Date Approved

5-15-2008

Embargo Period

3-23-2016

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.A. in Theatre

Department

Theatre & Dance

College

College of Performing Arts

Advisor

Hostetter, Elisabeth

Subject(s)

Drama--Therapeutic use; Dramatists, American

Disciplines

Theatre and Performance Studies

Abstract

This thesis maps Durang's struggle with faith and demonstrates how his personal journey to discover and document his pain acts as a catalyst for his creative work. It will explore his style of masking and unmasking himself in his characters revealing his innermost pain and suffering. I also surmise that his work serves as a kind of therapy by allowing him to constantly unravel and unveil his investigation of self.

This thesis examines Christopher Durang's personal history and family struggles in an effort to understand the experiences that shaped the work of one of America's premier authors of absurdist comedy. It explores the work of Durang as it relates to his own grief and grieving process and chronologically places his work into the standard matrix of grief defined by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, which is now commonly accepted by psychologists.

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