Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Mary Grace Geise Bfa Graduating Presentation, Mary Grace Geise

Honors Theses

The Bathers takes inspiration from the late 19th-century impressionist painter Paul Cézanne and his series of paintings known as Bathers. Cézanne believed in the harmony between art, emotion, and nature. This piece explores the healing powers of nature and how it reflects the human experience, beauty, ugliness, and inner peace. The Bathers endure a journey to rebirth by ways of nature, traversing through moments of desertion, cleansing, surrender, ecstasy, and freedom.

Paige Mulick Bfa Dance Graduating Presentation, Paige Mulick

Honors Theses

Paige Mulick’s Graduating Presentation/Honors Thesis was created to be a piece that explored recurring dreams and built a dream on stage. Mulick developed this piece beginning with a concept, auditioning dancers, developing choreography, designing costumes, developing a lighting design, and rehearsing the piece for multiple months before it was performed on stage. As supporting research for this choreographic project, Mulick drew on her personal experiences, the experiences of her dancers, and readings from texts about the science and history of dreams. In addition to her work in choreography, Mulick took on the roles of Production Coordinator and Schedule Coordinator for …

Anti-Woman Invective On The Early Modern Stage: Abuse, Degradation, And Resistance, Savannah Xaver

Dissertations

On the early modern stage, gendered epithets like “strumpet,” “mermaid,” “minx,” “hobby horse,” “courtesan,” “drab,” and “whore” are not just markers of misogyny. Instead, these insults harm the male user as well as their female target. My cross-playwright and cross-genre connections show the complex, wide use and impact of anti-woman terms. A wide-ranging study of the plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries reveals that gendered insults signify masculine mental decline in tragedies as well as comedies and tragicomedies. In tragedy, the increasingly violent language of male slur users – like, for example, the frustrated Othello, who declares, of his wife, …

I Am Because You Are, Avree Gundersen

Honors Theses

As a performer, I am honored to be trusted with the message that each choreographer decides to share. It is important that I keep an open mind, body, and soul which allows me to be a versatile mover. I find that my passion for dance is rooted in the essence of community and in sharing the space and energy with those around me. This builds a mutual trust and understanding that dance allows us to be vulnerable with each other. From that state of vulnerability comes strength, challenges, healing, and curiosity. I find that when fully immersed in the authenticity …

The Mozart Conversation Or The Aria Of Nannerl Mozart: Drama In Three Acts And Two Tableaux, Emmanuel M. Dubois

Emmanuel Dubois Compositions

1 play (v + 66 pages) ; includes Synopsis, Cast of characters, Setting, Costumes, Props

The full-length historic drama examines the impact of emerging feminism in the Mozart family during the Enlightenment era.

As social changes cause the rejection of sexism, Nannerl, Mozart's sister disrupts male ordained traditions as she affirms her genius as a musician. The new social trends disrupt the affectionate relationship with her brother Wolfgang, who is psychologically exhausted by the stress to perform. The parents, Leopold and Anna Maria, invoke the respect of old traditions to exploit financially the genius of their son and to minimize …

Thomas Middleton And The Plural Politics Of Jacobean Drama, Mark Kaethler

Late Tudor and Stuart Drama

Thomas Middleton and the Plural Politics of Jacobean Drama represents the first sustained study of Middleton's dramatic works as responses to James I's governance. Through examining Middleton’s poiesis in relation to the political theology of Jacobean London, Kaethler explores early forms of free speech, namely parrhēsia, and rhetorical devices, such as irony and allegory, to elucidate the ways in which Middleton’s plural art exposes the limitations of the monarch’s sovereign image. By drawing upon earlier forms of dramatic intervention, James’s writings, and popular literature that blossomed during the Jacobean period, including news pamphlets, the book surveys a selection of …

Graduating Presentation, Erin Bates

Honors Theses

tethered is a seven minute dance for film that explores the baggage that every individual carries with them on a daily basis. When walking through a crowd, it is hard to imagine the people, thoughts, and experiences others might be connected to, as if by a tether. This graduating presentation thesis is a culminating project which combines the knowledge and experience I have gained as an artist in dance, choreography, costuming, conceptualization, and most recently - film. The full portfolio includes my artist biography, dance and headshots, resume, personal artistic statement, as well as the project elements. These project elements …

“Graduating Presentation: Sunday”, Lauren Smith

Honors Theses

This portfolio fulfills the requirements for both my Department of Dance senior capstone, DANC 4800: Graduating Presentation, titled sunday, and my honors thesis for the Lee Honors College. DANC 4800 requires the senior BFA dance students to collaborate and produce a dance concert, usually held in-person, but was hosted virtually this year due to COVID-19. This capstone is designed for the students to create a portfolio worthy of sharing with the public and to aid in their career post-graduation. Responsibilities during this process include the choreographing an original work, managing production elements, promoting the concert, and coordinating with any personnel …

Graduating Presentation: Stones Beneath A River, Lauren Desmedt

Honors Theses

Stones Beneath a River is an eight-minute collaborative staged work through the eyes of a soloist who is exploring the concept that you are the product of the five people you surround yourself with. The soloist realizes the ebbs and flows of relationships and how to let go of relationships that no longer serve the individual. The graduating presentation is a culminating project of everything I have learned in the past four years. This includes collaboration, performance, choreography, production, conceptualization, costuming, and much more. My final portfolio consists of my dance and headshot, artistic statement, biography, resume, proposal application, essay, …

Musical Theatre Showcase: A Performance Journey And Reflection, Alyssa Zamora

Honors Theses

For her senior musical theatre showcase, Alyssa Zamora attended and in person showcase with agents and theatre professionals in Detroit. Later, she recorded videos of her performing “Thrills” by Donna Missal and “I Want Them...” by Zina Goldrich and Marcy Heisler. In addition to videos of her performance, she reflects on her growth in her time as a student at Western Michigan University and looks at how she has grown as an artist and how her showcase experience set her up for success in the professional theatre industry.

14 Drama And Authority During The Reign Of Queen Mary, Peter Happé

Early Drama, Art, and Music

An otherwise unpublished study of drama and the English regime in the reign of Mary Tudor.

13 Musical Instruments In Early Drama: Tudor Plays, Mary Remnant

Early Drama, Art, and Music

A study of musical instruments in early Tudor plays that serves as a supplement to the author's "Musical Instruments in Early English Drama"; published in Material Culture and Medieval Drama (1999).

12 St. Martin's Clowns: The Miracle Of The Blind Man And The Cripple In Art And Drama, Martin W. Walsh

Early Drama, Art, and Music

A reprint, with revisions, of a study of the miracle of the healing of a pair of beggars by St. Martin, originally published in Early Drama, Art, and Music Review 17, no. 1 (Fall 1994).

The Visual Research Task: A Faculty/Library Collaboration Combining Information Literacy With Artistic Assessment, Lofton L. Durham, Michael J. Duffy Iv

University Libraries Faculty & Staff Presentations

This session features a librarian and faculty member sharing their collaboration on the “Visual Research Task,” which is an assignment designed to provide information literacy instruction with an emphasis on visual resources to theatre majors in a course on collaborative theatre production. Students are given a scenario in which they act as the assistant to a theatrical designer, working with limited information, must assemble a curated portfolio of ten images to support the design or conceptualization for a theatrical design, with descriptions and citations. Each student is given a different topic from a wide range, including for example, “royal pageantry,” …

00 Preface, Clifford Davidson

Early Drama, Art, and Music

A preface to a collection of fourteen essays, most reprinted, with or without revisions, from the EDAM Newsletter or Early Drama, Art, and Music Review plus three newly written for this context.

08 Embodying Text: Reassessing Characterization And Performance In The Medieval English Herod Plays, Carolyn Coulson

Early Drama, Art, and Music

A reprint with revisions of a study of the character of Herod in the English play cycles, originally published in Early Drama, Art, and Music Review 23 (2001).

02 Liturgy And Drama At St-Omer In The Thirteenth Through Sixteenth Centuries, Lynette R. Muir

Early Drama, Art, and Music

A reprint of a study of ceremonies and the Easter play at the collegiate church of St-Omer, originally published in the EDAM Newsletter 9, no. 1 (Fall 1986).

03 Il Doge And The Liturgical Drama In Late Medieval Venice, Nils Holger Petersen

Early Drama, Art, and Music

A reprint of a study of the Easter Quem Queritis and the involvement of the Venetian Doge, originally published in Early Drama, Art, and Music Review 18, no. 1 (Fall 1995).

04 Palm Sunday Ceremonies In Poland: The Past And The Present, Teresa Bela

Early Drama, Art, and Music

A reprint of a study of a long-lasting tradition of religious processions in Poland, originally published in Early Drama, Art, and Music Review 12, no. 2 (Spring 1990).

05 From Synthesis To Compromise: The Four Daughters Of God In Early English Drama, Hans-Jürgen Diller

Early Drama, Art, and Music

A reprint of a study of the Four Daughters of God in Middle English drama, originally published in Early Drama, Art, and Music Review 18, no. 2 (Spring 1996).

07 Fox, Bull, And Lion In The Towneley Coliphizacio, John W. Velz

Early Drama, Art, and Music

A reprint of a study of patterns of coercion exemplified in the Towneley Coliphizacio, originally published in Early Drama, Art, and Music Review 14, no. 1 (Fall 1991).

06 "Lyst Ye Saynt?" Saints In The Second Shepherds' Play, Karen Sawyer Marsalek

Early Drama, Art, and Music

A reprint with revisions of a study of the saints named in the Second Shepherds' Play, originally published in Early Drama, Art, and Music Review 23 (2001).

11 Medieval Actors And The Invention Of Printing In Late Medieval France, Graham A. Runnalls

Early Drama, Art, and Music

A reprint of a study of the dissemination of play texts in print and the performance of drama, originally published in Early Drama, Art, and Music Review 22 (Spring 2000).

09 The Arma Christi And The Croxton Play Of The Sacrament: A Prolegomenon To Regional Iconographic History, Ann Eljenholm Nichols

Early Drama, Art, and Music

An otherwise unpublished study of the East Anglian Croxton Play of the Sacrament in relation to devotion to the instruments of the Passion.

The Drama Of Information Literacy: Collaborating To Incorporate Information Literacy Into A Theatre History Curriculum, Dianna Sachs, Michael J. Duffy Iv

University Libraries Faculty & Staff Publications

Information literacy (IL) has been studied extensively, but little has been written about IL applied to the study of theatre. This study addresses that lacuna by evaluating the success of a librarian-faculty collaboration to integrate IL throughout a year-long course of study. Using a pre- and post-test methodology, researchers assessed students’ knowledge on a range of IL concepts. The results were used to modify the IL curriculum to place greater emphasis on IL concepts that students struggled with, and to de-emphasize IL concepts for which students demonstrated adequate incoming knowledge. This paper will provide recommendations for librarians and other instructors …

10 The "Stuff" Of The Medieval Palette: Paint, Painters, And The Dramatic Records, Jon Terry Wade

Early Drama, Art, and Music

A revision of a study of the availability of pigments painters used for pageant wagons, props, and costumes, originally published in Early Drama, Art, and Music Review 23 (2001).

01 The Investiture Contest And The Rise Of Herod Plays In The Twelfth Century, John Marlin

Early Drama, Art, and Music

A reprint of a study of the figure of Herod in liturgical drama, originally published in Early Drama, Art, and Music Review 23 (Fall 2000).

Dismemberment In The Medieval And Early Modern English Imaginary: The Performance Of Difference, Frederika Bain

Late Tudor and Stuart Drama

The medieval and early modern English imaginary encompasses a broad range of negative and positive dismemberments, from the castration anxieties of Turk plays to the elite practices of distributive burial. This study argues that representations and instances of bodily fragmentation illustrated and performed acts of exclusion and inclusion, detaching not only limbs from bodies but individuals from identity groups. Within this context it examines questions of legitimate and illegitimate violence, showing that such distinctions largely rested upon particular acts’ assumed symbolic meanings. Specific chapters address ways dismemberments manifested gender, human versus animal nature, religious and ethnic identity, and social rank. …

New Directions In Early Modern English Drama: Edges, Spaces, Intersections, Aidan Norrie, Mark Houlahan

Late Tudor and Stuart Drama

New Directions in Early Modern English Drama examines some of the people, places, and plays at the edge of early modern English drama. Engaging with topics such as child actors, alterity, sexuality, foreignness, and locality, this volume demonstrates that the people and concepts long seen as on the edge of early modern English drama made vital contributions both within the fictive worlds of early modern plays, and without, in the real worlds of playmakers, theatres, and audiences.

Performing Mystical Union In Mechthild Of Magdeburg’S The Flowing Light Of The Godhead, Jessi C. Piggott

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

Thirteenth-century mystic Mechthild of Magdeburg characterizes her revelations not as visions but as greetings, a term she uses to encompass gestures, verbal exchanges, and experiences perceived through multiple senses. Mechthild’s mysticism is thus best understood as a series of scenarios, the embodied nature of which cannot be fully contained by text. Using a performance studies approach, this paper identifies the traces of performance—textual prompts inextricable from their (explicit or implied, real or imagined) completion in physical and vocal acts—that can be found throughout Mechthild’s Flowing Light of the Godhead. How does Mechthild’s use of performance repertoires convey the mystical …