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      Burned Heart

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      LAWRENCE-THESIS-2017.pdf (171.4Kb)
      Date
      2017-09-19
      Author
      Lawrence, Katherine L 1955-
      ORCID
      0000-0002-7537-5435
      Type
      Thesis
      Degree Level
      Masters
      Metadata
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      Abstract
      Burned Heart is a performance memoir that grew out of my desire to take a language-based approach to playwriting. Specifically, the structure is dialogic in that the performance uses a number of strategies that range from polyphonic voices to the use of found, or borrowed, elements. These strategies developed organically while referencing (and resisting) my practice as an established poet. With respect to the theme of Burned Heart, I set out to explore the characteristics that some adults develop as a result of childhood experiences related to the breakdown of family structure. As someone who grew up in the shadow of divorce, I was interested in merging specific memories with contemporary research, particularly the work of the late American psychologist, Dr. Judith Wallerstein. Her career was shaped by a twenty-five year longitudinal study that investigated the effects that divorce has on families. Growing up, I was told (and believed) that my parents’ divorce would not, and did not, affect me. Wallerstein’s study, and the work of others, affirmed for me that divorce does indeed spell long-term consequences for the children involved. Burned Heart is set as a mindscape. The characters, staging, costumes, lighting, and props represent a married woman’s exploration of the aftershocks of a traumatic event. I reached for dreams, ghosts, historic characters, and fractal memory to build the thirteen scenes that constitute Burned Heart. The title is wordplay on one of the names of a central character, the famous French actress Sarah Bernhardt, who lived from 1844-1923 and makes a return in this dramatic work.
      Degree
      Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.)
      Department
      English
      Program
      Writing
      Supervisor
      Lynes, Jeanette
      Committee
      Haig-Bartley, Pamela; Clark, Hilary; Thorpe, Doug
      Copyright Date
      October 2017
      URI
      http://hdl.handle.net/10388/8107
      Subject
      Performance
      Mother-daughter
      Divorce
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