The Difference Between Boys, Girls, and Otherwise: Frank Wedekind's Spring Awakening as Queer Dramaturgy

Abstract

This thesis is based on the project completed for the Master's degree at Stony Brook University, which was split into two parts: translation of Frank Wedekind's Spring Awakening from German to English, and the presentation of this translation as a production. In order to endow further meaning on the controversial play, I sought to undermine the audience's expectations of sex and gender by using cross gender casting and other production values in order to cause an audience to question their expectations of the gender binary and the societal expectation for men and women to adhere to prescribed gender roles. This thesis first traces the inspiration for the project and factors that led to my interest, methodology used in translating the play and casting for the gender bent production, and its overall effectiveness.