Date of Award

5-1-1992

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Theatre Arts

Abstract

Eric Overmyer's play On the Verge focuses on three women who leave their world in the year 1888 and enter Terra Incognita, a fanciful world that propels then into the future until they land in the year 1955. The women in Overmyer's play are three extraordinary explorer/adventurers whom, I believe, are based upon three women explorers who actually lived in the late 1800s. The thrust of my thesis focuses on identifying the values displayed by the women in the play, and their real-life counterparts, and determining whether or not these values can be identified as "feminine" or, if indeed, there is such a distinction when focusing on values.

Chapter I states the purpose for the thesis and includes some descriptions and qualifications for the terms feminine, masculine, womanly, manly, and value. In Chapter II, the play is looked at structurally and a brief history of the real-life Victorian women is given. Chapter III discusses the overall concept of the play and Chapter IV examines the production process. Chapter V acknowledges the actors and evaluates the success of the directional concept. The conclusions drawn are based, in part, on the material discussed in the chapters, and, in part, on external evaluation and criticism found in Appendix B. Appendix A contains a number of photos of the production and Appendix B contains outside evaluations from three sources.

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