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- WCU Author/Contributor (non-WCU co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Joseph A. Wheeler (Creator)
- Institution
- Western Carolina University (WCU )
- Web Site: http://library.wcu.edu/
- Advisor
- Beth Huber
Abstract: For my thesis, I wrote a play. This play follows a world-famous genius detective in a similar vein to characters such as Poirot or Sherlock Holmes, being forced to team up with a hard-boiled noir detective in the same vein as Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon or Jake Gittes in Chinatown. The story has the two of them being brought in to try and solve a murder case that has baffled the authorities. The plot sees the two of them butting heads, and eventually starting to reluctantly work together, but at a point in the play the two of them start to suspect that the other person may be somehow wrapped up in this murder case and things devolve from there. This play is a comedy-drama that has elements that you would expect in the sorts of stories that these archetypes are typically found in, but I tried to write fresh situations for these characters to interact in. This play is very tongue in cheek and relies on the audience's expectations of what these sorts of characters would do but I also find opportunities to playfully subvert those expectations. I aimed to find ways to commentate on the existence of “the detective solving a mystery story” by using the vast differences of tone that can be seen in these two archetypes, and by using several meta-narrative elements. Another element I heavily incorporate in this play is the use of projection to be able to have multiple locations, to sell the genres these characters come from by incorporating pre-filmed scenes, and to visually convey some of these meta-narrative elements such as narrators that clearly indicate their respective genres.
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PDF (Portable Document Format)
364 KB
Created on 4/1/2024
Views: 14
Additional Information
- Publication
- Thesis
- Language: English
- Date: 2024
- Keywords
- Comedy, Detective, Drama, Film, Theatre
- Subjects
- Drama
- Detective and mystery plays
- Comedy