Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Strengthening Adolescents With Anxiety Through Drama Therapy, Jeremy M. Moeller

Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)

Strengthening Adolescents with Anxiety Through Drama Therapy

Jeremy Moeller

In recent years the issues associated with social anxiety have become increasingly common in adolescents. With these issues becoming more common it is important that they continue to be nurtured and helped. With so many forms of therapy though it may be hard for someone to find a practice that suits them. That is where drama therapy comes in. Drama therapy is a fairly new practice that helps these adolescents to become more expressive and engaging in their everyday lives, decrease their social anxieties, and build a new sense of confidence …

Medea Costume Design Concept, Annie Wolfzorn

Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)

Euripides’s Medea is a story about a woman’s heart being poisoned with pain and grief. Her pain demands to be felt and her grief demands to be heard. Over time, the grief sours from longing for her own death to longing for the death of others. Medea longs to ease the pain of her grief with an act of revenge. This grief is in response to her husband shattering the beautiful love they once shared. Consequently, he earns a cruel and devastating punishment—the brutal murder of his second wife, Glauce, her father, Creon, and his two children. In the process …

Internalized Misogyny As Displayed By Aunt March In Little Women, Sydney Lofton

Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)

It seems that more women fight against each other than for one another. Women have developed a reputation for gossiping to disparage the reputation of each other, leveraging terms like “floozie,” “bimbo,” and “slut” against one another. While women will rage against men who support the patriarchy, women are often some of the strictest enforcers of its standards. In Kate Hamill’s playscript Little Women, an adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s 1868 novel, it is Aunt March, not a man, who places pressure on Jo to assimilate to society’s expectation of women. This push of conformity may reflect Aunt March’s own …

What Is Normal In Mental Health?: A Script Analysis Of Next To Normal, Caitlyn Campbell

Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)

Next To Normal, the Broadway musical by Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey, follows a dysfunctional family whose matriarch struggles with a multitude of mental health issues. Delving into hard topics, such as mental health and family relationships, the musical challenges what we consider to be normal family dynamics and mental states. These important themes are mainly demonstrated through Diana, a mother and wife who struggles with severe mental health diagnosis. Through this analysis, these difficult questions are unveiled while looking closely at the musical’s plot structure, characters, ideas, and dialogue.

The Conscience Of Little Women: Beth's Epic, Mcewen Baker

Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)

From its conception, and through countless retellings, there is no doubt that Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women is an American classic that has stood the test of time. Kate Hamill’s stage adaptation affirms and extends this legacy; the playwright adopts a contemporary feminist approach that defies gender norms and exclusivity in casting and encourages an actor-centered approach. This essay explains the importance of this adaptation and its influence on my portrayal of Beth March in Belmont University’s Fall 2021 production. It touches on the often overlooked significance of the second youngest sister as well as how my personal battle with …

To Build A Town From Words: The Process Of Designing The Diviners, Preston Cross

Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)

Set in the fictional town of Zion, Indiana during the 1930s, The Diviners, written by Jim Leonard, Jr., presents a particular set of challenges and opportunities for the scenic designer. The small town of Zion is not a wealthy one, but it is inhabited by people who try their hardest, in the midst of the Great Depression, to make the most of everything they have. They try not waste any materials that could be repurposed and used again to make something new. This was the main challenge of the design process: how to create a small town that was …

Limboland: A One-Act Play About Death, For Kids, Megan Huggins

Honors Scholars Collaborative Projects

LimboLand: A One-Act Play about Death, for kids

Megan Huggins

Thesis Director: James Al-Shamma, Ph.D

Thesis Committee: Shawn Knight, Jessica Mueller

A loose adaptation of Dante Alighieri’s epic poem Inferno, LimboLand uses Alighieri’s model of the nine circles of Hell to illustrate the five stages of grief. In a script designed for theatre for young audiences, Dante, a young child, travels through different rooms as he attempts to cope with and understand his sister’s death. Dante follows Virgil, an older child, who knows a lot about the afterlife system without understanding any of it. The play includes an appendix …