The Trend towards Diversification in Musical Theater as Justification for My Original Musical Beowulf and Grendel Stave One � Heorot

Date of Award

2006

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Myhill, Nova

Keywords

Musical, Theater, Diversification, Beowulf

Area of Concentration

British and American Literature

Abstract

After creating an original musical entitled Beowulf and Grendel: Stave One � Heorot, I began to examine the components of musical theater that held bearing upon the work. Through a chronological analysis of the history of the genre-focusing on creators and shows from a variety of theatrical eras, and Stephen Sondheim in particular-I came to recognize certain trends during the growth of musical theater. I concluded that while most influential creators in the genre developed a specific trend within their works, Sondheim's pieces usually did not conform to one specific format. I found the terms assigned to the subgenres of musical theater insufficient for my analysis. Sondheim' s unorthodox approach and his wide variety of musicals have significantly contributed to this problem of terminology. Therefore, I created a new term, 'diversification,' and used it to justify the my own original musical, which relied on many aspects of the entire musical theater genre and sought to bridge the gap between the different types of musicals while inventing its own new subgenre, the 'Epic Musical Tragedy.'

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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