Faculty Scholarly Dissemination Grants
You Can't Put THAT Onstage! Subverting Performance Texts Written for Youth and Adult Audiences
Department
School of Communications
College
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Date Range
2010-2011
Abstract
How do directors and producers deal with with stereotypical and derogatory images and characters in older plays that are being produced now? The answer is subversion! I assert that theatre is a living and breathing art form, one that allows for interpretation and reinterpretation. Plays must not be rhetorical pieces of dramatic literature brought to life in the same manner over and over again. As a feminist and humanist director and teacher, I am committed to viewing EVERYTHING through a critical lens, to asking those questions which bring gender and ethnicity and religion and sexuality and age, etc. to the forefront of the art that I help to create. Assisting students in exploring alternative views of playscripts by subverting those scripts is not only of educational value, but it is also the only way to create the kind of art that I am committed to doing. This paper explores specific examples of subversion techniques in order to stimulate conversation concerning production practices.
Conference Name
International Drama Education Association Tri-Annual World Congress
Conference Location
Belem, Brazil
ScholarWorks Citation
Libman, Karen, "You Can't Put THAT Onstage! Subverting Performance Texts Written for Youth and Adult Audiences" (2010). Faculty Scholarly Dissemination Grants. 141.
https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/fsdg/141
