Acting Commons^™

Circle Mirror Transformation, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2012 Summer Theatre

A sharply funny new play by emerging playwright Annie Baker, Circle Mirror Transformation follows five people through a summer of "creative drama" in their small town's adult acting class. Led by their bohemian acting coach, the five experiment with harmless theatre games that unexpectedly lead to poignant discoveries about themselves and each other. At turns, surprisingly funny and subtly insightful, this revealing play reminds us why theatre is the most human of all arts.

Barefoot In The Park, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2012 Summer Theatre

What happens when two very different people fall in love? Paul likes to wear his gloves in the winter and Corie wants to walk barefoot in the park. Mix in the crazy neighbors upstairs, Victor Velasco, who "wears Japanese kimonos and sleeps on rugs" and Corie's mother who "wears a hairnet and sleeps on a board" and expect some complications. Set in 1963, Barefoot in the Park captures the tension between the freedom of the burgeoning 60's and the conventions of the waning 50's. Corie and Victor are pre-hippies, attuned to their libidos and their desire for ...

Art Infested Water, Nova Southeastern University Department Of Visual And Performing Arts

Department of Performing and Visual Arts Newsletters

Art Infested Water Volume 7

The Music Man, Rebecca M. Baker, Robert Clements, Tim Phipps, Carlos Elias, Diane C. Merchant, Rebekah Priebe

Rebecca M. Baker, M.A.

When fast-talking Harold Hill hears that no traveling salesman has ever won over stubborn River City, Iowa, he decides to give it a try! His biggest challenge is Marian the librarian, and in the process of trying to charm her, he falls in love himself. The Music Man celebrates a terrific score of marches, love songs and Barbershop quartets, along with great dance numbers and a family-friendly story.

Art Infested Water, Nova Southeastern University Department Of Performing And Visual Arts

Department of Performing and Visual Arts Newsletters

Art Infested Water Graduation Edition

From Playwriting To Production, Lauren Wade

Senior Honors Projects

Theater has been a beloved art form for centuries, originating in Ancient Greek times and evolving into what we know today. For as long as I can remember I have been involved in theater, performing in my own school plays starting in elementary school and, upon entering high school, assisting the middle school next door in their productions. While I have been studying acting here at the University of Rhode Island, I have also had the opportunity to expand my knowledge in many aspects of stagecraft including stage management, costume and set design, set construction and scenic painting, and more ...

A Summer Experience As A Paid Actor: It’S Not All Broken Legs, Reagan James

Undergraduate Honors Theses

A Summer Experience as a Paid Actor: It’s Not All Broken Legs

Thesis Statement: Finding out that you are going to be paid to act sounds like a dream come true, but there is a lot more to it than just the glitz and glam of the final product.

Finding Exuberance For The Role Shelby In Baltimore., Danielle Smart

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis documents my discovery of exuberance as the key to a successful performance and reveals the challenges I faced in developing a character whose major actions in the play fall into the category of masking (i.e. hiding, avoiding, dodging). I define exuberance and discuss how I came to understand that sustaining exuberance requires a great deal of technical expertise specifically in acting, movement and voice in order to accommodate the demands of the character. I contend that exuberance also requires commitment and nurturing of the actor’s personal artistic vision. This thesis will discuss some of the difficulties ...

Building The Bastard : Confidence Through Preparation In Shakespeare's King Lear., Shaleen Tarun Cholera

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is to chart my discovery that confidence is essential to an actor’s craft. This thesis focuses on my performance as Edmund in King Lear, as well as my production the previous summer playing Hussein in Ayad Akhtar’s Disgraced. I draw from a variety of sources, such as meditation and formal acting exercises, to achieve confidence. Most importantly, I distill my missteps as an actor for a better understanding of what hinders confidence when building a role for performance.

Staging A Clinical Performance, Kelly Legacy

Student Showcase of Excellence

“Staging a Clinical Performance” is a cross-cluster, cross discipline collaborative between the Arts & Technology Cluster & the Health & Human Enrichment Cluster. This project will work with faculty and external partners with medical and theater expertise, to develop a curriculum to train PSU students to act as standardized and simulated patients for Allied Health Profession programs. *Standardized/Simulated Patient is an actor who performs the role of a patient.

Students in the clinical allied health programs will work with standardized patients to integrate clinical knowledge and “soft skills” early and often in simulated clinical practice environments. Working with standardized patients will generate ...

Ouachita To Host Annual One-Act Play Festival May 4-5, Hannah Hines, Ouachita News Bureau

Press Releases

Ouachita Baptist University’s Department of Theatre Arts will host its annual One-Act Play Festival on Thursday and Friday, May 4-5. The performances, which are free and open to the public, will be held in Verser Theatre at 7:30 p.m. both nights.

A total of six one acts will be performed throughout the weekend, with three on each night. All of the shows are directed by senior theatre majors enrolled in the play directing class, a capstone course for a theatre degree.

Expressions Of Madness In Coloratura Mad Scenes Of Bel Canto Operas, Rachel G. Christenson

Senior Honors Theses

This thesis will explore the musical innovations in the mad scenes of the bel canto composers in the 1800s. It will analyze Gaetano Donizetti’s mad scenes in Anna Bolena (1830) and Lucia di Lammermoor (1835), and Vincezzo Bellini’s mad scenes in I Puritani (1835) to discover how each composer expresses madness through the high and virtuosic voice of the coloratura soprano. The subject of madness is not a new idea in opera. However, the mad scenes of Donizetti and Bellini are the most successful and are often performed in opera houses around the world. Specific attention is given ...

Art Infested Water, Nova Southeastern University Department Of Performing And Visual Arts

Department of Performing and Visual Arts Newsletters

Art Infested Water Volume 5

Rapture. Redemption. Religion. Retail. Directing Samuel D. Hunter’S, A Bright New Boise, Chadwick R. Taylor

Student Research and Creative Activity in Theatre and Film

This thesis contains the written documentation of the process of directing a theatrical production of A Bright New Boise by Samuel D. Hunter, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for Masters of Fine Arts in Directing for Stage and Screen at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Topics addressed include play selection, background of the play and author, script analysis, concept development, casting, production and rehearsal process, director’s reflection, and critical responses and self-evaluation.

Advisor: Ian Borden

Not The Truth We Seek: The Story Of A Mime, Fierce Women, Proposals, & Pro Wrestling, Steven Meeker Jr.

Distinction Papers

THE SPARK

I have always believed that the best theater comes from a very real and sometimes very painful place. My parents were undergoing a brutal and very open separation and then divorce throughout my junior and senior year of high school. In the middle of the constant war zone that was our home, my brother and I would simply go from one room to the other with our heads down and as quick as possible. The only day we would linger in the living room would be Mondays. On Monday nights, my brother and I owned the living room ...

The Complete Works Of William Shakespeare (Abridged), Diane C. Merchant, Robert Clements, Tim Phipps, Rebekah Priebe

Theatre Productions

The Complete Works takes us through all of Shakespeare’s Histories, Comedies and Tragedies in one hilarious show! It’s a fast-paced romp through the Bard’s well known plays. Join three actors, lots of wigs, crazy props, bona fide costumes, and iambic pentameter all rolled into this Shakespearean adventure you won’t soon forget. It’s time to get up close and personal with this in-your-face merriment staged in our black-box performance venue.

Echoes: A Short Play, Laura Mae Ward

Theatre Productions

Echoes was performed during the All Night Theatre Festival of March 2017. It is an existential dramedy about two astronauts on a malfunctioning spacecraft.

Summons: A Short Play, Laura Mae Ward

Theatre Productions

Performed as part of OBU's All Night Theatre Festival in March of 2017, Summons is an absurdist comedy about inept witches trying really hard to summon an ancient evil, but failing miserably.

Acting Out The Old Sport, Leah Kind

Leah Kind

The purpose of this exercise is twofold: one, to have students make text-based interpretations in their discussion, planning, and eventual performance of scenes from The Great Gatsby; two, to have students see the crucial (albeit sometimes frustrating) role of Nick Carraway as the narrator of the novel. In their performance groups, one student will fill the role of “performing” (verbally) Carraway’s interior monologue as conceived by the group, so it will be necessary for students to make informed decisions on his mental commentary. In being tasked with bringing Fitzgerald’s text to life for their peers, students will also ...

Sameena Mustafa Interview, Uyanga Chinzorig

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Bio: Sameena Mustafa is a stand-up comedian, actor, and writer named in the Chicago Reader’s Best of Chicago 2016 issue. She has been featured in videos by The Onion and performed on world-famous stages like the Laugh Factory and Biograph Theater. A Northwestern University graduate, Sameena is a sought-after speaker and host, praised for founding Simmer Brown, a comedy showcase featured in the Chicago Sun-Times and Redeye Chicago.