Enter Stage Right: A Study of Marginalization Related to Conservative Theatre Artists and the Journey to Finding Their Voice Within the Greater Theatre Community

摘要

The issue of marginalization has acquired a position of important scrutiny over the past fifty years among Communication scholars. Two theories in particular deal with this issue in a theoretical and practical way: Muted Group Theory and Standpoint Theory. Muted Group Theory, based on the work of Kramarae (Foss, Foss, & Griffin, 1999), Ardener, and Ardener (1973, 1975, 1980, 2005), purports that the linguistic nature of the world lends itself to power structures in which the language and word choice of one group is able to dominate the voice of another. Standpoint Theory, popularized by the work of Harding and Hill Collins, and brought to greater working prominence within the communication field through Wood and Houston, essentially deals with "how the circumstances of an individual's life affect how that individual understands and constructs a social world" (Littlejohn & Foss, 2011, p. 110). While these two theories are typically applied to causes generally considered to be championed by liberal ideologists, they are not without their crossover value within the realm of conservative causes. The thrust of this study is to take one such cause---the voice of the conservative theatre practitioner within the greater theatre industry---and examine it through the lens of these two theories to the end that the issue of marginalization and its effects on these practitioners may be understood and that such marginalization may be mediated through the use of practical and theory-based strategies.