Identifier

etd-03162013-155624

Degree

Master of Fine Arts (MFA)

Department

Theatre

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

The creation of a one-person play is required in order to complete the Master of Fine Arts degree in acting. There are no official guidelines, only twenty to forty minutes in length is required. Although I was very excited about receiving the challenge, I did not breathe a sigh of relief until I found the topic I wanted to explore－Signs and Reality, and the one-person play that followed: Bear With Me. Since I am not a native English speaker, I have been frustrated by miscommunication through words in the English-speaking world, which gave me the eagerness to talk about the problem. Later on, I found out signs and words as well as the meaning of them change based on time and place, in other words, signs and words in themselves are unreliable, and also efficient and effective communication does not need to depend on them. These two thoughts wove into the spine of my play. Ironically, it is impossible to create a play without using words, so using words precisely became a big challenge, especially for the person who tried to create an English play and whose native tongue is not English. I believe theatre can take place anywhere, and either traditional theatre or experimental theatre has been a comfortable, convenient space for theatre creators. I think theatre should not be confined to a small box, but it should try to reach its extremes instead, so I challenged myself to have my play in a forest as the location and the atmosphere of my play. Except for the challenges mentioned above, I needed to figure out the journey of my central character and what I wanted my audience to get from the play. These both are essential questions for the play; if I did not solve the problems, my play would be just making a fuss about nothing. Fortunately, bear with me to say that my performances turned out to be a bare success.

Date

2013

Document Availability at the Time of Submission

Release the entire work immediately for access worldwide.

Committee Chair

Judy, George

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_theses.239

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