Other Theatre and Performance Studies Commons^™

An Actor's Method To Building The Character Of Mother Superior In Agnes Of God, Venita J. Matthews

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Agnes of God is the story of a nun (Agnes) who gets pregnant while living in a convent. She almost dies after giving birth to a baby, who was later found dead in a garbage can. The cast consists of three members: Agnes; Mother Miriam Ruth (Mother Superior); and Dr. Martha Livingstone, the court appointed psychiatrist. Faith is tested as Dr. Livingstone draws closer to uncovering the truth surrounding the conception, birth, and death of Agnes’ baby.

I performed the role of Mother Superior in the UNO production of Agnes of God. This thesis documents my rehearsal and …

Rhythm And Movement: The Lighting Design For "Eurydice", A Living Poetic Metaphor, Emily Rachel Clarkson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis will delve into the historical context, analysis, design process and execution of the lighting design for the University of Arkansas’ production of Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice. Special care will be taken to document an exploration of the challenges faced by this production during research, design meetings as well as throughout the implementation of this design. This document will seek to answer the questions: how does one design the lighting for a show that is in and of itself a metaphor? When each scene requires its own striking visual, how does the designer weave the play together so that it …

Scenic Design For "The Metal Children", Joseph Bryan Farley

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A scenic design for the play “The Metal Children” by Adam Rapp was created and performed by the steps of the design process used in the design program at the University of Arkansas Department of Theatre. The Metal Children presents itself as a multi-unit set. With a script that introduces five different locations, one begins to question how we move forward with every different scene fluidly and in a quick scene shift time. When beginning the design process, I had to look at the show as if it were a musical with multiple scenic pieces that would fly in and …

Discovering The Secrets Of The Annex: The Scenic Design Of "The Diary Of Anne Frank", Kiah Kayser

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis describes the analysis, design, and implementation of University of Arkansas’ production of The Diary of Anne Frank. The entire process is explored and analyzed with a specific focus on the challenges the production staff faced along with creative victories that we shared when creating this production. This document comments on and explores how the facts of the story and principal location of The Diary of Anne Frank influenced our more abstracted world of the play.

This thesis includes the essential design documents and support materials used in the creation of the scenic design of The Diary of Anne …

Teaching Social Studies Through Drama, Colin Anderson

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Educators and researchers have long discussed methods for improving student achievement in the social studies and history. Research on student attitudes reveals that the social studies suffers from a lack of interest among students. Common complaints among students are that the subject is tedious, does not relate to their lives, is not particularly useful for their future careers, is repetitive, or that it is simply boring (Schug et al., 1982). Even when students recognize the utilitarian value of skills they learn from social studies / history, they rarely express an interest in the subject (Chiodo, 2004). After reviewing the body …

Expressions Of Madness In Coloratura Mad Scenes Of Bel Canto Operas, Rachel G. Christenson

Senior Honors Theses

This thesis will explore the musical innovations in the mad scenes of the bel canto composers in the 1800s. It will analyze Gaetano Donizetti’s mad scenes in Anna Bolena (1830) and Lucia di Lammermoor (1835), and Vincezzo Bellini’s mad scenes in I Puritani (1835) to discover how each composer expresses madness through the high and virtuosic voice of the coloratura soprano. The subject of madness is not a new idea in opera. However, the mad scenes of Donizetti and Bellini are the most successful and are often performed in opera houses around the world. Specific attention is given to the …

The Fight Master, Spring 2017, Vol. 39 Issue 1, The Society Of American Fight Directors

Fight Master Magazine

No abstract provided.

Hamlet: An Illuminating Look At Tragedy, Maxx Finn

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

This thesis describes the research and production process of the lighting design of Hamlet, adapted by Wesley Broulik, performed in Howell Theatre, from November 17 through December 4 at the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film at the University of Nebraska. Hamlet was directed by Wesley Broulik. Maxx Finn acted as the production’s lighting designer, Kaitlyn Peterson designed the set, Haley Williams designed the costumes, Emily Callahan designed the sound, Andrea Besch acted as the properties master, and Travis Smith was the acting technical director.

This thesis contains the entire lighting design process for Hamlet, including initial meetings, conceptualization, …

Cross(Ing) The Line: Leadership In Devised Theatre, Monica Furman

Honors Papers and Posters

“Traditional" (Western) theatre focuses on the relationship between the playwright and the director. Devised theatre is a reaction to the dominant ideology; it is ensemble-created original work. A group of artists collaborate and create a play with no script and, sometimes, no initial theme or message. They use various different art forms as well as interviews and narratives to create a theatrical experience.

A Fuddy Thesis: Directing David Lindsay-Abaire’S Fuddy Meers, Dustin M. Mosko

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

This thesis contains the written documentation of the process of directing a theatrical production of Fuddy Meers by David Lindsay-Abaire, in partial fulfillment of the 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, concept development, casting, production & rehearsal processes, director's reflection, and critical responses of the production.

Advisor: Virginia Smith

Rapture. Redemption. Religion. Retail. Directing Samuel D. Hunter’S, A Bright New Boise, Chadwick R. Taylor

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

This thesis contains the written documentation of the process of directing a theatrical production of A Bright New Boise by Samuel D. Hunter, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for Masters of Fine Arts in Directing for Stage and Screen at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Topics addressed include play selection, background of the play and author, script analysis, concept development, casting, production and rehearsal process, director’s reflection, and critical responses and self-evaluation.

Advisor: Ian Borden

Sameena Mustafa Interview, Uyanga Chinzorig

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Bio: Sameena Mustafa is a stand-up comedian, actor, and writer named in the Chicago Reader’s Best of Chicago 2016 issue. She has been featured in videos by The Onion and performed on world-famous stages like the Laugh Factory and Biograph Theater. A Northwestern University graduate, Sameena is a sought-after speaker and host, praised for founding Simmer Brown, a comedy showcase featured in the Chicago Sun-Times and Redeye Chicago.

Walk: Artist's Statement, Yozmit Walker

Mime Journal

Testifying to Thomas Leabhart’s legacy as a corporeal mime performer and educator, his former student Yozmit reflects on her performance piece “Walk,” a site-specific work created for a 2013 conference on Edward Gordon Craig at Pomona College (CA). Yozmit describes the way Leabhart’s teaching – partly inspired by Craig’s work – helped her to explore the balance between artistic thought and rigorous physical training.

Dreaming Of Light: On Edward Gordon Craig, Peter Sellars

Mime Journal

Sellars reflects on Craig’s legacy, emphasizing Craig’s focus on “making theatre out of light,” and casting Craig as “John the Baptist to Bob Wilson.” Sellars highlights the importance of Craig’s “keeping the dream space open,” but he also criticizes Craig for not traveling to experience the predominantly Asian cultures whose performance traditions he appropriated. Craig and Sellars have a shared interest in the functions of Baroque opera in socially cataclysmic times; Sellars speaks about the influence of Craig upon his stagings of Purcell and the St. Matthew Passion (first staged in 2010). Sellars celebrates Craig’s attempt to rescue the voice …

Picturing Robinson Crusoe: Edward Gordon Craig, Daniel Defoe And Image-Text Inquiry, Eric T. Haskell

Mime Journal

Haskell focuses on Craig’s work with art books in this essay. He offers a wealth of visual images to investigate influences upon Craig’s engraved illustrations for an edition of Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, a project planned for the Cranach Press, executed during the late 1930s, and published posthumously by the Basilisk Press in 1979. Haskell calls attention to the way that this fascinating edition—previously overshadowed by the Craig-Cranach Press Hamlet in the scholarly literature—adds to our understanding of Craig’s theories of print as performance. He also offers a nuanced reading of the way that Craig’s illustrations function as interpretation, providing …

Hamlet's Last Act: Artist's Statement, Sam J. Gold

Mime Journal

Gold contextualizes his performance piece Hamlet’s Last Act (video will be available on the Action, Scene, and Voice website going live in Summer 2017). He reflects on his own journey and process in creating the show, and also offers some fascinating information about Craig’s relationship to Asian puppetry traditions. Gold’s innovative show turns Craig’s wood engravings for the Cranach Press Hamlet into Balinese wayang kulit shadow puppets; Gold later discovered that Craig actually knew of this genre and referenced it in certain works. Gold explains how in Hamlet’s Last Act, Craig’s published engravings literally become performers, breaking down the …

Edward Gordon Craig, Étienne Decroux, And The Rediscovery Of Mime, Harvey Grossman

Mime Journal

In this edited transcription of his remarks at the 2013 Pomona College (California) conference “Action, Scene and Voice,” Harvey Grossman elucidates the theory and practice of his two most important teachers: Edward Gordon Craig and Étienne Decroux. Grossman elucidates Craig’s much-debated comments on the “Art of the Theatre,” as well as Craig’s influence upon the French corporeal mime Étienne Decroux. He relates in detail Craig’s positive response to seeing Decroux and his students (among them Jean-Louis Barrault and Éliane Guyon) perform in 1945.

Our Puppets, Our Selves: Puppetry's Changing Paradigms, Claudia Orenstein

Mime Journal

Taking up the topic of puppetry, Orenstein forges connections between Craig’s vision of the übermarionette and the rise of “New Puppetry” today. She examines the use of puppets to explore similarities and differences between the technological anxieties of modernists versus contemporary artists. In addition, she calls for a more careful and contextualized attention to Craig’s puppet theory, with a close reading of the übermarionette passage in "On the Art of the Theatre." Orenstein returns to some of the most well-known and much-studied passages and theories from Craig’s early work, but considers them from the fresh vantage point of contemporary puppetry …

Contents - Edward Gordon Craig Special Issue 2017, Jennifer A. Buckley, Anne Holt

Mime Journal

Cover, front matter, and contents for Mime Journal Special Issue, "Action, Scene, and Voice: 21st-Century Dialogues with Edward Gordon Craig." Guest editors: Jennifer Buckley and Annie Holt.

Appendix: Program, Edward Gordon Craig Conference 2013, Pomona College, Mime Journal

Mime Journal

Conference program for "Action, Scene, and Voice: 21st-Century Dialogues with Edward Gordon Craig," at Pomona College, Claremont, California, March 2013.