Theatre and Performance Studies Commons^™

Mezcla, Liz Quinones

Dance (MFA) Theses

Modern-day colonialism negatively impacts marginalized Americans on a daily basis. Beyond the emotional detriments caused by microaggressions and stereotyping, systems of oppression create unequal access and opportunities for those who fall outside the margin of the “norm.”

Through the re-telling of her father’s migration story, researcher Liz Quinones uses personal narrative alongside scholarly research to expose the harmful impacts of white supremacy in America. Quinones investigates her own identity crisis and dissociation with Puerto Rican heritage that has been and continues to be white-washed by society. Using dance performance as a medium, Quinones creatively manifests her research while seeking reclamation …

The Prevalence Of Musculoskeletal Injuries Within The Center For Wellness In The Arts At Marshall University, Colin John Wakeman

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Background: The demands on successful performing artists are two-fold. First, they have to perform at a high skill level for their specific art, such as theater, marching band, dance, and color guard. Second, they need to achieve the aesthetic demands of their discipline. Musculoskeletal (MSK) injuries can impact either or both of these elements and affect their overall performance. If MSK injuries are not addressed early in a performer’s career, they can develop into chronic problems that take performers out of rehearsals, practices, and performances.

Purpose: This epidemiological study aimed to investigate the prevalence of MSK injuries within …

Fatigue-Related Jump Landing Knee Injuries In Dancers, Megan Holton

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Non-contact knee injuries are prevalent in dancers and have great financial and social costs. These injuries may be prevented with training that modifies jump landing movement patterns and improves lower body strength and cardiorespiratory fitness. Identifying the movement-based risk factors that are most strongly related to injury mechanisms allows healthcare providers to create effective training interventions. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between multivariate risk factors and injurious knee forces as a dancer lands from a jump. Twenty female dance students with at least eight years of experience were recruited. These dancers were injury-free and actively …

Cut Song Cabaret: Performing The Replaced, Rewritten, And Recycled Songs Of Musical Theatre, Claire Wilson

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

In musical theatre, “cut songs” are the pieces of music that are removed from a show, whether the cut occur in the early creative stages, a pre-Broadway run, minutes before opening night, or even for a major revival years after its initial debut. These songs easily go unnoticed, as some are never made public while some are sneakily recycled for other musicals. Cut songs, though greatly varying in quality, are still works of art that at one time fulfilled their sacred duty of entertaining an audience and required just as much artistic effort to produce as the songs that survived …

Maiden, Martyr, Sinner, And Saint: Performing The Narratives Of Joan Of Arc, Emma Cox

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

This Capstone Experience/Thesis Project, made possible through the WKU Mahurin Honors College, is a study of historiography, or the way history is written. Joan of Arc is used to explore historiography because she is a figure that is written in many ways, each version giving us a snippet of the whole picture. The show written based on my research is titled Jehanne. I wanted to tell Joan’s story, but not just one version of it; I wanted to tell the whole story of who she is, not just what she did or what she believed. Not only does Jehanne …

No Day But Today: The Social And Cultural Impacts Of Rent, Emily Lancaster

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

No Day but Today: The Social and Cultural Impact of Rent addresses how Jonathan Larson’s musical changed the theater industry and the lives of those living in the shadows. Rent gave struggling artists, drag queens, and those suffering from HIV/AIDS a voice during a time in which they were being pushed aside and disposed of by the mainstream media. Larson’s untimely death the night before his Off-Broadway premiere did not allow him to see his masterpiece soar, but the message of love that his show promotes is still being spread across the world by anniversary tours and interviews with original …

02 Liturgy And Drama At St-Omer In The Thirteenth Through Sixteenth Centuries, Lynette R. Muir

Early Drama, Art, and Music

A reprint of a study of ceremonies and the Easter play at the collegiate church of St-Omer, originally published in the EDAM Newsletter 9, no. 1 (Fall 1986).

03 Il Doge And The Liturgical Drama In Late Medieval Venice, Nils Holger Petersen

Early Drama, Art, and Music

A reprint of a study of the Easter Quem Queritis and the involvement of the Venetian Doge, originally published in Early Drama, Art, and Music Review 18, no. 1 (Fall 1995).

04 Palm Sunday Ceremonies In Poland: The Past And The Present, Teresa Bela

Early Drama, Art, and Music

A reprint of a study of a long-lasting tradition of religious processions in Poland, originally published in Early Drama, Art, and Music Review 12, no. 2 (Spring 1990).

05 From Synthesis To Compromise: The Four Daughters Of God In Early English Drama, Hans-Jürgen Diller

Early Drama, Art, and Music

A reprint of a study of the Four Daughters of God in Middle English drama, originally published in Early Drama, Art, and Music Review 18, no. 2 (Spring 1996).

07 Fox, Bull, And Lion In The Towneley Coliphizacio, John W. Velz

Early Drama, Art, and Music

A reprint of a study of patterns of coercion exemplified in the Towneley Coliphizacio, originally published in Early Drama, Art, and Music Review 14, no. 1 (Fall 1991).

06 "Lyst Ye Saynt?" Saints In The Second Shepherds' Play, Karen Sawyer Marsalek

Early Drama, Art, and Music

A reprint with revisions of a study of the saints named in the Second Shepherds' Play, originally published in Early Drama, Art, and Music Review 23 (2001).

11 Medieval Actors And The Invention Of Printing In Late Medieval France, Graham A. Runnalls

Early Drama, Art, and Music

A reprint of a study of the dissemination of play texts in print and the performance of drama, originally published in Early Drama, Art, and Music Review 22 (Spring 2000).

09 The Arma Christi And The Croxton Play Of The Sacrament: A Prolegomenon To Regional Iconographic History, Ann Eljenholm Nichols

Early Drama, Art, and Music

An otherwise unpublished study of the East Anglian Croxton Play of the Sacrament in relation to devotion to the instruments of the Passion.

A Devised Ethnodrama: Conscious Voices, Sonia Pasqual

Master of Liberal Studies Theses

Using techniques of storytelling, dance, poems, and monologues in the process of re-enacting life stories, the ensemble display issues that may be impeding society’s growth—discrimination against body image, blackness, females, and LGBTQ individuals. In addition, engagement in storytelling and performance can help the audience increase their cognitive skills, empathy, and ability to live a communal life. This evidence-based practice can transform lives and society. It has the potential of continuing to other faculties and with other departments, such as film, musical, and additional narratives. This specific work could be extended out beyond art and education into populations of any communities …

The Drama Of Information Literacy: Collaborating To Incorporate Information Literacy Into A Theatre History Curriculum, Dianna Sachs, Michael J. Duffy Iv

University Libraries Faculty & Staff Publications

Information literacy (IL) has been studied extensively, but little has been written about IL applied to the study of theatre. This study addresses that lacuna by evaluating the success of a librarian-faculty collaboration to integrate IL throughout a year-long course of study. Using a pre- and post-test methodology, researchers assessed students’ knowledge on a range of IL concepts. The results were used to modify the IL curriculum to place greater emphasis on IL concepts that students struggled with, and to de-emphasize IL concepts for which students demonstrated adequate incoming knowledge. This paper will provide recommendations for librarians and other instructors …

01 Traditional Songs Introduction, William Donner

Sikaiana Traditional Songs

This is an introduction to Sikaiana songs. It includes a discussion of the social cultural context of song composition and singing. There is a discussion of the different features of song production and a list of different song genres. Most of the discussion is concerned with traditional song expression that are part of derived form changes associated with colonialism and modernization.

10 The "Stuff" Of The Medieval Palette: Paint, Painters, And The Dramatic Records, Jon Terry Wade

Early Drama, Art, and Music

A revision of a study of the availability of pigments painters used for pageant wagons, props, and costumes, originally published in Early Drama, Art, and Music Review 23 (2001).

01 The Investiture Contest And The Rise Of Herod Plays In The Twelfth Century, John Marlin

Early Drama, Art, and Music

A reprint of a study of the figure of Herod in liturgical drama, originally published in Early Drama, Art, and Music Review 23 (Fall 2000).

Protest Music Of The 2010s, Tumaini Sango

McNair Scholars Manuscripts

Throughout U.S. history, music has served as a soundtrack to transformative social and cultural movements. Songs like “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” “Lift every Voice and Sing,” and “We Shall Overcome” are linked to key events that inspired hope and change. Collectively, these songs are known as protest music. Protest music can act as a type of social commentary, expressing a wide range of emotions, and have a uniting element, calling leaders and groups to action for tangible results. At its core, protest music is a musician’s creative response to events happening in the world around them. The 2010s saw the …