Feminist Orientations: Towards Approaches for an Intersectional Feminist Music Theatre Dramaturgy

Abstract

This research explores an intersectional feminism within music theatre, looking specifically at framings of and orientations towards the female body. Practice is at the centre of its concerns, which focuses, first, on a practice-led analysis of an existing work performed in 2018. The findings from this analysis then inform a practice-based approach to creating a new musical. This project critically responds to the commercial, populist form of musical theatre where the female body has been frequently and problematically objectified and employed dramaturgically, resulting in limiting and reductive stereotypes. In this dissertation I argue that because feminist readings of musicals, led by scho..