Theatre Arts Theses and Dissertations
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Browsing Theatre Arts Theses and Dissertations by Author "Najjar, Michael"
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Item Open Access Durable Whiteness: Structural Settler Colonialism in California and Southern Oregon Theatre, 1849-1860 and 2018-2019(University of Oregon, 2021-09-13) Lenk, Waylon; Najjar, MichaelTheatre and Performance Studies have studied the ways in which theatre and performance act as auxiliaries of hegemonic state power at least since Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed explored the ways in which classical Greek dramaturgy coerced its audiences into pro-state behavior. Meanwhile, the theatre industry often makes interventions into the White racial hegemony that dominates the United States while in some ways reinstating the very dramaturgies that serve to oppress Indigenous Peoples, Black People, and other People of Color (Holledge & Tompkins, McDonnell). Professional theatre would be well served by looking to the critiques of scholars like Boal as well as Diana Taylor, Jisha Menon, and Rustom Bharucha. These scholars critique theatre outside the United States and since, as Laura Pulido observes, race is experienced locally, a regional analysis of theatre as an auxiliary of White hegemonic state power in the United States is needed. My dissertation focuses on the region directly affected by the California Gold Rush, which includes all of California as well as southwestern Oregon, to demonstrate how theatre participated and continues to participate in the establishment of power that oppresses Blacks, Indigenous Peoples and People of Color. I do so by using eventful historical-sociology (Sewell) to describe the Gold Rush as an event that restructured race in the Gold Rush region, and Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) to compare indicators of white hegemony in Gold Rush plays with plays produced in the same region in 2019. I conclude by offering policy recommendations which range from the industry-specific like emphasizing dramaturgies that highlight non-white histories and increasing access for non-white labor in professional theatre to broader reaching interventions concerning minority language rights for local tribal languages and Spanish.Item Open Access Interpreting the Game of History: Synthesis and Shortcomings Between Reenactment, Living History, and Roleplaying(University of Oregon, 2021-09-13) Pointer, Mica; Najjar, MichaelCivil War reenactors claim to be educational through the nature of their bringing the past to life. Their claims place them among heritage and cultural interpreters in how they connect the past with the audience before them. However, the practice of Civil War reenacting has come under scrutiny in recent years for propagating a narrow view of history informed predominantly by nostalgic ideas of a Confederate lost-cause narrative. Through personal experience as a reenactor and living history interpreter, together with in-depth research of these practices, I propose that Civil War reenacting may at times include interpretive practices, however, its primary function as a hobbyist’s pastime places it in the realm of Live Action Roleplaying (LARPing) rather than heritage interpretation. From this, Civil War reenactments are largely based on the relationship between historically inspired personas and the actors’ own personalities rather than creating an interpretive experience for the public audience. It is the confusion between these two tendencies that has resulted in the fields of American Civil War reenactments becoming breeding grounds where ideologically narrow views of history and national identity may be perpetuated.Item Open Access “Sisters of the Pen”: Restoring Women to Early Modern Theatre History Pedagogy and Practice(University of Oregon, 2020-02-27) Rogers, Jessica; Najjar, MichaelThis dissertation looks at current theatre historiography in terms of pedagogy and performance practices on the topic of early modern (seventeenth century) female dramatists, via select dramatic works of Elizabeth Cary, Viscountess Falkland; Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle; and Aphra Behn. As early modern feminists, Cary, Cavendish, Behn, writing in different eras of the seventeenth century, each impacted theatre historiography by providing their unique perspectives on the roles of women in their times. Each of these women have a substantial history of literary study extending back decades; however, current practices in the areas of theatre history and theatre production minimize or dismiss the dramatic contributions of these women, generally for reasons pertaining to gender, and as such, there has been considerable oversight in the theatrical field as a result. Additionally, this study looks at the social contexts of the seventeenth century and later as a means of addressing issues pertaining to early modern female authorship and why these women have been so neglected as dramatists according to genre. Furthermore, it identifies and examines some of the feminisms evident in their dramatic works, and how said feminisms can contribute to current discourse on theatre history pedagogy and performance. The objective of this study is to reiterate the necessity of revising current theatre pedagogical and performance canons to include these women as a means of further understanding their individual milieus by recontextualizing their work as part of, rather than separate from, theatre historiography and practice. In doing so, the hope is to continue advocacy for the importance of a more inclusive feminist theatre historiography and, subsequently the need for revisions to the dramatic canons. This dissertation includes previously published material.Item Open Access The Nether Worlds of Jennifer Haley — A Case Study of Virtuality Theatre(University of Oregon, 2018-09-06) Yeadon, Michelle; Najjar, MichaelStudies exploring the first wave of digital performance foregrounded technology by cataloging experimentation and novel interactions between liveness, projections and code. As exercises in medium, these high tech spectacles demonstrate the aesthetic potential of digital media while introducing key media concepts. Jennifer Haley is a writer with one foot in theatre and one in code. She is uniquely positioned in two interdependent spheres, which makes her particularly suited to engineer a theatrical bridge into the virtual, because at the heart of the contemporary technological revolution is a new level of writing and media literacy. Theatre has been effectively accessing the virtual imagination for millennia, and new technologies create new intricacies for engaging the virtual within theatrical space. Each is a medium defined by action, which host other media, and provide in depth simulations. Haley’s plays push beyond the fascination and spectacle of technology to incorporate the mundane reality of the digital into the structure of her work. Haley writes plays specifically to resonate with the similarities she sees between theatre and virtual worlds. Utilizing techniques and tropes from other media and then framing the narrative from within a theatrical world Haley exploits the essence of an active, critical audience and opens a dialog between virtual worlds and the perceptions of the audience. She treats her media generated worlds as places. Other digital theatre plays may peer through a window into the virtual by dramatizing a conversation through media; Haley sends an expedition over the threshold into another world. A flesh version of an avatar breathing before the audience establishes a material existence unattainable in two dimensional screen media. Haley illuminates the constructed nature of mediatized communication, but she does it dramaturgically deemphasizing the technology and re-centering the human within the virtual drama. Her approach builds a metaphorical bridge between theatre and virtual digital realities. Through a close reading of Haley’s plays I will demonstrate how Haley takes the artistic next step for computer technology and theatre.