Beneath the light: stage-bound and ankle-cuffed

Abstract

The creative thesis includes both plays and poetry which cover multiple themes surrounding the female performer, in the media, on the stage, and in everyday life. The play, "An Evening of Alli Jordan" is a meta-theatrical piece set up as a staged reading and includes two plays within: "Book Space" and "For the Women." "Book Space" serves as an establishing play to create the illusion that the evening is a series of staged readings based on the playwright's life whereas "For the Women" is where the true drama lies and where the climax of the evening occurs. "An Evening of Alli Jordan" is thus a piece examining drama and the world of theatre. At what lengths will someone go to in order to have their piece of art enter the world? The poetry collection under the title of "Beneath the Light, Stage-bound and Ankle-cuffed" is chapbook-length manuscript with two sections. The first section has a focus on famous actors and actresses on the stage and in film, and the second section enters the area of the housewife and the everyday woman with specific cases of female murders. The cross-overs between the two genres of poetry and playwriting can be evident in the monologue and character sketch-like poetry in the collection and the theme of acting. What roles do of each of us take in life? What essentialist illusions do we create in order to survive? Subthemes in the collection include mental illness, feminism in the 21st century, celebritism, marriage, and motherhood. The poetry collection is not only from the point of view of the woman but also of the actor, the husband, and the betrayed. The poetry borrows dramatic structure in terms of dialogue and stage directions; thus, the collection is an examination of the life of the artist, the mother, the murderer, the husband, the director, and the playwright