As We Like Him or, Bardolatry in the Twenty-First Century A Creative Exploration of Shakespeare, Culture, and the Theatre

Date of Award

2004

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Myhill, Nova

Keywords

Shakespeare, Gender, As You Like It, Adaptation, Theatre

Area of Concentration

Humanities

Abstract

The introduction of my thesis is a brief synopsis of nearly four hundred years of bardolatry, with special attention paid to the adaptations of Nahum Tate, John Dryden and other Restoration dramatists. Chapter One discusses various twentieth-century critical theories concerning source, content, meaning, authorship and adaptation. Chapter Two is the script of As It's Liked, my own adaptation of Shakespeare's As You Like It, wherein the gender play of the original is foregrounded in order to explore the melancholic construction of gender. The student company Team Super Kid Force performed the script of As It's Liked in November 2003. Chapter Three is an explication of As It's Liked, its production process and the critical and theoretical sources that inspired it, as well as an evaluation of the production's strengths and weaknesses. My adaptation's political aims were to create a space for awareness and avowal of the violent, ineluctable, and ubiquitous construction of gender in a heterosexist society. The thesis concludes with a discussion of the waning influence and changing figure of Shakespeare, and points in the direction of the Bard's cultural and artistic future.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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