Theatre and Performance Studies Commons^™

Use Your Voice, St. Mary's University Theatre Department

Theatre

Use Your Voice is a play devised by Dr. Grace Edgar and her students in the Theatre for Change & Social Justice course at St. Mary's University during the Spring 2026 semester. Acts: Lower the Ceiling; Did You Love Him?; Dad, Let Me in; Cartel Assassination; Two Towns; Paperball of the Past; Whale Noise; The Alysa Liu Moment; Since I Was Little; Lake House; The Dow Right Now; Cobbler

“This Play Has Become Something That Isn’T For Us”: Working Class Identity, Canonical Inheritance, And The Girlo On Stage In That’S Sooo Povo!, Ciara L. Murphy Dr

Irish Communication Review

That’s Sooo Povo! was first produced in 2025 as part of the Dublin Fringe Festival by D’Girlos Theatre Company. The play follows Chantelle and Croía, two working class Dublin drama students who, when faced with partnering up to perform a scene from Sean O’Casey’s The Plough and the Stars (1926), end up summoning the “drag-drenched larger-than-life entity” Queen Povo (That’s Sooo Povo! | Fringe Festival, 2025). This companion piece firstly aims to examine how O'Casey's The Plough and the Stars has made a journey from subversive class critique to nostalgic institutional property, and what it means for working class women …

Identidad Flamenca: Formation Of And Negotiations With The Flamenco Identity, Kayla Lyall

Theatre & Dance ETDs

The core of this dissertation is an inquiry into belonging in flamenco. Expanding beyond the personal, it examines how flamenco identity is constructed through embodiment and practice. Challenging dominant narratives of purity and authenticity, I argue that identity in flamenco emerges through multiple pathways—including inheritance, training, cultural proximity, and artistic inquiry—and is continually reshaped by social, political, and aesthetic forces. Through phenomenology and practice-as-research, I position the body as an archive of knowledge and a site of meaning-making. My creative project, NUDE, serves as an embodied investigation into vulnerability, lineage, and self-definition, demonstrating identity as something enacted rather than …

Properties Design For George C. Wolfe’S The Colored Museum, Giavanna Vainisi

Honors Theses

This thesis details the properties design process for the University of Southern Mississippi’s Fall 2025 production of George C. Wolfe’s The Colored Museum. Through analysis of the script, research into the subject matter and playwright, and collaboration with the artistic team, this student designed and constructed effective properties for this production.

Not My Fault: An Original Play And Analysis, Samira Gharavi-Nouri

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

“For there is no friend like a sister / In calm or stormy weather” (Goblin Market, lines 562-563) I grew up with 1, 2, 3 sisters and even though my childhood was shaped by countless fights, hair pulling and scratching, it was equally formed by built-in best friends, advisors and bodyguards who would go to bat for me without hesitation. There are not many people you can fight with like no other on one day and be best friends with again the next without holding a grudge. While I can count myself lucky to have had this experience of unconditional …

Creating An Audio Drama, Nikolas D. Stark

Honors Theses

Creating an audio drama is a process that normally includes a team of people taking on their own specialized roles. For this project, I instead assumed each of these positions myself in order to better understand the nuances of each role and voice acting industry as a whole. These roles included script writer, sound engineer, voice actor, voice director, editor, and sound designer. Overall, this process took seven months to complete in its entirety, with three artistic collaborators joining the process. While inherently difficult for one person to fulfill each of these roles, I not only accomplished it, but I …

William: The Musical, Tyler C. Green

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Projects

William: The Musical is the story of my parents’ struggle, and unfathomable loss while trying to start a family. The work follows the couple through their commitment to start a family together, through a devastating miscarriage, and up to the birth of my older brother, William. The work is still in progress, but is currently structured as a song-cycle including five songs in the style of contemporary musical theater. William: The Musical explores themes of loss and resilience, bringing to light the disturbingly common experience of miscarriage. While the creative goal aims to allow audiences to reflect and mourn their …

The Importance Of Being Present: Presence Over Performance, De'on Turner

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the development of presence as the foundational element of the actor’s craft through a sustained analysis of four major roles performed during the Master of Fine Arts Acting program at the University of South Carolina: Walter Lee Younger in A Raisin in the Sun (Spring 2024), Kesi/the Astronaut in Moon Man Walk (Fall 2024), Dennis in Mauritius (Spring 2025), and Jack Worthing in The Importance of Being Earnest (Fall 2025).

The central argument of this thesis is that the actor does not bring the character to life — at full depth; it is the character who brings …

The Practice Of Being Human: Reflections On The Evolution Of My Acting Process, Elaine Christine Werren

Theses and Dissertations

An actor’s work is defined by process. Growth occurs not only through performance, but through examination and reflection on how this work is made. This thesis explores the evolution of my acting process as I created a variety of characters in shows performed on the mainstage at the University of South Carolina. Each role tested previous approaches, led to new ideas, challenged assumptions, and shaped my opinions about this craft. With the passage of time and new roles explored, my reflections have revealed that my process is not purely a technical pursuit, but a human one. Through sustained efforts and …

Between Traditions And Techniques: The Growth Of An Actor Across Styles And Cultures, Didem Ruhi Karci

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis reflects on my artistic development during the Master of Fine Arts in Acting program at the University of South Carolina through an analysis of several performance processes, including The Visit, the Commedia dell’arte devised piece Mad Love, Antigone, Twelfth Night, and The Importance of Being Earnest. Drawing from rehearsal experiences, performance practices, and classroom training, the thesis examines how different acting techniques and theatrical traditions shaped my approach to character creation and performance. Throughout these productions, I explored the relationship between voice, body, and emotional truth while applying tools such as the Alexander Technique, Lessac voice work, Michael …

Learning To Stop Being Clever, Dominic Delong-Rodgers

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the actors process for four productions in the University of South Carolina’s Theatre and Dance Department spanning from Winter of 2024 to Fall of 2025 and taking place as part of the MFA program in acting. These four productions – The Visit by Frederich Durrenmatt, directed by Craig Miller; Antigone by Sophocles, directed by Lauren Wilson; Mauritius by Theresa Rebeck, directed by Erica Tobolski; and The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, directed by Dustin Whitehead – form critical points in the MFA program of study, allowing for the practical application of techniques and approaches learned …

Recollection Of The Archaic Psyche: A Comparative Study Of Viacheslav Ivanov’S Realistic Symbolism And Carl Gustav Jung’S Analytical Psychology, Elizabeth Jay Wheless

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis reflects my three years at the University of South Carolina’s Master of Fine Arts in Acting program, including the roles I’ve played and shows I’ve acted in. The chapters include detailed accounts of my time acting as The Teacher in The Visit by Friedrich Dürrenmatt in March 2024, the Choragos in Antigone by Sophocles in October 2024, Mary in Mauritius by Theresa Rebeck in February 2025 and Gwendolen in The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde in November 2025. Each chapter has subchapters of “auditions and callbacks,” “rehearsals,” “performances,” and “lessons and conclusion.” This thesis is a …

Investigating The Interlanguage Fossilization Of English Writing In Foreign Language Acquisition, Ammar Abdul Fattah Habeeb

Journal of Language, Literature, and Arts

Interlanguage fossilization represents a common phenomenon in Foreign/Second language acquisition. The current study attempted to investigate the students’ writing compositions to reveal if interlanguage fossilization occurred or not. A diagnostic test has been used to collect the data. A sample of this study was chosen randomly from 20 EFL students of the sixth year preparatory schools in the academic year (2023-2024). The findings of this study displayed that two kinds of interlanguage fossilization are found and achieved by students. Morphological fossilization and syntactical fossilization. Morphological fossilization contained (85.63%) and syntactical fossilization consisted of (14.37) %.Low English proficiency led students’ writing …

Concert Intime

Dance Programs

No abstract provided.

Rollin Pease In "Elijah" By Mendelsshon, State Teachers College Choral Club

Documents

FSTC Choral Club Program-Performance of "Elijah" May 24, 1931

Lighting Design For Terminator: The Musical By Breanna Beitz, Mikayli Marciulionis

Scholarly Horizons: University of Minnesota, Morris Undergraduate Journal

This paper discusses the lighting design for a production of Terminator: the Musical at the University of Minnesota Morris. The directorial concept revolved around the idea of camp: big sound, flashy lights, big spectacle. Camp refers to an aesthetic style that embraces exaggeration, playfulness, irony, and theatricality. It often celebrates things that are considered 'over the top' — artificial, sentimental, or deliberately tacky — but does so with affection, humor, and self-awareness. Leaning into the concept of it being 'so bad it is good,' is how the director envisioned Terminator: The Musical to be. To this end, my approach for …

The Creation And Performance Of Eulogy, Evan Anderson

Scholarly Horizons: University of Minnesota, Morris Undergraduate Journal

In completion of my senior project for my theatre arts degree at the University of Minnesota Morris, I wrote, composed, and directed Eulogy, performing with myself as Mark, Olivia Emmrich as Amelia, Savana Hauck as the Reverend, and Jennie Odello as the pianist. The following will explore my artistic process: highlighting how I chose my topic, my playwriting and composing process, collaborating with my colleagues, our rehearsal process, the performance, and my reflection on my project.

Des Arbres Comme Des Lignes De Vie – Pascale Cassagnau Et Suhaib Gasmelbari En Conversation, Pascale Cassagnau, Suhaib Gasmelbari

Regards

As part of a study day organized in September 2025 at the University of Grenoble Alpes in partnership with the Centre National des Arts Plastiques entitled “The Loss of Images: Research and Creative Narratives,” Pascale Cassagnau and Suhaib Gasmelbari discussed his film Talking about Trees (2019), focusing on the film’s sources and structure, the history of Sudanese cinema that it reveals within the film itself, and the metaphors of trees and plants as lifelines and living archives at a time when images have disappeared.

Résumé
Dans le cadre d’une journée d’études organisée en septembre 2025 à l’Université Grenoble Alpes en …

Introduction – Carnets Filmiques, Carnets Sonores : Des Essais Intimes Et Collectifs, Robert Bonamy, Aude Fourel, Eve Le Fessant Coussonneau

Regards

Le sens à attribuer à la notion de carnet filmique ou de carnet sonore suscite quelque indécision, en raison du caractère composite et mouvant des cas envisagés. L’enjeu principal ne paraît ainsi pas ici celui d’une définition serrée d’un objet, mais plutôt une attention accordée à des tentatives de réalisation. De surcroît, si la forme-carnet permet à peu près tout, elle n’interdit donc véritablement rien : l’esquisse, le brouillon, l’approximation, voire l’échec et l’interruption.
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Du Journal De Deuil À L’Œuvre De Sépulture : « Lo » (Thanassis Vassiliou, 2021-2025), Marie Martin

Regards

After his mother’s death in 2017, Thanassis Vassiliou returned to Greece and began filming. The instinctive act of recording aimed both to come to terms with the now definitive absence in places still filled with memories, and to document his own reactions, attempting to preserve them even if he could not fully understand them. These filmic notes could perhaps, later on, allow another perspective, according to the dynamic that Antoine Compagnon aptly analyzed as paradoxical in relation to Barthes’s Mourning Diary: “mourning and narrative are antinomic, but [...] only narrative [...] is capable of expressing the experience of mourning, …