Aaron Amram

Date of Award

2011

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Myhill, Nova

Keywords

Documentary, Representation, Nixon

Area of Concentration

Humanities

Abstract

I begin with an introduction to the history and basic themes of documentary theater, including its relationship to both history and historical theater, and its own fragmented artistic heritage. I examine the two central and continuing challenges for the documentary stage: how facts are best and most fairly presented, and to what audience they are, with readings of David Hare's Stuff Happens and Moises Kaufman's Gross Indecency. The nature of documented fact has changed, now that modern technology allows for almost any object or image to be easily reproduced, to become a document. There is a basically unequal relationship between nearly universal access to information and the nearly universal mediatization of information. A self-awareness and uncertainty pervades and shapes the modern public scene. So considering the changing relationship the West has with the notions of truth and factuality, I will examine the integral part that the documentary drama plays in what has been called 'post 9/11 theater.' These frames serve as the foundation for my creative project: an original work of documentary theater derived from the Nixon Tapes, one of the ultimate modern documents. An extended discussion of that project follows.

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