Theatre and Performance Studies Commons^™

Staying True To The Script: A Dramaturgical Examination Of From The Mississippi Delta: Endesha Ida Mae Holland, Margarette Joyner

Theses and Dissertations

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts at Virginia Commonwealth University.

The Lab Report, Volume 04, Issue 12, Todd Ristau

Lab Reports

• Guest Profile: Branko Dimitrijevic
• Guest Profile: Christopher Jones
• This is My Office by Andy Bragen
• Wendy-Marie Foerster's adaptation of NO EXIT
• Ernie Zulia Receives Perry F. Kendig Award
• From the Director: New Expanded Format Coming Next Month

Playright: A Portfolio And Reflection On The Craft, Christine Baniewicz

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Selected Projects In Costume Design, Lindsay Anne Beardall

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

I started my collegiate career as an art major in 2-D design with the intent that I would be an art director for an advertising agency. I took a costume construction class two years into my major and I promptly left 2-D design for costume design. Costume design is a wonderful combination of my love of art, history, sewing, drawing, design and creating. I have been fortunate to have had the opportunity to design four different shows during my time at Utah State University. During my time as a costume designer at Utah State University I designed costumes for four …

Tokoyo: A Story Of Cultural Movement, Melissa Jessel

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Tokoyo: A Story of Cultural Movement is an exploration of Japanese culture through performance. The piece incorporates stylized, ritualistic, and contemporary movement. The device used to portray our research was a folk tale told solely through physical expression. Music by Japanese composers and projections of the country supported the movement and helped to tell the story of the culture.

We were deep into our research when we embarked on our trip to Japan to observe the specificity of the culture in everyday life and performance. Everything that we read, watched, and took part in manifested itself in the final presentation. …

When You Got It, Bump It: A Lost Showgirl’S Cabaret, Mary Claire King

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

For my Capstone project, I developed an original cabaret entitled “When You Got It, Bump It: A Lost Showgirl’s Cabaret.” The story follows Mazeppa, the lost showgirl, as she travels the vaudeville “circuit” in an attempt to regain her fame. I portray this leading character, while two other women portray her friends and co-stars. All three characters are based on perhaps some of the most famous showgirls on Broadway, Mazeppa, Tessie Tura and Electra of the 1959 musical, Gypsy.

I performed the cabaret twice, on the evenings of April 2^nd and 3^rd, at the First Unitarian …

Directing An Opera In An Undergraduate Setting: Creating A Professional Atmosphere Within The Confines Of A Student Production, Gabrielle Traub

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

As a Voice/Opera Performance major, I decided to take my love of opera and performance and familiarize myself with all of the aspects I had yet to understand: Production and Direction. Along with the creative and technical aspects, I also learned how to deal with many different emotional situations, including but not limited to being in a leadership position above my friends and peers.

My concept is as follows: produce and direct a full-length opera production in a foreign language. I decided to direct The Magic Flute in its original language because a) that was the composer’s original intent, and …

Tokoyo: A Story Of Cultural Movement, Chelsea Rolfes

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Tokoyo: A Story of Cultural Movement is an exploration of Japanese culture through performance. The piece incorporates stylized, ritualistic, and contemporary movement. The device used to portray our research was a folk tale told solely through physical expression. Music by Japanese composers and projections of the country supported the movement and helped to tell the story of the culture.

We were deep into our research when we embarked on our trip to Japan to observe the specificity of the culture in everyday life and performance. Everything that we read, watched, and took part in manifested itself in the final presentation. …

C.I.A.: College (In)Action: An Observation Of The Female College Experience., Mithra B. Alavi

Undergraduate Honors Theses

A film that I have written and directed about females in college and what they experience in one academic year based on the experiences of my friends and myself.

The Misanthrope: Accepting The Notions Of Moliere Into A Modern Society, Cristina A. Skinner

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

“The Misanthrope: Accepting the Notions of Molière for a Modern Society” demonstrates the conceptualization, rehearsal process, and critique of the direction for The Misanthrope, produced during the fall semester of 2010 for the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film.  The conceptualization process included historical research of France during the 1660s and 2000s, meetings with the designers, and analysis of the play through structure and characters.  The process included design meetings and rehearsals.  The effectiveness of the production was demonstrated through the responses of four reviewers and a Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival respondent.  Additional material …

Ensemble Theatre Techniques: Butoh Electra, Jordan Rosin

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

For my Capstone project, I was interested in both creating an original piece of theatre and testing a theory I had developed about the way in which a sense of ensemble is cultivated in a company of actors. I theorized that group training in one or more movement disciplines could generate a sense of ensemble just as easily as games or improvisation while having the added benefit of helping us generate material for the particularly physical piece of theatre which I had envisioned. To test the theory, I wrote an original adaptation of the classical Greek tragedy, Electra by Sophocles. …

Healthy Performance Practice For Male Barbershop Singers, Jacob K. Bartlett

Glenn Korff School of Music: Dissertations, Theses, Student Creative Work, and Performances

Barbershop singing is a hobby enjoyed by hundreds of thousands of men and women across the world. We attend conventions, shows, competitions, and educational outreach programs each year at our own expense to preserve a style we truly love.

Most singers of the style are amateur musicians. This constitutes somewhat of a challenge when we consider the need for healthy singing in light of certain assumptions about the vocal technique required of the barbershop style. Most do their best to make a healthy sound but end up doing more harm than good to their own voices after a lengthy rehearsal. …

A Tale Of Two Carlos: An Examination Of The Ongoing Battle Between The Marginalized And The Privileged As Exemplified By Carlo Goldoni And Carlo Gozzi During The 18th Century, David Josh Patterson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis explores the lives and works of Carlo Gozzi and Carlo Goldoni. Specific emphasis is placed on their feud, positions in society, the motivations behind their theatrical styles, and the ways they used theatre to either attempt to maintain the status quo (Gozzi) or strive for social change (Goldoni). Contrary to previous studies, this study suggests that Goldoni tried to influence the world around him, rather than merely reflect it. This study examines the above through the lens of several twentieth century theories including semiotics, structuralism, and the avante-garde. The contents of this work are essential to anyone seeking …

Los Exilios De Els Joglars, Sharon G. Feldman

Latin American, Latino and Iberian Studies Faculty Publications

Quizàs no hay ninguna otra compañía teatral en el Estado español que se haya inspirado tanto en las encrucijadas ambivalentes del mundo del espectáculo con la vida real -especialmente, la vida política catalana- como Els Joglars. A lo largo de SU trayectoria de más de cincuenta años, Albert Boadella y su compañía no han dado nunca la espalda a la política; al contrario, han ido modificando sus valores estéticos de manera gradual, ajustando su punto de ataque según las cuestiones políticas mas apasionantes y ardientes de cualquier momento dado. Els Joglars siempre han dejado que lo político despierte e invada …

Willi Red Buhay Interview, Lauren Todd

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Bio: Willi Red Buhay was a graduate of San Beda College and the University of Sto. Tomas. He was the first artistic director for design of the Cultural Center of the Philippines and the Folk Arts Theater, a position he held for fifteen years. He also held a teaching post at the University of the Philippines and his alma mater.

One of Manila’s celebrated design-artist-painters, Willi had staged over 300 productions from theater and cinema to gallery exhibitions. In 1970, he won the prestigious design competition for the Philippine Center in New York. It was the start of numerous design …

Ensemble Rehearsal Practices: The Evolution And Application Of Rehearsal Technique As Explored In Harold Pinter’S Betrayal, Wilson Kerry Mcgee

Theses and Dissertations

Three years ago, Bonnie Gabel and I started an ensemble theatre company called Night Light Collective (NLC). Our company was inspired by the work of Anne Bogart and the Dah Theatre in Belgrade, Serbia. We used many of their techniques and exercises to develop a rehearsal process that would help our ensemble connect to each other as well as contribute to the artistic direction of our productions. In the fall of 2010, I directed Harold Pinter’s Betrayal. I used the rehearsal practices that we developed with NLC and created a few of my own. This thesis documents the evolution of …

Rebonding Anomic Communities With Theatre Of The Oppressed, Amanda Hauman

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores whether Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed (TO) can help anomic communities, affected by deindustrialization and globalization, in the U.S. Midwest, specifically looking at Saginaw, MI. After presenting a paper at the American Symposium for Theatre Research (ASTR) conference in 2009, the author attended a Theatre of the Oppressed facilitator training in Port Townsend, WA under the direction of Marc Weinblatt. She then conducted her own Theatre of the Oppressed workshop in Saginaw, MI to analyze the abilities of Theatre of the Oppressed in an anomic community. Each experience is detailed and followed by the author’s conclusions …

The Konami Code: An Experiment In Dialect Pedagogy, Thomas Cunningham

Theses and Dissertations

The Konami Code is a tool for teaching stage dialects that I have been developing for the past three years. I wanted a method that didn’t rely on students’ having a keen ear for phonetics; rather one that offered context for each dialect, and presented individual sound-changes as small parts of an easy way to digest the whole. Most importantly, I wanted a process that was portable: a set series of applications that my students could incorporate easily into their actor’s tool-kit and carry with them into the professional world. The Konami Code incorporates kinesthetic and imaginative elements into the …

Planting: One Director's Approach To Cultivating And Nurturing Within A Female Ensemble, Erin Snyder

Theses and Dissertations

A director, just like a pastry chef, must be delicate. Actors are fragile, fearful human beings. And just like a pie crust requires the perfect balance of water and flour, an actor requires a similar balance in both comfort and companionship. Eryn Snyder worked for three months to create a space where her actors could live freely in the world of the characters. With a cast of four, rehearsals were intimate, demanding, and playful. Theatre requires a director to lay down the sort of soil that encourages growth. It nurtures, it listens, it plays, and it asks questions. A director’s …

Language, Race, And Culture In Porgy And Bess, Madeline J. Baker

Honors Theses

This study considers the cultural history of the story of Porgy and Bess, from its first manifestation as the 1925 novel Porgy by DuBose Heyward, to the 1927 play adaptation, to the 1935 opera Porgy and Bess with music by George Gershwin and lyrics by Ira Gershwin and DuBose Heyward. Heyward, a writer from Charleston, South Carolina, based the characters on the Gullah peoples of Charleston and attempted to represent the Gullah creole language they spoke in the dialogue of the novel. The representation of the creole language in the text of the novel, and the way the language changed …