Theatre History Commons^™

"My Two Ears Can Witness": Feminist Pedagogy From Rehearsal Hall To Classroom, Ben Long, Noah Long, Laura Grace Godwin

Feminist Pedagogy

Given that university rehearsal halls are a natural home for feminist pedagogy, this paper addresses professors across campus under the contention that the signature pedagogy of theatre offers a model for faculty in other disciplines. The essay adapts a series of rehearsal hall techniques for traditional classrooms as efficient ways of fostering subjectivity, empowerment, community, and reflection in service of socio-cultural ends. The original teaching activities outlined herein do not require theatrical performance, but they nevertheless draw upon the power of live witnessing and interactive response that make theatre a powerful pedagogical tool. The authors conclude with an illustration of ...

Meet And Run, Gia M. Binner

Theses and Dissertations

A defense for Gia Binner’s MFA Thesis, Meet and Run, argues that accessible art, known in this paper as commercial dance, is a meaningful vehicle for social change and that it has the ability to dismantle the outdated, European concert dance dominance by modeling the interdependency of both worlds.

Spaces Of The Tragic: Modern Dramatic Tragedy And Contemporary Memorial Design, Shiloh Bemis

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

Humans use narrative to understand the world around us. At early ages we are exposed to storytelling with variable intent, from cautionary tales to the inspirational and everything in between. The dialectic strength of narrative mediums is well-known and well-studied. Theatre is one of the world’s oldest enduring forms of storytelling and has a strong ability to reflect and adapt with cultures as they develop, as a means of commentary and cultural reflection.

Architecture shares theatre’s ancient roots and has always been an important method of communication and expression. However, its tactics have historically been less narrative-centric than ...

Lesbian Visibility And Censorship In Early Twentieth Century New York City, Aimee Clouse

Undergraduate Research Symposium Posters

On the brisk night of February 9th, 1927, New York City Police crammed the casts of two Broadway plays, one of which Edouard Bourdet's The Captive, into the back of a paddy wagon. These arrests and the legislation that enabled them were just one step taken by institutions to hide lesbians from the public. The eclectic nature of New York City in the early twentieth century fostered a growing scene of gender and sexual expression unlike anywhere else in the United States. Here, lesbians found freedom to express their sexuality and explore a growing subculture.

Dramaturgy For Henrik Ibsen's "A Doll's House", Rachel Boyle

ONU Student Research Colloquium

For the Freed Center for the Performing Arts Spring 2022 production of A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen I served as Dramaturg. My role on the production team involved providing historical context, literary analysis and necessary research for the production. My work began with the director in August and continued through the design process, rehearsals, and performances in late February. My research was used by the director, production team, and actors. I designed a lobby display with a selection of my research for our audiences.

I began with an investigation of Ibsen’s life and work as well as ...

How Would Jesus Watch This? An Investigation Into Dance Restrictions In American Protestantism, Rebecca Lynn Huppenthal

Theatre & Dance ETDs

In the United States there has been many disagreements concerning the place of dance within Protestant Christianity. Some denominations have banned dance entirely while other utilize dance as an essential element of worship. At the center of this argument is the understanding, treatment, and use of the physical body. Beginning in the sixteenth century through current times, I analyze specific Protestant denominations including the Puritans, Evangelical Fundamentalists, Southern Baptists, the Shakers, certain African American denominations, and Pentecostals. Additionally, I examine notable liturgical modern dancers, as well as my own choreographic work, a dance film titled Rebirth. This research displays the ...

“All The Daughters Of My Father's House, And All The Brothers Too”: Shakespeare’S Portrayal Of Gender Fluidity, Sebastian Lopez

Symposium of Student Scholars

This paper analyzes how Shakespeare's personal life influenced the relationship between Viola and Cesario in Twelfth Night through a feminist lens and an analysis of gender fluidity in the Elizabethan Era. It is a common misconception that conversations revolving around gender are a modern discussion. Shakespeare popularized the idea of gender fluidity in English literature in his play, Twelfth Night.

At the height of Shakespeare’s career, he wrote many comedies, yet few tragedies, however, a tonal shift occurred after the death of his son, Hamnet. Shakespeare was father to a pair of fraternal twins, Judith and Hamnet. However ...

A Woman's War: The Global Feminist Impact Of The Reclamation And Emulation Of Lysistrata, Sierra Benning

Symposium of Student Scholars

Sierra Benning Kennesaw State University sbennin1@students.kennesaw.edu

A Woman’s War: The Global Feminist Impact of the Reclamation and Emulation of Lysistrata

Can one consider literature, art, film, or theatre created by men, despite the presence of empowered and intelligent female characters, as truly and accurately feminist? This presentation seeks to answer this question through calling forth the concept proposed by Sue-Ellen Case in her book Feminism and Theatre of the “male-produced” woman, and the unrealistic image that product has created for women through time. This presentation explores the idea that when these male-written female characters are reclaimed ...

Eccentric: Writing Through The Lens Of Empathy, Steven M. Blacksmith

Theatre & Dance ETDs

In this essay, I detail my growth as a writer through different periods of empathic learning. I examine my childhood struggle to understand many common emotions and the ways in which I began to logically dissect and replicate them in life and in art. I further delve into this examination through my discovery of comedy and the lifelong process of understand the deep connections humans make with humor. I then discuss how my understanding of empathy allowed me to write my dissertation play, The Eccentrics, and create a world in which empathy among the characters can be a catalyst for ...

1860'S Clothing In America, Lynna Levin

Undergraduate Research Conference

My research focused on the Crinoline period which was a transitional period between the Romantic and Bustle Period. In addition, I explored clothing of slaves, and clothing during the American Civil War. There were clothing variations depending on wealth, class, and location. The most notable changes of this period were the use of the crinoline and Civil War uniforms. The transition of art from Romanticism to Realism and Impressionism illustrates the transition in clothing from flowy and delicate to that of a stiff and structured style.

I’Ve Lost Respect For Bertolt Brecht: A Look Into The Disappearance Of The Original Production Of Pioneers In Ingolstadt By Marieluise Fleißer, Jenna Alley

Undergraduate Research Conference

No abstract provided.

Butoh: From Wwii To The West, Caroline Conner

Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)

Butoh is an underground dance movement in Japan that explores the human psyche in unconventional and sometimes grotesque ways. It originated out of the devastation of WWII Japan and rails against the rigidity of society as well as traditional theatre and dance forms. It has ties to Buddhism, in that both view suffering as a natural state of the world, and both may lead to depersonalisation (intentionally or otherwise), which is described as a loss of identity or sense of self. Gone unchecked, this detached exploration of the psyche can lead to personality dissolution, which can be especially problematic to ...

Let The People Speak: How Verbatim Theater Allows Historically Marginalized Groups Tell Their Stories, Kalala C. Kiwanuka-Woernle

Theatre and Dance Honors Projects

motherhood: the good, bad, and ugly was born out of my research of Verbatim Theater, specifically the practices of Anna Deavere Smith, The Tectonic Theater Project, and Eve Ensler; and the lack of fully fleshed out mother characters represented in theatre. In my research, I focused on how these different playwrights crafted their plays, identified the topic or event they wanted to explore, and the selection of their subjects. During the pandemic, I had the idea to create a theater piece that would tell the good, the bad, and the ugly of motherhood because in the media especially in the ...

The 5th Humor, Stella Maria Perry

Theatre & Dance ETDs

I will be using a self-interview as a method of investigating both the origins of myself, the artist, and the work produced I have produced in and out of the MFA Dramatic Writing program with a special focus on my dissertation play, The Blood Vessel.

The intention is to investigate how my plays have come into existence and how they inform each other. This is done through a series of questions I ask myself under the pseudonym Penelope Hawkins. Penelope guides me through the investigation as a character, thus becoming part of the work of the self-interview and still a ...

Interview With Jenny Cavenaugh, Jennifer Jones Cavenaugh, Wenxian Zhang

Oral Histories

Growing up in New York City, Jennifer Jones Cavenaugh earned her BA in Policy Studies from Dartmouth College in 1982, and her MFA in Dramaturgy from Brooklyn College in 1992. After receiving her PhD in Theater History and Dramatic Criticism from the University of Washington in 1995, she served as Assistant Professor of Theater at the University of Denver for three years before joining the faculty of the Louisiana State University, where she earned her tenure and was promoted to Associate Professor of Theater in 2003.

In 2005, Dr. Cavenaugh was named the Winifred Warden Endowed Chair of Theater at ...

Go Off: The Geography And Labor Of Off- And Off-Off-Broadway, Sean C. Mellott

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Off- and Off-Off-Broadway remain ill-defined and misunderstood sectors of New York City’s theatre industry, at least when compared with Broadway. This capstone project examines these dual sociocultural spaces and defines some of their contours through a primary analytical lens of geography (the physical locations where Off- and Off-Off-Broadway are produced) and a secondary lens of labor (the professional contexts in which Off- and Off-Off-Broadway are produced). Both elements speak to the material conditions of theatrical production in New York City, offering clues as to Off- and Off-Off-Broadway’s position within the entertainment industry and their relationship to the larger ...

The Body As A Means Of Cultural Awareness And Social Intervention: The Case Of Raymond Duncan And Penelope Sikelianos, Ekaterini Diakoumopoulou

Tête-à-Tête

Using the example of the Duncan family this article will explore the human body as an object of self-determination, a means of overcoming social boundaries, a field of racist shooting and phobic enforcement, a reference point of public outrage and the complex between sociality and corporality, but also as a tool of political vigilance and social intervention. Does a body dressed in a tunic resist the western way of life? Or is it a stereotypical outpouring of people unable to modernize? Is the body instrumentalized as a means of narrating exoticism? The bodies of the Duncan family members are an ...

Fun With Palamon And Arcite: Rationale And Strategies For Teaching The Two Noble Kinsmen As The Culmination Of The Shakespearean Canon, Joanne E. Gates

Presentations, Proceedings & Performances

Hardly noticed in the reception of Harold Bloom's Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human several years ago was his hint that not The Tempest but The Two Noble Kinsmen makes an appropriate final accomplishment. On one level, the play is merely a stage adaptation of Chaucer's The Knight's Tale, with a rather crude couple of subplots thrown in, perhaps to please the commoners. In an undergraduate forum, I am less inclined to evaluate Fletcher's contribution as distinct from Shakespeare, but I do think the play important for how it is representative of many of the co-authored ...

The Sound Design For H.M.S. Pinafore, Kyle W. Jensen

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This thesis is submitted in partial fulfillment of a Master of Fine Arts degree in Theatre Arts: Sound Design at Minnesota State University, Mankato. This thesis contains a detailed account of Kyle W. Jensen’s sound design process and research for H.M.S. Pinafore. The thesis gives a chronological overview of the designer’s process in four chapters; a pre-production analysis, a historical and critical perspective, a journal detailing the process, and a post-production analysis. The fifth and final chapter provides the process development of the designer’s career before and during his time in graduate school. Appendices feature ...

A Note From The Co-Editors, Jada C. Johnson

Ideas: Exhibit Catalog for the Honors College Visiting Scholars Series

An introduction to the third issue of the third volume of Ideas Magazine, concerning the work and experience of Stone Soup Shakespeare.