DOI
https://doi.org/10.25772/S9RX-3Z86
Defense Date
2019
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts
Department
Theatre
First Advisor
Dr. Tawnya Pettiford-Wates
Abstract
“The Ground On Which I Stand”
Healing Queer Trauma through Performance:
Crafting a Solo Performance through the investigation of Ritual Poetic Drama within the African Continuum.
By: Ashley W. Grantham
A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts in Performance Pedagogy at Virginia Commonwealth University
Virginia Commonwealth University
April 16th, 2019
Thesis Adjudicator: Dr. Tawnya Pettiford-Wates
Committee: Dr. Keith Byron Kirk, Director of Graduate Studies and Karen Kopryanski, Head of Voice and Speech
How does this method of Ritual Poetic Drama within the African Continuum, by extension, solo performance, uncover, heal queer trauma through witnessing and performance practice? How do these methods give us an intersectional approach to talking about race, identity, gender and bridge those divides? How does this devised work of solo performance allow the author as practitioner to claim the ground on which they stand and surrender to their own healing?
This thesis attempts excavation of the foundational theories in regard to performance structure, and to discover how healing trauma through theoretical techniques achieves liberation through their enacted practice. This is an allowance of ourselves as artists and facilitators to claim our traumatic bodies as worthy sites of invention.
Rights
© The Author
Is Part Of
VCU University Archives
Is Part Of
VCU Theses and Dissertations
Date of Submission
4-24-2019
Included in
Acting Commons, Africana Studies Commons, Dramatic Literature, Criticism and Theory Commons, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies Commons, Other Theatre and Performance Studies Commons, Performance Studies Commons