Theatre and Performance Studies Commons^™

Persistence Of Memory: Revision, Nostalgia, And Resistance In Contemporary American Drama, Sinan Gul

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on the usages of memory in contemporary American drama. Analyzing selected mainstream and alternative dramatic texts, The Persistence of Memory is a study of personal and communal reflections of the past within contemporary plays. The introduction provides examples from modern plays, major terms, and vital concepts for memory studies and locates their merits in dramatic texts. The first chapter makes a critique of family plays, which uses historical elements to indicate a revisionist yearning for the past as well as the American Dream. Similarly, the second chapter contains business plays, which implement a heavy feeling of nostalgia …

Crossover Trumpet Performance: Jazz Style And Technique For Classical Trumpeters, Kevin Christopher Tague

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This document examines crossover trumpet playing: the ability to comfortably transition from classical to jazz style. Problems trumpeters face when shifting between classical and jazz styles and the importance of always performing idiomatically are discussed. There is no consensus regarding the best way to develop crossover ability, but experts agree that the proper use of articulation is vital for stylistically authentic performances. A review of the literature reveals fundamental differences in how articulation is taught in classical and jazz pedagogies. Additionally, jazz and classical musicians approach printed music differently. By detailing key elements of jazz articulation and interpretation the document …

Theatre For Social Change: Histories & Applications, Samantha J. Hageman

Theater Summer Fellows

Theater is not only an art form, but also a method of communication and community-building. My research investigates how theater can be used to create social change. I study approaches to using theater as a vehicle for social change and a tool to communicate diverse perspectives and cultivate empathy. My work focuses on a history of theater for social change, examples of theater for social change including plays and performance pieces, and ways of both creating and teaching theater for social change. My project culminates in an annotated bibliography, a research paper, an original theater for social change monologue, and …

Theater For Social Justice: Sexual Violence Prevention Programming For College Campuses, Jessica Childs

Theater Summer Fellows

My research investigates intersections of theater for social justice, the college campus sexual assault epidemic, and programs for sexual assault prevention. Using this research as a foundation, I have created a proposal for Ursinus College’s sexual assault prevention program. This proposal is informed by the 2011 “Dear Colleague Letter” on sexual violence, the White House “It’s On Us” campaign, and successful theater-based sexual violence prevention programs. My proposal focuses on the definition of consent, bystander intervention, healthy relationships, relationship abuse, sexual expression, and safer sex practices. The proposal demonstrates the ways in which student-written monologues and short scenes in combination …

Center For Art & Theater News, Georgia Southern University

Center for Art & Theater (Archived)

• Georgia Southern presents digital media artist Jeffrey Moser Aug. 14 – Sept. 15

At The Center Of Things: How An Academic Library Built A Bridge Between Art And Science On Campus, Michelle Catalano, Catherine Essinger, Suzanne Ferimer, Stephanie Lewin-Lane, Porcia Vaughn

Collaborative Librarianship

The University of Houston Libraries sponsored an interdisciplinary event for students, faculty, and the public, titled the Artists’ Health and Wellness Colloquium and Resource Fair. Aspiring and working artists were instructed in how to maintain good health and to avoid overstressing their bodies as they practice their art. Scholars presented both historical and trending perspectives on the intersection of art and health science. The event was held in order to facilitate learning in two key research areas and to demonstrate the library's ability to bridge disparate disciplines and forge new partnerships with multiple academic units simultaneously. This article presents planning …

Caplan Studies, Teaches The Richness Of Yiddish Theater., Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

“I grew up in a family where Yiddish was spoken around me quite a bit. I grew up surrounded by Yiddish and Jewish culture, but I didn’t grow up speaking Yiddish, so it was something that was sort of mysterious that I didn’t know very much about.” That is the way Dr. Debra Caplan explains how she became an expert in Yiddish theater. A native of North Wales in Pennsylvania, she says she was always interested from a very young age in performing arts. “I studied theater in high school and in college and became very interested in theater history. …

They're Playing Our Song, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2017 Summer Theatre

They're Playing Our Song is a musical with a book by Neil Simon, lyrics by Carole Bayer Sager, and music by Marvin Hamlisch.

In a story based on the real-life relationship of Hamlisch and Sager, a wisecracking composer finds a new, offbeat lyricist, but initially the match is not one made in heaven. The two undergo a series of trials and overcome a number of hurdles before finding true love by the final curtain.

Performing Narrative Medicine: Understanding Familial Chronic Illness Through Performance, Alyse Keller

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study presents the process of creating a performance ethnography of my family’s narratives about familial chronic illness and disability. I label this process performing narrative medicine. By documenting and granularly analyzing the process of my performance ethnography, the following chapters provide a step-by-step discussion of how families communicate about chronic illness/disability through storytelling and humor, and how/what performance does as a method, metaphor and object of study to further our current communicative practices and understandings of chronic illness and disability in families. I argue that performing narrative medicine is a heuristic for families living with chronic illness and …

Introduction To "Aga Collaborative: Walking In The Academy" By Jeanmarie Higgins, Anne Fliotsos, Ann M. Shanahan

Department of Fine & Performing Arts: Faculty Publications and Other Works

An introduction to "AGA Collaborative: Walking in the Academy" by Jeanmarie Higgins.

From Humiliation To Epiphany: The Role Of Onstage Spaces In T. S. Eliot’S Middle Plays, Ria Banerjee

Publications and Research

This essay looks at T. S. Eliot's major dramatic productions from the 1930s-40s: Murder in the Cathedral, The Family Reunion, and The Cocktail Party as a series of investigations into spatial expressions of faith. By using onstage space in unique ways, Eliot encourages audiences to consider the connections between performance and belief, the knowable and unknowable.

Playing God: The Bible On The Broadway Stage By Henry Bial (Review), Christopher B. Swift

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Telling Fire’S Story Through Narrative And Art, Stephen W. Barrett

Joint Fire Science Program Digests

Modern works by highly skilled narrative authors and artists have become increasingly useful for telling the story of wildland fire in the United States. Using unconventional means—and with partial funding by the Joint Fire Science Program—creative individuals have spawned some colorful and heartfelt messages that convey insightful information about wildland fire, climate, and other elements of nature to an increasingly receptive public. Recent narrative works by well-known authors, such as Stephen J. Pyne, and creative art pieces by well-established and emerging artists have helped depict fire in a new light to audiences that scientists may rarely reach. This issue of …

Who Tells Our Story: Intersectional Temporalities In Hamilton, An American Musical, Andie Silva, Shereen Inayatulla

Publications and Research

This article examines the ways in which Hamilton: An American Musical can be read less as a historical account and more as a prediction of a future immigrant, who is called upon to (re)define US nationhood. Keeping with the tempo of the musical as well as the broader issues of time, space, and identity it attempts to address, this article is presented as a dialogical rap. The co-authors’ discussion frames Hamilton as an example of the power of unplottable, time-arresting immigrant bodies, to whom the colonial imposition of linear history does not apply. From this framework, the authors’ conversation shifts …

2017 Illinois Shakespeare Festival Program, School Of Theatre And Dance

Illinois Shakespeare Festival

40th Season. The Theatre at Ewing. A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare. Shakespeare's Amazing Cymbeline by William Shakespeare. I Heart Juliet by Q Brothers Collective.

Review: 'Embodied Philosophy In Dance: Gaga And Ohad Naharin’S Movement Research', Aili W. Bresnahan

Philosophy Faculty Publications

This book is an original and complex philosophy of dance that Katan (now Katan-Schmid) has extrapolated from a close examination of and studio-based engagement with Gaga, Ohad Naharin’s style of contemporary dance movement. It is culled from Katan’s first-hand experience as a participant in the training and as a researcher in conversation with Naharin and Gaga-engaged dancers. Gaga is both practiced alone as somatic movement research (one which studies internal, bodily perception and experience) and exhibited in dances that are choreographed by Naharin and other collaborators for the Batsheva Dance Company of Tel-Aviv, Israel. The philosophy provided here is organic …

Images Of Women In Refugee Drama: Eve Ensler’S Necessary Targets And Ellen Mclaughlin’S The Trojan Women, Kaitlyn Tossie

Theses and Dissertations

In the past ten years, a critique of the conceptualization of refugees in Western mass media has emerged as a developing discourse in response to post-20th century genocides. Photographs in mass media of wailing refugees began to appear in the early 1990s when reports of the Bosnian genocide appeared in the United States. These images, and the stereotypes that surround them, contribute to the universal depiction of refugees as weak. Though the way in which theatre comments on this conceptualization of refugees has largely been ignored, theatre has a unique ability to comment on, reflect, and create a culture that …

Over The Ropes: Boundary Play In Professional Wrestling, Ethan Ingram

Theses and Dissertations

Within the anthropology of performance, scholars have traditionally considered theater, spectacle, sport, and ritual performances in terms of the discrete boundaries of space and time that separate these events from daily life and in terms of the disparate roles that demarcate performers from audience members. Professional wrestling, a popular performance genre in the American Midwest, exhibits features that challenge these boundaries through the collaborative construction of the event by performers and audience members. Audience interaction is an essential part of wrestling performances, characterized by routine and contextually understood behaviors that performers can process as evaluative feedback. Moreover, during wrestling matches, …

Ethnography Of Dance Pedagogy Traditions: Chinese Dance Culture Compared To Eurocentric Dance Culture, Caitlin Shill, Marilyn Berrett

Journal of Undergraduate Research

This project’s purpose was to analyze the traditions, customs and philosophies of professors at the College of Dance at Beijing Mingzu University during Brigham Young University’s China dance study abroad. Recording and analyzing their pedagogical practices informed our own theories on the optimal balance between nurturing artistic development while preserving technical traditions. The globalization of the world’s dance community has revolutionized teaching philosophies. The international standard for dance pedagogy and technique for professional dancers continues to defy preceding theories as pedagogical practices are shared and incorporated into various training systems. China has consistently produced some of the world’s best technicians …

“Sometimes You Have To Be A Little Bit Naughty”: Matilda The Musical Through A Feminist Lens, Kristin Perkins, Megan Sanborn Jones

Journal of Undergraduate Research

My research analyzed the popular musical Matilda to dissect and explicate underlying feminist ideologies. The grant went primarily to helping fund a trip to New York City where I was able to watch Matilda the Musical as well as helping to fund my trip to present my research at a conference in Chicago. This project has yielded two conference presentations thus far and I am continuing to work towards fulfilling my Honors Thesis requirement using this as my research topic.