Moved By What Does Not Belong to Me: Kinesthetic and Affective Possibilities of Staging Trauma

Abstract

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.