Dramaturg
Dramaturgy was something Kate always dreamed of doing, but never thought an opportunity would present itself to them. Then in September 2015 Visiting Professor Dr. Anderson emailed the Pacific Lutheran University Theatre department about the opportunity to dramaturg the show he would direct. Kate applied, unsure if they would even be considered as a sophomore student, and was thrilled to learn they had received the position. Since then Kate has continued to hone their skills as a dramaturg through work both in theatre and as an undergraduate student.
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Ideally Kate would love to help playwrights realize their visions through their new works. Kate is especailly interested in scripts dealing with themes surrounding social justice.
Scare Tactics: The Manipulation of
16th Century Women through
Arden of Faversham
Presented at the 2017 Northwest Undergraduate Conference in the Humanities.
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The murder of Thomas Arden by his wife Alice was an important enough event to be published
in Raphael Holinshed’s first Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland and inspired an
anonymous play titled Arden of Faversham. But why was Alice’s crime so popular in early
modern English literature when murder was a relatively common event in the 16th century? After
analyzing the work of Catherine Belsey, Frances Dolan, Jennifer Jones, and Julie Schutzman it is
evident that there was not a large number of wives murdering their husbands, but instead there
was a universal fear among early modern Englishmen that if one wife was capable of murdering
her husband then all wives were capable of eventually murdering their husbands. This fear
among the men of the period is what caused the popularity of Arden of Faversham so it could be
used as a way to intimidate women into staying subordinate to their husbands for fear of the
punishment they would receive should they be insubordinate.
Moon Over Buffalo
This production was part of the Pacific Lutheran University School of Arts and Communication 2017 Focus Series: Re-Forming as part of the campus celebration of 500 years since Martin Luther's distribution of the Ninety-Five Theses.
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View Program Notes and the Scenic Research Packet created for the Scenic Designer below.
Performative Drag
through Time and Space
In the late 2010s Drag Queens are becoming more mainstream. Due to this visibility, the validity of drag as an art form is being questioned more frequently. This style of performance can be compared to many different types of performance throughout history. Utilizing scholarly journals and mainstream news services, I have compared and contrasted modern American Drag Queens with traditional Japanese Kabuki theatre and found that while the two art forms have their differences, they are very similar.
Troy Maxson: Father of Three
A character analysis of how Troy Maxson from Fences by August Wilson is influenced by his past careers and how that influence impacts his relationships with his sons.
Neither a Borrower Nor a Lender Be
An analysis of a theme in The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov, specifically showing how the characters of Madame Ranevsky and Pishtchik exemplify the theme.
Oedipus the Tyrant King
The Greek word tyrannos means an absolute ruler who has seized a throne by force. While Oedipus is known as the King of Thebes, is he truly a king or a tyrannos? After analyzing Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, I argue Oedipus is both.
Goodnight Desdemona
(Good Morning Juliet)
View the Lobby Display, Program Notes, and Illumination Packet created for the cast below.
Slaying is the Word
The 400th Anniversary of Shakespeare's death was a globally anticipated phenomenon that inspired many to delve deeper into the worlds William Shakespeare created. It becomes quickly evident that while Shakespeare is popular throughout history, he writes of many taboo subjects, one of them being suicide. After conducting research with a select number of books and scholarly journal articles I believe Shakespeare is popular despite these taboo subjects because of the way he appeals to his audience contextually.