Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 
 

Files

File List


LasikFranklinJames2006 mt.pdf (995.34 KB)

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Documentary theatre: dramatizing history and historicizing dram

Lasik, Franklin James
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1407236436

Abstract Details

2006, Master of Arts, Ohio State University, Theatre.
Over the past decade, reality television has become one of the most popular television genres. Documentary theatre occupies a similar niche within this viewer climate. Composed principally of primary source information, documentary theatre claims to possess more historical validity than other forms of historical drama, which employs original dialogue and allows more flexibility with chronological order with the aim of heightening the dramatic tension. The purpose of this thesis is to explore whether documentary theatre functions as history, or if it surrenders that validity by virtue of it being in a dramatic rather than a scholarly form. By focusing on how the genre appropriates the methodologies and techniques in the creation and execution of history and drama, the tensions that give documentary dramas power beyond that of tragedy are revealed. Dramatists such as Moises Kaufman, Anna Deavere Smith and Emily Mann make use of several techniques employed by historians, from a sensitive gathering of primary source material, contextualizing the information within a certain frame, and constructing a thorough narrative of an event. However, they are dramatists by trade, and as such are interested not in creating historical documents but viable stage plays. Thus, their docudramas also make use of dramatic techniques, particularly those of tragedy. The documentary theatre, then, functions both as drama and history, and the interplay of those two forces offers a glimpse into the significance beyond the isolated event at the center of these plays, speaking far beyond the immediate vicinity of local tragedy to reach audiences of all kinds. By combining the two disciplines, documentary playwrights are able to more effectively represent the magnitude of an event than either history or drama alone, thus maximizing the value of the act of performance.
Stratos Constantinidis (Advisor)
Joy Reilly (Committee Member)
118 p.
Theater

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Lasik, F. J. (2006). Documentary theatre: dramatizing history and historicizing dram [Master's thesis, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1407236436

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Lasik, Franklin. Documentary theatre: dramatizing history and historicizing dram. 2006. Ohio State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1407236436.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Lasik, Franklin. "Documentary theatre: dramatizing history and historicizing dram." Master's thesis, Ohio State University, 2006. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1407236436

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1407236436
250
© 2006, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.