Witch Fulfilment: The Witch as Theatrical Type
What wishes do performances fulfill when they include witchy characters onstage? My research centers the Witch as a theatrical type on twenty-first century North American stages and screens, with attention to casting and adaptation dramaturgy.
Witch representation matters because witches are not figments of imagination or inhuman monsters. Understanding the humanity of witches suggests that if the Witch can be analyzed as a theatrical type reiterated through performance, then those of us who make theatre and other kinds of popular performance culture have a responsibility to represent witches humanely.
In this discussion, we will review iconic examples of Witches onstage, considering both the character and the actor playing the role. From depictions of the Wicked Witch to Medea to the Weird Sisters and beyond, the representation of Witches in the contemporary adaptations I examine all reveal crucial insights about the fears and desires we have about the hidden powers of minoritarian subjects.
Bio:
Jane is the Head of Dramaturgy and a Professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of Kansas (KU). Her recent book Witch Fulfillment: Adaptation Dramaturgy and Casting the Witch for Stage and Screen (Routledge 2024) explores the Witch as a theatrical type, using feminist, queer, and adaptation dramaturgy methodologies. She is also the author of Adapturgy: The Dramaturg’s Art and Theatrical Adaptation (SIU Press 2018). A freelance dramaturg and director, Barnette directed a double-cast version of John Proctor is the Villain in March 2025 at KU’s Inge Theater. Barnette’s next book, co-authored with Henry Bial, The Dramaturgy of Musical Revisal, is forthcoming from Routledge later this year.
Image:
Image: Cavendish, Morton (1909). The Art of Theatrical Make-up, London: Adam and Charles Black. Public Domain.
Curated & Hosted by:
Marguerite Johnson is a cultural historian of the ancient Mediterranean, specialising in sexuality and gender, particularly in the poetry of Sappho, Catullus, and Ovid, as well as magical traditions in Greece, Rome, and the Near East. She also researches Classical Reception Studies, with a regular focus on Australia. In addition to ancient world studies, Marguerite is interested in sexual histories in modernity as well as magic in the west more broadly, especially the practices and art of Australian witch, Rosaleen Norton. She is Honorary Professor of Classics and Ancient History at The University of Queensland, and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. She lives in Mytilene on the Greek island of Lesvos.
don’t worry if you miss it – we will send you a recording valid for two weeks the next day
