Thesiss

Reframing the Family Portrait: The Surrogate Mother in U.S. Theatre and Film, 1939–1963 investigates the U.S. plays, films, and musicals of this period that abound with heroines who mother children to whom they are not genetically tied. This dissertation asks why such a figure w…

This thesis explores forgiveness narratives in the musical theatre of Oscar Hammerstein II and Stephen Sondheim in the 1940s and 1970s respectively. First, Charles Griswold’s definition of interpersonal forgiveness is thoroughly explored and then tested for its universality acro…

This project, a graduate research thesis, intends to provide information and analysis of Jonathan Larson’s 1996 musical Rent. It covers the life and works of Jonathan Larson, the production history of Rent, Rent’s 1896 operatic predecessor La Bohème, and the environmental contex…