Story-Within-a-Story
Amongst Panganiban’s many inspirations for WELGA which he’s listed on his blog, there is one of particular importance to the structure of his play―the story-within-a-story plot device utilization as a theatrical element.
Where did this originate? Or rather, with whom? That who is Thomas Kyd!
Historians believe that this dramatic device was first used by Kyd “in The Spanish Tragedy around 1587, where it forms the spectacular resolution of the story” (Smith). Panganiban’s use of this in WELGA also makes it pertinent to the resolution of the story.
Additionally, in the case of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare’s “skillful development and juxtaposition of these simultaneously unfolding plots serves the function of reiterating some of A Midsummer Night’s Dream’s principal themes” (Smith).
Fig. 9. Murray, Helen. NYT REP company in A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Although Kyd was the first to use the story-within-a-story in theatre, Shakespeare was the one who made it notable.
In Hamlet particularly, Shakespeare has “the action and characters in the play mirror some of the events from the play itself” (Smith). And, sometimes, this story-within-a-story can quite literally be a play-within-a-play and will “include the performance of all or part of the play, as in A Midsummer Night’s Dream or the musical The Producers” and similarly in WELGA.
Fun fact:
Panganiban listed both A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Hamlet as one of his inspirations for WELGA, so he intentionally wrote his play to include this plot device!
Fig. 10. Bindlestiff Studio. Photo from WELGA.
So how exactly does he do this?
Well, the play is detailed to have both a prologue and an epilogue that take place in the present while the rest of the play takes place three years prior. It begins with the protagonist Johnny as a teacher who, after a brief conversation with a student, delves into telling a story to the class.
Except it isn’t simply told.
The audience is shown this story as Johnny reverts to his past self, to when he was still a student himself.
(watch from 2:06 till the 3:22 timestamp)