PhD Oral Exam - Cristina Iovita, Humanities

When studying for a doctoral degree (PhD), candidates submit a thesis that provides a critical review of the current state of knowledge of the thesis subject as well as the student’s own contributions to the subject. The distinguishing criterion of doctoral graduate research is a significant and original contribution to knowledge.

Once accepted, the candidate presents the thesis orally. This oral exam is open to the public.

Abstract

Classical bodies, musical throats and an accommodating religion explores the origins of the modern drama from a director’s perspective, with special focus on the ‘language of cry and gesture’, the acting language of the early Romantic repertory. The purpose of the study is to reconstruct the acting codes of the melodrama, the first dramatic genre to appear on the Romantic stage, based on the workshops and subsequent productions of Witchcraft by Joanna Baillie (co-director Louis Patrick Leroux) and Leonce and Lena by Georg Buchner which I directed for the Concordia University’s DB Clarke Theatre in 2010-2011 and, respectively, for Le Theatre de l’Utopie at Montreal in 2013 (Buchner’s Bicentenary) in view of further applications to the modern repertory.