls. The "in the moment" writings allowed me to capture those times when my role as "other" directly affected my approach to the facilitating of the playbuilding and the choices I made during the project. Afterward, I developed a conclusion section that was written a few months after the project had ended. I wanted to determine how my perception of "other" shifted, if at all, while I facilitated the project and after I had the time to reflect on the project. I discovered that my perception of "other" did change as I went through this project. During the study, I found myself aware of this shift, but noticed my awareness of power and privilege increased when I had time to reflect on the project months after it had ended. I discovered that I can be "other" in some instances while this role may not be apparent to my participants. My thesis documents how being "other" guided my choices as a facilitator, as well as when it did not seem to be the basis of my decision-making. From this study, I concluded that my being different racially and socio-economically led me to place an unnecessary filter over my work with the playbuilding project which caused me to have many challenges as a white teaching artist working in an inner city setting.M.F.A.
Department of Theatre
Arts and Humanities
Theatre MFA
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Nelson, Ross Peter. "Becoming Number Six." ScholarWorks@UNO, 2015. http://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/1983.
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Becoming Number Six is an original dramatic work: Stephanie Dylar is disturbed when two shadowy figures claiming to be intelligence agents appear on her doorstep. The agents, Lovelace and Babbage, represent a government branch known as The Division, and inform her that her son Jeremy may be involved in illegal computer activity. When Jeremy subsequently goes missing, Stephanie turns to her friend Julia for help, and is confronted with the realities of constant surveillance as Julia brings the hacking group Incognito into the mix.
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Fraser, Rebecca Amy. "History in the hands of the contemporary playwright, 2000-2015 : a feminist critique of normative historiography in British theatre." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10871/31040.
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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.
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Polson, Braylee. "I Am." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2021. https://dc.etsu.edu/honors/610.
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Shen, Yu-Li Alice. "The Conversation About the Keys: Original Plays - Part I: Tim Without Thalia; Part II: Thalia With Someone Else." Thesis, Virginia Tech, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/42298.
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â First Love teaches you how to love. Great Love perfects that love. Last Love...well, we never really figured out what Last Love did.â â Tim Without Thaliaâ and â Thalia With Someone Elseâ sprung from a place of being tired, but not yet sleepy. The â quarter-life crisisâ if you will: When everyone else seems to be getting married, having kids, starting their own basket-weaving businesses, except you. When relationships between college friends break and relationships between â real lifeâ friendsâ ¦break. When love is dictated as much by actual romance, as it is by power. Yet you still feel oddly euphoric about it all.
In these two companion plays, Tim, Thalia, and their clueless but well-meaning friends wax idiotic on the rules of modern romance: the chase, the connection, and, of course, the end.
Produced April 30 â May 2, 2009 in Virginia Techâ s Performing Arts Building under the direction of Dr. Patricia Raun, Theatre Arts Department Head.
Master of Fine Arts
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Easton, Kirsten Elana. "WHAT’S IN A NAME? THAT WHICH WE CALL A WHORE, BY ANY OTHER NAME, IS SOCIALLY ACCEPTABLE: THE ORIGIN, DEVELOPMENT, AND PRODUCTION OF WIFE/WORKER/WHORE." OpenSIUC, 2016. https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/theses/1921.
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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.
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Poynton, Michelle Bella D. "The Aurora project." Thesis, University of Iowa, 2014. https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/4724.
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Orta, Marisela Treviño. "Shoe." Thesis, University of Iowa, 2018. https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/6237.
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Shoe examines the family dynamics and gender roles within a dysfunctional Mexican American family led by a matriarch who manipulates her grown children to remain under her roof as a way to deal with the enormous grief created when her spouse abandoned her and her children twelve years ago. Drawing inspiration from the nursery rhyme There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe, the play creates an atmosphere of confinement and constriction as the protagonist yearns for a life outside of the family’s double-wide trailer in Texas. The play calls for an all-Latinx cast. While the characters are all Mexican American, the roles are open to any Latinx actor. It should be acknowledged that the script is still in progress. Rewrites and minor edits will likely occur when the play undergoes a rehearsal process for its world premiere.
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Kreimendahl, Christa Lee. "Someday." Thesis, University of Iowa, 2013. https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/2549.
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