ABSTRACT CEREMONIALS: A RECLAMATION OF THE WITCH THROUGH DEVISED RITUAL THEATRE by Rachel Lynn Brandenburg Rituals have been used throughout history as a way to process change and emotion. In the modern day, people are beginning to turn away from organized religion and to take on more personalized rituals and spirituality. As such, identifying as a witch is a growing phenomenon that serves to empower many personally, politically, and spiritually. This creative thesis takes an autobiographical approach to explore how ritual and the identity of the witch can be used as tools of empowerment, tracing the artist’s own journey from Catholicism to a more fluid spiritual life. On February 22nd, 2019, Ceremonials: A Ritual Play opened as part of Miami University’s Independent Artist Series. The play was devised with a student ensemble over a period of five months and stands as the culmination of a series of performance projects that sought to combine ritual and theatre. This portfolio spans the breadth of that practice-based research and includes examples from performance experiments and the devising process, as well as reflections on how ritual and devised theatre can help to empower the individual and the artist. CEREMONIALS: A RECLAMATION OF THE WITCH THROUGH DEVISED RITUAL THEATRE A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Miami University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts by Rachel Lynn Brandenburg Miami University Oxford, Ohio 2019 Advisor: Saffron Henke Reader: Julia Guichard Reader: Christiana Molldrem Harkulich ©2019 Rachel Lynn Brandenburg This Thesis titled CEREMONIALS: A RECLAMATION OF THE WITCH THROUGH DEVISED RITUAL THEATRE by Rachel Lynn Brandenburg has been approved for publication by The College of Creative Arts and Department of Theatre ____________________________________________________ Saffron Henke, MFA ______________________________________________________ Julia Guichard, MFA _______________________________________________________ Christiana Molldrem Harkulich, PhD Table of Contents 1. Framing Essay p. 1 2. Production Photos a. A Ritual in Search of Eden (Eve, After the Garden) p. 50 b. Ceremonials p. 55 3. Essay: Spooking the Ghost in the Rehearsal Room p. 60 4. Early Ritual Experiments: Digital Archive p. 71 5. Ceremonials a. Ceremonials – Dramaturgical Breakdown p. 73 b. Devising Process: “Witchy Questionnaire” p. 80 b. Skeleton Script p. 82 c. Completed Script p. 91 6. Annotated Bibliography p. 135 iii List of Figures Framing Essay 1.1 A V formation created in improvisation meant to isolate the Priestess. p. 30 1.2 Priestess isolated in performance. p. 30 1.3 One of the improvisation “paper walls” debriefs for the Lovers’ scene. p. 32 1.4 The Lovers surrounded by Society in performance. P. 33 Production Photos A Ritual in Search of Eden 2.1 The Woman’s headpiece with the altar setting. p. 50 2.2 The Woman’s witch confession, posed as if she is tied to a stake. p. 51 2.3 The Woman raises the Priest mask, evoking the imagery of the Mass. p. 52 2.4 The Woman transformed into the Priestess. p. 53 2.5 The outstretched arms of the Priestess. p. 54 2.6 Another image of the outstretched arms of the Priestess. p. 54 Ceremonials 3.1 The outstretched arm of the Priestess in Ceremonials. p. 55 3.2 The destruction scene in the Inferno. p. 56 3.3 The Acolytes surround the Priestess as she is initiated as a witch. p. 57 3.4 The burning of Marguerite Porete. p. 58 3.5 The burning of the Priestess. p. 58 3.6 The character of Marguerite passes out one of the gift bags. p. 59 iv Dedication This thesis is dedicated to all those who have suffered any form of religious violence or persecution, especially those who have suffered at the hands of Christians. May we never burn another witch. v Acknowledgements As this piece is ensemble devised, and no creative project is ever truly made alone, I want to take the time to recognize the following people, all of whom contributed, in some way or another, to the completion of this thesis: To my family, who have provided an invaluable source of love, support, and encouragement through my entire life. They formed me with intense love for my faith and a joy for life, as well as the passion to always do what I believe is right, even when it has to go wildly against the grain. To Miami University faculty and staff, who have challenged me and helped me grow over the past five years. A particular thanks to my advisor, Saffron Henke, who was with me from my first acting class through the development and publication of my Master’s thesis. You helped me harness my creative power and clarify my artistic vision. To Dr. Christiana Molldrem Harkulich for her support—moral, intellectual, and as a human being. And Julia Guichard for her love and enthusiasm for art and theatre, and for her dedication to the department as a whole. My entire graduate cohort: thank you for laughing, crying, and standing with me as we all did for each other. I’d especially like to thank Mackenzie Kirkman and Kelley Feeman for being my dramaturgical support and creative team in the development of A Ritual in Search of Eden, as well as for being an incredible pair of artists and friends. My fall devising ensemble, spring cast, and creative team—lovingly referred to as my coven—thank you for your passion, your encouragement, and your creativity. It was an honor to collaborate with you, and to see you take my raw outline and transform it into a living, breathing work of theatre. To God, my gods, and my own faith. It is a long, winding, and somewhat senseless path. But without it I, and this thesis, would not be here. May we continue to learn and grow and transform. And to Dr. Paul K. Bryant-Jackson, professor emeritus, who passed away suddenly in August 2018. Your faithful encouragement, loving kindness, and immovable spirit were vital in motivating me to pursue this degree. You couldn’t be there for the performance, but somehow, I know that you were with me. vi Framing Essay Introduction to the Creative Portfolio How does one combine ritual and theatre? And what can one gain from doing so? This creative portfolio—as part of the Master’s thesis in Performance, Theatre and Practice—is a curatorial compilation of the research, projects, and analysis that explored these very questions. It culminated in the performance of Ceremonials, a devised ritual play, as part of Miami University Department of Theatre’s Independent Artist Series. The creative problem of the performances, inspired from events of my own life, was twofold. First, after being shut out from leadership in my own religion, Roman Catholicism, because of my gender—and then discovering the ability to lead my own personal rituals through witchcraft practice—I became fascinated with the ways in which ritual empowers individuals. My first question then, was how do witchcraft and ritual empower individuals? And, tied closely into this, how can I use the identity of the witch to empower myself? Because I am a theatre practitioner, primarily trained as an actor, performance has always been my preferred medium to explore personal and political topics. From the beginning, I knew I wanted to take the realm of ritual to the stage. Ritual is often an incredibly personal and meaningful event; one that I had developed a very close relationship with over the years to help me process identity, emotions, and change. I wanted to demonstrate this journey of discovery, identity, and empowerment to an audience. Even before I began to study the links between ritual and theatre, from my own experience going to Mass, I saw both ritual and theatre as two very different, although somehow related, modes of storytelling. In Mass, people read stories and sang songs that all communicated the story of the Bible and our religious heritage. And while Mass does have theatrical elements—such as singing, gestures, storytelling, and even re- enactments—it also has an aspect that distinguishes it from theatre. The Mass is much more participatory than an average theatre event and it is steeped in cultural context for Catholics. It has religious and spiritual intention that extends beyond theatrical storytelling. This extension is transformational. While a theatre performance can transport audiences to new worlds and transform actors into their characters, the performance itself generally does not have intention beyond conveying a story to an audience. While the Mass does convey a story, it tells it with transformative intention: the performance of the ritual (Mass) is in hopes that its participants may better understand their faith or, ultimately, become closer to God. This personal and religious 1 intention may relate to or shape Catholic identity in some way. Apart from the Mass, I discovered my own practice of performing personal rituals that allowed me to heal and shape my identity during a tumultuous part of my life. As an artist, I knew that theatre practitioners often want to bring these personal, emotional, and transformational moments of characters’ lives to the stage. And yet, the performance of ritual, and what it can do for its participants, was something I hadn’t seen often in theatre. I wondered if there was a way that I could bring ritual to the stage in a meaningful way for an audience. I hoped to demonstrate ritual’s transformational and identity-shaping qualities through theatrical storytelling. And, vice versa, I hoped to use a ritual format to tell a theatrical story. This gave rise to my second question: how do you bring a ritual to the stage? Or, framed slightly differently, how does one blend ritual and theatre to tell a story? My creative process grappling these questions is documented in this portfolio.