University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Masters Theses Dissertations and Theses August 2020 Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Dramaturgical Concerns): Re-Centering Dramaturgy and Comedy as Feminist Tools for Social Change Shaila Schmidt University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/masters_theses_2 Part of the Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, Film and Media Studies Commons, Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies Commons, Television Commons, and the Theatre and Performance Studies Commons Recommended Citation Schmidt, Shaila, "Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Dramaturgical Concerns): Re- Centering Dramaturgy and Comedy as Feminist Tools for Social Change" (2020). Masters Theses. 946. https://doi.org/10.7275/17672745 https://scholarworks.umass.edu/masters_theses_2/946 This Open Access Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Dissertations and Theses at ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. IS EVERYONE HANGING OUT WITHOUT ME? (AND OTHER DRAMATURGICAL CONCERNS): RE-CENTERING DRAMATURGY AND COMEDY AS FEMINIST TOOLS FOR SOCIAL CHANGE A Thesis Presented by SHAILA SCHMIDT Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF FINE ARTS May 2020 Theater Dramaturgy © Copyright by Shaila Schmidt 2020 All Rights Reserved IS EVERYONE HANGING OUT WITHOUT ME? (AND OTHER DRAMATURGICAL CONCERNS): RE-CENTERING DRAMATURGY AND COMEDY AS FEMINIST TOOLS FOR SOCIAL CHANGE A Thesis Presented by SHAILA SCHMIDT Approved as to content and style by: ________________________________ Harley Erdman, Chair ________________________________ Megan Lewis, Member ________________________________ Kirsten Leng, Member ________________________________ Harley Erdman, Department Chair Department of Theater DEDICATION To my two biggest fans, Mathew and Miranda, who believed in me even when I didn’t believe in myself. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I want to start by thanking the members of my thesis committee. Thank you to Kirsten Leng for agreeing to join my committee despite knowing nothing about dramaturgy and for sharing your expertise and passion for comedy with me. Thank you Megan Lewis for your tireless support and for never allowing me to discount my abilities as a scholar and artist. Finally, thank you to Harley Erdman for your never-ending enthusiasm for this project and for encouraging me to create my own definition of what it means to be a dramaturg. Thank you to Viveca Greene, Brenda Withers, and Theresa Rebeck for graciously taking the time to talk with me about comedy, writing, and women in the arts. Your insightful words will continue to inspire me for years to come. I am incredibly grateful to all the wonderful humans who excitedly devoted their time and energy to making my thesis events possible. Jacqui Dupré, Jessica Maldonado, Emma Perakis, Tom Kelleher, Celena Lopes, Henry McEnerny, Darrow Sherman, Fleur Kuhta, Willow Cohen, Julie Fife, and Anna-Maria Goossens—I could not have done it with you. I would also like to express my gratitude to Judyie Al-Bilali, Priscilla Page, and Chris Baker for their guidance and support as advisors throughout the last three years. And, to my graduate cohort—thank you for your camaraderie and for inspiring me to be the best possible artist I can be. Finally, thank you to my family and friends who have been an incredible source of strength and love, especially my partner, Mathew, who I somehow convinced to move across the country for this. v ABSTRACT IS EVERYONE HANGING OUT WITHOUT ME? (AND OTHER DRAMATURGICAL CONCERNS): RE-CENTERING DRAMATURGY AND COMEDY AS FEMINIST TOOLS FOR SOCIAL CHANGE MAY 2020 SHAILA SCHMIDT, B.A., BOISE STATE UNIVERSITY M.F.A., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor Harley Erdman Titled as a play on Mindy Kaling’s 2011 book, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns), this thesis highlights the obstacles women, the genre of comedy, and dramaturgs face in order to be taken seriously in the arts. Using the work of Mindy Kaling, I explore how she uses comedy as a means of defying the expectations put upon her as an Indian American woman in order to provide context for the ways in which the marginal statuses of women of color and comedy overlap. In an effort to demonstrate the ways in which comedy can be utilized as a tool for social change and the ways in which the work of a dramaturg can support that, this thesis documents the planning and execution of three events that accompany this written document: a production of Mindy Kaling and Brenda Withers’ 2002 play, Matt & Ben; a screening of the 1997 Oscar-winning film, Good Will Hunting; and a Q+A conversation with Broadway’s most-produced female playwright, Theresa Rebeck. My work is shaped by various theoretical frameworks, including intersectional feminism, symbolic annihilation, charged humor, and gender vi performance theories, seeking to establish that my dramaturgical, comedic, and feminist sensibilities are all driven by the same empathetic impulse that sits at the very core of my artistry and arguing that despite a vast history of marginality, dramaturgs, comics, and women can be powerful agents of change. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................ v ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................. vi LIST OF FIGURES… ................................................................................................ x CHAPTER INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................... 1 The Comic Tradition ..................................................................................... 6 Embracing the Hyphen ................................................................................14 I. MINDY KALING: INTERSECTING MARGINALITY & HUMOR ......................21 Introduction .................................................................................................21 Mindy Kaling: From Diversity Hire to Showrunner ...................................21 Matt & Ben .................................................................................................. 27 The Mindy Project ....................................................................................... 31 Late Night ................................................................................................... 39 II. AN EMPATHIC THEORY OF COMEDY .......................................................... 47 Introduction ................................................................................................ 47 Defining Feminism ...................................................................................... 51 Unlikely Leading Lady ................................................................................ 53 It’s A Man, Man, Man’s World .................................................................... 61 III. DRAMATURGY IN PRACTICE ....................................................................... 70 Introduction ................................................................................................ 70 Matt & Ben & Good Willing Hunting ......................................................... 73 Brenda Withers ................................................................................ 77 viii Logistics and Challenges .................................................................. 77 The Rand Lecture Series ............................................................................. 84 Theresa Rebeck ................................................................................ 85 Logistics and Challenges .................................................................. 88 IV. THE EMANCIPATED DRAMATURG ............................................................. 91 Dramaturg-as-Observer .............................................................................. 94 Dramaturg-as-Meaning-Maker .................................................................. 99 Dramaturg-as-World-Builder .................................................................... 101 CONCLUSION: SEND IN THE CLOWNS ........................................................... 107 APPENDICES A: MATT & BEN GLOSSARY ..................................................................... 111 B: MATT & BEN & GOOD WILL HUNTING PROGRAM ......................... 121 C: MATT & BEN & GOOD WILL HUNTING POSTER ............................ 128 D: THERESA REBECK INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT ............................... 129 E: THE RAND LECTURE SERIES PRESS RELEASE ............................. 138 F: THE RAND LECTURE SERIES POSTER ............................................ 139 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................. 140 ix LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. Box Office Top Grossing Films 2015-2018 ........................................................... 3 2. Late Night Talk Show Hosts, September 2019 .................................................. 44 3. Mindy Kaling (Mindy Lahiri) in “Stay At Home MILF” .................................... 56 4. Kaling