Actor-kind : a feminist-theory informed, critical and creative approach to developing empowering theatre for Aotearoa young people : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Creative Writing at Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa
| dc.contributor.author | Ramage, Jessica | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2023-10-15T22:51:00Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2023-10-15T22:51:00Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2023 | |
| dc.description | eng | |
| dc.description.abstract | This thesis critically and creatively addresses issues of gender and empowerment for young people by and through playwriting that is informed by intersectional feminist theory. With initial motivations for the research arising out of the researcher’s own mixed experiences of high school drama, which included both distressing and empowering moments, it triangulates this autoethnographic material with semi-structured interviews with 17 respondents. These interviewees likewise reported a range of experiences in high school drama classes, including praise for the potential of theatre to build confidence, disappointment at lack of gender diverse roles, and discomfort or distress with unrelatable characters or harrowing adult situations they were asked to portray. The interview findings are then combined with feminist criteria for creative work including the Bechdel and Kent tests to develop an original set of criteria for writing inspiring, egalitarian theatre for young people, in which characters are well rounded and gender diverse, and plots offer hope for a future beyond patriarchy. These criteria are applied to analyse two case study plays taken from National Certificate in Educational Achievement (NCEA) recommended plays. The clear differences between these works provide a stark illustration of the need for diverse playwrights to be represented on NCEA curricula and for plays for high school study to be considered in terms of their impact on young actors. Unfortunately, however, the thesis’ analysis shows that as of 2021, the NCEA theatre standards landscape was still profoundly dominated by white, male writers, and many of the topics were bleak. The thesis then sets about offering creative material to fill this gap, via a collection of five original plays of various lengths that were written with the critical feminist criteria in mind, but also with an intent to provide young actors with a pleasurable, often humorous experience during high school drama. The creative works are set in a fictional world (the ‘New Dawns Leadership Camp for Young Boys and Girls’) in which patriarchal binaries are exaggerated to the point of absurdity. This functions both to make gender stereotypes inescapably obvious to audiences and cast members, and to render them ridiculous, positioning misogyny as an outdated cliché (represented through the ‘rusted closed’ character of camp director Irene Steele and her tightly knotted husband Tyson Knots). The camp’s highly theatricalised parody of patriarchy presents it as a silly system that demands - and is subject to - critique, scrutiny, and change, thereby offering young people hope that the future can be different. At the same time, each of the young characters carries an absurdly comic oversized item that represents in some way their inner world, whether personal challenges they face or strengths they have yet to discover. The exaggerated setting and the outsized items interact to show how young people are positioned as objects within and by patriarchy as a social system, yet also function as autonomous individuals with lifeworld trials and inner resources that they can use to navigate their own path. The plays show characters experiencing many of the common situations of high school including friendships, identity, and resistance to parental authority, but doing so with humour and resilience, with the aim to give young actors an experience on stage that is both kind and empowering. | en |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10179/20229 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | en |
| dc.publisher | Massey University | en |
| dc.rights | The Author | en |
| dc.subject.anzsrc | 360201 Creative writing (incl. scriptwriting) | en |
| dc.title | Actor-kind : a feminist-theory informed, critical and creative approach to developing empowering theatre for Aotearoa young people : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Creative Writing at Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa | en |
| dc.type | Thesis | en |
| massey.contributor.author | Ramage, Jessica | |
| thesis.degree.discipline | Creative Writing | en |
| thesis.degree.level | Masters | en |
| thesis.degree.name | Master of Creative Writing (MCW) | en |