Abolition Dramaturgies

Abstract

Abolition dramaturgies combine abolitionist scholarship with theatre theory to consider theatre a world building arena that dreams, rehearses, and manifests a world that doesn’t rely on carcerality to address harm. This dissertation considers and articulates specific practices within the theatrical arena that can rehearse anti-carceral values and manifest an abolitionist present and future. Examining both abolition dramaturgies and carceral theatrics through scholarship and performance, this study is interdisciplinary. The writing includes theoretical dialogue between theatre and abolition studies, performance analysis of theatre and filmed adaptations of theatre, and reflective autobiographical writing about the context in which I completed this doctorate. The thesis engages with theatre scholars and artists like d’bi young anitafrika, Yvette Nolan, Jill Dolan, Augusto Boal, Bertolt Brecht, and Antonin Artaud to consider liberation a primary function and practice of the theatre. Engaging with abolitionist thinkers like Saidiya Hartman, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Mariame Kaba, and Robyn Maynard and scholars working between theatre and abolition like Nicholas Fesette, this dissertation considers abolitionist practices and values that are inherently theatrical, practices like do-overs, choral solidarity, and the manipulation of capitalist clock-time. Accompanying the paired theoretical frameworks of abolition and dramaturgy, this dissertation analyzes nine works of theatre (or filmed adaptations of theatre) to examine ways abolitionist practices are manifested in live performance. The dissertation ends with a piece of creative writing that reflects upon the ways that abolition dramaturgies manifested in my quotidian life as I wrote.