Playwriting Commons^™

Introduction To Theatre Oer Course, Carmen R. Meyers

Open Educational Resources

Study of theatre and performance throughout history and across cultures including an examination of European, Carribean, and North and South American theatrical styles and genres.

This course is organized for a hybrid/asynchronous format. Our class meets on-campus every week for 75 minutes and the other 75 minutes will be completed asynchronously with weekly learning modules on Blackboard.

The first half of the course focuses on the history of theatre from Ancient Greece through Modern Realism. The second half of the course, students engage in the procedures of professional theatre artists through writing and refining a dramatic text; enacting a performance; …

Let The People Speak: How Verbatim Theater Allows Historically Marginalized Groups Tell Their Stories, Kalala C. Kiwanuka-Woernle

Theatre and Dance Honors Projects

motherhood: the good, bad, and ugly was born out of my research of Verbatim Theater, specifically the practices of Anna Deavere Smith, The Tectonic Theater Project, and Eve Ensler; and the lack of fully fleshed out mother characters represented in theatre. In my research, I focused on how these different playwrights crafted their plays, identified the topic or event they wanted to explore, and the selection of their subjects. During the pandemic, I had the idea to create a theater piece that would tell the good, the bad, and the ugly of motherhood because in the media especially in the …

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 …

La Teoría Del “Generolecto” Observada En La Llamada De Lauren De Paloma Pedrero Y Entre Villa Y Una Mujer Desnuda De Sabina Berman, Thomas Tsai

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Created and popularized by Deborah Tannen, the Genderlect Theory explains how through social contexts, men and women have different ways of communicating. According to Tannen, men focus more on status, while women focus more on forming connections. On the other hand, there is also machismo, the behavior and attitude men partake to show that they are “manly” or “superior” to women and others they deem as inferior. Through the literary theatrical works, "La llamada de Lauren" by Paloma Pedrero and "Entre Villa y una mujer" desnuda by Sabina Berman, we can see similarities and differences in the Genderlect Theory and …

Cut Song Cabaret: Performing The Replaced, Rewritten, And Recycled Songs Of Musical Theatre, Claire Wilson

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

In musical theatre, “cut songs” are the pieces of music that are removed from a show, whether the cut occur in the early creative stages, a pre-Broadway run, minutes before opening night, or even for a major revival years after its initial debut. These songs easily go unnoticed, as some are never made public while some are sneakily recycled for other musicals. Cut songs, though greatly varying in quality, are still works of art that at one time fulfilled their sacred duty of entertaining an audience and required just as much artistic effort to produce as the songs that survived …

Planning An Effective Class Session, Carol Damgen, Carol L. Damgen

Q2S Enhancing Pedagogy

This reflection is based on an educational assignment from my Intro to Theatre course at California State University, San Bernardino, April 2019.

As an educator, I am always interested in combining new techniques with tried and true approaches. My hope is twofold- enhance my students learning and keep me inspired.

The concept of a beginning, middle and end in all classes, provides structure for your students and keeps the pedagogy focused.

I incorporated the “I do, we do, you do” approach to support a well-balanced framework for the class period. This technique is a creative take on a beginning, middle …

Developing And Using Grading Guides, Checklists, And Rubrics, Carol Damgen, Carol L. Damgen

Q2S Enhancing Pedagogy

This reflection is based on an educational assignment from my Intro to Theatre Arts course at California State University, San Bernardino, May 2019.

Providing students guidance when taking on a new assignment is essential. This direction may be achieved through a variety of sources: lectures, videos, examples of past students work, rubrics etc.

One approach, which may benefit the learner in the immediate and have a lasting impression, is teaching students to use the grading tool at hand (rubric/checklist) to improve assignments.

Following an example you have provided, the instructor will work with their students to use either a checklist …

Aligning Assessments With Course Outcomes, Carol Damgen, Carol L. Damgen

Q2S Enhancing Pedagogy

This reflection is based on an educational assignment from my Oral Interpretation of Literature course at California State University, San Bernardino, May 2019.

A consistent focus and goal for me as an educator is to align assessments with course outcomes.

The learning outcome for this class session focused on the cognitive approach- “students will develop the skills to communicate an oral interpretation of literature to an audience with believability, dramatic action and honesty.”

The intention of this class period was for my students to clearly understand the difference between acting, reading and oral interpretation. Oral Interpretation is a type of …

True Theatricality: What Separates Live Theatre From All Other Entertainment, Sarah Michelle Beattie

Senior Honors Theses

In order to better understand the art of live theatre in comparison to its many counterparts, an in-depth study of the elements of live theatre that separate it must be accomplished. Through Aristotle’s The Poetics, to many contemporary studies of theatricality, to recent scripts incorporating those elements and effectively using them, the analysis of theatricality can be applied to an original script of its own kind. Some elements that have been discovered are double casting, expression through song, and even a break in the classic two act structure. The application of these elements of theatricality present a lot more issues …

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 …

Giau Minh Truong Interview, Gin To

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Bio: Giau Minh Truong is a company member of A-Squared Theatre Workshop and an at- large artist for various performing arts companies in the Chicago area. For A-Squared, he directed Ching Chong Chinaman, The Other Shore, and short plays for My Asian Mom, acted in Trial By Water, and designed lights for The Wind Cries Mary. Giau’s other directorial credits include Downward Facing, Lights Out, Everybody, and Theatre of Women for Dream Theatre Company. He directed Sister Outlaw, Mr. and Mrs. LaQuesta Go Dancing, My Name is Flor Contemplacion, and I Dream Electric for CIRCA-Pintig, Chicago’s …

Bringing Life To Theatre: A Scenic Designer's Role In Creating "The Wild Party", Matthew Carlin

Honors College Theses

The purpose of this paper is to examine the research that goes into designing the scenic elements of a musical. I was the scenic designer for Pace School of Performing Arts’ production of Michael John LaChiusa and George C. Wolfe’s The Wild Party in the fall of 2017. Directed by Roger Ellis, our version of the vaudeville-style musical was done in an immersive, in-the-round style. As the scenic designer for this production I was strongly focused on the research aspect of the design process. We consulted several art movements and architectural styles, as well as mythology, film and literature 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 …

Radical Black Drama-As-Theory: The Black Feminist Dramatic On The Protracted Event-Horizon, Jaye Austin Williams

Faculty Journal Articles

In this essay, I elaborate my present project, grounded in what I call drama theory, the critical theoretical dimensions of dramatic writing, and address the deeply troubling intramural tensions across Black Studies, between those who read blackness, and black cultural production, through largely futurist, celebratory lenses; and those who apply a structural analysis to blackness as the site against, upon, and through which the world coheres its soci(et)al apparatuses and machinations. I situate myself within the latter constellation, and sample here two plays by Suzan-Lori Parks to demonstrate how I translate the analyses of antiblack violence by black feminist …

Get In Where You Fit In: Creating A Safe Space For Students Of Color In The Academy, John Shévin Foster, Kashi Johnson, And Daphnie Sicre In Conversation, Daphnie Sicre, Kashi Johnson

Theatre Arts Faculty Works

Well-known playwright and theatre leader John Shévin Foster interviewed Kashi Johnson and Daphnie Sicre about the ways in which they use Hip Hop theatre pedagogy in their courses. Mapping their time together at Lehigh University as undergraduates up to becoming theatre professors themselves, Johnson and Sicre share how students might feel empowered by the opportunities given to them in their courses.

Risd Cabaret 1987-2000 Retrospective Program, Agnieszka Taborska, Bill Newkirk, Risd Archives

RISD Cabaret 1987-2000 Retrospective

No abstract provided.

Risd Cabaret 1987-2000 Retrospective Poster, Agnieszka Taborska, Bill Newkirk, Risd Archives

RISD Cabaret 1987-2000 Retrospective

No abstract provided.

Through A Glass Darkly: Defining Love In A Nation Of Tolerance, Jonathan T. Hogue

Senior Honors Theses

This paper features an original one-act drama Through a Glass Darkly and analyzes its constructs and themes. The play, written in the contemporary style, depicts the tension between homosexuals and Christians in American culture through emphasizing the contrasting interpretations of love between both communities. It tells the story of Ben, a young gay man struggling to find fulfillment, whose new-found friendship with a Christian named Adam causes him to reevaluate his understanding of love. The play explores the variations of love in an attempt to not only answer what love truly means, but rather what form of love carries the …

L’Anar I Venir Dels Dramaturgs Catalans: Un Nou Cosmopolitisme, Sharon G. Feldman

Latin American, Latino and Iberian Studies Faculty Publications

La conjunció entre viatges i traducció ha estat un baròmetre habitual de la vitalitat del panorama teatral català. A Catalunya la mobilitat acostuma a ser sinònim de prestigi, i l'èxit en teatre sovint es mesura en funció de l'abast i el reconeixement internacionals. A més a més, en el cas dels dramaturgs que escriuen en català, sempre conscients de la precària situació de la seva llengua i la seva identiat cultural, la posició paradoxal tant de distància com de proximitat política que mantenen amb Espanya n'ha accentuat, potser, l'anhel de pertànyer a una efera global més gran.

My Heart Is In The East: Exploring Theater As A Vehicle For Change, Inspired By The Poetic Performances Of Ancient Andalucía, Jessica Litwak

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This study addresses the research question “How Do I Inspire Personal and Social Change Through My Theater Practice?” I implement the theory and practice of H.E.A.T., a fusion theater system, combining use of theater arts as healing practice, educational asset, activist tool, and an art form.I research different ways that theater can affect change, focusing specifically on the use of history in performance.I dramatically interpret a period of history where performance and poetry contributed to change.I utilize qualitative methods including performance ethnography, auto ethnography, arts-based research, and historical research.I describe the fieldwork in conflict zones in the Middle East, which …

Josep M. Benet I Jornet I L'Herència De «Desig», Sharon G. Feldman

Latin American, Latino and Iberian Studies Faculty Publications

Corria l'any 1988. El muntatge d'Ai carai! de Josep M. Benet i Jomet acabava de fer temporada amb èxit al Teatre Uiure. Domènec Reixach havia assumit el càrrec de director artístic del Centre Dramàtic de la Generalitat de Catalunya i, des de la seva històrica seu al Teatre Romea, va crear un programa d'ajuts amb la intenció d'estimular i impulsar les naves dramatúrgies catalanes. No va sobtar, doncs, que Reixach convidés Benet i Jornet a participar-hi. Les circumstàncies, però, van agafar un caire una mica sorprenent quan Reixach va demanar al ja consolidat dramaturg català que seleccionés un director perquè …

Los Exilios De Els Joglars, Sharon G. Feldman

Latin American, Latino and Iberian Studies Faculty Publications

Quizàs no hay ninguna otra compañía teatral en el Estado español que se haya inspirado tanto en las encrucijadas ambivalentes del mundo del espectáculo con la vida real -especialmente, la vida política catalana- como Els Joglars. A lo largo de SU trayectoria de más de cincuenta años, Albert Boadella y su compañía no han dado nunca la espalda a la política; al contrario, han ido modificando sus valores estéticos de manera gradual, ajustando su punto de ataque según las cuestiones políticas mas apasionantes y ardientes de cualquier momento dado. Els Joglars siempre han dejado que lo político despierte e invada …

Artmaking On The Edge Of A Cliff: Directing Iphigenia 2.0, Shannon E. Cameron

Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film: Theses, Student Research, and Creative Work

This thesis contains written documentation regarding the process of directing a theatrical production in fulfillment of the partial requirements for Master of Fine Arts in Directing for Stage and Screen at the University of Nebraska Lincoln.

Topics addressed include play selection, script analysis, director/designer collaboration, coaching and actors and evaluation of final product.

Advisor: Virginia Smith

Sobre Lo Visible Y Lo Invisible: Barcelona Y El Teatro, Sharon G. Feldman

Latin American, Latino and Iberian Studies Faculty Publications

Durante el invierno del año 2000, el director catalán Lluís Pasqual llevó a la escena del Teatre Lliure, la casa histórica de una de las compañías de repertorio más estable, consolidada y distinguida de Barcelona, una versión catalana de El jardín de los cerezos de Antón Chekov. En la obra de Chekov, Madame Ranyévskaya, emblema de la elegancia marchita y de la ya desvanecida supremacía de la aristocracia rusa, se ve obligada, por su situación de desesperanza económica, a vender su finca y su jardín de cerezos al nuevo-rico Lopatkhin y, después, a volver a París, cuando Rusia se encuentra …

December 2009 - Volume Ix, Number 1, Theatre Arts Department

Sides (Newsletter)

This issue includes items about Theatre Alumni Reunions, Dedication of the Green Room at the Doudna Fine Art Center (named after Lucille and E. Glendon Gabbard), and December Graduates.

June 2009 - Volume Viii, Number 2, Theatre Arts Department

Sides (Newsletter)

SIDES Volume VIII Number 2 includes pictures of the first year of operation of the Doudna Fine Arts Center.

Introduction (Special Cluster On The Catalan Stage, Modern And Contemporary), Sharon G. Feldman

Latin American, Latino and Iberian Studies Faculty Publications

At an international symposium devoted to the contemporary Catalan stage, which was held at the Institut del Teatre de la Diputació de Barcelona in 2005, director Toni Casares observed how the Catalan theater scene in its post-Franco evolution had, already endured a decade aimed at clarifying its cultural politics. "És l'epoca del teatre institucionalitzat o en vies d'institucionalització," he declared, referring to the decade comprising the years 1985 to 1995. It seemed an almost ironic observation at the time, as any attempt at institutionalization was certainly not a new endeavor for the Catalan theater scene; yet, Casares was also quick …

December 2008 - Volume Viii, Number 1, Theatre Arts Department

Sides (Newsletter)

SIDES Volume VIII Number 1 includes articles on Mammoth Follies, Second City, and a Makeup Workshop.

June 2008 - Volume Vii, Number 2, Theatre Arts Department

Sides (Newsletter)

SIDES Volume VII Number 2 features articles on the closing of the Village Theatre and welcoming new faculty Nicholas Shaw.

Manuel Molins: Una Altra Ofèlia I Els Fantasmes De Shakespeare, Sharon G. Feldman

Latin American, Latino and Iberian Studies Faculty Publications

L'apropiació i reinscripció que de Hamlet ha fet Manuel Molins, titulada Una altra Ofèlia (2001, estrenada al Teatre Rialto de València el 2004), comença, com a l'obra de Shakespeare, amb l'aparició d'un fantasma. A la primera de les nou escenes, el personatge d'Ofèlia explica a la falstaffiana I pitonissa I herborista Dida (personatge síntesi que és el resum de molts personatges shakespearians) un somni que ha tingut i en el transcurs del qual ha presenciat la manifestació d'un espectre en l'esplanada del castell. D'alguna manera, des del moment que comença l’obra, Ofèlia sembla haver usurpat el paper de Hamlet, ja …