Other Theatre and Performance Studies Commons^™

Healing Attachment Wounds: Drama Therapy Within An Interpersonal Theoretical Frame As A Group Treatment Modality, Julia Dobner-Pereira

Dissertations, 2020-current

Drama Therapy is an active and experiential form of psychotherapy that is useful for group and individual therapy with a variety of populations (Dintino & Johnston, 1996; Emunah, 1999; Johnson, 2009; Landy, 1996, 2009; Sajnani, 2010). Often, there is ample work within the therapy process on understanding and shifting interpersonal patterns. Interpersonal Reconstructive Therapy (Benjamin, 2006; 2018) offers a set of organizing principles emphasizing how early relationship patterns are copied in present relationships with self and other in order to conceptualize and guide treatment, focusing on in-session processes (Critchfield & Benjamin, 2006). The potential for integrating Drama Therapy and interpersonal …

“It’S War That's Cruel”: The Evolution Of Wartime Representation And ‘The Other’ In The American Musical, Leana Sottile

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

Musical theater has historically been a venue for Americans to come to terms with our past and present on both a national and an individual level as it stages and restages war mythology on the Broadway Stage. As the nation has won, lost, and abandoned foreign conflicts, the connotation, remembrance, and commemoration of war in American memory has shifted from romanticizing former conflicts to renegotiating their memory. Thus, this project examines how twentieth-century war memory is represented in the American musical, starting in the 1940s and continuing up to the present day. To do so, the phenomenon will be examined …

Jet Of Blood, Elizabeth S. Goins, Andy Head, Thomas Davis

Frameless

A virtual production of Antonin Artaud’s 1925 play, Jet of Blood.

"Somnium" Vr Demo, Andy Head, Omen Sade, Elizabeth Goins, Joe Geigel, Yancarlos Diaz

Frameless

Driven by a desire to overcome challenges from COVID-19 and to explore theatre in a new direction, the fall production of SOMNIUM at the Rochester Institute of Technology took on a completely new concept. Instead of a more traditional, physical theatre piece as it was originally envisioned, the SOMNIUM RIT Team decided to leap into the unknown, and explore a unique blend of devised theatre, film, and 3D game design. This demo allowed audiences to view a short trailer of the production and speak with members of the design team.

Establishing The Actor-Audience Connection During Performance On A Virtual Stage, Zhongyuan Fa, Joe Geigel, Sungyoung Kim, Marla Schweppe

Frameless

In distributed virtual theatre (presentation of live performance in shared virtual spaces), a major challenge lies in creating a social connection between audience and actors, who reside in physically distant spaces. The goal of this demo is to explore the extents by which this chemistry can be recreated in a virtual space even though participants are in different physical locales. We focus on non-verbal connection using body motion and actor-audience proximity to create the social bond.

Into The Unknown!: Digital Theatre And Boldly Going Forward With "Somnium", Andy Head, Omen Sade

Frameless

Driven by a desire to overcome challenges from COVID-19 and to explore theatre in a new direction, the fall production of SOMNIUM at the Rochester Institute of Technology took on a completely new concept. Instead of a more traditional, physical theatre piece as it was originally envisioned, the SOMNIUM RIT Team decided to leap into the unknown, and explore a unique blend of devised theatre, film, and 3D game design.

The Transition Of American Theatre Due To The Covid-19 Pandemic From March 2020-May 2021, Taylor Fischer

University Honors Theses

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the theatre industry had to make massive shifts from March 2020 through May 2021. Many theatres went out of business because there was a lack of government funds available for the arts and entertainment industries. However, some theatres turned to virtual productions or in-person shows that meet CDC guidelines while others shut down completely. This paper describes the transitions made in the American theatre industry due to the pandemic through my experience working on a virtual production and interviews conducted with other artists.

I assistant directed a virtual production of Top Girls at Portland State …

Beirut/The Other Side Of The City: The Impact Of Visual Texture Production Of The Lebanese Postmemory Generation, 1989 - Present, Mohamed Moustafa Gameel Ebada

Theses and Dissertations

In 1989, after the Ta'if agreement, the war in Lebanon started to fade, which ended years of one of the most destructive civil conflicts in the region with no decisive winner or loser. The year also marked the birth of a new Lebanese generation who did not experience the war in person. It is a generation of postmemory, a term Maria Hirsch coined to describe the reminisces of those who did not have a personal encounter with past traumatic events. However, it was not before February 2005, when Rafic Al-Hariri's violent assassination occurred, when the postmemory generation started to question …

Dram 111: Introduction To Stage Design, Meghan Healey

Open Educational Resources

This is a course in Theater Design, which apparently this body does not recognize as a distinct discipline, but it is.

Holding The Spotlight When The World Has Gone Dark, Hannah J. Alikhani

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The COVID-19 pandemic has had dramatic effects throughout the economy, but few industries have been hit harder than the performing arts. Theatres face unique challenges, including lost earned and contributed revenue, navigating virtual platforms, and how to sustain their audiences, who are distant both physically and mentally. This study seeks to explore the ways in which three mid-size nonprofit theatres work to overcome these challenges and adapt to the new and ever-changing landscape of live performance. At the same time, the Black Lives Matter movement and the demand for more equity across institutions of all types have placed additional social …

Racial Equity For Registered Drama Therapists: A Community Engagement Project, Jamila Batts Capitman

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Mental health professionals are currently faced with an increased need to meet the demands of clients of color who are disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 global pandemic. Disparities in mental health care for people of color are an ongoing problem stemming from the fact that Western Psychology, the dominant approach to mental health care, is limited by the Eurocentric Worldview. Practitioners who intend to create inclusive therapeutic approaches must consider the unique cultural orientations and historical, social and political realities of clients of color. As of 2021, The North American Drama Therapy Association (NADTA) requires that 50% of all continuing …

"Possessed": The Phenomenology Of Immersive Theatre, Shannon M. Flynn

Theatre & Dance ETDs

Using phenomenology as a lens of analysis, I investigate how immersive theatre engages audiences in a more direct and sensory way than traditional theatre. In a proscenium theatre the action is seen from the same angle. The theatre itself becomes a phenomenon in audience’s minds, each performance subtly influencing how the audience perceives the next. I investigate how relationships between audience and performers are altered in immersive experiences with no delineation between the space audience and actors occupy. The phenomenological idea of frontality places immersed audiences in positions where they are able to explore a constantly changing perspective of the …

Home Unchained: A Night Of Devised Theatre

Theatre Programs

No abstract provided.

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 …

Layer Cake: Post-Cinematic Aesthetics And The “Social Justice Impulse” In Kaneza Schaal's Jack &, Amber M. Power

Film and Media Studies (MA) Theses

Kaneza Schaal is a New York City-based theater artist who consistently utilizes a collaborative and hybrid approach to performance making, privileging demographic diversity alongside formal diversity. Drawing on intermedial performance discourse, early television scholarship, and social practice theory, I argue that Schaal’s citation of 1950s sitcom aesthetics in her 2018 theatrical work Jack & self-consciously stages a critique of the cultural hegemony that structured twentieth century television in order to contest the contemporary US media-incarceration nexus.

As a critical second layer to my analysis, I look at the ways Schaal utilizes the tools of the avant- garde (intermediality, collaboration and …

When I Grow Up: Intimacy Work And Collegiate Theatre, Anna-Carson Tyner

Honors Theses

The field of intimacy work within the wider theatre industry is rapidly growing, and universities should be prepared to meet the demands the industry is setting forth. Since 2016, intimacy direction has been making its way into the professional theatre world. As intimacy work becomes more mainstream, students will enter college with the ultimate goal of going into the field. Through this research, I have set out to create courses that could fit into the framework of a collegiate theatre program that would support students’ desire to learn about the intimacy field, and to create a department environment built on …

A Midsummer Night’S Dream: A Scenic Design, Grace Trudeau

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

The purpose of this thesis is to provide research, supporting paperwork, production photographs, and other materials which document the scenic design for the Nebraska Repertory Theatre’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare. This thesis contains the following: research images indicating thematic ideas for Athens and the Forest, weather patterns for Athens and Woodland, environmental textures and colors, shapes, and forms; preliminary sketches and photographs of the ¼” scale model; a full set of drafting plates and paint samples, a set dressing reference book; paperwork generated during the rehearsal process; and additional information. Archival production photographs are available …

Bright Star: A Scenic Design, Marty Wolff

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

The purpose of this thesis is to provide research, supporting paperwork, production photographs, and other materials that document the scenic design for Midland University’s production of the 2014 musical Bright Star, written and composed by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell. This thesis contains the following: the effects of COVID 19 on the production selection process; a conceptual analysis, scenic breakdown, charting and diagrams to organize the show, preliminary modeling and plotting imagery; research images of the Blue Ridge Mountains and Appalachia, mountain cabins from the early 1900s, and various rustic landscapes; an examination of the design evolution from conception to …

Captions For Covid? Hearing Accessibility In Virtual "Zoom" Theatre, Gianna Schuetz

Honors Theses

The COVID-19 pandemic shut the doors of theatres across the United States and the rest of the world. Live theatre came to a sudden halt as gatherings of people served as significant health risks. As live theatre performances became nearly obsolete, many theatre organizations were forced to creatively adapt to move their programming to a virtual format. Presenting theatre in a virtual format brings many challenges; however, it also brings opportunities for increased accessibility and access, particularly for individuals who are hard of hearing.

The following thesis explores hearing accessibility measures taken by theatre companies as they ventured into virtual …

Who, What, Why: A Self-Reflection On The Creation And Practice Of Audition Technique In The Business Of Live Theatre, Kenneth Thomas

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This study is a breakdown of what auditioning is in the world of professional acting and how I (the subject) have developed my own technique through my undergraduate journey.