Digital Commons Network^™

Visionary Futures: Science Fiction Theatre For Social Justice Movements, Joshua Glenn-Kayden

Masters Theses

This written portion of my thesis chronicles my experience as director and producer of Visionary Futures: Science Fiction Theatre for Social Justice Movements, in collaboration with playwrights, activists, actors, designers, and a dramaturg.

In this thesis, I explore the process of creating a meaningful thesis project during the Covid-19 pandemic. I discuss the idea of visionary fiction as created by adrienne maree brown and Walidah Imarisha and how to create theatre within that genre. This thesis chronicles the development and production of three new plays of visionary fiction that wrestle with contemporary social issues, all designed for digital performance. I …

The Cunning Little Vixen: A Folktale Illustrated On Stage, Mikayla Reid

Masters Theses

This thesis paper reflects upon the costume design process taken by Mikayla Reid to explore how color choice and application within designs can help create storybook characters off the page and onto the stage. This concept is explored through the costume designs for the opera The Cunning Little Vixen, a production theoretically staged at the Alice Busch Opera Theater for the Glimmerglass Festival in New York. The paper discusses Reid’s attempt to create designs that still feel like watercolor illustrations, even when realized in physical garments. It follows her process as she tests different dye techniques in search for what …

Real Fake Fighting: The Aesthetic Of Qualified Realism In Japanese Professional Wrestling, Clara Marino

Masters Theses

Professional wrestling is a performance art in which the line between fact and fiction is often obscured. Much of the existing scholarship on the medium that examines its dynamics regard reality and artifice focuses on the role of the artificial, analyzing pro-wrestling as primarily a form of heightened spectacle akin to passion plays or soap opera. However, professional wrestling in Japan, particularly that found in the country's largest promotion, New Japan Pro-Wrestling, features many elements that resemble real sports much more closely than many American promotions. These elements include fighting styles, wrestler injury, characters that do not fit easily into …

Long Day's Journey Into Realistic Scenic World: A Reflection On The Scenic Design For Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night, Xinyuan Li

Masters Theses

LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO REALISTIC SCENIC WORLD: A REFLECTION ON THE SCENIC DESIGN FOR EUGENE O’NEILL’S LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT

MAY 2021

XINYUAN LI, B.A., SHANGHAI THEATER ACADEMY

M.F.A., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST

Directed by: Professor Anya Klepikov

This thesis is a reflection of the paper project of scenic design of Long Day’s Journey Into Night by Eugene O’Neill. It’s a record tracking the entire design process from the script analysis to the final presentation and all the discovery along with the process. Successes and places need to be improved will also be included.

Adapting The Hellmouth In The Office Of The Dead From The Hours Of Catherine Of Cleves: An Experiment In Using A Dramaturgical Approach To Medieval Studies, Tatiana A. Godfrey

Masters Theses

This thesis is an artefact documenting the process of adapting a late medieval painting of hell into a short horror film. The process of adapting the Three Mouths of Hell, housed within the Hours of Catherine of Cleves, serves as an experiment in applying a dramaturgical approach to medieval studies. The process of adaptation and production, informed by critical research about the Hours of Catherine of Cleves and its Three Mouths of Hell, yields new frameworks for understanding the history of Catherine of Cleves, her Book of Hours, and the Three Mouths of Hell.

Ancestral Hauntings And Utopian Conjurings: A Fool’S Journey Into Coven-19, Or Magicks For Unprecedented Times, Maegan Clearwood

Masters Theses

Conceived in the wake of a global pandemic and the unanticipated need to create digital theatre, COVEN-19, or Magicks for Unprecdented Times as a devising project consisted of two witchcraft-inspired performances: a fall 2020 Samhain ritual and a spring 2021 Beltane ritual. The company of undergraduate and graduate theatre witches explored decentralized, iterative, slow, caretaking, queer forms of devising over digital platforms. The written portion of this thesis takes the form of a digital tarot blog: 22 (plus a bonus) interconnected essays and spells that interrogate feminist and queer theories as they pertain to the Coven’s devising process. This digital …

Virtual Mediums Of Storytelling In Lighting Design: An Exploration Of Plamondon And Cocciante’S Notre-Dame De Paris, Sydney L. Becker

Masters Theses

The following thesis will explore and reflect upon the process of lighting design for Luc Plamondon and Richard Cocciante’s Notre-Dame de Paris, from the novel by Victor Hugo. It will cover the whole design process, from reading the script through final design proposal. Beyond reflecting on the traditional design process and its trials and tribulations, time will also be spent exploring how moving to an entirely online format affected and changed the process as well as the presentation format of the final product.