Praxis (E-Journal, Villanova University)
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Sexual Desire, Responsibility and the Fallen Man; Rachel Crothers\u27 Ourselves and When Ladies Meet
Get PDF Rachel Crothers, during the course of her playwriting career (1906-1937), wrote over 30 plays exploring and validating the lives of women in early twentieth century American society. In particular, she often focused upon gendered double standards with respect to sexuality. Her early plays strike a more forthright, easily quantifiable feminist, activist tone in this regard. As the decades go by, however, the feminist tone of Crothers’ work becomes increasingly more complex and arguably ambiguous. In an effort to further investigate the complex arc of Crothers’ feminist voice over the course of her lengthy career, this essay will examine two of her plays which, though written 20 years apart, evidence a remarkably similar and provocative feminist thematic premise and dramaturgical strategy; Ourselves (1913) and When Ladies Meet (1933). Both plays explore the boundaries of responsibility for the sexually desiring, ultimately suggesting that women have the power to regulate not only their own sexual desires but also the sexual desires of men
Matriarchal Might: “4000 Miles” of Feminine Perseverance, Wisdom, and Strength
Get PDF Perseverance, wisdom and strength: all very similar words, but with enough differences to shape an individual. How does the theatre treat a wise, strong matriarch who perseveres against hardship? How can things, such as strength be measured? In both brawny, physical stature and quiet confidence? And can such stereotypically masculine ideals be easily translated to a feminism outlook with an octogenarian woman as the figurehead, especially in a world where discrimination is not solely based on race/class/religion/ethnicity, but also age as well? These complex and occasionally seemingly unanswerable questions are the tools that will be used to answer and uncover the feminist meanings in Amy Herzog’s “4000 Miles”
A Noh Drama and Ozu’s Late Spring
Get PDFYasuji Ozu’s Late Spring (Banshun,1949) is considered to be his finest achievement. The story concerns Noriko (Setsuko Hara), who lives happily with her widowed father (Chishu Ryu) and seems in no hurry to get married. Her father, however, wants to see her settled and conspires with his sister to trick Noriko into believing that he is marrying Mrs. Miwa, a widow. The climactic scene is set in a Noh theater where father and daughter watch the Noh drama “Water Iris (Kakitsubata),” performed by the Kanze Noh troupe. The Shite, the spirit of water iris, dances in her elegant attire while reciting Ariwara Narihira’s story of lost love and poetry from the Tale of Ise. While watching the spirit dance, Noriko sees her father exchanges greetings with Mrs. Miwa, who is also in the theater. Noriko’s mood at once darkens because of jealousy and fear of her uncertain future. Noriko descends into the darkness while the spirit dances into the Buddhahood on stage. The film’s climactic scene and the Noh drama’s high point converge and diverge. The film utilizes the Noh drama to illuminate Noriko’s emotional roller-coaster journey. At the same time the spirit’s message about transient life remains true: “the cicada sheds its brocade gown, / revealing sleeves as white as deutzia blossoms/as white as the snow.” At the film’s finale Noriko appears clad in her white bridal kimono, ready for a new chapter of her life.  
“How Are Things in Glocca Morra?”: Vilifying Capitalism and Prejudice Through a Socialist Utopia in Finian\u27s Rainbow
Get PDFWhat does a leprechaun have to do with racial integration in America? Though they seem unrelated, the 1947 musical Finian’s Rainbow by E.Y. Harburg and Fred Saidy uses the integration of Irish mythology and socialist utopian ideals to promote the racial integration of the American South. Finian’s Rainbow is set in the fictional American town of Rainbow Valley, Missitucky. The town, inhabited by people of different colors living in harmony, symbolizes an American utopia threatened by the dangers of capitalism and racism. So where does the leprechaun fit in? Having followed Irish immigrants Finian and his daughter Sharon to Rainbow Valley to retrieve his pot of gold, the leprechaun enhances the magical quality of a place as idealistic as Glocca Morra, a kind of Irish Eden. His magic allows for the otherwise impossible physical and mental transformations of a racist senator named Billboard Rawkins, the play’s main source of conflict. Finian’s Rainbow is a political satire and relies on specific historical references and allusions. Therefore, this paper will analyze the energies of the text from the perspective of new historicism. Using Marxist theory and the theories of Michel Foucault, this paper will explore how lyricist and playwright E.Y. Harburg, influenced by socialist rhetoric, illustrates an integrated, magical, American utopia which highlights and satirizes the very real problems caused by Post-WWII capitalist and racist ideology in the United States
The Cycle of the Butterfly: The Gender Condition within Hwang’s M.Butterfly
No full textM. Butterfly re-tells a true story of a love affair gone wrong. The prominent Frenchman is deceived by the cross dressing Chinese spy for over twenty years. Gallimard is the ‘un-masculine’ man who becomes uber masculine when presented to the Chinese ‘flower’. Hwang presents this story as a means of exposing the truths about the masculine condition, which can never be fulfilled because of its many definitions semantically and culturally. Through the lenses of Masculine and Gender theory, this paper looks to analyze the creation of gender roles within the play, which in turn leads to Gallimard’s demise. Gallimard’s attempt to become the ultimate masculine, powerful man only leads him to become a feminine butterfly
‘Get Yourself Some Power’: Materialist Feminist Struggles in the Apocalyptic Present of José Rivera’s Marisol
Get PDFIn Marisol, José Rivera introduces us to an apocalyptic New York City—gangs of skinheads roam the city setting homeless people on fire, MasterCard holders who surpass their credit limit are tortured by covert government agencies, and the moon has disappeared from the sky, among other unfathomable circumstances. The protagonist and heroine—a successful young professional Puerto Rican woman—attempts to navigate this world with a fierceness inherent to native Bronxites like herself, and fails. Over and over again, as Marisol ferociously clings to the institutions that have supposedly empowered her to date, she drifts increasingly further from gaining control of her fate, until at last she recognizes her systematic marginalization and chooses to rebel. Marisol is a feminist parable that exposes the capitalist, cultural, and religious hegemony’s insidious capacity to drain the contemporary Latina’s agency and self-determination. However, the alternative world that the play suggests as a salve to this social oppression problematically retains roots in the hegemonic structures it seeks to overturn. In this essay, I will call upon the feminist and materialist writings of Christine Delphy, Rosaura Sánchez, Irene Blea, Jill Dolan, and Gloria Anzaldúa, as well as Denys Turner’s analysis of Marxist views on religion to engage with both the play’s critique of Latina social oppression, as well as its proposed solution to this conundrum
Driving in Today’s World: Putting Woman Behind the Wheel and in Control in Paula Vogel’s How I Learned to Drive
Get PDFPaula Vogel’s How I Learned to Drive is a coming-of-age story told episodically and out of chronological order. The playwriting, plot structure, setting, and character names, illuminate Vogel’s feminist perspective in narrative and structure. The characters of Vogel’s play are defined and, in fact, named by their genitalia—Big Papa, Uncle Peck, and of course, Lil’ Bit. Feminism denies this sexual hegemony; however, through focusing on the life of Lil’ Bit, Vogel simultaneously embraces the tenets on which feminism was built, while pushing back against some of those very same principles. Through the work of Hélène Cixous, I intend to demonstrate the feminist tendencies of Vogel’s writing, and consequently her play. In How I Learned to Drive, with the help of Cixous, I will reveal how Vogel revalues the female experience, challenges the representation of women as “other”, examines the power relations in performance and life, and raises the question of male/female differences by exploring biology and social construction. Additionally, I will explore the feminist and gender theories of Michel Foucault, Julia Kristeva, Simone de Beauvoir, and Judith Butler. In so doing I hope to uncover that Lil’ Bit is not a woman entirely oppressed, but rather a woman with the power in her relationships
Spatial Transformation: Action Design in the Work of Lucidity Suitcase Intercontinental
Get PDFThis paper investigates the work and creation methods of Lucidity Suitcase Intercontinental, a six-year-old experimental company based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Bogotá, Colombia. Under the direction of Thaddeus Phillips, the company produces ensemble-based work that is rooted in extensive research, dramaturgy, and textual intervention, but is guided by what they call “transformational scenography.” Also dubbed “action design,” the productions’ technical elements go beyond mere aesthetics and focus on the functionality and interactivity of scenography, which forms an essential element of director/designer Phillips’ work, as well as that of the company. Specific attention is paid to the manner in which Phillips creates parallelism between actor-driven character shifts and set/environment transformations. I examine the primacy of innovative design in the company’s work through the lens of their most recent production, “WHaLE OPTICS,” and discuss the trajectory and long-term viability of such work. I also examine the work’s lineage, particularly the influence of Robert Lepage, and the place of this brand of modern experimental work in today’s avant-garde milieu. The design of specific spaces and the multifaceted use of individual scenic elements to effect shifts into entirely new worlds is examined through a lens of visual dramaturgy. Furthermore, the role of international influence and travel as a research methodology is discussed
Deconstructing Consciousness: The Search for Meaning in Waiting for Godot
Get PDFSamuel Beckett has long been recognized as a great playwright of the Theater of the Absurd, a theatrical genre identified by dramatic critic Martin Esslin. Early Absurdist playwrights were categorized by Esslin because of their use of narrative and character in order to expose the meaninglessness of a post-Nietzschean world. In his book the Theatre of the Absurd, Esslin states:“\u27Absurd\u27 orginally means \u27out of harmony\u27, in a musical context. Hence its dictionarydefinition: \u27out of harmony with reason or propriety; incongruous, unreasonable, illogical\u27[...] In an essay on Kafka, Ionesco defined his understanding of the term as follows: \u27Absurd is that which is devoid of purpose... Cut off from his religious, metaphysical, and transcendental roots, man is lost; all his actions become senseless, absurd, useless.”(Esslin 1973, p.5) Because Esslin used Beckett as his first example, an Absurdist reading of Waiting for Godot has already been well explored by scholars and practitioners. In contrast, another popular reading is deeply rooted in the existential struggle of humanity after World War II. A deconstruction of this play offers the potential to explore Beckett outside of the existential and Absurdist box that critics and audiences typically use to understand Beckettian plays.This paper examines Godot through a poststructuralist lens. By integrating the methodologies of deconstruction suggested by Jacques Derrida with the psychoanalytic theories of Jacques Lacan\u27s symbolic language, I seek to identify and interpret the symbols in this play as signifiers. The abundance and specificity of Beckett\u27s symbols and their corresponding meanings can be appreciated by a complete and thorough deconstruction of the text. This deconstruction opens up the potential to uncover a deeper understanding, illuminating the symbiosis which Beckett described when asked about the play\u27s meaning
The Bridge Between Documentary Theatre and Drama Therapy: Our Asian American Theatre Experiment
Get PDFThis paper explores how documentary theatre and drama therapy use theatre to address issues of diversity, raise multicultural awareness, give silenced voices a chance to be heard, challenge social injustice, and inspire change in anti-oppression work. The paper is based on the author’s experience as the creator and director of Our Asian American Theatre Experiment, the featured production of UCSD’s 2nd Annual Asian American Theatre Festival in the spring of 2007. This was the same time period as the Virginia Tech shooting (April 16, 2007) and the fifteen-year commemoration of the Los Angeles riots (April 29, 1992). Inspired by the many works of documentary theatre dramatists, including Anna Deavere Smith, the author and a cast of fourteen undergraduate Asian American student actors worked with an extensive list of topics usually considered taboo within Asian American culture and communities, using the approach and methods of documentary theatre. The author describes the developmental process, challenges, and experiences during the preproduction, performance, and postproduction phases, including responses from the cast, audience, and community. The author examines the psychologically therapeutic qualities of documentary theatre and the capability of drama therapy to be socially influential by observing how use of the dramatic medium to deal with unspeakable issues and events has healing effects on both personal and societal levels. As supplemental information, the author cites relevant documentary theatre dramatists and drama therapists who link the psychological and social therapeutic characteristics that the two fields share