Other Theatre and Performance Studies Commons^™

No Day But Today--Choreographing Rent, Grace Goodwin

Dance Undergraduate Theses

No abstract provided.

Silence: A Technical Direction Project, Matthew Rightmire

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

The Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film opened its 2013-14 mainstage season with the play Silence in the Studio Theatre on October 10, 2013. This thesis project encompasses the Technical Direction of Silence. As the Technical Director, I was responsible for the budgeting of time, people, and money necessary to plan, organize, construct, and load into the theatre all the scenic elements required for the performance. Duties included purchasing materials, drafting construction drawings, and leading shop crews in the individual processes to create each scenic element as well as modifying the house seating equipment to accommodate the scenic …

Gender Confusion, Genocide And The Apocalypse: Directing Moira Buffini's Silence, Dennis N. Henry

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 Silence by Moira Buffini, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for Master of Fine Arts in Directing for Stage and Screen at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

This documentation and analysis of the processes herein include: play selection, background research, concept development, casting, rehearsal process, development of design elements and evaluation based on critical response, audience reception and self-reflection.

Advisor: Virginia Smith

The Fight Master, Spring 2014, Vol. 36 Issue 1, The Society Of American Fight Directors

Fight Master Magazine

No abstract provided.

Mrs. Mannerly: An Illuminating Look At Lighting Melodrama, Clayton Van Winkle

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

This thesis describes the research and production processes of the lighting design for the play, Mrs. Mannerly by Jeffrey Hatcher, performed in the Studio Theatre, repertory style, from July 19^th through August 10^th at the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film at the University of Nebraska. Mrs. Mannerly was directed by Rob Urbinati. Clayton Van Winkle acted as the production's lighting designer, Laurel Shoemaker designed the set, Sharon Sobel designed the costumes, Mike Smith designed the sound, Erica King acted as the props mistress, and Chris Stepanek was the acting technical director.

This thesis contains the entire …

The Miracle Of Being, Carolyn Toner

Senior Theses and Projects

Exploration of the thematic and performative elements in the plays of Eugene Ionesco. 20th century absurdist playwright, Eugene Ionesco, explores the idea of what it means to be human in his plays. I will explore elements of that theme and analyze of these themes in eight of his plays: Victims of Duty, The Lesson, Hunger and Thirst, Exit the King, The Chairs, Amedee, A Stroll in the Air, and The Killer. In addition, I will discuss important performative aspects of his plays as they relate to his theme of humanness.

The Mystical And Metaphysical In The Mundane: Directing Middletown, Joshua S. Waterstone

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 of actors and evaluation of final product.

Advisor: Virginia Smith

Norman Corwin's The Lonesome Train (Decca Recording) 1944, David K. Dunaway

RadioDoc Review

The Lonesome Train, the cantata for radio with words by Millard Lampell, music by Earl Robinson, and directed by Norman Corwin, probably originated in a dilapidated brownstone on lower Sixth Avenue in Manhattan: The Almanac House, a radical commune for music organisers in Greenwich Village, including Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie. Corwin is widely regarded as a guru of thoughtful radio producers, a poet-laureate of radio. From 1936, when he helped create WQXR-FM in New York City (later, voice of the New York Times) to his death 75 years later, Norman Corwin managed to be simultaneously commercial, popular, …

Old Hoss, Jared Brown

Jared Brown

Loving The Art In Yourself, Mary Moynihan

Books/Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

An Exploration Of 20th Century Standard Theatre Production Practices And The Incorporation Of Alternative Practices, Kent K. Sprague

Kent K Sprague

This project asks: Why is there a standard production process, how did it come to be, and how can we change this process to allow everyone within a process to contribute creatively? Research was first conducted into the 20th century history of the American Theatre, and identifying why certain production practices were adopted. Next, several groups that did not adhere to the standard production process were investigated, and their alternative production processes were noted. These alternative production practices were then combined and experimented with during the production of The College of Wooster’s The Golden Age in the fall of 2013. …

Spectacles Of Reform: Theater And Activism In Nineteenth-Century America By Amy E. Hughes (Review), Jocelyn Buckner

Theatre Faculty Articles and Research

In Spectacles of Reform Amy Hughes advocates for “spectacle as methodology” (4), a means of interpreting spectacle in nineteenth-century melodrama, as well as a wide variety of other media, that rehearses and reforms concepts of citizenship and identity related to race, class, gender, and morality. Through this lens, Hughes seeks to answer the questions “where and how do activist spectacles appear before and beyond the theatrical encounter?” and “why is spectacle kept alive through reinvention, revision, and repetition long after the drama is over?” (5). Hughes traces her theory of the spectacular instant through three popular sensation themes of the …

The Tallest Tree In The Forest, Jocelyn Buckner

Theatre Faculty Articles and Research

"Playwright and actor Daniel Beaty’s solo performance as Paul Robeson in The Tallest Tree in the Forest, commissioned by Tectonic Theater Project and coproduced by La Jolla Playhouse and Kansas City Repertory Theatre, was a tour-de-force biographical tribute."

Interview With Margaret Toomey, Mary Moynihan

Books/Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

I'M Not Finished — Done, Dimitri A. Cacouris

Senior Projects Spring 2014

This paper examines the creation and performance of the piece Done, by the author, and tries to take a critical and analytic perspective as well as a reflective one, of interest largely to the author, but also to anyone interested in a documentation of the creative process. It is accompanied by a video recording and photographs of the performance and several appendices which document the majority of the textual material which represents the genesis of the piece and from which the piece was eventually built.

(The paper, as it is, is best taken salted)

Video Games: Their Effect On Society And How We Must Modernize Our Pedagogy For Students Of The Digital Age, Christopher J. Baker

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis aims to explore how video games have become an extremely beneficial tool in regards to education, art, medicine, psychology, economics, and beyond. Chapter 1 focuses on how ubiquitous video games have become in America, and what makes video games such a uniquely enjoyable experience to warrant such popularity. Chapter 2 explores how video games have become instrumental in various fields. Chapter 3 discusses the role that video games now play in the world of education; specifically how we, as educators, must adapt a modern pedagogy best suited to students who have grown up with video games, which have …

Sighting Circus: Perceptions Of Circus Phenomena Investigated Through Diverse Bodies, Katrina Lavers

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This thesis is an investigation into modern circus from its beginnings in 1768 through to present day contemporary circus arts. Eight diverse bodies in modern and contemporary circus are explored. These eight bodies act as different lenses to focus enquiry into gaps or ruptures in the grand narratives of circus, to reveal previously missing voices and histories and to set in place new approaches to perceiving circus phenomena.

In The Political Body, the phenomenon of embodied protest is identified and explored in relation to contemporary circus works. The importance of the engaged spectator is identified in determining political, poetic …

Meet Me At The Border: Theatre Replacement’S Bioboxes, Kim Solga

Kim Solga

Contributors assess the deployments of various emotional registers in theatrical performance and explore how and where the “affective turn” in contemporary humanities scholarship affects theatre studies in Canada.

On Losing One's Voice: Two Performances From Romeo Castellucci, Daniel Sack

Daniel Sack

The Birth Of A Playwright Through The Evolution Of The One-Act Play Stripped, Bear; The Film Stripped, Bear; And The Full-Length Play American Bear, Larry Michael Mitchell

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Birth of a Playwright through the Evolution of the One-act Play Stripped, Bear; the film Stripped, Bear; and the Full-Length Play American Bear follows the inception, birth, and evolution of a ten-minute, one-act, film, and full-length play: three major iterations of the same source material. Through this exploration, the reader will not only see how the work was changed through outside forces such as form and function but internal struggles within a young playwright as he struggles to find a final form for his first major work while attempting to establish himself as a playwright both within the field …