Drama

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://digital.lib.washington.edu/handle/1773/4911

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Stories: A Story
(2026-04-20) Kleinpeter, Marena Faye; Fracé, Jeffrey
When the history of your people comes from faded and partial records, how do you fill in the gaps? When so much of modern media depicts the lives of your ancestors only in terms of their trauma and not of their triumphs, how do you come to terms with that history? Do you imagine the full lives of the people who are just names, or numbers, or merely qualifiers on ownership rosters and inventories? And do you color in the lines by soaking in the stories of people who might have had the same questions as you? When what can be called historical fiction might be the best idea you have of where you come from, you take what you know and turn it into something that you hope those who came before you could only imagine in their wildest dreams. Stories: A Story is just that. More than just stories of trauma passed through generations, but the purity and simplicity of human love, hope, and joy found in the connective links of family passing all that they had, their stories, down from one era to the next, uniting each generation to those before and after. Following five fictionalized characters based on real, sparsely recorded people, we get a glimpse of what their lives may have consisted of outside the hardships they endured, and that instilled in them a love for what truly matters; connection to who they are, where they come from, where they are going, and the ones who will get them there.
On Homing: Finding process and place in solo performance
(2026-04-20) McWilliams-Woods, Taylor; Fracé, Jeffrey
Drawing on Sara Ahmed's Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others as a theoretical framework, old homes have a way of moving you is a solo performance that explores home, migration, and the search for the kind of answers that move you forward. The piece follows a homing pigeon lost for the first time, who is eventually confronted with the truth that her home has changed in her absence, and it is time to find a new one. Through original poetry, archival home video, voice messages from friends, and dance, this piece weaves together a metaphor wherein the pigeon—and the performer—can say goodbye to their former home, and feel at home in the discovery of where they are going next.
Tell Me Your Name: Audience’s Communal Responsibility as Ethical Witness
(2026-04-20) Kim, Yeonshin; Fracé, Jeffrey
Tell Me Your Name is a participatory solo performance which explores trauma rootedin the Japanese Occupation of Korea through humor and communal healing. Myeong, a mystical contemporary Korean “Pet Shaman,” summons and embodies the souls of deceased pets, playfully encouraging audiences through interaction and improvisation to invoke memories of their dead fur babies—how they moved and ate, sounded and played, lived and died. Each spiritual solicitation culminates in a ritual release, speaking the beloved soul’s name and saying goodbye. In the middle of Myeong’s healing rites for grief, care, and vulnerability, a human soul insists on breaking in. Audiences meet Grandmother—an energetic, talkative, affectionate old lady with a thick Korean accent—who arrives to tell her story as a “Comfort Woman,” a Korean girl sexually enslaved during the Japanese Colonial Era, and finally have her story witnessed and her name spoken so she can be released. Humorous, provocative, and playful, this piece explores the absurd ways we hide from generational trauma and how some stories lie in waiting until we are brave enough to stop them from being forgotten. This intimate and tender play uncovers the legacy of survival and resilience carried through storytelling and memory.
¡Dále! Inverted Exclamation D A(con tilde) L E Exclamation: A Solo Performance Through Mess and Joy
(2026-04-20) Gonzales-Cortez, Adriana Izabelle; Fracé, Jeffrey
Isa bursts into rooms with light and joy. Until she stops. Her sparkle is fizzling out. One day she decides to ¡Dále! Go ahead and bring the messy joy back into the room by leaving home and becoming a piñata. In a world where there is hardship, embracing our joy can bring us back to fondest memories of joy with loved ones. We can be connected by one goal, go after that joy from within. ¡Dále! Inverted Exclamation D A(con tilde) L E Exclamation: A Solo Performance Through Mess and Joy gives La Piñata permission. It gives her permission to arrive from a box, make a mess and share that with the audience. She searches for her family’s love and joy through Clowning. Within the audience her family is found. There is a realization that the joy from within La Piñata must be shared with everyone. Surrounded by entrails of streamers, papier-mâché and candy wrappers, she did it. She brought them joy. She created it. She also destroyed herself for them to experience it, but it is all worth it.
The Ballad of Freddie Ohr: The True Story of Flying Ace Fred F. Ohr Explored through Solo Performance
(2026-04-20) Bai, Minki; Fracé, Jeffrey
Freddie was a humble farm kid with a sky-high dream. He wanted to be a fighter pilot. But for a Korean American kid growing up between World Wars, becoming a fighter pilot wasn’t going to be simple or easy. He was going to have to fight for every opportunity he had. Will Freddie take flight, or will the prejudices of 1940’s America keep him grounded? The Ballad of Freddie Ohr is a solo performance depicting the experiences of Fred F. Ohr in becoming the first and only Korean American flying ace. Adapted from real, recorded interviews with Fred F. Ohr and inspired by American Folk Songs and Tall Tales like Paul Bunyan and John Henry, the play uses music and firsthand accounts to explore the immigrant experience and detail Fred F. Ohr’s dogged pursuit of his dream despite setbacks, German air attacks, and racial discrimination.
Duty to Serve
(2026-04-20) Gonzalez, Betzabeth; Fracé, Jeffrey
Duty to Serve is a solo performance that explores how far a person’s anxiety can spiral when their self-worth is tied to the identity of a perfect god. Through audience interaction, musical offerings, and ritual, the piece examines the cost of equating devotion with value. Set at a Good Samaritan Day event, the audience is cast as nonbelievers awaiting entertainment, food, and, of course, a humorous word from the pastor… when he eventually arrives. In the meantime, they get Carina Sirviente, the church's mousy secretary, put in charge of organizing the event. Fighting through social anxiety and a need to please, Carina finds herself pulled in every direction trying to be a good representative of the Lord. Every mistake sends her into the Anxiety Fog, where escape is reliant on giving a worthy offering to the Lord. With every attempt, the offering’s value must increase until she must choose between giving herself completely or suffering in the Anxiety Fog forever. In the end, Carina is freed by the genuine care of the audience, learning that she never needed this god to know her worth. Inspired by my experience as a Pentecostal Christian, this production reassures those stuck in this cycle that they can walk away, too.
32/0: A Solo Performance Exploration of Vulnerability, Masculinity, and Hunger for Fun
(2026-04-20) Fernandez, Jerik; Frace, Jeffrey
University of Washington Abstract 32/0: A Solo Performance Exploration of Vulnerability, Masculinity, and the Hunger for FunJerik Fernandez Chair of the Supervisory Committee:Jeffrey Fracé School of Drama 32/0 is a solo performance exploring vulnerability, masculinity, and the reconnection to my inner child-like fun through clown, dance, and melodrama. Set in the current day, the character of The Cool warns the audience of an impending enemy, The Sun. Through slander, coercion, and interrogation of The Sun, The Cool is reminded of the beauty The Sun used to provide. In the end, he surrenders to The Sun and is reunited with his child-like playfulness once again. Inspired by American depictions of cool, World Wrestling Entertainment, hip hop, and 90s pop music, the piece asks the audience to check back in with their inner child and rediscover their whimsy.
The Adaptation and Direction of The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare
(2025-05-12) Drummond, Kate; Curtis-Newton, Valerie
This thesis documents a portion of the capstone assignment for the Professional Director Training Program. It specifically includes the text analysis and concept that led to the adaptation and direction of a full-length play for the School of Drama's mainstage season, and reflections on the impact of three years of graduate study on that process. The production in question ran February 13-23, 2025, at the Floyd and Delores Jones Playhouse on the campus of the University of Washington.
Directing The Caucasian Chalk Circle
(2025-05-12) O'Leary, Nicholas James; Korf, Geoff
This thesis is an attempt to document and reflect on the process of directing a production of Bertolt Brecht's play The Caucasian Chalk Circle, in a translation by Alistair Beaton, as a culminating project in my Master's training in Directing at the University of Washington's School of Drama. The Caucasian Chalk Circle was produced by The School of Drama in The Meany Hall Studio Theatre and ran from November 2, 2024 through November 10, 2024. This paper includes analysis of the play, discussions of the collaborative process with designers and actors, and consideration of how key ideas evolved over the course of the production process, as well as reflections on my personal development as a director and artist.
No way to go no way to stay
(2024-09-09) Rahmanzaei, Mozhdeh; Frace, Jeffrey
No Way To Go No Way To Stay is a solo performance inspired by my life about staying true to my identity despite obstacles. It focuses on artists in Iran who are forced immigrate to other countries to pursue theater without censorship. The process of getting scripts approved often takes years and they are sometimes rejected completely. This performance invites the audience to connect with these hardships. This show is about my life as an Iranian actor, struggling for years to get approval for my scripts and my master's thesis, which I ultimately could never defend because of censorship. Because of this, I was forced to immigrate, where I faced different challenges in the process of manifesting my identity.
Ubu’s Moment: Four Resurrected Histories of the 1896 Parisian Premiere of Ubu Roi
(2024-09-09) Trainor, John Hayward; Johnson, David Odai
Ubu’s Moment: Four Resurrected Histories of the 1896 Parisian Premiere of Ubu Roi, is a new account of the dÃ©but Parisian production of the nineteenth-century French writer Alfred Jarry’s best known play, Ubu Roi. The term “resurrected” features in the title because, in this study, four previously neglected historical perspectives on this critical moment of the modernist theatrical past are brought back to life. Their first purpose is to reopen forgotten contemporary contexts concerning the production. More importantly, though, these resurrections aspire to displace and replace the charismatic myth (of a rioting and morally-outraged bourgeois audience) which continues to dominate and distort the general understanding of this noteworthy theatre historical occasion.For many readers of theatre history the fictional idea of a rioting bourgeois audience at Ubu Roi has proved so emotionally satisfying that other, more trustworthy, un-fictional accounts of the historical production, having less entertainment value, are dismissed and forgotten . . . and so the myth endures. Therefore, to illuminate the more truthful workings of the historical avant-garde theatre in an effective manner, some way must be found to supplant this beloved and seemingly indestructible morality tale. Toward this end, this dissertation takes a re-historiographic approach that has not been previously applied to this event. Each chapter of this work presents the reader with a different vision of the premiere of Ubu Roi. Each new telling features the viewpoint of a different significant player in the historicity of the occasion. These are, namely: Alfred Jarry (the play’s author); AndrÃ© Antoine (a celebrity member of the audience); Rachilde (pseudonym for Marguerite Eymery Vallette, editor of an important Parisian literary journal); and Henry BauÃ«r (an influential theatre critic). All four perspectives offered in this study are equally true and archivally supported, yet they are also contradictory to one another. When combined, they create a new narrative collage-portrait of the tumultuous event: a multi-perspective composition pieced together from little-known but provable truths about the production, providing different and unfamiliar explanations of how the performance happened, what happened during it, and its overall significance. Ultimately, in place of re-inscribing a familiar but erroneous account of the play as a scandalizing assault on a bourgeois audience, this study proposes that the famously tumultuous premiere should, instead, be celebrated as an unsolved (and perhaps unsolvable) mystery. The occasion’s historical significance resides in the fact that several invested eyewitnesses all vied for historiographic “custody” of its premiere performance. They competed with one another for the right to declare and to define the meaning of that event for posterity — to become the predominant interpreter of the occasion — and, by becoming this, to use the impact of the performance to steer the direction and development of theatrical “progress” according to their own different agendas. This study argues that that contest — the custody battle — is what ought to be remembered about Ubu Roi, rather than the myth of an outraged bourgeois audience.
When Harry Met Sidney: A Celebration of Friendship through Stories and Songs
(2024-04-26) Jenkins, Jesimiel Ross; Fracé, Jeffrey
Far too many black trailblazing entertainers are mere footnotes in history. Contemporary American show business was shaped and refined by the talents of black artists, many of whom were not permitted to eat or drink where they performed for a sea of white faces. These early entertainers often suffered silently and elegantly onstage while they fought for civil rights, equality, fair wage, and dignity backstage. Harry Belafonte and Sidney Poitier are perhaps two of the more distinguished and decorated performers of the mid twentieth century, but few people really know the depth of their relationship or that Sidney got his start as Harry’s understudy. When Harry Met Sidney: A Celebration of Friendship through Stories and Songs is an ode to the memory of these legendary figures. This monodrama details their early years at the American Negro Theatre in New York City, their paralleling rises to fame, and their harrowing journey from Newark, New Jersey to Greenwood, Mississippi at the dangerous height of the Civil Rights Movement to transport $70,000 in cash to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, a protest organization on the frontlines.
Ode to a Black Girl: body consciousness
(2024-04-26) Okpala, Chinelo; Fracé, Jeffrey
How do body image and eating disorders inform our understanding of embodiment? Body imageis a multifaceted construct of embodiment. Eating disorders are a disturbance in one’s relationship with food that can alter their physical and mental health. Although the two are not mutually exclusive, both intersect when examining the way we inhabit our bodies. Ode to a Black Girl: body consciousness sheds light on my relationship with body image and eating disorders through an in-depth exploration of how the two manifest in my own embodiment.
The Lorca Woman
(2024-04-26) Kravtsova, Olga; Fracé, Jeffrey
University of Washington Abstract The Lorca Woman Olga Kravtsova Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Jeffrey FracÃ© School of Drama The Lorca Woman is a piece about a woman’s journey through the obstacles of life and social barriers in order to gain acceptance from “the audience” and herself. This piece explores the ability of women to wear many faces, and to take up different roles depending on what the situation asks of them. This process explores both societal and familial pressures which women constantly face. The Lorca Woman piece unfolds the moment when an important decision needs to be made and what personalities inside the woman are coming to life; the characters summoned by the pressures above. The presented piece is a work in progress, an abstract depiction inspired by the play The House of Bernarda Alba by F.G. Lorca.
Tex: A Solo Performance Exploration of Queerness and Masculinity
(2024-04-26) Morden, Nicholas Lee; Fracé, Jeffrey
Tex: The Straightest Man in the West is a solo performance exploring internalized homophobia and masculinity through clowning and bouffon. Set in a saloon in the American West, the audience plays the part of saloon patrons while an increasingly agitated Cowboy tries to prove his masculine bonafides. In the end, he surrenders to his queer instincts and allows the audience to see him as he is. Inspired by American depictions of queerness, cowboys and the West, and pop music, the piece asks the audience to investigate how they perceive straight or masculine behavior.
Carnival - A Rock Opera
(2024-04-26) Trimbur, Gabriel; Fracé, Jeffrey
Carnival – A Rock Opera is a musical study that infuses acting fundamentals within a live concert performance. Dramatic acting relies on a thoroughly developed script with clear characters, a rising and falling action, and text for the performers to bring to life. Is it possible to develop a quality through line of dramatic action while simultaneously writing poetic lyrics for a sung-through production that is free of text? Recent adaptations of concept albums by popular music artists have been edited and rewritten to better emphasize the dramatic arc of the story. In this thesis, the performer connects Linklater voice training, the Alexander Technique, and Suzuki training with their biopsychosocial history of musical knowledge to try and create a connection with audience members in an intimate space. The listed techniques were used to develop healthy performance traits while being used as tools that enlightened the performer to efficient vocal production skills, and physical presence. The challenges that were overcome in the early research period included re-writing charts for documentation and future recording purposes, active listening to live recordings of demo tracks to decipher musical interludes and patterns, and overdubbing instruments and vocal lines for a live concert feel. These adjustments to physical and audible presentation were imperative to the audience’s reception of a dramatic story within the live concert production. The concept of writing a rock opera that is easily decipherable by a listener is possible, but not probable without visual/textual aid to the viewer or listener.
How Not to Care 101 by Don Taist Forno
(2024-04-26) Culver, Deja; Fracé, Jeffrey
University of Washington Abstract How Not to Care 101 by Don Taist Forno Deja Culver Chair of Supervisory Committee: Jeffrey Frace School of Drama How Not to Care 101 by Don Taist Forno explores the questions of why society continues to provide for the people who are on top of the capitalistic system and always have been. It inspires lower-positioned workers to revolt and shy away from the common people-pleasing tactics we all learn at birth.
Spatial Maneuverings in Post-Uprising Syrian Performances: Scarring Space and Language
(2024-02-12) Merhi, Mona; Magelssen, Scott
The aftermath of the Syrian uprising in 2011 and the civil war that ensued resulted in the exodus of a considerate number of Syrian artists, theatre, and performance makers on one hand, and, on the other, it caused a drastic change in the lives of their colleagues who refused to leave home. While many of the thespians decided to stay inside Syria and where many others were scattered across the globe, Syrian art was endowed with a unique, yet temporary international exposure despite the disproportionate insight between productions taking place inside Syria and abroad. Ten years following the momentum of the revolution, artists left a rich Syrian canon of productions with nuances that are worth examining, including the diverse maneuverings of space in the post-uprising stages. My dissertation offers a close reading of performances both in exile and inside Syria between 2011 and 2021, where the concepts of space, and utterance to a lesser degree, are problematized. An examination of various works produced in Damascus, Beirut, Paris, Berlin,Stockholm, and other cities pinpoint different levels of spatial uncanniness where the sense of a space/place is often fraught. Situating my research in conversation with Una Chaudhuri’s Geopathology as a theoretical framework within broader spectrums of spatial studies, trauma, and memory studies, I analyze the significance of space, place, and geographies–both studied as aesthetics on the stage and in the artwork, and as an affect of being experienced by Syrian artists. As I offer close readings of the works of artists Noura Murad, Tanya El khoury, Mudar Alhaggi, Wael Ali, Wael Kadour, Oussama Ghanam, Waseem Alsharqi, Sari Mustafa, and others; the present research extrapolates the sense of spatial uncanniness into a node of intersectionality with trauma, displacement and war, and historical (in)justice/s. Such sense manifests in different ways: it may bluntly allude to the loss of feeling the concept of “Home,” or “the Center,” through the diegetic or mimetic space. The destabilizing value of Home is only the first layer of spatial uncanniness. Another layer unfolds when the surrounding space is interiorized into the bodies of the subjects. The sense of place thus becomes as haptic as to occupy the space of skin. The third layer of spatial uncanniness can be witnessed through performances staged in total or partial darkness, and these second and third layers achieve what I like to call "a level of ocular fluidity retainment. The fourth layer of spatial uncanniness can be tracked through the modes of meta-theatricality that question the medium of Theatre itself, as that which possesses the power of narrative-telling. The sense of uncanniness in many occurrences relates to a failure or refusal of both presentation and representation. The present research contributes to the available limited scholarship about the post- uprising Syrian performances. While the existing studies addressed the act of redeeming the public sphere following the first years of the revolution, my dissertation offers a close reading of the significance of space as a withdrawal inside and outside Syria. My inquiry thus introduces another lens of looking and equally fills a gap in the field of spatial studies. While resituating space as a problem within the realm of the contemporary refugee crisis and exile patterns in the Middle East, my thesis expands on Una Chaudhuri’s concept of Geopathology while offering a transnational examination of post-uprising Syrian theatre. Through my dissertation, I argue that amid the landscapes of internal war, displacement, and immigration, space not only unravels as a problem that lands as a state of exception on human bodies, but also signifies a withdrawal, spreading in its utmost vulnerability, indicating failure of representation, sometimes cultivating un-utterance and aphasia, and hence leading to the concept of Scar without Skin.
Moved By What Does Not Belong to Me: Kinesthetic and Affective Possibilities of Staging Trauma
(2023-08-14) Heiner, Catherine Ann; Magelssen, Scott
This dissertation explores the ways in which narratives of trauma are staged and represented in contemporary drama within the United States. To do so, I engage in a close reading of Nina Raine’s Tribes (produced at the Studio Theatre in 2014), Carson Kreitzer’s Self Defense, or Death of Some Salesmen (produced at the University of Utah in 2016), Jeremy O. Harris’s Slave Play (produced at the Taper Forum in 2022), and Lynn Nottage’s Sweat (produced at ACT Theatre in 2022). These case studies engage with various intersections related to trauma, including race, gender, class, and disability, which I analyze as they appeal toward empathy. I question in what way the case studies mobilize a shared affect of empathy for audiences, and how this empathy operates in conjunction with witnessing acts of trauma. By using ethnography as a lens, I employ personal interviews and close readings of performances toward a dramaturgical analysis of these narratives. Drawing on the work of Sara Ahmed, Ann Cvetkoich, and Lindsay B. Cummings, I explore how these narratives of trauma transform audiences into witnesses, and how this implication impacts their potential and/or ability to empathize with specific characters. In tracking the affective shift for audiences, I suggest that production elements related to staging, choreography, and performance space can further intensify the visceral reactions of witnessing trauma, and in doing so shift the focus to encourage audiences to reflect on how and why they empathized. I argue that this dramaturgical work is both a necessary consideration for practitioners staging these narratives, and an important tool in analyzing the experience of shared affects.
Buda Errante (Wandering Buda)
(2023-08-14) Martel, Iveliz Katherin; Fracé, Jeffrey
Buda Errante (Wandering Buda) is a solo performance inspired by the life of the Chilean poet and Nobel Prize in Literature (1945), Gabriela Mistral, in conversation with the personal experiences of the creator of this piece. The play explores “missing,” such as missing an accent, childhood, friends, lovers, children, and a country. By encouraging participation, this solo show invites the audience to connect with the characters and their stories through the use of humor, all in an attempt to find light and lightness even in the most difficult moments in life.

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