%0 Journal Article
%T Spectacle and Sensation in The Octoroon/An Octoroon
%A Jane Kathleen Curry
%J Nineteenth Century Theatre and Film
%@ 2048-2906
%D 2019
%R 10.1177/1748372719826895
%X Dion Boucicault's 1859 sensation melodrama The Octoroon; or, Life in Louisiana attracted audiences with emotionally charged situations, such as a slave auction, combined with the visual sensation of a realistic depiction of a scene of spectacular danger, the onstage burning of a steamboat. Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' 2014 adaptation called An Octoroon, while departing significantly from Boucicault's approach to visual storytelling, also uses a visual sensation to create an emotional impact. Jacobs-Jenkins invites an audience to enjoy Boucicault's storytelling, revisiting a melodrama now rarely revived, while simultaneously inviting them to engage with and critique the troubling racial stereotypes of the original
%K Dion Boucicault
%K Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
%K The Octoroon
%K melodrama
%K sensation
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1748372719826895