Doctoral Projects in Progress in Theatre Arts, 1996

This is the forty-fourth annual report of dissertations in progress in the theatre arts in the United States. The success of this report continues to depend upon prompt and accurate replies from the graduate departments of theatre, speech, English, and others, and their cooperation in this regard is gratefully acknowledged. Any graduate department that is not annually receiving requests for information for this report is invited to contact its compiler in order to be added to the mailing list.

Logistical limitations necessitate confining this survey to colleges and universities in the United States. For similar information from Canada, one may contact the editor of the ACTR/ARTC Newsletter, Denis Johnston, Department of Theatre and Film, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., Canada V6T 1Z2. Each year that newsletter lists completed articles, books, and dissertations in the area of Canadian drama and theatre history.

The format employed here is adapted from that used by Frederick M. Litto in his American Dissertations of the Drama and the Theatre (1969). The graduate departments were asked to classify each dissertation by its subject matter according to the geographical divisions proposed by Litto; in the cases of England and the United States, they were further asked to assign each to an arbitrary time period as indicated below. Within each of these subdivisions, entries are alphabetically arranged according to the surname of the researcher. There is no room here for the lavish cross referencing and multiple listing Litto employs; consequently, those dissertation topics that would not yield to the geographical classifications used in Part I are listed by topic in Part II. Here again, the topic headings are those proposed by Litto; a fuller description of each may be found on page three of his work.

Each entry includes the following information: the researcher’s name; the title of the project; the institution; the academic department within that institution; the faculty supervisor; and the expected year of completion. Occasionally the year has not been supplied.

Part I

Africa

Arthur, Michael Dry. Theatre of Transition: South Africa’s Standard Bank National Arts Festival, 1992–1996. Texas (Austin). Theatre and Dance. Oscar G. Brockett. 1997.

Box, Laura. My Tale Is Like the River: Women’s Dramatic Literature of the Mahreb and Beur. Hawaii (Manoa). Theatre and Dance. Juli Burk. 1997.

Central America

Westlake, E. J. Tierra Libre: (Re)Visions of the Nation in Central American Drama. Wisconsin (Madison). Theatre and Drama. James S. Moy. 1996.

Conceison, Claire. Twentieth-Century Chinese Spoken Drama. Cornell. Theatre Arts. D. Bathrick. 1997.

England

General

Barrett, Robert. From Mankind to Marx: Form and Ideology in Late Medieval and Early Tudor English Drama. Pennsylvania. English. David Lorenzo Boyd. 1997.

Hubler, Coleen. Balancing on the Edge of Obscurity: Beaumont and Fletcher in the Nineteenth Century. Delaware. English. Lois Potter. 1997.

Kelemen, Erick. Medieval and Renaissance Performance of the Parable of the Prodigal Son: Text, Audience, and Conversion. Delaware. English. Lois Potter. 1997.

Renaissance

Aspinall, Dana E. “Built More for Use than Show”: The Reception of the Beaumont and Fletcher Canon, 1607–1688. Connecticut. English. Jean I. Marsden. 1996.

Baskin, Richard. Figuring the Common Hero on Stage, 1588–1600. Tennessee. English. Norman Sanders. 1996.

Blewett, Peter. A Critical Edition of The Thracian Wonder. Wisconsin (Milwaukee). English. Robert K. Turner. 1996.

Brown, Sarah. Shakespeare’s Treatment of the Welsh. Texas Tech. English. Don Rude. 1996.

Evans, Stephen F. Erasmian Folly and Ben Jonson’s Comic “Theater of Asylum.” Kansas. English. Richard Hardin. 1996.

Fitzgerald, Jan. The Educative Dialogue of Romance in the Comedies of Shakespeare and Dekker. St. Louis. English. C. H. Miller. 1996.

Gordon, Christine Mack. Dreaming in Shakespeare: Pedagogy, Dramaturgy, Performance, Fiction. Minnesota. English. A. Leyasmeyer. 1997.

Hammock, Earlene. Madness, Misogyny, and Religion in Shakespeare’s Tragedies: A Study of Hamlet, King Lear, and Macbeth. New Mexico. English. David McPherson. 1996.

Healy, Robert. Homoerotic Desire and Narrative Dilation in Elizabethan England. Miami. English. Mihoko Suzuki. 1996.

Hill, Nancy. The Bitter Aroma in the Plays of Marlowe and Other Late Sixteenth-Century English Dramatists. Southern Mississippi. English. Philip Kolin. 1997.

Hunt, Simon. The Staging of Succession, 1598–1608. California...