Theatre and Performance Studies Commons^™

2021 Illinois Shakespeare Festival Program, School Of Theatre And Dance

Illinois Shakespeare Festival

2021 Season. The Professional Theatre at Illinois State University, Ewing Theatre. Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare. The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare. The PDF available for download from this page is a capture of this web page archived by the Internet Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20220612164727/https://illinoisshakes.com/plays/past/program-2021/.

Drag Artist Interviews, 2020, Destiny Baxter, Ezra Temko, Adam Loesch

SIUE Faculty Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity

This public dataset contains transcripts of 8 in-depth semistructured interviews with drag artists. Destiny Baxter conducted these interviews during Spring 2020. This follows up on an available dataset of 22 interviews of drag artists conducted in Spring 2019 by SIUE students, available at https://spark.siue.edu/siue_fac/104/

All 2019 and 2020 interviews used the same instrument.

Religion And Theatrical Drama, An Introduction, Larry D. Bouchard, Charles A. Gillespie

Catholic Studies Faculty Publications

Often, a lonely light bulb illuminates the edge of a stage outside of working hours. Part safety mechanism against falling in the dark and part theatrical tradition, the “ghost light” keeps the living alive and brightens up the place for any spirits still hoping to practice an old monologue. Stages juxtapose worlds, or fragments of worlds. The ghost light, then, would illuminate juxtaposed worlds, of the living and of the possibly otherwise. In some ways, this Special Issue of Religions takes theatrical juxtaposition as its premise. We invited papers working at intersections between studies of religious history, thought, and practice …

Maiden, Martyr, Sinner, And Saint: Performing The Narratives Of Joan Of Arc, Emma Cox

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

This Capstone Experience/Thesis Project, made possible through the WKU Mahurin Honors College, is a study of historiography, or the way history is written. Joan of Arc is used to explore historiography because she is a figure that is written in many ways, each version giving us a snippet of the whole picture. The show written based on my research is titled Jehanne. I wanted to tell Joan’s story, but not just one version of it; I wanted to tell the whole story of who she is, not just what she did or what she believed. Not only does Jehanne …

“On 2” And Overseas: The Migration Of Salsa Dance, Natalie Farrell

Dance Department Best Student Papers

Hailing from its native land of Cuba, the Afro-Cuban rhythms of salsa dance immigrated to America during the 20th century. The contagious groove permeated urban cities across the country, eventually becoming an artistic landmark in New York City and Los Angeles. The following paper addresses how the genre of salsa dance endured stylistic, social, and cultural changes during its migration overseas. Specifically, this paper contextualizes salsa dance in the rich history of the New York City and Los Angeles dance communities. By exploring how L.A style salsa dance teams became a global phenomenon, this essay articulates how the popularization of …

Group Playwriting Project, Thomas L. Rothacker

Open Educational Resources

This assignment is designed for any lecture based course that does not inherently have collaborative work or assignments as part of the curriculum. For any student taking a theatre arts course, understanding how it is to work with others and create something is one of the biggest lessons that can be learned. To take the pressure off the idea of "performance", this playwriting assignment starts with the role of the Playwright and how to create from the ground up.

[Insert Play Title Here] Collage Assignment, Thomas L. Rothacker

Open Educational Resources

Approaching analysis of Dramatic Literature can easily be accomplished via class discussion and through writing. Since plays are “written to be performed”, other approaches of analysis must be explored. The collage assignment and synthesis focuses on the visual aspects of the writing and how the playwright offers clues as to what can or should be focused on.

Critical Reviews & The New York Times Assignment, Thomas L. Rothacker

Open Educational Resources

What is the role of criticism in any art form?

What is the purpose? Is it to enlighten the artists involved? The audience?

Using sample Plays and Playwrights from this term, students will go on a deep dive into the archives of the New York Times theatre reviews. Comparing reviews on the same play with different productions shows different points of view.

Grit In The Performing Arts: A Mixed-Methods Study Of High School Theatre Student Perceptions Of Grit, Kelsey Gibson

Doctor of Education Dissertations

Previous grit research has not yet studied how the performing arts may have an impact on student grit scores and perceptions of grit. Grit is defined by two main characteristics: consistency of interest and perseverance of effort. Continued participation in an extracurricular theatre production requires students to maintain interest and sustain effort throughout the rehearsal and performance period. This mixed methods interpretivist research study examined how high school students from three groups (performing arts, non-performing arts, and non-arts) measured on Duckworth and Quinn’s (2009) Grit-S scale, as well as how performing arts students perceived their own grit after participation in …

Protest Music Of The 2010s, Tumaini Sango

McNair Scholars Manuscripts

Throughout U.S. history, music has served as a soundtrack to transformative social and cultural movements. Songs like “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” “Lift every Voice and Sing,” and “We Shall Overcome” are linked to key events that inspired hope and change. Collectively, these songs are known as protest music. Protest music can act as a type of social commentary, expressing a wide range of emotions, and have a uniting element, calling leaders and groups to action for tangible results. At its core, protest music is a musician’s creative response to events happening in the world around them. The 2010s saw the …

Twelve Angry Men: A Twenty-First Century Reflection Of Race, Art, And Incarceration, Mackenzie A. Gross

Honors Theses

Twelve Angry Men: A Twenty-First Century Reflection of Race, Art and Incarceration is a Comparative and Digital Humanities Honors Thesis concentrating on Africana Studies, theatre, sociology and legal studies to demonstrate the importance of investing in incarcerated communities through theatre and education.

In Chapter I, I critique the loss of identity attached to incarceration, and introduce the foundation for Black bodies individuals being discriminated against in the prosecution system. I analyze the “Punishment vs Progress” mentality, and introduce current educational programs in place in prisons. I elaborate on the details of our production, as well as the makeup of actors. …

"Taming Of The Shrew(S)": Explorations Of Gender And Power In Directing An Original Adaptation Of William Shakespeare's The Taming Of The Shrew, Katharine Cognard-Black

Honors Theses

In Fall 2021, I directed my own adaptation of Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew, entitled “Taming of the Shrew(s).” This project served as both the creative portion of my honors thesis as well as a Senior Showcase within the Bucknell Department of Theatre & Dance. From a young age, I have been fascinated by the malleability of Shakespeare’s plays, and having acted in and seen multiple productions of The Taming of the Shrew, my project began with a desire to take on the gendered complexities of this so-called “problem play.” The Taming of the Shrew is problematic in its sexist …

Sonic Femininity: The Ronettes' Transgressive Gender Performance, Hilarie Ashton

Publications and Research

Iconic sixties girl group the Ronettes are frequently (and justly) celebrated for anchoring the Wall of Sound and inspiring the Beatles, but in their own right, they transgressed social, gendered expectations in revolutionary ways. Framed by a notion I call the sonic feminine, a recuperative theoretical space for the revolutionarily transgressive work of female and femme artists, I argue that the Ronettes, and lead singer Ronnie Spector in particular, enacted a kind of cultural rebellion: they crafted their images to made-up heights that tease the boundaries of drag across the spaces of the stage, the recording studio, the bathroom, and …

Embodied Performance As Queer Theatre Historiography: Translation, Gender, Identity, And Temporalities In Mikhail Kuzmin's The Dangerous Precaution, Keenan Shionalyn

All Master's Theses

The “World of Art” and “The Tower,” two groups of symbolist artists in St. Petersburg at the turn of the 20^th century, are often noted for their contributions to queer art in poetry, literature, and the visual arts. However, the theatrical record has yet to acknowledge the significant contributions by these groups, largely ignoring their queer dramatic writings. Mikhail Kuzmin, a notable contributor in both groups of symbolists, is recognized for having contributed music to Meyerhold and Blok’s The Puppet Show but is less known for his multitude of plays. Seeking to remedy this problem, I examine one of …

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 …

Perspectives On The Relationship Between Theatre And Education: A West Australian Case Study, Ceri Anne Nordling

Theses : Honours

Many professional theatre companies incorporate education departments within their organisational structure to develop education offerings for schools. Education within the context of professional theatre companies offers multiple capacity building benefits. Consequently, education departments clearly have a role in strategically shaping contemporary Australian theatre companies. (Edwards & Upton, 2014). Likewise, the well documented positive impacts of arts learning is recognised by the sector. This has prompted widespread drama-education advocacy from education and theatre industries respectively, as well as through the combined efforts of education and industry partnerships. However, this project argues that for partnerships to sustain relevancy and cross-sector support, researchers …

“Send Me No Husband” How Succession Anxiety In Elizabethan England Influenced The Marital Politics In Shakespeare's Comedies, Olivia Silva

Scripps Senior Theses

While revered and idolized, Queen Elizabeth I’s unmarried status throughout her reign increased anxieties surrounding succession amongst the 16th century British public. Amidst a continental debate surrounding the Querelle des Femmes, or “the woman question", that attempted to label female roles within societal and political spheres, Elizabeth was infamously defined by her unconventionality as both a monarch and a woman. These succession and patriarchal anxieties not only influenced but were actively played out in Shakespeare’s canon, particularly in his comedies. Shakespeare used the Unconventional Woman trope within his comedies in creating certain female characters, all of their endings concluding in …

Prepare To Pivot: Shifting From The Projection Surface To The Zoom Screen Necessitated By Global Pandemic, David E. Mills-Low

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Design for theatre is an endeavor in which the physical, the corporeal, the defined, is applied to an ephemeral artform, one meant to happen only in the moment and then fade away. As such, building the world of the theatrical space, whether physical or digital, is similar to shooting at a moving target. While one angle of approach may be perfect for a moment, being ready and flexible enough to pivot, whether to reimagine due to limitation or to adjust an entire project due to calamity, like the shift from in person to online streaming. This paper investigates the joy …

Modern Dance, Embodiment, And Society: The Graham Technique’S Resistance To Conditioned Physicality, Cara Mcmanus

Dissertations and Theses

Martha Graham, foremost pioneer of American Modern dance, is the originator and developer of what is known today as the Graham technique. When this technique is removed from performative contexts, the philosophy of its practice can add insight to a discussion of embodiment and what it means to resist socially prescribed embodiments. This paper will examine the ways in which the Graham technique cultivates awareness of embodiment’s origins and processual nature, and therefore how a conscious resistance to social conditioning can arise. The neuroscientific and physiological processes behind this cultivation of awareness will be discussed, and several examples of resistance …

An Arrow Against Profane And Promiscuous Dancing. Drawn Out Of The Quiver Of The Scriptures. [1686], Increase Mather, Paul Royster , Ed.

Zea E-Books Collection

"The unchast Touches and Gesticulations used by Dancers, have a palpable tendency to that which is evil."

When a dancing master arrived in Boston in 1685 and offered lessons and classes for both sexes during times normally reserved for church meetings, the Puritan ministers went to court to suppress the practice. Increase Mather (1639-1723) took the leading part, writing and publishing this tract, which compiles arguments and precedents for the prohibition of “Gynecandrical Dancing, [i.e.] Mixt or Promiscuous Dancing, viz. of Men and Women … together.” These justifications were certainly shared with the court, which found the dancing …