Performance Studies Research Focus Group

Dissertations in Progress:

“A Unity through Dichotomy: Dionysus, his Theatre, and Athenian Social Culture” [working title]
Tracy A. Jamison, Department of Classics (Advisor: Francis Dunn)

This dissertation is intended to encompass both the modern and ancient worlds, specifically how a select few plays move through them and interact with societies across time, if not space. Careful readings of the texts of Euripides' Bacchae, Medea, and Helen, combined with a review of their production history, will show that a unity of thought and philosophy in the Athenian mind persists throughout the duality of Dionysus, his theatre, and his favorite subject matter of “the other.” More important than reading the texts is reading what is not in the text, namely stage directions and gestures, that might better be studied through modern performance in Athens (and throughout the Greek world).

"The Party at the End of the World: Halloween in Isla Vista" [working title]
Adrienne Maclain, Department of Dramatic Art (Advisor: Catherine Cole)

The annual Del Playa street party has at times attracted as many as 40,000 revelers over the course of a Halloween weekend, and has been lauded by Maxim magazine as one of the top four Halloween bashes in the country, yet unlike at other annual festivals of comparable size, there are no planned events: no parades, no contests, no organized games to play or ceremonies to attend. What this spontaneous yearly gathering does have -- other than a terrible reputation with the University and law enforcement -- is a remarkable draw for college-aged Americans, and a stubborn will to survive in the face of continual opposition. This study is an in-depth exploration of this event: what it is, why it is, how it came to be, and what we can learn from it.

“Transgender Theatre: Contemporary American Portrayals of Gender and Sex”
Jessica O’Keefe, Department of Dramatic Art (Advisor: Catherine Cole)

This dissertation analyzes transgender plays as texts and productions as well as explorations of how gender and sex are constituted, ultimately asking how these non-normative gender/sex presentations destabilize sexual binaries. The significance of the transgender identity is profound and deserves far more study: it offers some of the most tangible and dramatic examples of gender/sex non-conformity, and thus moves us beyond disruption (i.e. Butler’s “gender trouble”) into deconstruction. Feminist and performance studies scholars have examined the performativity of gender both on-stage and as “naturalized” daily performances. However, the highlighted playwrights take this work to a whole new level, and demand a radical reconsideration of theory and terminology.

"If It Hadn't've Been For the Pictures...: The American Performer, 1927-1935."
Jason Davids Scott, Department of Dramatic Art (Advisor: W. Davies King)

With the release of the film "The Jazz Singer" in 1927 and the subsequent conversion to synchronized sound in cinema, performers who had been trained in "live" theatrical traditions such as vaudeville, burlesque and the "legitimate" theatre suddenly found their talents in great demand from a medium that was finally able to more fully reproduce their performance style. This dissertation examines the careers of several performers who were among the first to negotiate the demands of forging professional careers on both stage and screen, as well as tracing the early development of the ongoing critical discourse surrounding the theoretical differences between these two very different modes of performance.

"Magical Realism and Theatre of the Oppressed in Taiwan: Rectifying Unbalanced Realities with Chung Chiao's Assignment Theatre" [working title]
Ronald E. Smith, Department of Dramatic Art (Advisor: Leo Cabranes-Grant)

Assignment Theatre, a people’s theatre company from Taipei, Taiwan attempts to synthesize the literary style of magical realism with the theories and practices of Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed to act as a social corrective against injustice. Assignment Theatre’s artistic director and founder Chung Chiao contends that his unique style of fusion theatre can raise a community’s critical social consciousness regarding issues of oppression, liberalize Taiwanese society, and create social change. This dissertation project examines Chung Chiao’s work and asks how his innovations can be appropriated by others as a tool for rectifying unbalanced realities.

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