Page Petrucka Dissertation Final

Rewriting the Single Woman’s Narrative in Two Original Scripts: A Professional Problem by Page Petrucka, M.A., B.S. A Dissertation In FINE ARTS (THEATRE) Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Texas Tech University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Dr. Norman A. Bert Chairperson of the Committee Dr. Linda Donahue Dr. Bill Gelber Dr. Allison P. Boye Dr. Michael Stoune Mark Sheridan Dean of the Graduate School December, 2014 Copyright 2014, Page Petrucka Texas Tech University, Page Petrucka, December 2014 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to give a special thank you to Dr. Norman Bert, the chairperson of my committee. His tutelage and mentorship have been unwavering, and his support has been invaluable. He taught me how to be a playwright, and I am forever in his debt. I would also like to thank the members of my dissertation committee, Dr. Linda Donahue, Dr. Bill Gelber, Dr. Allison Boye, Dr. Michael Stoune. Each member has aided me on my journey through this doctoral program. I am thankful for the opportunity to have worked with such dedicated individuals. I am grateful to the amazing cast and crew of Blood is Thicker Than Roswell, Kristen Rogers, Lori Uebelhart, Andria Baisley, and Jared Strange. This play was made possible because of their dedication, support, and friendship. And finally, I wish to thank my parents Paul and Marbeth Petrucka, siblings, in- laws, nieces, nephews, Holly Bradford, and Sondi Mitchell, whose encouragement, support, and love made all of this possible. ii Texas Tech University, Page Petrucka, December 2014 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................... ii ABSTRACT ......................................................................................................................iv LIST OF FIGURES ..........................................................................................................v I. AN INTRODUCTION TO THE NARRATIVE .........................................................1 II. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF NARRATIVE ..............................................................12 III. WRITING THE NARRATIVE ..............................................................................36 IV. PRODUCING THE NARRATIVE .........................................................................58 V. EVALUATING THE NARRATIVE ........................................................................80 WORKS CITED .............................................................................................................94 APPENDICIES A. THE CALENDAR .......................................................................................................97 B. BLOOD IS THICKER THAN ROSWELL ..............................................................189 iii Texas Tech University, Page Petrucka, December 2014 ABSTRACT In certain therapeutic practices, it is believed that sharing narratives or life stories with those who will listen is vital to the development of a healthy sense of being. However, the societal held belief of individuals or groups often overrides real and truthful narratives. And once societal beliefs are formed, changing these perceptions can be a difficult endeavor. So it is with single women. They have long been written about and perceived by society as “less than,” bitter, angry, sad, immoral, or even too perfect or saintly. However, as a single woman, these are not the narratives I have experienced in my own life. This study is one that examines single women in contemporary stage works. I question the narratives present-day playwrights are perpetuating in regards to single women. I also compare these narratives to those that existed in the first half of the 1900s. My findings illustrate that in some cases, literary single women today have not outgrown their 1940s counterparts. Therefore, in an effort to establish a more favorable and accurate view of single women, I have written two plays with single female protagonists. The Calendar and Blood is Thicker Than Roswell both incorporate some of my experiences as a single woman. And both present modern, strong, single women I recognize, relate to, and understand. iv Texas Tech University, Page Petrucka, December 2014 LIST OF FIGURES Figure A, Front of Advertising Postcard ......................................................................61 Figure B, Back of Advertising Postcard .......................................................................61 Figure C, Advertisement in Festival Program .............................................................67 v Texas Tech University, Page Petrucka, December 2014 CHAPTER I AN INTRODUCTION TO THE NARRATIVE A few years ago, as a requirement for one of my doctoral courses, I was asked to read The Glass Menagerie (1944) by Tennessee Williams. It had been years since I first read the play, but during this particular reading, I was (and consequently still am) a single, middle-aged woman attending graduate school. In a speech offered by the character of Amanda, I was reminded of what the general worldview of single women was during that time period. She says: I know so well what becomes of unmarried women… I’ve seen such pitiful cases in the South – barely tolerated spinsters living upon the grudging patronage of sister’s husband or brother’s wife! – stuck away in some little mousetrap of a room – encouraged by one in-law to visit another – little birdlike women without any nest – eating the crust of humility all their life! (16) It was this particular reading of this particular play that opened my mind. The more I thought about it, the more I realized I had heard similar negative connotations throughout my own life. I started examining single female characters in plays and found that Williams wasn’t the only playwright to offer such a bleak outlook for single women. In her play The Old Maid (1934), playwright Zoe Akins offers a description of just such an old maid. The play’s protagonist is Charlotte, an unmarried, middle-aged woman. Akins describes her in the stage directions: Charlotte, looking much more than fourteen years older, has passed into a different generation; wearing a severely plain dress, she sits near the fire, knitting. Her hair, now gray, is drawn tightly back from her colorless face in which even her once fine eyes and bright lips have grown indistinct; and she is the typical old maid in appearance as well as manner; harsh, and inclined to be tyrannical. (121) 1 Texas Tech University, Page Petrucka, December 2014 Indeed, these sketches, and the many more like them, would make any young woman fearful of the taboo associated with being single. It is these descriptions of single women and the desire to find out how they are represented in theatre today that have led me to this professional playwriting problem. The focus, then, is both to evaluate and also to contribute to the current status of single female characters in contemporary playwriting practices. Being both single and a playwright, I have a particular vested interest in these characters and their portrayal in plays. Just who are these single women? How have they been represented over the years? How have they changed, particularly since the feminist movement of the 1970s and beyond? Are the single women we see depicted on stage today accurate portrayals of contemporary single women? As I seek answers to these questions, it is also my desire to add my own contributions to single female characters through my two plays The Calendar and Blood is Thicker Than Roswell. As feminist literary criticism emerged in the 1970s, the movement sought to alter the general worldview of women, regardless of ethnicity, sexual preference, or age. It also shed light on the way women were represented in literature. With respect to the theatre, this criticism evaluated “…women’s status on stage – in the stories productions told…” (Dolan xiv). This evaluation was necessary because according to feminist Jill Dolan, “…theatre’s contents, forms, and structures both reflect and shape women’s lives ideologically and politically” (xiv). The hope, then, was that future stories told from the stage would help to “…bring female emotional reality into the theatre” (Chinoy 174). Women of different races, ethnicities and sexual orientation began to gain notable recognition as they shared their “emotional reality” with audiences, and as they did this, 2 Texas Tech University, Page Petrucka, December 2014 their stories “…affirmed for women the truth of their inner lives and gave them a sense of the validity of their perceptions” (Chinoy 174). But how did single women fare, in the wake of feminist criticism? Single women today are not the bitter spinsters, old maids, or cranky librarians of the literary past. However, perhaps in part because “Single women… lack a feminist social movement or identity politics specifically related to singleness” (Reynolds 61), these standby stereotypes still make frequent appearances in contemporary plays. Jill Reynolds, author of the book The Single Woman, explains: “The importance for a woman of finding and keeping a man is extremely well embedded in western culture.” Married and divorced by the time she turned twenty-five, Reynolds unexpectedly found herself single again. She continues: I was not unhappy, and I had a strong network of friends and an active social life. Yet it seemed to me that the kind of experiences that I and other single friends had were not well represented in the media and that

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