Performance Studies Commons^™

Artmaking On The Edge Of A Cliff: Directing Iphigenia 2.0, Shannon E. Cameron

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 and actors and evaluation of final product.

Advisor:  Virginia Smith

Ontological Movement In Theater: An Account Of The Preparation And Direction Of The Play Dylan By Sidney Michaels, Aaron Sawyer

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

This document contains a graduate thesis and follows the creative process behind Aaron Sawyer’s direction of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s 2011 theatrical production of the play Dylan by Sidney Michaels. It contains seven sections depicting thesis production from the selection of the material to its completion and final reviews. The introduction establishes the perspectives and experiences that led me to this thesis. The pre-production section is comprised of an analysis of the script as well as research on the time-periods material to the play and its production. The director’s concept portion analyzes the dramatic structures contained within the play, and …

Experiencing Samoa Through Stories: Myths And Legends Of A People And Place, Samantha Lichtenberg

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This research will explore oral tradition, indigenous beliefs prior to Christianity, and the significance of place through the study of Samoan myths and legends. The researcher will investigate the tradition of storytelling by hearing the stories from Samoan elders themselves. These stories will be supplemented with details from secondary written resources in order to compile comprehensive versions of the myths and legends. The research will consider the affect that Christianity has on the meaning of the stories and examine whether traces of indigenous belief/religion are preserved today through storytelling and the remembrance of myths. The researcher will spend a significant …

The Fight Master, Spring 2011, Vol. 33 Issue 1, The Society Of American Fight Directors

Fight Master Magazine

No abstract provided.

The Angel And The Imp: The Duncan Sisters’ Performances Of Race And Gender, Jocelyn Buckner

Theatre Faculty Articles and Research

From 1923 to 1959 Vivian and Rosetta Duncan performed the show Topsy and Eva in front of thousands of audiences in the United States and abroad. This essay examines how the Duncan Sisters’ appropriation of blackness through a yin and yang performance of black and white womanhood, their sexualized but ultimately infantilizing routine as young girls, and their take on anarchistic comedy resulted in a particular spin on age, gender, race, and sexuality that reinforced their privilege as white women even while it pushed the boundaries of acceptable femininity in the swiftly shifting American culture of the first half of …

Women & Language: Essays On Gendered Communication Across Media, Melissa R. Ames

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

The present volume of essays examines women's communication as it has evolved historically across multiple mediums. Part I explores how women became "gossip girls" and the important role of gossip in the perception and practice of female communication. Essays in Part II cover the convergence of oral and written communication in women's literature. Gendered performance in such arenas as salsa dance, Dr. Phil and the Internet is examined in Part III, and essays in Part IV discuss women's communication in the technology-rich 21st century. This excerpt features the introduction and one essay from the co-editor.

Women & Language: Essays On Gendered Communication Across Media, Melissa R. Ames

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

The present volume of essays examines women's communication as it has evolved historically across multiple mediums. Part I explores how women became "gossip girls" and the important role of gossip in the perception and practice of female communication. Essays in Part II cover the convergence of oral and written communication in women's literature. Gendered performance in such arenas as salsa dance, Dr. Phil and the Internet is examined in Part III, and essays in Part IV discuss women's communication in the technology-rich 21st century. This excerpt features the introduction and one essay from the co-editor.

Acting Virtuous: Chastity, Theatricality, And The Tragedie Of Mariam, Kent Lehnhof

English Faculty Books and Book Chapters

Given the interrelation of female chastity and female theatricality in early modem discourses, it comes as no surprise that both figure importantly in what is believed to be the first original English drama to be written by a woman. As Elizabeth Cary explores a Jewish queen 's sexual purity in The Tragedie of Mariam, she does so by concentrating on questions of performance. Cary's title character explicitly abjures theatricality even as she embraces chastity, creating a fissure in Renaissance discourses on women that threatens to swallow up the antifeminist idea that female chastity is always an act.

A Midsummer Night’S Dream (With Flying Robots), Robin Murphy, Dylan Shell, Amy Guerin, Brittany Duncan, Benjamin Fine, Kevin Pratt, Takis Zourntos

School of Computing: Faculty Publications

Seven flying robot “fairies” joined human actors in the Texas A&M production of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The production was a collaboration between the departments of Computer Science and Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Theater Arts. The collaboration was motivated by two assertions. First, that the performing arts have principles for creating believable agents that will transfer to robots. Second, the theater is a natural testbed for evaluating the response of untrained human groups (both actors and the audience) to robots interacting with humans in shared spaces, i.e., were believable agents created? The production used two types …

Direction Of The Play: The Awesome 80'S Prom, Shannon Lynna Horn

Graduate Student Projects

This project entailed the selection, background research and documentation, improvisation training, casting, direction, vocal coaching, and post-production analysis of Pinewood Preparatory School's production of The Awesome 80 's Prom. Documentation includes research and analysis of the play, its music, and an evaluation of the musical as a production vehicle for the department of Theatre Arts at Central Washington University. The analysis also includes a discussion as to the non-traditional directorial vision of this production.

Harriet Jacobs Kansas City Repertory Theatre (Review), Jocelyn Buckner

Theatre Faculty Articles and Research

This is a review of the play based on Harriet Jacobs, a slave in nineteenth-century America, who documented her life and the ordeal of her escape in her memoir Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.

Compulsory Homosexuality And Black Masculine Performance, Vershawn A. Young

English Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Circus: An Integrated Curriculum Unit, Institute For The Development Of Gifted Education, Ricks Center For Gifted Children, University Of Denver

Ricks Curriculum Units Series

An integrated curriculum is an instructional approach that connects the disciplines to an underlying theme or topic. Immersing students in an integrated-thematic unit provides the backdrop for experiences to occur across the disciplines. Shaping coursework around integrated themes is especially appropriate for gifted students, however using an integrated-thematic curriculum is appropriate for all learners as it develops students' abilities to make connections, to solve problems by looking at multiple perspectives, and to integrate information from different fields of experience. An integrated-thematic curriculum permits students to be active participants in their own learning as they design their own explorations and take …

The Synergy Of Visual Projections And Contemporary Dance, Hannah Molly Timbrell

Theses : Honours

Projections are becoming an increasingly common part of contemporary dance performance, however, I believe that choreographers do not always integrate the media to form a dependent synergy. My research addresses the principal question: What are the factors that indicate that there is a critical relationship (synergy) between projection, including art work, moving images or light and the dancer in a contemporary dance performance? A brief history explains the background and development of lighting technology, through to film and more recently motion capture technology. Through sources of pre-existing literature and my interpretation of video excerpts of contemporary dance, I explore various …

Power To The Panza!: Feminist Body Politics In The Panza Monologues (Video Performance Review), Patricia Herrera

Theatre and Dance Faculty Publications

Grise relates to the audience with another dose of humor when she attempts to suck in her panza to fit into a pair of jeans. Alas, after all the jumping and tugging to fit into the jeans, Grise faces her biggest challenge: the roll of flesh bulging out from the zipper. Here, handy dandy pliers are brought to the rescue. She uses them to pull up the zipper and then victoriously stuffs the panza into her pants. This triumphant moment reveals women’s obsession with controlling and literally constraining the body so as to succumb to the hourglass figure young women …

A Penitent Prepares: Affect, Contrition, And Tears, Christopher B. Swift

Publications and Research

This essay draws upon a poetic and devotional texts from late medieval Spain to show how public displays of emotion (weeping, in particular) during penitential processions could be learned and prepared for in advance.

Llueve En Barcelona De Pau Miró: La Magia Y La Poesía De Todos Los Días, Sharon G. Feldman

Latin American, Latino and Iberian Studies Faculty Publications

En este artículo se presenta un análisis tanto del texto como de la representación de la obra Llueve en Barcelona, de Pau Miró. El texto del artículo se acompaña de la grabación del espectáculo por el CDT.

En los pequeños cuadros de la cotidianidad, diez en total, que constituyen la estructura de Llueve en Barcelona, del dramaturgo catalán Pau Miró, se vislumbran delante de los ojos del espectador destellos fugaces del paisaje barcelonés. La plaza de la Universidad, el CaixaForum, el barrio del Raval, la Barceloneta, el Mar Mediterráneo, el Camp Nou, la Zona Universitaria, el Hospital del …

Silence: Exploring Salvatore Sciarrino’S Style Through L’Opera Per Flauto, Megan R. Lanz

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this paper is to examine the works in Salvatore Sciarrino’s (b. 1947) collection L’opera per flauto written for solo flute and to examine Sciarrino’s compositional style, focusing on his characteristic markings, creative sonorities, and other pertinent facts about pieces in the collection. The first chapter in this paper discusses the value of silence in music and how Sciarrino provides the illusion of perceived silence. Chapter Two discusses elements of Sciarrino’s compositional style and the presence of complex notation. The final chapter provides flutists with a technical guide to the seven pieces in his L’opera per flauto collection. …

Wow Cafe Theater Unveils 30th Anniversary Festival After Three Decades, Fierce Performers Prove The Show Will Go On, Esther Zinn

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

WOW Cafe Theater, a collective for female and and trans performance artists, strutted its stuff during its Pearl festival in May by celebrating thirty years of producing risk-taking, genre-defying theatre during the entire month of May 2010. Featuring more than twenty performances and fifty artists spanning a broad spectrum of music, dance, and multi-media, the Pearl festival was arguably the biggest and longest running theatrical event for women in New York during this summer, made possible by a generous grant from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.

The Fight Master, Spring/Summer 2010, Vol. 32 Issue 1, The Society Of American Fight Directors

Fight Master Magazine

No abstract provided.