Daniel H. Foster, Assistant Professor of Theater Studies
| Office Location: | 213 Bivins Building |
| Office Phone: | 919 660 3364 |
| Email Address: |   |
| Web Page: |
- Research Interests:
Daniel H. Foster is an Assistant Professor of Dramatic History and Literature in Duke University’s Department of Theater Studies. He focuses on classical, modern, and contemporary theater history, literature, and criticism, with a particular interest in dramaturgy and the intersection of drama, literature, and music. In 2001 he received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago’s Comparative Literature Department, where he was awarded honors for his dissertation on Richard Wagner’s use of classical Greek drama and poetry as models for his operatic treatment of German myth and national identity. For further research on drama, performance studies, and music, in 2001-2002 he was awarded a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship by the University Pennsylvania Humanities Forum and taught in Penn’s Music Department. He has finished a rewrite of his dissertation for publication. Entitled The Hellenization of Politics: Wagner’s Ring Cycle and the Greeks, this manuscript is under a final round of review by the Cambridge University Press.
He has completed four chapters for his second book project, a transatlantic study of minstrelsy in Great Britain and the United States, The Transatlantic Minstrel Show: British Romanticism and American Blackface. This study takes up a topic that is rarely addressed in a transatlantic context. It explores how the British Romantic figure of the minstrel influenced American blackface minstrelsy. To date, he has published the findings of this research in The Journal of American Drama and Theatre and presented them at conferences sponsored by the Modern Language Association and the Hope Franklin Humanities Center at Duke University. Publishers from Vanderbilt University Press and Ohio State University Press have asked for proposals for this book.
- Theatrst 129s, Sp top lit/hst/theo/crit
Synopsis
- Music 120, Adv special topics in music
- Lit 132, Sp top lit/other discipl
Synopsis
- Theatrst 133s, Performance studies
Synopsis
- Theatrst 121, Toward/beyond realism
Synopsis
- Theatrst 91, Introduction to theater
Synopsis
- Theatrst 91, Introduction to theater
Synopsis
- Theatrst 91, Introduction to theater
Synopsis
- Theatrst 91, Introduction to theater
Synopsis
- Theaterstu 91, Introduction to theater studies
- Theatrst 91, Introduction to theater
Synopsis
- Education:
PhD University of Chicago 2001 MA University of Chicago 1993 Post-Baccalaureate University of Pennsylvania 1992 BA St. John's College, Santa Fe 1990
- Specialties:
-
Dramatic Literature
Theater History
Film
Literary & Cultural Criticism
- Selected Production Credits
Composing Credits
- Song Cycle for Voice and Piano-Singing Through the Veil, Duke University, December 2, 2003
Excerpts from my song cycle, Singing Through the Veil, were performed as part of "Performing Dissent," a collaborative show honoring the 100-year anniversary of the Bassett Affair. The song cycle is meant to honor and promote the ideal of higher education for African-Americans but not at the expense of their own culture. Each of the 14 songs is based upon each of the 14 chapters in W. E. B. Du Bois’ The Souls of Black Folk. All but the last of these chapters begins with a poetic epigram taken from a famous European-American writer followed by a few measures from an African-American spiritual. This song cycle is essentially a theme and variation built upon the notes of these spirituals married to the words of the poets. It is meant to symbolically as well as culturally integrate African- American and European-American culture.
Dramaturgy Credits
- Dramaturg Credits, Duke University, Autumn 2003
Dramaturg for Marlane Meyer's Why Things Burn directed by Jody McAuliffe
- Song Cycle for Voice and Piano-Singing Through the Veil, Duke University, December 2, 2003
- Recent Publications
(More Publications)
- D.H. Foster, “Blackface Sheet Music Iconography and Idiom: The Evolution of Minstrelsy from Theater to Performance", Modern Language Quarterly (forthcoming) .
- D.H. Foster, From Minstrel Shows to Radio Shows: Racism and Representation in Blackface and Blackvoice, Journal of American Theatre and Drama (Spring, 2005) [abs].
- D.H. Foster, Film Adaptation: From I, Robot to I Pagliacci, Association of Literary Scholars and Critics Newsletter (11-1 (Winter 2005): 8) [abs].
- D.H. Foster. The Hellenization of Politics: Wagner's "Ring" Cycle and the Greeks. Cambridge University Press, (2005). (forthcoming) [abs]
- D.H. Foster. The Transatlantic Minstrel Show: British Romanticism and American Blackface. (in progress). [abs]