Mode of Program Participation
Performances and Arts
Participation Type
Paper
Presentation #1 Title
Murder by Dynamite, and Other Stories: Visions of Staging Contemporary Appalachian Performance
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
I am in the process of compiling research for a contemporary theatre piece that deconstructs popular narratives of “the Appalachian feud.” From the starting point of a story that I commonly heard growing up, the Gouge family murders in 1938 in Carter County, Tennessee, I will explore the connections and contradictions between the Gouge family murders and other known “feuds” at the turn of the century, the political currents that motivate them, and their sensationalization in the media. The Gouge murders are particularly interesting to me because of the familial closeness, and the particular brutality of them—three girls murdered by dynamite. I am interested in how shifting trends in post-dramatic or contemporary theatre might be used in creating the form of this piece. I hope to use studies on feuds by Altina Waller and Bob Hutton as well as Dwight Billings’s study on stereotypes in Appalachia as a historical lens. I will present my current idea sketches and scenes in a brief presentation.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Robert Kitchens is a first year graduate candidate in the Directing and Public Dialogue program at Virginia Tech. He has been a performer at the Barter Theatre, worked with The Wooster Group, and is a member of the Deconstructive Theatre Project. He is originally from Elizabethton, TN.
Murder by Dynamite, and Other Stories: Visions of Staging Contemporary Appalachian Performance
I am in the process of compiling research for a contemporary theatre piece that deconstructs popular narratives of “the Appalachian feud.” From the starting point of a story that I commonly heard growing up, the Gouge family murders in 1938 in Carter County, Tennessee, I will explore the connections and contradictions between the Gouge family murders and other known “feuds” at the turn of the century, the political currents that motivate them, and their sensationalization in the media. The Gouge murders are particularly interesting to me because of the familial closeness, and the particular brutality of them—three girls murdered by dynamite. I am interested in how shifting trends in post-dramatic or contemporary theatre might be used in creating the form of this piece. I hope to use studies on feuds by Altina Waller and Bob Hutton as well as Dwight Billings’s study on stereotypes in Appalachia as a historical lens. I will present my current idea sketches and scenes in a brief presentation.
