Berto_Tony_201307_PhD .pdf - University of Guelph

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which I found records, I was able to contact fewer than ten playwrights. Of these, I was able
to get scripts for three plays, and only able to find one with adequate records to study.
Similarly, for project-based productions I was only able to find one artist with adequate
records of a production. My selection process also controlled the style of play to be
considered to some degree. This was due to the need to glean the most meaning from a
production's ephemera. Accordingly I chose works that began as written scripts; works
other than this kind, be they performance art, dance, physical theatre, etcetera, may leave
behind scripts (or merely plans) but often lack enough material for an investigator, without
the context of witnessing their performance, to be able to discern their gay themes. All
these criteria ultimately produced an archive of around thirty plays. From these I then
needed to determine a working definition to decide what I would consider a "gay play" as
opposed to a play that merely had gay presences or representations.