Abstract
This Senior Independent Study explores questions of human-driven catastrophe and how it is represented in the theatre. It asks, how are playwrights engaging with the concept of human-driven catastrophe to create plays that speak to the pressing issues of their times? How might those catastrophes speak to our current moment? And how can an acting recital be crafted to respond to this? Throughout this study I examine these questions with a theoretical lens crafted from feminist responses to the Anthropocene, applying this lens to a textual analysis of Thornton Wilder’s The Skin of Our Teeth and Duncan Macmillan’s Lungs. Building on this theoretical work, I outline its application to “Catastrophes of Our Own Making: Scenes from The Skin of Our Teeth and Lungs,” the acting recital portion of this Independent Study. I then reflect on the challenges and successes of this creative process before concluding with a final analysis of the entire thesis and its significance to the larger discipline.
Advisor
Noriega, Jimmy A.
Department
Theatre and Dance; Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Recommended Citation
Lane-Davies, Hayden Douglas, "Catastrophic Imaginings: Human-Driven Catastrophe, the Anthropocene, The Skin of Our Teeth, and Lungs" (2021). Senior Independent Study Theses. Paper 9402.
https://openworks.wooster.edu/independentstudy/9402
Disciplines
Acting | Dramatic Literature, Criticism and Theory | Other Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Keywords
Thornton Wilder, Duncan Macmillan, Catastrophe, Anthropocene, Donna Haraway, Climate Change
Publication Date
2021
Degree Granted
Bachelor of Arts
Document Type
Senior Independent Study Thesis
© Copyright 2021 Hayden Douglas Lane-Davies