EPPLETT-DISSERTATION-2018.Pdf
© 2018 Shannon Epplett THE STEPPENWOLF SCENARIO: ESTABLISHING THE HABITUS OF CHICAGO’S OFF-LOOP THEATRE COMMUNITY BY SHANNON EPPLETT DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Theatre in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2018 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Associate Professor Valleri Robinson, Chair Professor and Dean Emeritus Robert Graves Professor Kirsten Pullen Associate Professor Stuart J. Hecht, Boston College ABSTRACT This study focuses on the history, development, and structuring elements of Chicago’s Off-Loop theatre community. My research, grounded in Diana Taylor’s concept of scenarios and Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of habitus, takes a sociological lens to the historical antecedents and theatrical predecessors of Chicago’s Off-Loop theatre community to find the origins and bases of the qualities which structure the contemporary theatre scene. These qualities; which I identify as community, collegiality, ensemble, hard work, perseverance, small stages, converted spaces, and contemporary and realistic plays; became the dispositions of the habitus that created the Off-Loop theatre scene. Starting in 1969, this scene developed and grew quickly, and within a matter of fifteen years, a motivating mythology – which I term “the Steppenwolf Scenario” – had emerged. This scenario, centered on the story of Steppenwolf Theatre, drives and structures the city’s theatre scene to the present day. The Off-Loop theatre scene began in 1969 with the founding of Body Politic and Kingston Mines theatres, but the conditions and ideas (in Bourdieu’s terminology dispositions) that created the Off-Loop theatre habitus in some cases date to the end of the nineteenth century, and evolved and coalesced slowly over time.
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