DIABETIC AESTHETIC: FROM STIGMATIZING DIABETES TO ACKNOWLEDGING THE LIVED EXPERIENCE ON STAGE by BIANCA CLAIRE FRAZER B.A., University of Denver, 2011 M.A., University of Colorado Boulder, 2014 A thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Colorado in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Theatre and Dance 2019 This thesis entitled: Diabetic Aesthetic: From Stigmatizing Diabetes to Acknowledging The Lived Experience on Stage written by Bianca Claire Frazer has been approved for the Department of Theatre and Dance Dr. Oliver Gerland Dr. Beth Osnes Date The final copy of this thesis has been examined by the signatories, and we find that both the content and the form meet acceptable presentation standards of scholarly work in the above mentioned discipline. Frazer, Bianca Claire (Ph.D. Theatre and Performance Studies, Dept. of Theatre and Dance) Diabetic Aesthetic: From Stigmatizing Diabetes to Acknowledging the Lived Experience on Stage Thesis directed by Associate Professor Oliver Gerland This dissertation provides the first systematic study of representations of diabetes in U.S. theater from 1949 to 2018. According to the Center for Disease Control’s 2017 National Diabetes Statistics report, 30.3 million people in the U.S. live with diabetes. The World Health Organization identifies diabetes as a chronic disease, which manifests in four different ways: type 1, type 2, gestational, and pre- diabetes. For a disease impacting 9.4% of the U.S. population, diabetes is surrounded by an alarming amount of stigmatizing rhetoric and misinformation. Focusing primarily on dramatic literature and solo performance work that depicts diabetes, this study identifies two stigmatizing narratives rooted in the medical model of disability that commonly occur in dramatic literature. The case studies of these narratives included plays such as Lynn Nottage’s Sweat, Bekah Brunstetter’s The Cake, and Robert Harling’s Steel Magnolias. This study then examines Robbie McCauley’s Sugar and Irma Mayorga & Virginia Grise’s The Panza Monologues through the social model of disability as these performances draw attention to systemic factors that produce and impact diabetic bodies. Drawing on theories of complex embodiment, the last case studies include the representation of diabetes in iii Marina Tsaplina’s The Invisible Elephant Project and G. William Zorn’s Lucille. Ultimately this project identifies a new framework, a diabetic aesthetic, to understand representations of diabetes on the stage that depict the lived experience of people who have diabetes. Diabetic aesthetic brings together an awareness of the role of social forces combined with the emotional and physical ebb and flow of the diabetic body. It draws on the benefits of the medical model for people with chronic illness, the recognition of social barriers presented by the social model of disability and utilizes theories of embodied disability identity to imagine a new way of viewing and expressing this non-visible chronic illness in performance. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My sincerest thanks to my advisor, Dr. Oliver Gerland, for his guidance through the journey of this project. I am also incredibly grateful for Dr. Amma Ghartey-Tagoe Kootin and the support and advice she shared with me during my graduate career and as a part of this committee. I also thank the additional members of my committee, Dr. Beth Osnes, Dr. Tess Jones, and Dr. Amanda Giguere, for their insights and generosity with this project. This work could not have been completed without the help of Dr. Leslie Blood, who kindly provided writing accountability seminars, writing groups, and freshly baked brownies during the summer and fall of 2018. I would additionally like to thank Dr. Kristen Drybread for her invaluable feedback on the writing and analysis in this document through the Graduate Writing Support service. I would like to thank Marina Tsaplina, Bill Zorn, and Ken Weitzman for their time and thoughts that they shared with me in interviews. I was also assisted in the research process by the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA) community and listserv. This research would not have been possible without the financial help from The Rev. & Mrs. Francis Wolle Research and Travel Grants, the CU Graduate School Summer Dissertation Completion Fellowship, and Graduate School Individual Travel Grants. An enormous thank you to my parents, Jill and Steve Gordon, and my brother, Miles, for years of love and laughter living with a type 1 diabetic. I would v also like to thank my new family, the Frazers, for their kindness, humor, and encouragement throughout this journey. Lastly, and most importantly, I would like to thank Travis Frazer, who has done more than I can ever express to care for a person with a chronic illness and support this writing coming into the world. vi CONTENTS CHAPTER 1 ................................................................................................................................................ 1 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 STATEMENT OF PURPOSE ............................................................................................................ 1 1.2 NEED FOR STUDY ........................................................................................................................ 6 1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND KEY TERMS .................................................................................. 15 1.4 METHODOLOGY AND STUDY OUTLINE ...................................................................................... 30 1.5 LIMITATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS ............................................................................................. 32 CHAPTER 2 .............................................................................................................................................. 36 A HISTORICAL OVERVIEW AND CONTEMPORARY ATTITUDES TOWARDS DIABETES IN THE UNITED STATES ........................................................................................................................... 36 2.1 A HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF DIABETES .......................................................................................... 36 2.2 CONTEMPORARY ATTITUDES TOWARDS DIABETES IN THE U.S. ....................................................... 44 2.3 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................................... 56 CHAPTER 3 .............................................................................................................................................. 58 DIABETES AS A STIGMATIZING MARK IN DRAMATIC LITERATURE (1949 - 2018) ................. 58 2.1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................ 58 2.2 PLAY ANALYSIS BY THEME: OUT OF CONTROL ......................................................................... 60 2.2.1 Detective Story (1949) by Sidney Kingsley ........................................................................... 61 2.2.2 The Catch (2011) by Ken Weitzman .................................................................................. 64 2.2.3 Sweat (2017) by Lynn Nottage ........................................................................................... 75 2.2.4 The Cake (2018) by Bekah Brunstetter ............................................................................. 79 2.3 PLAY ANALYSIS BY THEME: DIABETES AS A SPECTER OF DEATH .............................................. 82 2.3.1 The Cold Wind and the Warm by S.N. Behram (1958) .................................................... 84 2.3.2 Steel Magnolias (1988) by Robert Harling ........................................................................ 89 2.3.3 The Pain and the Itch (2007) by Bruce Norris .................................................................. 95 2.3.4 Let Me Down Easy (2009) by Anna Deavere Smith ............................................................. 98 2.4 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................... 101 vii CHAPTER 4 ............................................................................................................................................ 103 4.1 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................... 103 4.2 CASE STUDY: ROBBIE MCCAULEY’S SUGAR (2018) NEW YORK LIVE ARTS ............. 106 4.2.1 PERFORMER HISTORY ............................................................................................................. 106 4.2.2 DEVELOPMENT OF THE PIECE / PRODUCTION HISTORY .......................................................... 108 4.2.3 DATA ANALYSIS: PERFORMANCES OF SUGAR AT NEW YORK LIVE ARTS ................................. 112 Overview ........................................................................................................................................ 112 Storytelling: Integration and Complexity .................................................................................... 113 Embodiment: Carrying the Weight .............................................................................................. 117 Dialogue: Reorienting