Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Is It Gonna Be Fun?, Kim Tomlinson

School of Art, Art History, and Design: Theses and Student Creative Work

I am a multidisciplinary artist working across digital and analog forms of printmaking, installation, playing, drawing, and writing. I incorporate elements of humor, autobiography, and nostalgic pop culture references to tell stories and facilitate connections.

At the heart of my work is the desire to be seen and feel connected. This starts with self reflection and building a personal archive of important references and symbols. Through recurring characters rooted in personal and historical pop culture references, I incorporate layers of complexity and inside jokes into the work. Humor is an essential tool to maintain levity, engage participants, and challenge traditional …

The Lost Story Of Frank Jackson, Hayden Jackson

Honors Colloquium

This is the promotional poster for Hayden Jackson's Honors Colloquium, "The Lost Story of Frank Jackson: A One-Act Play," held on November 27, 2023, in Walker Room A.

What Makes A Salesman: Death Of A Salesman And The Politics Of Adaptation, Thomas Alvarez

Honors Scholar Theses

Arthur Miller has regularly been regarded as one of the most prominent American playwrights of all time, producing timeless and often innately political works designed in part to speak to his perspective on history as it has taken shape. This thesis will discuss the 1951, 1966, and 1985 American adaptations of Death of a Salesman—one of his greatest defining works—to draw attention to his specific perspective while exploring how this messaging can be recontextualized when decades and mediums separate an adaptation from its source text. Furthermore, this thesis will explore choices made by actors and screenplay writers, working to ascertain …

Toute Une Montagne D’Affaires Louches, Ian Curtis, Aidan Bullock, Isabelle Hoffman, Katie Vanoort

Exemplary Undergraduate Work

No abstract provided.

Judged By The Cover, Jay Froio

Honors Program Theses and Projects

No abstract provided.

Quilted Archives, Rebecca M. Gallandt

Art and Art History Honors Projects

Memory and identity are rooted in the experience of being in material spaces and the process of remembering is often prompted by associative places. Quilted Archives is a series of four collages that combine the mediums of printmaking and oil painting in the pursuit of exploring nostalgia. In each work I use brightly colored intaglio aquatint prints, sepia intaglio etchings, patterned linocut prints, and oil paint to embed memories of childhood play and pretend in the flora of the landscapes where each memory takes place. The flora is collaged in a colorful geometric style to reference quilting and is used …

Sustainable Canons: Gadamer's Hermeneutics And Theatre, Charles A. Gillespie

Catholic Studies Faculty Publications

This essay investigates Gadamer's hermeneutic theory and its application to theatre. Attention to Gadamer's views of theatre and performative interpretation provides a foundation to theorize a more sustainable canon. Classics that constitute a sustainable canon operate within a tradition through a community of interpretation that continually returns to interpret them anew. This structure also describes the theatrical repertoire. Several of Gadamer's central themes find easy analogues on stage: play, the history of effect (Wirkungsgeschichte), the participation of an audience in the fusion of horizons, and art's making present continuity the past. Gadamer provides a framework for understanding the …

Potential Quantitative Analysis As Ludic Interface ∈ By Jacques Roubaud, Olga Amarie, Dragos Amarie, Lillian Morgado

Department of World Languages and Cultures Faculty Research and Publications

Abstract: ∈ is a book of sonnets written by the French mathematician and poet Jacques Roubaud. The book draws inspiration from a myriad of sources, most prominently from a game of GO played between Masami Shinohara and Mitsuo Takei recorded by the GO Review magazine in April 1965. Roubaud himself encourages the readers of ∈ to read the book in multiple different orders, which the article identifies as the diagram order, the pagination order, the GO order, and the random order. This article analyzes the patterns and inconsistencies that appear when the book is read in the different orders suggested …

The Creative Laboratory: Embracing Childlike Imagination To Develop Lifelong Creativity And Cognitive Ability Through Worldplay, Nicholle Kimberly Abbott

Masters Theses

There is a decline in creativity that occurs in children around the sixth grade. Although it is commonly agreed that creativity is a valuable skill, the playful activities of childhood that naturally develop creativity are often discouraged once the child reaches middle school age. This thesis investigates methods of generating creativity that can be introduced to children as a way to combat the slump. Specifically, it analyzes worldplay, the act of creating an imaginary world, as a potential tool for building creativity. To test the viability of worldplay as a creative tool, the thesis used a literature review to establish …

New Play Collaborations, Kathleen Potts

Open Educational Resources

This is a syllabus for a New Play Collaborations course, which explores the creative, collaborative process of creating a new play. It is comprised of sets of actors, directors, and playwrights, who will team up to create a number of original works for the stage.

Living With Tiny Aliens: The Image Of God For The Anthropocene [Table Of Contents], Adam Pryor

Religion

Astrobiology is changing how we understand meaningful human existence. As astrobiologically aware human beings, we must confront our deepened anxiety arising in the face of our own contingency—realizing how deeply tethered we are to the moments this pale blue dot exists in the universe. At the same time, our astrobiological awareness is opening a horizon to the exciting possibility of understanding our humanity in relation not only to a planet burgeoning with life, but a cosmos pregnant with living-possibilities.

Touching upon both these issues, this work provides an approach to astrobiological humanities: helping figure expressive modes by which human beings …

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 …

Go Outside And Play!, Erin Olson

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"We know that play is good for kids’ mental, emotional, and physical health, but what about for adults?"

Posting about ­­­­­­­­the benefits of enjoyable activities from In All Things - an online journal for critical reflection on faith, culture, art, and every ordinary-yet-graced square inch of God’s creation.

https://inallthings.org/go-outside-and-play/

At Death’S Door, Katie Downing

Honors Projects

At Death’s Door is a one act play inspired by Greek mythology. This play reinvents the myths of Persephone and Alcestis in a fun and heartfelt way. Set in the Underworld, Persephone must help the lost soul Alcestis to find her way in the afterlife.

Diamonds And Toads: An Adaptation Of Charles Perrault’S Les Fées, Jessi Pitts

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

An American Southwest full length adaptation of Charles Perrault’s Les Fées for the stage. The lives of Fanny, Rose, and their mother are changed when Rose is given a blessing by a fairy: whenever she speaks, diamonds fall from her lips. But the softness of a throat stands no choice against the sharp edges of a diamond. Diamonds and Toads explores a dysfunctional family, what it means to be a good person, and the obsession a child has to gain the approval of their parents.

Systems In Play: Simon Nicholson's Design 12 Course, University Of California, Berkeley, 1966, Tim Stott

Articles

In 1966, British artist, designer and educator Simon Nicholson (1934–1990) offered a lower division course, Design 12, at the College of Environmental Design, UC Berkeley. Controversially, Nicholson promoted play as the principal method of design and invited children to assess students’ projects on the Berkeley campus and in local schools, parks, playgrounds and hospitals. This article presents Design 12 as an important example of environmental design pedagogy in the USA, which uniquely attempted to synthesize British post-war constructivism with ‘design science’ and adventure play. The result was a course that placed play at the centre of design pedagogy, where it …

The Fortnite Phenomenon: Should Christians Be Wary? (Part I), Donald Roth

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"Evidence shows that video game addiction is much more of a concern among young people using video games to escape or cope with challenges in their lives."

Posting about ­­­­­­­­parental responsibility in managing children's leisure activities from In All Things - an online journal for critical reflection on faith, culture, art, and every ordinary-yet-graced square inch of God’s creation.

https://inallthings.org/the-fortnite-phenomenon-should-christians-be-wary-part-i/

Swimming With Shoes On, Juliet Mueller

Honors College Theses

Swimming With Shoes On is a creative writing thesis containing four short stories all revolving around one central character, Lottie. Each story enters the reader into a different chapter of Lottie's life, and we watch as people move in and out of her life, as she learns more about herself and her friends, as she develops certain understandings about the construction of the world she's living in.

The Director's Role In The Development Of A New Play, Andrew Mullins

Honors College Theses

Over the course of May 2017 - February 2018, I examined the role of a theatre director in the development of a new play. The play that I directed was written by Brandon Adam, and is titled Nice Jewish X. We developed the play using three different forms of performances as guideposts and opportunities for feedback. The three forms of performance were a closed cold reading, a rehearsed open reading, and a fully staged and produced production. Over the course of this process, I worked closely with the playwright and helped facilitate his creative process, as well as explored …

The Fortnite Phenomenon: Should Christians Be Wary? (Part Ii), Donald Roth

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"Video games should be viewed as providing teachable moments rather than dangerous temptations."

Posting about ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­parental responsibility in managing children's leisure activities from In All Things - an online journal for critical reflection on faith, culture, art, and every ordinary-yet-graced square inch of God’s creation.

https://inallthings.org/the-fortnite-phenomenon-should-christians-be-wary-part-ii/

Tatyana Markus: Hero Of Ukraine, Ariana L. Martineau

Honors Projects

A dramatized telling of the story of Tatyana Markus, a young Jewish resistance fighter from Kiev, Ukraine. Under a false identity, she personally killed dozens of Nazis during WWII. Along the way she lost many people she cared about until she was captured herself. Tatyana has gone on virtually unknown throughout the world, so this play is an effort to spread word about this brave, amazing girl who was only in her early 20s. I think the themes are very relatable to today's society with the struggle of whether to stand up to injustice, or stand by. Especially since she …

Vin Scully: The Voice Of Los Angeles, Elliot Gorn, Allison Lauterbach Dale

History: Faculty Publications and Other Works

This chapter combines history and memoir. The authors are both historians and both grew up in Los Angeles as Dodgers fans. Gorn followed the team in the late 1950s and 1960s. Lauterbach Dale became a fan a generation later. With the realization that the voice of Dodgers announcer Vin Scully was their common tie to Los Angeles, they decided to write about his importance to the city.

Finding Meaning Through Video Games, Christopher T. Althoff

Student Works

The way video games combine elements from novels and films and then adds the element of interactivity makes them a unique and complicated medium that is difficult to completely understand. Video games create meaning by using and combining the visual and audio elements of Film Theory, the storytelling elements of Narratology, and the interactive elements of Ludology.

Run Hugs, Squeeze Hugs, And Jump Hugs: Playfully Professing Parenthood And The Self-In-Relation, Marc Ouellette

English Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Dramaturgical Exploration: Setting Oliver Goldsmith’S She Stoops To Conquer In Post-Civil War Virginia, Amanda Ward

Senior Honors Theses

A reputable theatrical company will hire a dramaturg to implement historical research and to provide reputable information where the director or staff desires it. They ensure that the play’s elements are as truthful to the time period as possible and aid in a performance’s overall success. If a theatrical company were to set Oliver Goldsmith’s play She Stoops to Conquer in 1870 Virginia, it could strengthen the play’s underlying religious, political, and cultural elements.

The paper is comprised of seven sections: a biography of the playwright, a religious exploration, a political analysis, a cultural comparison, a delineation of suggested script …

Inklings And Tentacled Things: Grasping At Kinship Through Video Games, Melissa Bianchi

Communication, Media, and Arts Faculty Articles

Connecting Haraway’s recent observations about “making kin” to video games, this essay examines how particular elements of the medium might cultivate nuanced considerations for multispecies relations. To fully grasp how video games broadly redefine relations between human and nonhuman animals, we must consider the role of game aesthetics and play mechanics in players’ experiences of becoming-with. These elements of games fundamentally shape players’ engagements with the medium and are inextricably linked to their storytelling and production. Moreover, game aesthetics and play mechanics (in conjunction with storytelling) demand that players take specific actions and inhabit distinct roles during play, enabling players …

The Party: A Play In One Act, Derrek Schrader

Honors College

The writing and directing of a full-length play entitled The Party began as a novel about a woman throwing a party, and it morphed into an abstract piece of literature that comments on and highlights the effects of depression. It was adapted for the stage, and through the adaptation, it explored the symbolic and aesthetic elements of depression that the novel was physically unable to explore. In addition, it examined the desperation and daunting nature of depression through the use of character, depicting its effects in an unsettling way.

Through the directing of this play, the words became tangible. Multiple …

Best Sandbox, Tom Clark

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"Mathematics ought to be for everyone, not just for mathematicians, scientists, and engineers. Mathematics is not only about application; it is part of the created world."

Posting about ­­­­­­­­learning about math through creative play from In All Things - an online hub committed to the claim that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ has implications for the entire world.

http://inallthings.org/the-best-sandbox/

Blue The Bee Learns To Be Happy, Connie Reimers-Hild, Deborah J. Weitzenkamp, Connie Reimers-Hild, Kim Wellsandt

Kimmel Education and Research Center: Faculty and Staff Publications

Do you sometimes feel sad or blue and don't know what to do? If so, this book was written just for you!

Join Blue the Bee as she travels through Happy Orchard meeting her friends (Flutter, Buzz, Bonita and Ernie) to learn the 7 Happiness Habits. When happiness is a habit, it comes without thinking. You can choose how to spend your day and use your time. You choose how to live your life and what is on your mind.

Each page was designed to enjoy at any age. People can become pollinators of happiness in any life stage!

This …

Histories Of Internet Games And Play: Space, Technique, And Modality, Teodor E. Mitew, Christopher L. Moore

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

No abstract provided.