"This Wide Gap of Time": Adapting "The Winter's Tale" Post-COVID
Open Access
Author:
Grover, Arushi
Area of Honors:
Interdisciplinary in English and Theatre Studies
Degree:
Bachelor of Arts
Document Type:
Thesis
Thesis Supervisors:
Garrett Sullivan, Jr., Thesis Supervisor Claire Mary Colebrook, Thesis Honors Advisor Elizabeth G Bonjean, Thesis Honors Advisor
Keywords:
Shakespeare adaptation dramaturgy COVID-19 The Winter's Tale theatre
Abstract:
Shakespeare’s "The Winter’s Tale" tells the story of Leontes’s loss of his family and, after the passage of sixteen years, their reunion. Following the gap of time that the COVID-19 pandemic created for our society and communities, this project aimed to revive "The Winter’s Tale" for post-pandemic audiences through an exploration of the “wide gap of time” and a thematic focus on grief. This thesis presents two adaptational efforts. The first, "Leontes: A Winter’s Tale", reframes Shakespeare’s play as a story played within the mind of Leontes, the loss of his family as memories and the reunion of his family as daydreams or fantasies. The second, "Leontes and Paulina Are Very Much Not Dead", imagines the titular characters sitting the by the graves of their loved ones, in a daily mourning ritual of bickering, reminiscing, and acceptance. This project explores adaptation as an art and study that blurs the line between production dramaturgy and new work development.
