Digital Commons Network^™

Staging Retro-Perspectives: Performing Age, Memory/Loss, And Queer Desire In The Later Works Of Split Britches (2009–2020), Benjamin Gillespie

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This project investigates the later works of the celebrated New York–based lesbian-feminist performance troupe Split Britches made up of founding members Peggy Shaw (b. 1944) and Lois Weaver (b. 1949). Revealing how the duo consciously interlaces aspects of aging and age-based identity into the very fabric of their later performances in both form and content, this project analyzes how Shaw and Weaver integrate an explicitly anti-ageist and overtly queer representation of aging on the experimental stage. Their later performances serve to challenge narratives of decline and debilitation that come with (hetero)normative representations of old age and the life course in …

Telling Tales As Oral Performance: A Cross-Cultural Comparison Of Storytelling In Ireland, Scotland And Southern Appalachia, Annalee Tull

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

I sought to link, through this paper, cultural performances of identity through storytelling in Ireland, Scotland, and southern Appalachia. I evaluated storytelling practices, whether it was a public or private performance, using symbolic interactionism, dramatist theory, narrative paradigm, and performance theory. The author studied abroad in Ireland and Scotland through the East Tennessee State University Appalachian, Scottish, and Irish Studies Program and experienced an array of stories. She then evaluated her own experiences with storytelling from growing up in southern Appalachia and visited the International Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, TN. The research is rooted in grounded theory from ethnographies, with …

The Miracle Of Being, Carolyn Toner

Senior Theses and Projects

Exploration of the thematic and performative elements in the plays of Eugene Ionesco. 20th century absurdist playwright, Eugene Ionesco, explores the idea of what it means to be human in his plays. I will explore elements of that theme and analyze of these themes in eight of his plays: Victims of Duty, The Lesson, Hunger and Thirst, Exit the King, The Chairs, Amedee, A Stroll in the Air, and The Killer. In addition, I will discuss important performative aspects of his plays as they relate to his theme of humanness.

Acting For Change – Four Drama Workshop Models In Anti-Racism, Anti-Sectarianism, Human Rights And Gender Equality And Storytelling To Promote Reconciliation, Mary Moynihan

Books/Book Chapters

This booklet is written by Mary Moynihan and produced by Smashing Times Theatre Company Limited as part of Acting for Change, a year-long arts programme using high quality drama and theatre processes to promote reconciliation within Donegal and on a cross-community, cross-border basis. As part of the project, in addition to presenting a professional theatre performance and seminar, the company developed four new awareness raising participative drama workshop models, designed by Mary Moynihan to promote anti-racism, anti-sectarianism, equality and storytelling for reconciliation.

The four drama workshop models are printed in full in this booklet along with resource information for drama …

Labeling Abigail, Annora E. Brennan

Honors Theses

Three Plays I Like and Why- first research paper that explored my own personal interests in plays and what made them entertaining to me The Demands of Playwriting- second research paper that outlined the requirements of a play and how I would incorporate these demands in my own writing process Final Performance Script- Labeling Abigail: my final script with performance stage notes included Director’s Concept- third paper that detailed my intentions for the performance and my rehearsal process Director’s Calendar- created to present my intent for each rehearsal and when my tech and dress would be for the show; this …

Transitions: Starting The Second, Full Circle, Mary Colleen Vreeland

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis will focus on the transitional influences that have led me to start the second circle of my professional life. It is an open and honest exploration of the back-story of my life and the academic and professional influences that led me to seek a Master of Fine Arts Degree at Virginia Commonwealth University. With no parallels and therefore no excuses insinuated, I will be open and dissect more of myself as the whole focus of the thesis in hopes of offering clarity to myself and other mature and disabled students seeking to become a better teacher and artist.