Confession: A Southern Gothic Immersive Experience

My name is Kady Waldmann, and I am a director, a playwright, and an actor. My project is a self-written immersive and experiential play written in an unapologetic southern gothic style. Deep in the overgrown Louisiana bayou lies a large catholic church. The story follows four characters. Mother, Father, Boy and Girl. While not connected by blood they are all connected by spirit. This play explores the controversies and issues that have been widely debated in the catholic church in a deeply haunting way. All while utilizing the Seven Deadly Sins, and all the shame that comes with them. The theatricality and magical realism I have implemented forces audiences to listen. The idea is not to write a dark play for the sake of it being shocking or upsetting. It is a tactic and a strategy many southern gothic writers use to face these issues, head on. Traditional theatre has become uninteresting to the public eye. I want to know the process in production and writing to better prepare myself for what I believe the future of Theatre will be. The script will take place in a society built by every rule written in the bible. Audiences will be an active part in the story. They will play a silent starring role in this piece as their ability to interact could make or break the show. I would describe this play as if The X trilogy by Ti West had a baby with Punchdrunk Theatre and it only read Flannery O’connor.

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Theatre, Dance, and Film

Grantor

Texas State University

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Waldmann, Kady

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Turnage, Caitlin

Committee member dc:contributor.committeemember

• Morille, Jordan

• theatre
• plays
• immersive
• Southern Gothic

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10877/20321

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digital.library.txst.edu:10877/20321