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ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF ...

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meticulous artistic strokes then, created a rich visual and aural environment for the<br />

production, but may have also limited the meanings <strong>of</strong> the more complicated O’Neill<br />

characters, since Chesse’ seems to have spent little or no time on the very character<br />

psychology he considered essential.<br />

Fig. 54. “Emperor Jones, Vision in the Forest.” Photograph by the Federal Theatre<br />

Project (Washington: National Archives, 1937).<br />

Chesse’s efforts to improve the landscape <strong>of</strong> puppetry seemed to have been<br />

artistically successful, evidenced by his long and lustrous career. Likewise, those efforts<br />

produced the most mature puppet production featuring blackface characters produced<br />

prior to the Second World War. Nonetheless, the heritage <strong>of</strong> minstrelsy caused his object<br />

to perpetuate some <strong>of</strong> the stereotyped qualities <strong>of</strong> blackface, even as it reproduced a live<br />

actor’s vestige. Chesse’ also reduced the imagined authenticity in the play to a series <strong>of</strong><br />

interesting visual and aural effects, leaving behind, at least in his interpretation <strong>of</strong> the<br />

play, the deeper complexities <strong>of</strong> O’Neill’s script.<br />

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