http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/keyword/theatre Inquiries Journal provides undergraduate and graduate students around the world a platform for the wide dissemination of academic work over a range of core disciplines. en-us Mon, 27 Apr 2026 17:06:04 -0400 Mon, 27 Apr 2026 17:06:04 -0400 http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1710/come-sir-boy-subverting-masculinity-through-cross-gender-performance By Rachel Chung - I was the wounded soldier in the opening scene of Macbeth, lying spread-eagled on the stage, flaunting my unsightly gashes. I closed my legs self-consciously. Even portraying a hyper-masculine character, I found myself subject to the parameters of feminine performance. Later in the same production, I gave what was, for high school, a raunchy and riotous performance as the Porter. I referenced what would be my male genitalia, indicating what would be a beer belly, leaning heavily into the masculinity of the scene. I found the humor not just in the words themselves, but in the fact that they were... Thu, 30 Nov 2017 10:49 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1710/come-sir-boy-subverting-masculinity-through-cross-gender-performance http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1467/intersections-of-gender-race-and-nation-in-cloud-nine-and-m-butterfly By Miriam Cummins - This article contributes to the debate as to whether Cloud Nine by Caryl Churchill and M. Butterfly by David Henry Hwang are ultimately essentialist or anti-essentialist, accentuating or disavowing difference. It argues that both plays are successfully anti-essentialist by examining the discursive relationship between categories of gendered, racial and national identity. For both Churchill and Hwang, categories of gender, race and nation can be mutually deconstructed in the same way that they are mutually constructed because their foundation in discourse is fundamentally unstable. Thus, when fluid... Tue, 25 Oct 2016 09:56 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1467/intersections-of-gender-race-and-nation-in-cloud-nine-and-m-butterfly http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1058/the-process-of-unity-in-virginia-woolfs-between-the-acts By Hayley E. Tartell - In Virginia Woolf’s Between the Acts, Woolf raises the theme of a progression toward social unification. Through her analysis of repetition, milieu, and the audience’s shared state of distractedness, Woolf enriches her text by emphasizing process rather over outcome. Woolf’s text aligns with Kant’s notion of universal communicability and implies that the process transcends the effect of unity itself. By highlighting the potential for unity, rather than the actual achievement of unity itself, Woolf intimates that this unfixed process allows for the possibility of a stable... Thu, 23 Jul 2015 08:22 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1058/the-process-of-unity-in-virginia-woolfs-between-the-acts http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/343/all-the-worlds-a-stage-shakespeares-theatrum-mundi-of-romance By Jeremy S. Page - Most famously soliloquized by the melancholy Jacques in As You Like It, the sentiment behind Theatrum Mundi was not invented by Shakespeare; there are accounts of Henry V possessing a tapestry depicting the seven ages of man, and in 1544 German artist Hans Baldung painted Die sieben Lebensalter des Weibes (The Seven Ages of Women) . Nevertheless, it is clear from the dramatic texts that Shakespeare was highly aware of the predominating weltanschauung, and perhaps combined it with his extensive knowledge of the theatrical conventions of the time to explore his view of human existence. Shakespeare... Tue, 14 Dec 2010 10:27 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/343/all-the-worlds-a-stage-shakespeares-theatrum-mundi-of-romance http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/228/the-rocky-horror-picture-show-as-the-inverted-plautine-comedy By Cassandra A. Clarke - Even though this plot-line is common to Plautus work, he did not find fame as its originator, but as the inventive stage-adaptor who was able to “transform [it, or] New Greek Comedy” into “accessible forms of entertainment, for, and to please his audience” (Beacham, 32). In today’s time, the best example of a modern adaptation of Plautine comedy is the outlandish live performance of  The Rocky Horror Picture Show, since it not only parodies the same comical structure, but through its ad-libbing and shadowing of actors on-screen, also maintains the same Plautine... Mon, 12 Apr 2010 08:59 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/228/the-rocky-horror-picture-show-as-the-inverted-plautine-comedy http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1680/nora-as-a-doll-in-henrik-ibsens-a-dolls-house By Michael C. Wiseman - Until her change, Nora is very childlike and whimsical. Her first act on stage is her paying the delivery body. Though his service only costs 50-p., she gives him a hundred. Though an additional 50-p. is not a significant amount of money, the casual way in which she gives it to him is indicative of her fiscal irresponsibility (Cummings). She hands him the hundred and before he can thank her, she decides in the middle of the transaction that she is not patient enough to wait for change. The fact that this seemingly mundane occurrence is presented as the first action on stage showcases the reckless... Wed, 31 Mar 2010 08:50 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1680/nora-as-a-doll-in-henrik-ibsens-a-dolls-house http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/163/michael-cassio-as-a-foil-to-shakespeares-othello By Veronika Walker - Theodore Spencer wrote of Shakespeare's Othello, “In presenting the character of Othello to his audience, Shakespeare emphasizes very strongly his grandeur, self-control, and nobility” (Spencer 127-28). This observation demonstrates that these three main traits—grandeur, self-control, and nobility—are key to understanding Othello's complex character, and even more helpful in understanding the contrasts between him and his subordinates. Most notably in this comparison is young Michael Cassio, a beautifully written foil character to the general in the fact that where Othello... Wed, 10 Feb 2010 09:50 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/163/michael-cassio-as-a-foil-to-shakespeares-othello http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/101/the-development-of-theatre-peter-brook-and-the-human-connection By Sawyer A. Theriault - Brook defines the human connection through many different mediums, one of which is directing. He claim's “the supreme jujitsu” style of directing “would be for the director to stimulate such an outpouring of the actor's inner richness that it completely transforms the subjective nature of his original impulse”(Brook, 61). What he is describing is non-directional directing. In order for the actor to authentically feel what his character is intended to feel, he must discover those emotions on his own, without the director telling him what they are. The director's job is then... Thu, 24 Dec 2009 11:41 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/101/the-development-of-theatre-peter-brook-and-the-human-connection http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/20/allows-itself-to-anything-poor-tom-familiarizing-and-enacting-chaos-in-king-lear By Leslie S. Lee - In Act 1, scene 2, Edmund responds to Edgar’s entrance with the following: “Pat he comes, like the catastrophe of the old comedy. My cue is villainous melancholy, with a sigh like Tom o’Bedlam. –O, these eclipses do portend these divisions. Fa, sol, la, mi.” (134-137) Edmund’s introduction of the Tom o’Bedlam character is preceded by his disparagement of astrological superstitions, which he then performs for Edmund as if in the voice of Tom o’Bedlam. Thus these lines create an association between the Tom o’Bedlam figure and a belief in astrological... Tue, 27 Oct 2009 09:13 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/20/allows-itself-to-anything-poor-tom-familiarizing-and-enacting-chaos-in-king-lear