DOI
https://doi.org/10.25772/J1AN-EP87
Defense Date
2023
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts
Department
Theatre
First Advisor
Dr. Keith Byron Kirk
Second Advisor
Karen Kopryanski
Third Advisor
Dr. Jesse Njus
Abstract
Theatre as an artistic practice has often been celebrated as an art of and for the people, being a modality that in theory the common person has access to learn, explore and experience. In recent years I have become preoccupied with the growing rarification and privileging of this art form, particularly in how it is cognized and taught in the academic world. As such, I set out to investigate the mechanisms at work at levels structural, artistic, and personal that determine how theatre is taught and understood within the western academy.
This thesis seeks to examine and unpack the perceived “correct” way to do and teach theatre as posited by the western academic tradition, and the impact this has on its students. I first unpack Pierre Bourdieu’s theories of Cultural Reproduction and Symbolic Violence and their effect on how theatre is understood and produced. I trace the history of theatre in the western academy and the current state of theatre programs and curriculum. I then draw on interviews with individuals who have studied theatre at the undergraduate level to analyze their experience of theatrical pedagogy. In turn, I examine and theorize pedagogical alternatives to encourage a more accessible and individualized approach to performance pedagogy. The result of this thesis is an unpacking of the formations and systems that make up undergraduate theatre performance studies and an analysis of the potentially harmful effects these systems have on the understanding of undergraduate students.
Rights
© Sim Cleveland Rivers
Is Part Of
VCU University Archives
Is Part Of
VCU Theses and Dissertations
Date of Submission
12-8-2023
Included in
Acting Commons, Aesthetics Commons, Community-Based Research Commons, Critical and Cultural Studies Commons, Educational Sociology Commons, Epistemology Commons, Ethnic Studies Commons, Fine Arts Commons, Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Ethnicity in Communication Commons, Other American Studies Commons, Other Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, Performance Studies Commons, Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons, Social Control, Law, Crime, and Deviance Commons, Social Justice Commons, Theatre History Commons