Dramaturgy Website Ball State University Fall 2012
Welcome to the dramaturgy website for John Patrick Shanley's Doubt: A Parable. Here you will find a variety of information about the playwright, the play, the setting of the story, the Catholic Church, and more. Our job is to help you understand the play and hopefully help you gain more from the piece than you already have yourself.
Shanley calls his play a parable: a short allegorical story designed to illustrate or teach some truth, religious principle, or moral lesson. The setting of the story is the Bronx, NY, 1964. In other words, a hotbed of immense change in our nation's history. The play takes place inside the walls of the Catholic church, St. Nicholas, but outside these walls, a societal storm is brewing. The Civil Rights Movement is underway, riots are erupting, norms are breaking and the world is changing at every minute. While the characters in Doubt fight to stay true to themselves, they ultimately change each other and are transformed by the end of the play. What lessons do they learn? And what lesson is Shanley trying to teach us?
Shanley calls his play a parable: a short allegorical story designed to illustrate or teach some truth, religious principle, or moral lesson. The setting of the story is the Bronx, NY, 1964. In other words, a hotbed of immense change in our nation's history. The play takes place inside the walls of the Catholic church, St. Nicholas, but outside these walls, a societal storm is brewing. The Civil Rights Movement is underway, riots are erupting, norms are breaking and the world is changing at every minute. While the characters in Doubt fight to stay true to themselves, they ultimately change each other and are transformed by the end of the play. What lessons do they learn? And what lesson is Shanley trying to teach us?
If you have any questions or want more information, feel free to contact your dramaturgs at any time.
Holly St. John, Dramaturg
[email protected]
317-903-0074
Hannah McKinney, Assistant Dramaturg
[email protected]
812-212-0202
Holly St. John, Dramaturg
[email protected]
317-903-0074
Hannah McKinney, Assistant Dramaturg
[email protected]
812-212-0202