A director's production study of The Big Knife

The purpose of this master’s thesis is to present Mr. Clifford Odets’ play, The Big Knife. In the University Street Playhouse at Fresno State College in accordance with the plan of the master’s degree program put into effect in the fall semester of 1958. Under this new master’s program, the thesis and the thesis production, while they obviously must be of educational value, will not of necessity follow an educational theme, as past master’s thesis productions have. Since there Is no obligation to justify this thesis production as particularly adaptable to general high school and/or college use, a more advanced production was chosen. Because of the advanced nature of this study, the inherent problems will be magnified and many new problems will certainly be discovered.