Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Bright Half Life Assistant Director, Charles Lawver

Honors Thesis

My Theatre Arts thesis project was working as an assistant director (AD) on the play “Bright Half Life,” alongside my director/professor, Dana Resnick. This play ran from August 29 through September 1 at the beginning of the Fall 2018 semester in the Strub Theatre at LMU. For this project I was expected to perform a number of duties and responsibilities. The other assistant director and I were present at every production meeting, rehearsal, and performance to assist our director in establishing, creating, and guiding her vision for the play into life. We all met with the designers for the show’s …

Building My Director’S Toolbox: For Scab And Beyond, Rebecca Whitney Klein

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

The research question forming the basis of this project was “What can I learn about directing and who I am as a director by researching the processes of others and applying aspects of them to a production of Sheila Callaghan’s Scab?” For my research, I first learned as much as possible about the processes of several professional directors, by means of personal interviews and secondary research. I selected directors who I had worked with previously and wished to learn more from, whose methods I believed would be useful as I directed a production of Scab, and/or on whose methods …

Interpreting Dreams: Directing An Immersive Adaptation Of Strindberg's A Dream Play, Mary-Corinne Miller

Masters Theses

This written portion of my thesis documents how I, as director, conceptualized, devised and staged an immersive adaptation of August Strindberg’s A Dream Play, with the support of a large team of collaborators including: assistant directors, dramaturgs, designers, stage managers, and actors. In this document I attempt to synthesize the discoveries I made in this process regarding the challenges and experience of directing immersive theater, including the importance of giving up directorial control and relying on my collaborators as partners in the creation of the production.

I begin with an introduction to the research I conducted into the field of …

Story & Style: Pursuing Excellence On The Academic Stage, Ryan M. Decker

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The following thesis is a brief view of the 2017-2018 production of Marco Ramirez’s contemporary play The Royale, as produced by Theatre UNO, the theatre production arm of the University of New Orleans’ Department of Film & Theatre. This thesis will include initial responses, analysis, interpretation, production synthesis and communication, and reflection with conclusions on performance, directing, and pedagogy in academic theatre. This thesis is supported by documentation of the production process, including a scored script. The play was performed in New Orleans, Louisiana at the University of New Orleans Performing Arts Center’s Robert E. Nims Theatre, November 9-19, …

Are Unicorns Extinct In The Modern World?: Directing Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie In 2017, Jon Cole Wimpee

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

What follows is a description of my process directing The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams.

I’ve made an effort to track the journey I undertook starting from my earliest encounter with the play and the selection of the story as a thesis project. This document contains my initial script analysis, notes from design meeting collaborations, casting decisions, general research approaches, the rehearsal process, performance insights, and evaluations after completion. This document will also provide, intermittently, additional reflections on my critical attitudes towards this play and production, as well as self-assessments related to notable lessons, successes, failures, and discoveries pertinent to …

The Fault In Our Stars: A Director's Process On Life Is A Dream, Jeremiah Dean Albers

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The following is a journal and reflection on my process as adaptor and director of the play Life is a Dream by Pedro Calderón de la Barca. It is equal parts self-evaluation and creative travelogue. The chapters include an Introduction, and The Production Process, and related appendices.

The Lily's Revenge: Staging Love And Community In The Style Of The Ridiculous, Jennifer Onopa

Masters Theses

This written portion of my thesis documents my process as a director in staging Taylor Mac’s play The Lily’s Revenge in collaboration with a creative team of designers, dramaturgs, and performers.

I share with the reader my processes toward fostering cohesion and collaboration among a team while working on a complex play that departs from many theatrical conventions. I discuss significant learnings from several areas of dramaturgical and performance research that dovetail within the play: queer performance practice, Theater of the Ridiculous, and Noh theater, and how I used this research to support the communication with my design collaborators to …

Making Home: Directing Reintegration Plays, Katherine Alaina Skoretz

Wayne State University Dissertations

This doctoral study explores three American post-combat reintegration plays written and produced in 2010 and 2011 in the United States. Using script analysis and production research, the dissertation describes some of the major themes of reintegration and strengths of theatrical production as revealed by the critically alternative narratives in the scripts and performances of Time Stands Still by Donald Margulies, American Soldiers by Matt Morillo, and Oohrah! by Bekah Brunstetter.

The Dissemination Of Responsibility: Exploring The Audience As Bystander In Theatre, Helen Rooker

Senior Independent Study Theses

This study focuses on finding how theatrical technique and process changes when the audience is reframed as bystanders. I hoped to find ways that theatre artists could fight against the bystander effect in life by bringing it into our theatres. The study was written in conjunction with a production of Nine by Jane Shepard. Nine is a piece about two women who are imprisoned. The audience does not know where they are, how long they have been there, or who has taken them—just that they are regularly raped and tortured. The play is treated as a focal point for my …

The Direction Of Why Torture Is Wrong, And The People Who Love Them, Donald Hart

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Hart, Donald C., M.F.A. Thesis. The Direction of Why Torture is Wrong, and the People Who Love Them. Mankato: Minnesota State University, Mankato, 2018.

This is a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment for the Master of Fine Arts degree in theatre. It is a detailed account of Donald C. Hart's artistic process in directing Why Torture is Wrong, and the People Who Love Them in the fall of 2017 for Minnesota State University, Mankato's department of Theatre and Dance. The paper chronicles the director's artistic process from pre-production through performance in five chapters: a pre-production analysis, a historical and critical …