Playwriting Commons^™

"Debate: Millennials Don't Stand A Chance" Devised, Documentary And Immersive Theatre: The Story Of Everymillennial, Sean R. Byrne

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

This thesis aims to discover how communitas can be created through theatrical performances by blurring the line between audience and performer as well as performer and character. The topic of the Millennial generation is used as a thematic element in performance to emphasize the creation of community. A theatrical form will be introduced, called the “Living Biography:” a method of devising based on devising, documentary, and immersive theatre. This form will be shown as one possible option in creating communitas in a performance. While other forms of audience inclusion are frequently used, it will be argued that the “Living Biography” …

"V Is For Violin" - An Original Playscript, Brittany Taylor

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As and MFA playwrighting candidate, I was given the opportunity to witness a fully realized production of my work. For this academic opportunity I chose the "V is for Violin." I will discuss the genesis of the idea, the evolution of the play, research conducted, and what I learned in the production process of the show.

Fragmenting Kill/Shot, Rachel Washington

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In "Fragmenting Kill/Shot", I will explore how my play Kill/Shot changed over the course of the rehearsal and production process. I will explain and defend stylistic choices I made for this play, including how the others on the production team interpreted those stylistic choices. Finally, I will explore how changes to the script can help protect the play from being misinterpreted in the future.

I Love A Piano

Taylor Theatre Playbills

Taylor University Theatre presents its spring musical, "I Love A Piano", a celebration of the iconic compositions and lyrics of Irving Berlin.

Fingerpaint: A Drama In Two Acts, Audrey A. Moore

Senior Honors Theses

This thesis is a creative original work taking the form on a two-act drama entitled Fingerpaint. It follows the story of a twenty-two year old artist named Sandy and her older brother, John, who want to paint a city mural as a memorial for their uncle. The primary theme revolves around the idea of finding beauty in tension. This theme is developed as Sandy, an idealist, is forced to deal with difficult situations that will ultimately change the way she approaches life and art.

Existing On Earth And Stage: Exploring Human Relationships With Ecosystems Through Performance, Julia Stephanie Levine

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

"You're on Earth. There's no cure for that," says the character Hamm, in Samuel Beckett's Endgame. The stage offers a unique lens through which to explore the reality of human existence on Earth, sharing the behaviors of characters in imagined circumstances with audiences. My honors thesis production, GAIA: an eco-theatre project explores human relationships with the environment and comes out of research conducted during the 2014 Butler Summer Institute. My thesis project began by raising the following questions: How do we impact the environment, and how do we react to changes in our ecosystems? What do our actions in our …

Browning, Mary Carmel, 1896-1980 (Sc 2895), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 2895. “Abe of the Ages,” a play about Abraham Lincoln by Sister Mary Carmel Browning, Ursuline Sisters of the Roman Union (O.S.U.), Brescia College, Owensboro, Kentucky.

L’Anar I Venir Dels Dramaturgs Catalans: Un Nou Cosmopolitisme, Sharon G. Feldman

Latin American, Latino and Iberian Studies Faculty Publications

La conjunció entre viatges i traducció ha estat un baròmetre habitual de la vitalitat del panorama teatral català. A Catalunya la mobilitat acostuma a ser sinònim de prestigi, i l'èxit en teatre sovint es mesura en funció de l'abast i el reconeixement internacionals. A més a més, en el cas dels dramaturgs que escriuen en català, sempre conscients de la precària situació de la seva llengua i la seva identiat cultural, la posició paradoxal tant de distància com de proximitat política que mantenen amb Espanya n'ha accentuat, potser, l'anhel de pertànyer a una efera global més gran.

A Piece Of My Heart

Taylor Theatre Playbills

Taylor University Theatre presents Shirley Lauro's "A Piece of My Heart". This powerful play explores the true stories of six women in the Vietnam War: five nurses and a country western singer booked to entertain the troops.

“The Autism Adventures Of Watson & Holmes”: Puppet Theatre To Improve Elementary Students’ Knowledge Of And Attitudes Toward Autism Spectrum Disorder, Sarah N. Simon

Departmental Honors Projects

The prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a growing concern in schools across the nation. More students with high functioning autism are being mainstreamed, and students on and off the spectrum are being exposed to a wider variety of behaviors and new opportunities for friendship in school. Many students who fall on the autism spectrum suffer from the stigmatizing attitudes of their peers, and this stigmatization often stems from a lack of early education about mental health. Puppetry has been proven to captivate young audiences while teaching important messages in an entertaining and relatable way. The purpose of this …

My Heart Is In The East: Exploring Theater As A Vehicle For Change, Inspired By The Poetic Performances Of Ancient Andalucía, Jessica Litwak

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This study addresses the research question “How Do I Inspire Personal and Social Change Through My Theater Practice?” I implement the theory and practice of H.E.A.T., a fusion theater system, combining use of theater arts as healing practice, educational asset, activist tool, and an art form.I research different ways that theater can affect change, focusing specifically on the use of history in performance.I dramatically interpret a period of history where performance and poetry contributed to change.I utilize qualitative methods including performance ethnography, auto ethnography, arts-based research, and historical research.I describe the fieldwork in conflict zones in the Middle East, which …

Choose Your Own Oz, Tommy R. Jamerson Ii

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Through The Eyes Of The Homeless, Aisha M. Soto

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

When reviewing the entire project from start to completion, I can honestly say, Through the Eyes of the Homeless is a play about ten women and their plight. It illustrates their dealings with everyday issues of hurt, disappointment, abuse, love, and hope. I believe the true impact of this play is the undeniable prayer for help and hope within each monologue. Despite the horrors that are unveiled and released through hidden secrets, the undertone of betterment is truly resonating. My own expectation for this play is simply to strike awareness and understanding in the eyes of the people. It is …

The Rape Of Blanche: An Examination Of Critical Analysis & Sexist Overtones, Audrey Thayer

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

The first people to ever listen to the words of A Streetcar Named Desire were two women, Margo Jones and Joanna Albus. Tennessee Williams read them an uncompleted first draft of the play. Margo Jones was “supportive of the play but urged him to rewrite it and to soften Blanche's hysteria. He listened, and ignored her” (Rader 199). The very first people who were privy to the violent, sensual, chaotic world of Blanche and Stanley were two women who found fault in Stella's character. They saw her hysteria, no doubt an unbecoming trait, as “far out,” or perhaps unbelievable. Much …

Mind+Body: An Ethnodrama About Adolescent And Young Adult Oncology, Jake Russell Thompson

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

The first thing many people think of as a “cancer patient” tends to be an elderly person, or perhaps a child too young to understand what’s happening — pink ribbons and fundraising walks, weak and feeble bodies too sick and delicate to function. These notions of a “quintessential cancer patient” are both limiting in their scope of what the disease actually is, and isolating to younger people going through it. For people who don’t fit this predetermined idea of the psychological, physical, and emotional development of a cancer patient (specifically, the seventeen to thirty-five age range), isolation becomes another side …

An Act Of Devotion, Deborah Tannen

Ontario Review

Deborah Tannen is University Professor of Linguistics at Georgetown University in Washington.D.C. Best known outside academia for You Just Don't Understand: Women and Men in Conversation, she has also published a dozen scholarly books on linguistics, essays, short stories, poems, and translations. This is her first work for the theater.

Prologue From To Know A Monster, Emily Mann

Ontario Review

Emily Mann made her Broadway debut as both playwright and director of Execution of Justice. Her other plays include the Obie award winning Still Life and Annulla, An Autobiography. Artistic Director of the McCarter Theatre, she has recently completed a stage adaptation of the best-selling autobiography Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years.

He Was A Big Boy, Still Is, Leigh Bienen

Ontario Review

Leigh Bienen, of Princeton, New Jersey, is a criminal defense attorney whose areas of expertise include capital punishment, sex crimes, and rape reform legislation. Her short fiction has been published in Ontario Review (reprinted in the O. Henry Awards anthology), The Mississippi Review, Panache, and elsewhere.

Smart Choices For The New Century, Jane Anderson

Ontario Review

Jane Anderson's plays have been produced Off-Broadway and by major theaters around the country. They include The Baby Dance, Defying Gravity (see OR 37), Food & Shelter, and Hotel Oubliette. She recently received an Emmy for her H.B.O. film, The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom. She lives in Los Angeles.

Tartuffe

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s Fall 2014 performance of Tartuffe by Molière.

Taylor University's Theatre department proudly presents, "Tartuffe", a pinnacle of classical comedy. Written by renowned French playwright Molière in 1664, "Tartuffe" follows a hypocrite's attempts to sabotage the domestic happiness of an unsuspecting family.