Date of Award
Spring 5-2017
Degree Type
Thesis-Restricted
Degree Name
M.F.A.
Degree Program
Creative Writing
Department
English
Major Professor
Justin Maxwell
Second Advisor
Henry Griffin
Third Advisor
Beau Bratcher
Abstract
Always the Icarus is an experimental play in two acts depicting the road-trip journey of meth-fueled, anti-heroine, Cartla, and her best friend, J.A. –a Juggalo with a heart of gold. Cartla desperately needs to leave the Midwestern nothingness of Interior, South Dakota after having a premonition about the fate of America’s favorite T.V. food guy, Guy Fieri. The lines between memory and vivid hallucination become desperately scrambled for the young, twisted duo as they venture from stop to stop along the lucid route to Anaheim, California. With each passing stop, Cartla is confronted by her inescapable geo-historical and geo-familial coordinates as well as a whole slew of characters who refuse to accept the idea that the coveted “American dream” may be grossly out of reach for the forgotten “trash” of the nation. But who will be the saviors of the broken and the ambassadors of the underdogs? Do the maneuvers of the father undoubtedly scar the psyche of the oblivious, devoted child? Do mythologies leave room for less-tragic margins of error?Through a theatrical narrative form stressing cyclical language and interactions, audiences are urged to question whether the mythic Icarus will always fall from the soaring, sky-heights of heaven into the cold waters below.
Recommended Citation
Bietz, Breanna L., "Always the Icarus" (2017). University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations. 2298.
https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/2298
Rights
The University of New Orleans and its agents retain the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible this dissertation or thesis in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. The author retains all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis or dissertation.