Domestic Interiors: Reflections on an Unexpected Collection of Symbolist Plays
Sabrina Hykes-Davis & John Paul "JP" Staszel
SABRINA HYKES-DAVIS is primarily a scenic and props designer, but has worked in many other areas of technical theatre. As an Assistant Professor at California University of Pennsylvania, she teaches classes in Theatrical Design, Makeup, Puppetry, and various other areas in the Department of Music and Theatre. She received her BA in Technical Theatre from Point Park College in Pittsburgh, PA in 2002 and her MFA in Theatre Design and Technology from West Virginia University in Morgantown, WV in 2009. Her interests include immersive theatre for audiences on the spectrum and she is currently pursuing a grant-funded project, The Light Princess, with Pittsburgh based company, Jumping Jack. Recent designs include scenery for Saving the Greeks, One Tragedy at a Time and scenery and projections for Elf, the Musical for Cal U Theatre, and Alice and Wonderland, Jr. for the Mon Valley Performing Arts Academy. She presented Vectorworks Viewports: from Concept to Construction at the Ohio Valley Section of USITT at Northern Kentucky University this past fall and will present the same workshop at the Spring 2020 SETC Annual Conference in Louisville, KY. JOHN PAUL STASZEL is an Assistant Professor at California University of Pennsylvania where he directs departmental productions and teaches courses in theatre history, dramatic literature, acting, and creative dramatics. JP completed his doctorate from Bowling Green State University (BGSU) in the spring of 2017 in the field of theatre and performance studies. His dissertation was titled "Beyond the Thong: Contexts, Representations, and the Performance of Erotic Masculinities in Male Strip Show(s)." JP also earned his MA in Theatre at BGSU as well as completing certificates in both Performance Studies and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. JP has trained with several renowned theatre companies and artists including Pilobolus, Inlet Dance Theatre, NACL (North American Cultural Laboratory), Tim Miller, and Andrew Paleamo. JP’s research interests include Physical Theatre, Devised Theatre, Experimental Movement Training for Actors, Body Studies, and the Performativity of Gender and Sexuality. He has published in Cultural Studies - Critical Methodologies (CSCM), and the Journal of the Communication, Speech & Theatre Association of North Dakota. His research has been presented and performed at conferences such as the National Communication Association (NCA), Mid America Theatre Conference (MATC), the Association of Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE), the Association of Theatre Movement Educators (ATME), the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry (QI), and the Southeastern Theatre Conference (SETC). |
Abstract
Exploring the critical value of collaboration and self-conscious reflexivity, this performative script explores the boundaries between a critical essay and a social conversation about the humanities and production. A director and designer reflect on the curricular value of their upcoming production, Unexpected: A Selection of Symbolist Plays, and the effectiveness of their experimental staging, repurposing a traditional proscenium stage to create an immersive domestic experience and one interior landscape for four different plays. Scrutinizing how the ideas of home resonates with everyone and seeking reasonable ways to push the theatrical limits of functionality, the artistic team debate the aesthetic value, effectiveness of design choices and curricular reinforcement in production. The conversation examines how curricular overlap and the continual engagement over three semesters with the one-act plays, The Intruder and Interior by Maurice Maeterlinck, Trifles by Susan Glaspell, and The Wayfarer by Valery Bryusov through course content and practical experience allows students to reinforce these important works of dramatic literature through theory, conceptualization and practice.
Exploring the critical value of collaboration and self-conscious reflexivity, this performative script explores the boundaries between a critical essay and a social conversation about the humanities and production. A director and designer reflect on the curricular value of their upcoming production, Unexpected: A Selection of Symbolist Plays, and the effectiveness of their experimental staging, repurposing a traditional proscenium stage to create an immersive domestic experience and one interior landscape for four different plays. Scrutinizing how the ideas of home resonates with everyone and seeking reasonable ways to push the theatrical limits of functionality, the artistic team debate the aesthetic value, effectiveness of design choices and curricular reinforcement in production. The conversation examines how curricular overlap and the continual engagement over three semesters with the one-act plays, The Intruder and Interior by Maurice Maeterlinck, Trifles by Susan Glaspell, and The Wayfarer by Valery Bryusov through course content and practical experience allows students to reinforce these important works of dramatic literature through theory, conceptualization and practice.

etudesdec2019hykesdavisstaszel.pdf | |
File Size: | 530 kb |
File Type: |