Browsing by Subject "Playwriting"
Now showing 1 - 20 of 30
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item A methodology for playwriting(Texas Tech University, 1993-12) Klinger, JosephPlaywriting as an art form has existed from the Golden Age of Greece to the present. From Aeschulus to Shakespeare to Ibsen to contemporary times, the work of the writer has served to shape not only what has been presented upon the stage, but indeed, the writer's particular society as well. In modern times, the percentage of the population exposed to live plays has declined compared to the media of film and television, but the play has nonetheless endured as a viable art form. This is due in part to two factors: first the constant evolution of the form itself, and second, the efforts of critics and scholars to describe and codify those dramatic works. In Poetics, Aristotle gave the world the first example of Dramatic Criticism when, in his commentary upon the works of Aeschulus, Sophocles, and Euripides, he sought to determine those factors which were sufficient and necessary to producing a viable work of Dramatic Art. In the 17th century, the French Academy imposed guidelines upon dramatic structure that were to shape the direction of French theatre until modern times. In the 20th century, works such as George Pierce Baker's Dramatic Technique have influenced playwrights and thus shaped the direction of the art form.Item Item An original script: "Ellie and the Bear Man"(Texas Tech University, 2001-08) Moore, Michael D.This document chronicles the challenges encountered in writing an original play based upon deeply personal materials and evaluates the playwright's success in creating a vehicle suitable for theatrical presentation. The final product in this pursuit was the play "Ellie and the Bear Man". Primary writing on the play script took place from December 1999 through September 2000. The play was written in partial fulfillment of the thesis requirement for the Master of Fine Arts degree in Playwriting.Item An original script: Capt. Jack's all nude shrimpboat review and burlesque show(Texas Tech University, 1997-05) Chick, David MilesI used to believe myself incapable of completing a full-length play. My past experiences in playwriting turned out to be nothing more then exercises in futility. The reason that I had no success was because I had no idea what I was doing. When I decided that I was going to write a play, I would just turn on the computer and bravely start writing until I ran out of steam. That is all well and good, but with steam power I was only able to get about two-and-a-half pages into a script. At that point I would read over what I had done, decide that it was horrid, and turn the computer off. This approach led to many halfhearted and ill-conceived beginnings to plays. After a while my playwriting fire dwindled, and I resigned myself to the fact that I was never going to be able to write a play. I stayed in this state of resignation until the fall of 1995 when I took a playwriting class at Texas Tech. In that class I had some success writing short, ten-page oneacts. My fire was re-kindled. From this experience I learned that if I wanted to write a full-length play, I needed to develop a style that would be conducive to my creative process. My problem was that I needed to develop a process of writing that would enable me to create a full-length play. In my thesis I will discuss the steps that I went through to solve this problem. The steps include: discussion of various influential playwriting methods, evaluation of my experiences writing Capt. Jack's All Nude Shrimpboat Review and Burlesque Show, and analyzation of the results.Item Conversation with an Apple : play development as movement-building against mass incarceration(2015-05) Goodnow, Natalie Marlena; Gutierrez, Laura G., 1968-; Alrutz, Megan; Jones, Omi Osun Joni L.This reflective practitioner research project explores if and how viewing and responding to drafts of my original solo play in development, "Conversation with an Apple," contributes to efforts to build a movement against mass incarceration, with a particular focus on dismantling the school-to-prison pipeline. I draw upon Michelle Alexander's theorization of mass incarceration in the United States, social movement theory elaborated and archived by contemporary activists, and theories in performance and affect studies to contextualize my investigation. I describe how I utilized Liz Lerman's Critical Response Process to elicit audience responses to staged readings of "Conversation with an Apple," and also how I employed modified grounded theory techniques to analyze those responses. I then explain how insights gained through these methodologies informed revisions of the "Conversation with an Apple" script and my plans for future post-show workshops. I conclude with an evaluation of the usefulness of these play development and research methodologies in my artistic practice. I find that both Liz Lerman's Critical Response Process and the modified grounded theory analysis I utilized, along with a return to my guiding theoretical frameworks, contributed meaningfully to my reflective practice, yielding several key insights. First, I discovered that the play does seem to have the potential to raise consciousness among audience members regarding multiple manifestations of mass incarceration as it affects young people, although I decided that a few key mechanisms of mass incarceration might be more fully elaborated through script revisions. Second, I found that when audiences responded to the play, the shared experience of viewing the performance functioned as a springboard for conversation about other shared experiences in their lives, thus building a sense of community in at least a small way. I also theorize that the act of transmitting heightened affect together while viewing this play built community. Finally, my analyses revealed that although some audience members felt outraged at the realities of mass incarceration and inspired to make a change, many felt hopeless after viewing the play. These analyses informed my most significant revisions to the "Conversation with an Apple" script and plans for post-show workshops.Item Development of playwriting theory: demonstrated in two original scripts(Texas Tech University, 1993-05) Hardy, JohnThe problem to be addressed in this study is the development of a personal playwriting process. The method developed in this document will ideally be one that can easily be applied to plays of varying styles. Style is the result of the manner in which the method is applied. Usually a play is categorized into a style in hindsight, after the play has been performed and the visual aspects of the play have been manifested in production.Item The distance of intimacy : an exploration of love and loss in two plays(2011-05) Kennedy, Meghan Elizabeth; Zeder, Suzan; Dietz, Steven; Lynn, KirkThe following thesis is an exploration of the themes of love and loss, and an examination of the concept of distance as a form of intimacy in my plays, Yours and Too much, too much, too many.Item Employing (and engineering) necessity : Emergency prom and The body(2011-05) Moulds, Stephen Alexander; Dietz, Steven; Lynn, Kirk; Zeder, SuzanThis thesis document traces my writing process during the evolution of two play scripts, Emergency Prom and The Body. I examine these contrasting writing processes relative to the notion of necessity, as defined within. In addition to the process paper, this document includes the scripts of both plays.Item From retrospect to Millie's War: Writing a configurative play(2006-05) Wintour, Elizabeth G.; Bert, Norman A.; Check, Ed; Stoune, Michael; Marks, Jonathan; Person, LorraineMillie's War is a configurative play written as an experiment in form, an exercise exploring the possibilities of a more suitable structure for the content of an earlier written play. In 1990, I wrote Retrospect, a play about a woman who discovers the answer to a mystery in her past: the death of her father in World War II. The story becomes a murder mystery, but in the end, Retrospect answers all the protagonist's questions about the death of her father. Retrospect is a linear play with horizontal movement. It tells a complete story. Traumatic memory rarely works in this way. Since the original play, Retrospect, failed to handle the issues of war, loss, and suffering in a manner that satisfied me, I wrote a new play. The motivation for the new play was to take the internal traumatic experience of a young girl who lost her father in war, and see if I could represent dramatically how the mind goes through trauma. With Millie's War, I was interested to see if, by changing the shape of the play, I could better express the traumatic experience. With Millie’s War, I explore what happens when logical, causal structure is transformed into a structure shaped by image, chance, juxtaposition, and movement. A successful Millie’s War shall mirror the pre-narrative stage of traumatic experience dramatically through a configurative structure. The play shall thus embody the chaos of a traumatized mind: it shall be repetitious and illogical as it replays snatches of memory in a circular fashion. Rather than presenting a story, meaning and significance shall come through the power of its symbolic associations, like a dream. Additionally, in the Millie’s War script, I feel an audience response should be measured in a Brechtian sense rather than an Aristotelian sense. In other words, an audience, instead of empathizing with Millie, should be enlightened to the experience of trauma caused by war. I provide a dramaturgical analysis of Millie's War to place it within the context of current playwriting practice. I explore elements of configurative form and their relationship to Samuel Beckett’s Eh Joe, Bill T. Jones’s Last Supper at Uncle Tom’s Cabin/The Promised Land, Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls, Robert Wilson’s Einstein on the Beach, Suzan-Lori Parks’s Imperceptible Mutabilities of the Third Kingdom, Joseph Chaikin with Jean-Claude van Itallie’s The Serpent, and Joseph Chaikin with Susan Yankowitz’s Terminal. Additionally, I chronicle my writing process from the inspiration of the first play, Retrospect, through the writing and production processes of the new play, Millie's War. Finally, I evaluate how well the new script held up as a tool for communicating my vision of the play, and I explore possible solutions for revisions.Item From retrospect to Millie's War: writing a configurative play(Texas Tech University, 2006-05) Wintour, Elizabeth G.; Bert, Norman A.; Check, Ed; Marks, Jonathan; Person, Lorraine; Stoune, MichaelMillie's War is a configurative play written as an experiment in form, an exercise exploring the possibilities of a more suitable structure for the content of an earlier written play. In 1990, I wrote Retrospect, a play about a woman who discovers the answer to a mystery in her past: the death of her father in World War II. The story becomes a murder mystery, but in the end, Retrospect answers all the protagonist's questions about the death of her father. Retrospect is a linear play with horizontal movement. It tells a complete story. Traumatic memory rarely works in this way. Since the original play, Retrospect, failed to handle the issues of war, loss, and suffering in a manner that satisfied me, I wrote a new play. The motivation for the new play was to take the internal traumatic experience of a young girl who lost her father in war, and see if I could represent dramatically how the mind goes through trauma. With Millie's War, I was interested to see if, by changing the shape of the play, I could better express the traumatic experience. With Millie’s War, I explore what happens when logical, causal structure is transformed into a structure shaped by image, chance, juxtaposition, and movement. A successful Millie’s War shall mirror the pre-narrative stage of traumatic experience dramatically through a configurative structure. The play shall thus embody the chaos of a traumatized mind: it shall be repetitious and illogical as it replays snatches of memory in a circular fashion. Rather than presenting a story, meaning and significance shall come through the power of its symbolic associations, like a dream. Additionally, in the Millie’s War script, I feel an audience response should be measured in a Brechtian sense rather than an Aristotelian sense. In other words, an audience, instead of empathizing with Millie, should be enlightened to the experience of trauma caused by war. I provide a dramaturgical analysis of Millie's War to place it within the context of current playwriting practice. I explore elements of configurative form and their relationship to Samuel Beckett’s Eh Joe, Bill T. Jones’s Last Supper at Uncle Tom’s Cabin/The Promised Land, Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls, Robert Wilson’s Einstein on the Beach, Suzan-Lori Parks’s Imperceptible Mutabilities of the Third Kingdom, Joseph Chaikin with Jean-Claude van Itallie’s The Serpent, and Joseph Chaikin with Susan Yankowitz’s Terminal. Additionally, I chronicle my writing process from the inspiration of the first play, Retrospect, through the writing and production processes of the new play, Millie's War. Finally, I evaluate how well the new script held up as a tool for communicating my vision of the play, and I explore possible solutions for revisions.Item He gets naked for his thesis : the uncomfortable in writing(2014-05) Oglesby, Brian Christopher; Lynn, KirkThe following thesis explores my use of personal and audience/collaborator discomfort as both a creative engine and an organizing principle in my playwriting. I focus on the writing, developmental journey, and texts of two plays: She Gets Naked in the End and Third Street.Item Item Keep the drama on the stage: writing an autobiographical play(Texas Tech University, 2004-05) Castillo, ElizabethNot availableItem Let me tie you up : methods of creating theater by control and surrender(2016-05) Horowitz, Joanna Beth; Engelman, Liz; Lynn, Kirk; Dietz, StevenFear can be a paralyzing inhibitor to creative work, yet it is also a necessary force. Through my journey of graduate school, I discovered the important role fear plays for me as a catalyst for art-making, a signal to go deeper into uncomfortable topics, and a necessary counter to the comfort of control. I am most thrilled by theater that pushes me to surrender that control. Using my plays Please Open Your Mouth, Wild Places, and Knotted as examples, this thesis documents examines my methods for balancing a need for control with the power of surrender in my writing process, in the content of my work, and in the audience experience of my plays.Item Love ya, see ya later, bye: an original script(Texas Tech University, 1996-08) Quinn, Ruby MayNot availableItem Musical logic : an alternate theatrical language(2014-05) Koogler, Abraham Victor; Dietz, StevenThis thesis is an examination of the concept of musical logic as a theatrical language, with my play Advance Man as a case study. This thesis synopsizes the play, and outlines the principles of musical logic, which is defined by the use of rhythm, repetition, and resonance. These concepts are illustrated with examples from the initial creation, revision, and UT production of Advance Man. The full text of Advance Man accompanies the thesis essay.Item The permeable boundaries of empathy and desire(2013-05) Reisman, Gabrielle Helena Marie; Zeder, SuzanThis 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.Item Personalizing politics in drama : an examination of strategies for writing character-driven political plays(2010-05) Zimmerman, Martin George Andrew; Zeder, Suzan; Dietz, Steven J.; Lynn, KirkThis thesis consists of two major components. It begins with an analytical essay that discusses the three final plays I wrote during my time at the University of Texas at Austin (White Tie Ball, The Making of a Modern Folk Hero, and A.I.M.). The essay also places these plays within the context of my larger journey as a writer during my graduate coursework. Specifically, the essay addresses the different strategies I employed to effectively integrate my characters’ pursuit of their very personal objectives with the politics of the world in each play. Immediately, following this analytical essay are the three plays in question placed in the order in which I wrote them.Item A playwright's process through sound and script(2012-05) Horan, Tom Henning; Dietz, Steven; Zeder, Suzan; Lynn, KirkTwo works, Static and The Fictional Life of Historical Oddities represent the dichotomy and symbiosis of two different models of playwriting I have pursued while at the University of Texas. This thesis reflects back on the processes that lead to these plays through periods of generation, revision and refinement. I've sought to find not only distinctions but areas of overlap.Item Prayers, poems and questions : plays that point toward the unknown(2014-05) Bender, Katie J.; Dietz, Steven; Lynn, KirkThis thesis document explores the open systems I have used to develop my plays throughout my three years at the MFA Playwriting Program in the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of Texas at Austin. Looking closely at two plays, The Fault and Still Now, from inspiration to production, I will chart how they are structured as open systems; the former a prayer, the later a question, and ask how these plays activate an audience towards the unknown.