DOCSLIB.ORG

Making Cake Daddy: Dramaturgies to 'Fatten' the Queer Stage

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

Making Cake Daddy: dramaturgies to ‘fatten’ the queer stage Jonathan Allan Graffam Bachelor of Arts (Hons.) Master of Dramaturgy ORCID ID: 0000-0002-1139-1890 December 2020 Submitted in total fulfilment of the degree Master of Fine Arts (Theatre) Theatre, Faculty of Fine Arts and Music The University of Melbourne Declaration This is to certify that: • The thesis comprises only my own original work towards the Master of Fine Arts except where indicated in the preface; • Due acknowledgement has been made in the text to all other material used; • The thesis is fewer than 50,000 words in length, exclusive of tables, maps, bibliographies and appendices. Jonathan Graffam ii Acknowledgements I am tremendously grateful for the tireless support, guidance and dual artistic and academic mentorship I have received from Dr Alyson Campbell, which began well in advance of composing this thesis and continues beyond. Thank you to Dr Eddie Paterson for his expert supervision, keen insights and ability to read multiple drafts with fresh eyes. Additionally, I would like to extend my gratitude to Dr Zachary Dunbar for his care and support throughout this project. I am deeply indebted to artists Ross Anderson-Doherty and Lachlan Philpott for their openness and generosity and I extend this to the rest of the Cake Daddy creative team. It has been an honour to be part of this fabulous queer assemblage. I hope the sheer joy I felt during our time together making this work is conveyed through the writing. Thank you to colleagues in Theatre at the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music (VCA), especially Dr Sarah Austin, as well as my graduate researcher peers. A special thank you to Rachel Patenaude for kindly sharing recorded interview material of the Cake Daddy team, which has found its way into this document. There has been much backstage support. Thank you to my parents Julie and Joe for their unceasing encouragement. The same for siblings near and far. A very special thank you to my partner Russell O’Meara who has been a source of endless kindness, hugs and laughter. To my best friend and four-legged companion Koda, I’m finally coming, buddy, go get your leash… iii Abstract This thesis examines the dramaturgical strategies used in making performance about fat identity. The research responds to fat activist performance scholar Jennifer-Scott Mobley’s call for of a ‘Fat Dramaturgy,’ and attempts to further the field by presenting unique insights and findings from within the process of making new performance work.1 The inquiry is framed by my dramaturgical practice, and that of the creative team, in the process of making Cake Daddy, an original stage work performed by fat- and queer-identifying artist Ross Anderson-Doherty. Given the powerful influence of queer activism and theory in consolidating and galvanising the nascent field of fat activist performance—and the queer identification and aesthetic of the Cake Daddy creative team—I address how queer performance strategies can be used to highlight the negative impact of dominant, medicalised narratives and the societal urge to pathologize fatness and, in doing so, encourage meaningful dialogue around other aspects of the lived experience of fat people: the social, cultural, political and sexual. Thus, I ask: what dramaturgical strategies can be used when making queer performance that frames and celebrates fat identity? By analysing moments of the Cake Daddy performance, I articulate how and why certain choices in composing these moments were determined in the creative process. I draw on the fields of fat studies, performance studies (dramaturgy) and queer theory, and situate the work within the wider field of fat activist performance. The thesis also offers an important and needed shift in the way fat activist performance is analysed by presenting perspectives from within the process of making it. Of particular significance, then, is my position as a practitioner-researcher embedded in the creative process. 1 Jennifer-Scott Mobley, “Toward a Fat Dramaturgy: Activism, Theory, Practice,” Fat Studies 8, no. 3 (2019): 213–18. iv Table of Contents Declaration ................................................................................................................................ ii Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................... iii Abstract .......................................................................................................................... iv Table of Figures .............................................................................................................. vii Preface .......................................................................................................................... viii Introduction .................................................................................................................... 1 Subject of thesis ................................................................................................................ 1 Aim of thesis ...................................................................................................................... 3 Scope of thesis ................................................................................................................... 3 Methodology ..................................................................................................................... 4 Structure ............................................................................................................................ 6 Significance of the study ................................................................................................... 8 1. Background: Fat studies—formalising a field of fat activist research ......................... 9 Introduction: What is fat studies? .................................................................................... 9 Fat identity and subjectivity: resisting erasure .............................................................. 12 Social determinants of health and ‘problem’ framing................................................... 14 Intersections of fat and queer ........................................................................................ 17 Fat sex, sexuality and desire ........................................................................................... 20 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 22 2. Background: Fat Dramaturgies—formalising a discourse of fat activist performance 23 Introduction: Staging fatness .......................................................................................... 23 Towards a more expansive ‘Fat Dramaturgy’ ................................................................ 27 Fat activist performance and fat community ................................................................. 31 ‘Obesity’ and Diet Discourse in Fat Activist Performance ............................................. 33 Fat Performativity ........................................................................................................... 34 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 36 3. Expanding (Fat) Dramaturgy: establishing an artistic practice and creative methodology ......................................................................................................................................38 Introduction: defining ‘dramaturgy’ ............................................................................... 38 Dramaturgy as a contemporary practice........................................................................ 43 Recording and documenting collaborative practice ...................................................... 44 ‘Queer Dramaturgies’ ...................................................................................................... 46 Genesis of Cake Daddy and the emergence of a queer hybrid form ............................ 47 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 52 4. Visibility, Presence and Community-building in Cake Daddy .........................................54 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 54 Hamburger Queen, a fat talent contest ......................................................................... 55 Cake Watchers: interaction, conversation and ‘watching cake’ ................................... 59 Devising Cake Watchers: establishing an audience community ................................... 65 The Cake Daddy Pledge ................................................................................................... 70 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 79 v 5. Queering ‘Obesity’ Discourse and Diet Culture .............................................................80 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 80 Queering the subject and creative process .................................................................... 81 Cake Watchers as queer deconstruction ........................................................................ 84 ‘Emotional dramaturgy’:
Recommended publications
  • Obesity Epidemic’

    Obesity Epidemic’

    Art & Activism in the Age of the ‘Obesity Epidemic’ by Pamela Grombacher A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in HISTORY OF ART, DESIGN AND VISUAL CULTURE Department of Art and Design University of Alberta © Pamela Grombacher, 2014 Abstract This thesis considers three contemporary artworks that open up new possibilities for size acceptance activism, a political movement that arose in the late 1960s to combat fat stigma and weight-based discrimination. Fatness is vilified in many parts of the world as an unhealthy, unattractive, and, most significantly, immoral embodiment. This is due, in part, to “healthism,” or the moralization of health, and to the perceived controllability of body size. In cultures where health is viewed as a moral obligation and size is viewed as a personal choice, fat people are discriminated against for supposedly choosing to be unhealthy. Fat stigma has worsened in the wake of the “obesity epidemic,” the alarmist rhetoric of which frames fatness as a lurking and deadly contagion that threatens to destroy public health. There are those within the size acceptance movement, however, who question the legitimacy of this “epidemic” as a true health crisis and suggest that it is instead a moral panic that reflects cultural anxieties about personal accountability. As politicians, medical practitioners and diet industrialists wage a “War on Obesity” to eradicate fatness and thus rid society of this alleged scourge, size acceptance activists resist weight-based discrimination by arguing that stigma, rather than fat, is the true enemy to be conquered. I suggest new possibilities for resistance by analyzing artworks that subvert hegemonic notions of fat in novel and nuanced ways.
  • The Hyperfeminization of Fat Women by Sarah K

    The Hyperfeminization of Fat Women by Sarah K

    A Thesis entitled All Made-Up: The Hyperfeminization of Fat Women by Sarah K. Millimen Submitted to the Graduate Faculty as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Liberal Studies Degree in the College of Language, Literature and Social Sciences. _________________________________________ Dr. Kim Nielsen, Committee Chair _________________________________________ Dr. Sharon Barnes, Committee Member _________________________________________ Dr. Allyson Day, Committee Member _________________________________________ <Optional: Other Members>, Committee Member _________________________________________ Dr. Patricia R. Komuniecki, Dean College of Graduate Studies The University of Toledo May 1, 2015 Copyright 2015, Sarah K. Millimen This document is copyrighted material. Under copyright law, no parts of this document may be reproduced without the expressed permission of the author. An Abstract of All Made-Up: The Hyperfeminization of Fat Women by Sarah K. Millimen Submitted to the Graduate Faculty as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Liberal Studies Degree in College of Language, Literature and Social Science The University of Toledo May 1, 2015 “All Made-Up: The Hyperfeminization of Fat Women” analyzes the way some fat women conform to cultural ideals regarding femininity with the goal of having fatness included within that ideal. Fat phobia is used by the dominant culture to oppress women and keep them „in-line‟ with the heternormative, white, cultural ideals of beauty in the United States. “All Made-Up” argues that fatness is socially constructed via medicalization, political rhetoric, and mother blame. It argues that hyperfeminization is an important form of fat activism, but one that is narrow in its ability to change cultural ideals. Hyperfeminization reinforces cultural ideals regarding femininity and excludes a vast group of women in the process.
  • Hollaback!: Feminist Responses to Street Harassment Critical Intersections: Reproductive and Economic Justice Intimacies Deferre

    Hollaback!: Feminist Responses to Street Harassment Critical Intersections: Reproductive and Economic Justice Intimacies Deferre

    BCRW Newsletter Fall 2010 September Volume 19, No. 1 Critical Intersections: Intimacies Deferred: HollaBack!: Feminist Reproductive and Genealogies of Freedom Responses to Street Economic Justice The Helen Pond McIntyre ’48 Lecture Harassment A conference co-sponsored with with Lisa Lowe A panel featuring Shannon Lynberg, the New York Women’s Foundation Emily May, Oraia Reid, and Chai Shenoy 2 BCRW Newsletter Making the Connections The longstanding mission of the Barnard Center for Research on Women—to build a world in which all women can “live and work in dignity, autonomy, and equality”—crucially includes a commitment to collaboration. For us, this commitment means bringing together scholars and activists to help us think critically about the issues of the day, connecting students to feminist and social justice issues outside the campus gates while encouraging them to integrate these issues into their studies here, and fostering ties between different groups working for fairness and equality in New York City and beyond. This past year in particular, we’ve been fortunate to have the opportunity to collaborate with a few coalitions and organizations who are doing truly inspiring work for social change. In September, we’ll present the results of one of these collaborations, a conference co- sponsored with the New York Women’s Foundation, an “activist” philanthropic organization committed to funding organizations that are led by women and feminists in NYC. “Critical Intersections: Reproductive and Economic Justice” will feature the work of seventeen different New York-based organizations, all grantee partners of NYWF, who work at the intersections of economic security and reproductive justice, empowering and advocating on behalf of communities.
  • 1 Curriculum Vita SHARON ELISE Department of Sociology California State University San Marcos 333 South Twin Oaks Valley Road Sa

    1 Curriculum Vita SHARON ELISE Department of Sociology California State University San Marcos 333 South Twin Oaks Valley Road Sa

    Curriculum Vita SHARON ELISE Department of Sociology California State University San Marcos 333 South Twin Oaks Valley Road San Marcos, California 92096 (760) 750-4165 Email: [email protected] Education 1990 Ph.D. Sociology, University of Oregon Routes to Teenage Motherhood: African, Native, and European Americans 1982 Master of Science, Sociology, University of Oregon 1975 Bachelor of Arts, History, Third College University of California, San Diego 1972-4 1972-4 Goucher College Areas of Expertise Critical Race Studies Sociopoetics & Qualitative Methods Class, Race & Gender Black Feminism Current Research “Black Borikua” Continuing qualitative research on representations of Blackness in Latino culture (since 2007), language and identity. Focus on Puerto Rico, working with sociolinguist Michelle Ramos Pellicia, (Associate Professor, Modern Languages) who is incorporating notions of the racialization of language. “African American Campus Community Study” Ethnographic study based on focus groups and individual interviews with Dr. Abumaye and Dr. Walkington, examines the status and everyday experiences narrated by members of the campus community at a Hispanic-Serving Institution, revisiting an earlier (2003) study on student and staff perceptions conducted when the campus was predominantly white. Academic Positions Fall 2005 – present Professor of Sociology, California State University San Marcos Fall 2012 – Fall 2018 Department Chair, Sociology, California State University San Marcos, elected position, served two terms. Spring 2011- 2013
  • Protest, Justice, and Transnational Organizing SAN FRANCISCO, CA 2020 NWSA Chair and Director Meeting

    Protest, Justice, and Transnational Organizing SAN FRANCISCO, CA 2020 NWSA Chair and Director Meeting

    NWSA’S 40TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE Protest, Justice, and Transnational Organizing 2019 NWSA ANNUAL CONFERENCE: Protest, Justice, and Transnational Organizing NOV 14–17, 2019 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA NOVEMBER 2018 14-17, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 2020 NWSA Chair and Director Meeting About Friday March 6th The 2020 Chair and Director meeting will be focused on the different responses Chicago, IL to external pressures experienced by departments, programs, and centers. This event is intended to promote field- building by bringing together program and department chairs and women’s center directors for a day-long meeting as an added benefit of institutional membership. Participants will exchange ideas and strategies focused on program and center administration, curriculum development, and pedagogy, among other topics. Participation requirements: • 2020 institutional membership • Chair and Director Meeting registration fee $125 • Registration form DEADLINE The fee includes participation in the event and TO REGISTER: breakfast and lunch the day of the meeting. It does not include travel. NWSA will cover one night’s FEBRUARY 15, 2020 accommodations for those who require it. 2019 NWSA ANNUAL CONFERENCE: Protest, Justice, and Transnational Organizing NOV 14–17, 2019 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA Table of Contents President’s Welcome ........................................... 4 A Brief (and Incomplete) History of the NWSA Women of Color Caucus ................................... 43 Conference Maps ............................................... 5 NWSA Receptions

  • Sunday, July 27, 2014 7:15 AM - 7:45 AM ATME Morning Warm Up: Release Into Movement

    Sunday, July 27, 2014 7:15 AM - 7:45 AM ATME Morning Warm Up: Release into Movement Princess F FOCUS GROUP: Association of Theatre Movement Educators (ATME) SESSION COORDINATOR: Holly Cate, Muhlenberg College SESSION CHAIR: Niamh Dowling, Rose Bruford College Please join us for this conference-wide morning warm up. Get those conference juices flowing! 8:00 AM - 9:30 AM A Dream for Catholicism in American Theatre Part 2: Empowerment through the Art of Playwriting Castile 5 FOCUS GROUP: Religion and Theatre (RT) SESSION COORDINATOR: Roy Brooks, University of Georgia, Athens SESSION CHAIR: Alex Iben Cahill, University of Missouri, Columbia PARTICIPANTS: Mimi Gisolfi D’Aponte, Baruch College and City University of New York, Emerita Genesis of a Catholic Performance: Sister Spirit Charles Gillespie, University of Virginia Pope(im)mobile Acting: John Paul II, Theatre and Resistance Rachel Linn, Ohio University In Search of the Mysterious Body: Liminality in Radio Elephant (Barbara) This panel is the second part of an examination of Catholicism and theatre, investigating how playwriting can empower twenty- first century American Catholics. Sunday, July 27, 2014 Cultivating Student-Dreamers in Contemporary Liberal Arts Environments 8:00 AM - 9:30 AM CONT. Sonoran Room Acting Out: Dreaming of Women’s Health in Narratives of FOCUS GROUP: Resistance Theatre as a Liberal Art (TLA) Princess E SESSION COORDINATOR AND CHAIR: FOCUS GROUP: Carrie Klypchak, Texas A&M University, Commerce Women and Theatre Program (WTP) Rekindling the Dreamer’s Spark: Challenges
  • Diversity Guide - National Convention

    Diversity Guide - National Convention

    G.R.A.C.E. Guide to Resources for Annual Campus Events Diversity Guide - National Convention NACA® Statement on Diversity Diversity is an attribute and a goal. As an attribute, diversity is ethnic identification/race, gender identity, disability, sexual orientation, age, religion, economic status and the many other aspects of our lives which define the family of humanity. As a goal, diversity refers to the intentional valuing, respecting and inclusion of all peoples. NACA recognizes the diversity of all its members and supports the development and implementation of programs and services that achieve this goal. Diversity Initiatives Collaboration In support of NACA’s Statement on Diversity, the Diversity Initiatives Coordinators for all regions collaborated this year to produce Diversity Guides in each region that highlight diversity programs and activities offered by associate members who are exhibiting at the various regional conferences. This guide is modeled after previous efforts by Diversity Initiatives Coordinators in the Mid Atlantic and Northern Plains regions and is replicated here for the National Convention. All conference delegates who have an interest in bringing diversity programs to their campuses are encouraged to review the programs listed in the guide prior to attending the National Convention and then to visit the agencies in the Campus Activities Marketplace (CAMP). Each program listed provides the name of the agency, booth location, contact information, price range, and a brief overview of the program. As a convenience while at the Convention, delegates may also access this information in NACA® All Access. 2 Program Title/Artist: Hari Kondabolu Program Title/Artist: I.N.K.
  • Diversity Guide—South Region

    Diversity Guide—South Region

    G.R.A.C.E. Guide to Resources for Annual Campus Events Diversity Guide—South Region A Collaborative Project of the Regional Diversity Initiatives Coordinators NACA® Statement on Diversity Diversity is an attribute and a goal. As an attribute, diversity is ethnic identification/race, gender identity, disability, sexual orientation, age, religion, economic status and the many other aspects of our lives which define the family of humanity. As a goal, diversity refers to the intentional valuing, respecting and inclusion of all peoples. NACA recognizes the diversity of all its members and supports the development and implementation of programs and services that achieve this goal. Diversity Initiatives Collaboration In support of NACA’s Statement on Diversity, the Diversity Initiatives Coordinators for all regions collaborated to produce Diversity Guides in each region to highlight diversity programs and activities offered by associate members who are exhibiting at the various regional conferences. This guide is modeled after previous efforts by Diversity Initiatives Coordinators in the Mid Atlantic and Northern Plains regions. Program Title/Artist: Omid Singh Presents: Program Title/Artist: "Asian Dreamers: Brown Is Agency: EVO Entertainment Funny" by Comedian Gibran Saleem Diversity Topic: Ethnicity & Race (including Bi- Agency: EVO Entertainment Racial/Multi-Racial), Immigration, Diversity Topic: Ethnicity & Race (including Bi- Price Range: Under $1000 Racial/Multi-Racial), Immigration Program Overview: Price Range: $1500-$2499 Omid Singh is an American touring stand-up comedian, Program Overview: based in Los Angeles. Raised in a multicultural family Comedian Gibran Saleem was born in North Carolina (half Indian, half Iranian), he has lived in more than a and raised in Virginia in a Pakistani household.
  • Thesis Full Draft

    Thesis Full Draft

    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by University of Birmingham Research Archive, E-theses Repository WATCHING OUR WEIGHT: AN EXPLORATION INTO THE POLITICS OF THE BODY USING INTERSECTIONS BETWEEN POST-STRUCTURALIST FEMINISM AND FOUCAULT’S DISCIPLINE AND PUNISH by AMELIA MORRIS A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of Political Science and International Studies School of Government and Society College of Social Sciences University of Birmingham University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. ABSTRACT In feminist theory, there is no greater site of contestation than that of the body. This thesis explores how, often, debates on the body become centred upon a dichotomy between oppression and liberation. There is a vast diversity of scholarship that challenges this binary ranging from post- colonial, post-structuralist and Marxist feminist work, nevertheless, the dichotomy is still in action. This thesis focuses in on this dichotomy through the lens of dieting, to argue that the ‘feminine’ body is not simply a site of oppression or liberation.
  • Diversity Guide—West Region

    Diversity Guide—West Region

    G.R.A.C.E. Guide to Resources for Annual Campus Events Diversity Guide—West Region A Collaborative Project of the Regional Diversity Initiatives Coordinators NACA® Statement on Diversity Diversity is an attribute and a goal. As an attribute, diversity is ethnic identification/race, gender identity, disability, sexual orientation, age, religion, economic status and the many other aspects of our lives which define the family of humanity. As a goal, diversity refers to the intentional valuing, respecting and inclusion of all peoples. NACA recognizes the diversity of all its members and supports the development and implementation of programs and services that achieve this goal. Diversity Initiatives Collaboration In support of NACA’s Statement on Diversity, the Diversity Initiatives Coordinators for all regions collaborated to produce Diversity Guides in each region that highlight diversity programs and activities offered by associate members who are exhibiting at the various regional conferences. This guide is modeled after previous efforts by Diversity Initiatives Coordinators in the Mid Atlantic and Northern Plains regions. All conference delegates who have an interest in bringing diversity programs to their campuses are encouraged to review the programs listed in the guide prior to attending the conference and then to visit the agencies in the Campus Activities Marketplace (CAMP). Each program listed provides the name of the agency, booth location, contact information, price range, and a brief overview of the program. As a convenience while at the conference, delegates may also access this information in NACA® All Access. Program Title/Artist: DJ Demers Program Title/Artist: Your History Doesn't Agency: H2F Comedy Prods.