Performance Studies Commons^™

4000 Matches On Fire At Once: Studies In Memory And Performance, Lauren Chapman

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

In examining the journey that has brought me to the position I am in as a dramaturg, artist, and person, it would be at best rude and at worst irresponsible not to acknowledge the universe of people, productions, and ideas that have molded me. Just as plays are composites and amalgams of ideas, emotions, styles, and themes, so is an emerging dramaturg. My experience is both entirely my own, and not my own at all. In reflecting this experience for my thesis exhibit, I feel it’s important to isolate those individuals and ideas that have molded me.

By presenting their …

School, Melissa F. Carter

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

This project asked the question: What is the role of the undergraduate liberal arts institution in American society, now? I initially searched for answers through secondary research. This did not provide me with a single, concrete answer, but contextualized the topic and showed me that there is a multitude of roles that the university plays in society. I then formed and trained an ensemble and together we explored these roles through group discussion and exhaustive improvisation. Out of the many answers that presented themselves, we focused on the concept that the primary purpose of the university is to create the …

Picnic

Theatre Programs

No abstract provided.

Black Matter, Kahlil Irving

Graduate School of Art Theses

History as we know it, is inherited. Racism, fascism, white supremacy, and Eurocentric dominance have been presented as normal and acceptable within our society for many years. This has allowed police officers to execute Black American’s and not be acquitted for their horrendous crimes. As an activist I want to challenge the status quo. As an artist I am interested in investigating how I can present ideas embody or reflect contemporary issues and concerns. Using different colors can aggressively change how an object is perceived. Historical objects hold many important.

I explore many mediums, but an anchor material that I …

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 I faced …

Fantastical Body Narratives : Cosplay, Performance, And Gender Diversity., Tiffany M. Hutabarat-Nelson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation aims to explore how the phenomenon of cosplay has been able to produce and sustain a diversity of gender expression due to its emergence from an activity-based community that emphasizes creative play. This creative energy is manifested through cosplay as an active, ritualized practice in which gender diversity is invited to be realized as a distinct possibility, resulting in a display of a full range of masculinities and femininities as well as crossplays and genderbend cosplays. I argue that cosplay can therefore be understood as a phenomenon that destabilizes the gender binary—its active practice promotes the production and …

Sonder: Locating The Unessentialized Self In Movement Practices, Joel Walsham

Honors Theses

This research will contend with the ever-present endeavor in many models of contemporary dance practices to ‘be yourself’ – to seek out an illusive core of your being, and engage with your essential self. Through a survey of cultural studies and social identity that includes the contributions of Judith Butler, Friedrich Nietzsche, Michel Foucault, Todd Reeser, and Ta-Nehisi Coates, the idea of an essential self will be challenged, throwing into question the dominant conception of self used in contemporary dance practices. Through a brief review of two historical conceptions of self in dance, that of Isadora Duncan and the post-modern …

Laughing At Ourselves: Music And Identity In Comedic Performance, Peter Trigg

Masters Theses

Standup comedy actively performs and engages with constructions of self and social identity, especially in terms of ethnic difference and the negotiation of American race relations. Musical comedy, wherein standup comedians perform song onstage, represents one facet of this expression that configures musical texts and expectations in the service of cultural observation and critique. Bo Burnham and Reggie Watts characterize two disparate approaches to the practice based on their aesthetic tastes, existential anxieties, and racial experiences. The two present their respective identities onstage in relation to a changing American political landscape of the early 21st century that has seen widespread …

An Actor's Method To Building The Character Of Mother Superior In Agnes Of God, Venita J. Matthews

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Agnes of God is the story of a nun (Agnes) who gets pregnant while living in a convent. She almost dies after giving birth to a baby, who was later found dead in a garbage can. The cast consists of three members: Agnes; Mother Miriam Ruth (Mother Superior); and Dr. Martha Livingstone, the court appointed psychiatrist. Faith is tested as Dr. Livingstone draws closer to uncovering the truth surrounding the conception, birth, and death of Agnes’ baby.

I performed the role of Mother Superior in the UNO production of Agnes of God. This thesis documents my rehearsal and …

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.

Going Old School: Using Eighteenth Century Pedagogy Models To Foster Musical Skills And Creativity In Today's Students, Monique Arar

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Recent research has illuminated a pedagogical approach to keyboard improvisation of the Italian conservatories of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, namely that of partimenti: single-stave, multiple clef exercises in which students were trained to improvise (Gjerdingen 2007, Sanguinetti 2012, van Tour 2015). This approach was passed down through oral instruction until the mid-twentieth century, when pedagogical priorities shifted away from improvisation and compositional creativity towards virtuosity, technique and adherence to the printed page. Simultaneously, the tradition of decade-long musical apprenticeship was replaced with semester-long courses in music theory and harmony.

The existing research on partimenti presents a compelling historical narrative …

I Directed Macbeth, And So Can You, Jason Flannery

Theses

Designed in the second year of my graduate studies, and rehearsed and performed in the autumn of my third, Macbeth served as my thesis production at Lindenwood University. In this paper, I will address the details of how the production came to light, my approach to developing the performance, what was learned throughout the nearly year-long endeavor, and how those lessons have shaped my relationship with the art of storytelling.

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 to the …

Lacuna: Transcendence Of The Human Body Through The Space Between, Anica Bottom

Scholarly and Creative Works Conference (2015 - 2021)

Examination of humans as dancers interaction with our surrounding environment. Performance and experimental movement improvisation clips shown.

Una Traducción Dúctil: El Beso De La Mujer Araña Y Los Códigos Artificiales, Sam Mccracken

Georgia State Undergraduate Research Conference

No abstract provided.

Introduction To "A Case Study Of Directorial Courage: An Iranian Director's Subversive Production Of Lorca's The House Of Bernarda Alba" By Joie Miroux And Peter Zazzali, Anne Fliotsos, Ann M. Shanahan

Department of Fine & Performing Arts: Faculty Publications and Other Works

No abstract provided.

School Tour Of James And The Giant Peach, The University Of Maine College Of Liberal Arts And Sciences

Cultural Affairs Distinguished Lecture Series

The musical touring version of James and the Giant Peach is adapted directly from Roald Dahl's classic children's book. This project blends two areas that hold much interest for our current students, musical theater, and children centered theater. This show will incorporate song, dance, puppetry, and intricate costumes.

Cross(Ing) The Line: Leadership In Devised Theatre, Monica Furman

Honors Papers and Posters

“Traditional" (Western) theatre focuses on the relationship between the playwright and the director. Devised theatre is a reaction to the dominant ideology; it is ensemble-created original work. A group of artists collaborate and create a play with no script and, sometimes, no initial theme or message. They use various different art forms as well as interviews and narratives to create a theatrical experience.

Sight And Song Augmented, Robert P. Fletcher

Sight and Song Augmented: Painting and Poetry in Mixed Reality

This file is an Android application built in the Unity 3D game engine with the Vuforia Augmented Reality extension. It remediates Sight and Song (1892) by Michael Field (Katherine Bradley and Edith Cooper), a collection of ekphrastic poetry about paintings by the Old Masters.