Exposition

NEPTUNE PROJECT: Transforming Personal Narrative Into Political Statement in an Autobiographical Play (2023)

Vera Boitcova
open exposition

About this exposition

This thesis explores the ways in which personal narratives in dramaturgy can be read as political statements on the example of creating and staging my autobiographical queer play Neptune over the course of two years (March 2021-March 2023). My research questions include: - What circumstances can evoke a creative desire to transform personal into political through art mediums? To what extent performance art can be effective as a tool to convey political messages? - How to convey political messages through personal narratives in dramaturgy\playwriting? What makes a narrative political and what can be defined as a political narrative? What does ‘being political’ mean specifically for a queer artist\dramaturge? - What methodology, aesthetical, directorial and acting choices can be made to further enhance and underline political message of a documentary narrative, specifically in queer context? These questions will be examined in a detailed account of writing my own autobiographical play Neptune in the year of war and strengthening of oppression in Russia, and subsequent staging of this play. My play had three distinct layers: meta-level (where the narrator talked about her recent political experiences in the year 2022), memory level (subjective memories of a lost love), and fictional level (different characters acting in thematically-relevant vignettes). Therefore, I want my thesis to be reflective of the same structure: it will have three main chapters - Meta, Memory, and Fiction – with the overall reflection at the end. Overall aim of this thesis is to trace the process of creating an autobiographical play from its creative conception (and reasons behind it) to turning it into a theatre production, and by doing so, to examine if it succeeded in its initial goal of conveying a certain political message, and if so, how this result was achieved.
typeresearch exposition
keywordsautobiography, queer, politics of representation, Dramaturgy
date03/05/2023
published15/06/2023
last modified15/06/2023
statuspublished
share statusprivate
copyrightVera Boitcova
licenseCC BY-NC-ND
urlhttps://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/1840958/1840959
published inUniversity of the Arts Helsinki
portal issue2023. 2023


Simple Media

id name copyright license
2106455 paragraph Vera Boitcova Public domain
2106560 unicorns Vera Boitcova Public domain
2106575 duckie Vera Boitcova Public domain
2106610 eve1 eve's ribs Public domain
2106648 eve2 eve's ribs Public domain
2106671 eve3 maria rachmaninova Public domain
2106694 28days Vera Boitcova Public domain
2106717 28days2 Vera Boitcova Public domain
2106831 neptune1 Roosa Oksaharju Public domain
2106855 nep2 Roosa Oksaharju Public domain
2106869 nep3 Roosa Oksaharju Public domain
2106884 nep4 Roosa Oksaharju Public domain
2106900 nep5 Roosa Oksaharju Public domain
2106911 nep6 Roosa Oksaharju Public domain
2106922 nep7 Roosa Oksaharju Public domain
2106933 nep8 Roosa Oksaharju Public domain
2106943 nep9 Roosa Oksaharju Public domain
2106955 nep10 Roosa Oksaharju Public domain
2106967 nep11 Roosa Oksaharju Public domain
2106974 nep44 Roosa Oksaharju Public domain
2106987 nep12 Roosa Oksaharju Public domain
2107004 nep444 Roosa Oksaharju Public domain
2107021 nep333 Roosa Oksaharju Public domain
2107038 nep222 Roosa Oksaharju Public domain
2107046 nep66 Roosa Oksaharju Public domain
2107072 nept Roosa Oksaharju Public domain
2107083 neptu Roosa Oksaharju Public domain
2107093 neptune scene1 small Vera Boitcova Public domain
2107107 sound Vera Boitcova Public domain
2107124 20230215_183829 Vera Boitcova Public domain
2107128 20230130_171818 Vera Boitcova Public domain
2107133 20230125_140347 Vera Boitcova Public domain
2107165 thumbnail_Neptuneinstagram Emma Hansén Public domain
2107180 back Vera Boitcova Public domain
2107188 neptune-scene2short Vera Boitcova Public domain

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