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The Sound Design For The Women Of Troy, Anastasiia Didenko

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This Thesis is submitted in partial fulfillment of the Masters of Fine Arts degree in Theatre Arts: Sound Design at Minnesota State University, Mankato. This thesis provides an account of Anastasiia Didenko’s process of work on sound design and research for The Women of Troy by Euripides. The show was produced and performed in the Ted Paul Theatre in November of 2025.

The first chapter consists of preliminary research, thoughts on the production and plans for the implementation of the sound design. The second chapter is a historical and critical perspective of the play, which explores the playwright's ideas and …

Creating The Role Of Aunt Eller In Oklahoma!, Phyllis Horridge

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This document is a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the Master of Fine Arts degree in Theatre Arts with concentration in Musical Theatre. It is a detailed account of author Phyllis Horridge’s artistic process in creating the role of Aunt Eller in Minnesota State University, Mankato’s Fall 2025 production of Oklahoma! This thesis follows the actor’s process through pre-production analysis, an historical and critical perspective, journals detailing the rehearsal and performance process, a post-production analysis, and process development. Appendices and works cited follow the process development.

Experimental Diegetic Thresholds: A Study Of Adapted Carceral Narratives [The] Nickel Boys And Sing Sing, Leslie D. Muench

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

The diegesis is the storyworld of a film, including all the characters, settings, events, and other elements. At certain times, though, that threshold is permeable, particularly when the fictional source material involves lived experiences. Two carceral films model an experimentation with adapted material and the palimpsestuous layering effect that is a result of real-life narratives being transposed into fictional ones. Nickel Boys, directed by RaMell Ross (2024), and Sing Sing, directed by Greg Kwedar (2023), endeavor to humanize a stereotypically ostracized community: Black boys and men who are incarcerated. Through the screenwriting, casting, producing, filming, and sharing of their films …

Health Determinant Effects Of Audience Experiences At Live First Nations Music Events In Central Australia, Naomi Sunderland, Kristy Apps, Brigitta Scarfe, Ping Zhang, Darren Garvey, Rae Cooper, Brydie Leigh Bartleet, Phil Graham, Glenn Barry

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Objectives: First Nations musicians often describe live performance as a means of fostering social, cultural, and political change that shapes determinants of health (DoH) for First Nations Peoples. This study examined how audience experiences of First Nations live music events in Central Australia may influence those DoH–including intercultural understanding, social cohesion, and community wellbeing–and explored the durability of such effects over time. Design: Guided by an Indigenist mixed‑methods approach, we conducted a pilot survey at two arts festivals featuring diverse First Nations musicians, followed by optional six‑month “mini yarn” interviews to explore immediate and longer‑term audience experiences. Quantitative analyses included …

Centring The Audience: Attitudes And Behaviours In Australian Arts Organisations, Katya Johanson, Abbie Trott, Mark Taylor, Anne Kershaw, Hilary Glow, Tracy Margieson

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Many arts organisations seek to increase the diversity of their audiences. Recent literature suggests that this requires organisations to interrogate and change their ways of operating. This is a fundamental shift for a sector that has long considered the goal of diversifying audiences as a problem external to the organisation. Responding to this discrepancy, this article compares attitudes and behaviours among workers in arts organisations, to identify whether staff see the need to make change and practise the behaviours required. It identifies and uses three organisational capabilities–‘dynamic capabilities’, ‘social networks’ and ‘business improvement processes’–to frame an analysis of a national …

Half-Armenian, Fully Diasporic: Navigating Memory, Trauma, And Identity In Marcella Polain’S The Edge Of The World, Sebnem Nazli Karali

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This work of creative nonfiction employs a hybrid creative-critical methodology that combines autobiographical narrative and interview-based research within the framework of memory studies. Drawing on Marianne Hirsch’s concept of postmemory, the article examines how knowledge of the Armenian Catastrophe is transmitted, refracted, and contested across generations in the Armenian diaspora in Australia. It situates The Edge of the World, Marcella Polain’s semi-autobiographical novel, within broader traditions of diasporic and postmemory writing, arguing for its significance as a literary meditation on historical rupture and inherited trauma. Interweaving Karali’s personal diasporic narrative with a close reading of Polain’s novel and her in-depth …

Relating To Difficult Weather Through Creative Practice: Responses To Marrugeku’S Cut The Sky, Helena Grehan, Jo Pollitt, O. J.E. Slater, Sam Fox

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

In this paper we argue that performance and the arts invite a deliberate sensorial connection with the body and can support a bodily turn or return, in order to help artists, scholars and communities more broadly, better attune to increasing climate instability, through collaborative, supportive and reflexive storytelling. Drawing on the three “weather” symposia, the paper focusses on the second symposium which featured a keynote presentation by Rachael Swain, co-artistic director of Marrugeku, Australia’s leading Indigenous Intercultural Dance and Performance Company. Responses to Marrugeku’s work Cut the Sky are collectively presented to illuminate what Swain argues are, “Dramaturgies of consequence” …

Some Assembly Required, Tanner Maxey

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The dead do not carry their memory. We do. But when memory becomes the only way we can continue to hold on to our loved ones, how do we derive meaning from the fragments when memory begins to fade? Some Assembly Required examines loss as a condition in which meaning is no longer stable, but must be constructed from what remains. Through an interdisciplinary practice that combines ceramics, textiles, and installation, this work explores how domestic objects—once associated with care, function, and familiarity—can be transformed into fragile, unusable forms that persist as evidence of what has been lost. These objects …

Immigration, “Literary Value”, And The Logic Of Late Capitalism In Piersandro Pallavicini’S Il Mostro Di Vigevano (1999), Simone Brioni Dr.

Department of English Faculty Publications

According to Fredric Jameson’s Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (1991), postmodern culture functions as an expression of the logic of late capitalism, manifesting in stylistic pastiche, the dominance of spectacle, a waning of historical consciousness, and a corresponding erosion of affect. Central to Jameson’s critique is the contention that postmodernism forecloses the possibility of imagining alternatives to capitalism. This article argues that Piersandro Pallavicini’s Il mostro di Vigevano (1999) exemplifies some of these features, and it shows how its description of immigrants to Italy as ingenuous, innocent, and simple-minded insinuates that they come from backward places …

Music And Mecha: An Analysis Of Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam, Jackson Grey Baker

Research Honors

Music within anime is a topic that has only recently gained traction in terms of academic study in the west. Consequently, there is not a particularly great body of literature yet. Much work has been done regarding the music that introduces the anime and accompanies the closing credits of the show, as these songs often become very popular, sometimes even outside of the anime sphere. But the soundtrack to the show itself is also very important. Within the show there is a large amount of music that connects to the plot, themes, characters, moods and more which greatly affect the …

Lied Center For Performing Arts Strategic Analysis, Daniel Cutler

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

This video essay develops a strategic analysis of the Lied Center for Performing Arts through an interview with an associate director at the Center, personal experiences working for the Center, and other external research. It starts with an introduction to the Lied Center, including its mission, vision, and activities. Using strategic frameworks, namely PESTEL analysis and Porter’s Five Framework, a general analysis of the Center’s industry is conducted. These frameworks demonstrate the difficult landscape the Center finds itself in, with some of the more notable struggles stemming from economic factors and competition from other entertainment venues. From there, suggestions and …

Janusz Krupski And His Times: Moral Rearmament From A Historical And Religious Perspective, Christopher Garbowski

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

This paper explores the concept of moral rearmament in contemporary East-Central Europe through the historical and religious legacy of Polish anti-communist opposition figure Janusz Krupski (1951–2010). Responding to sociologist Frank Furedi’s critique regarding the "moral disarmament" of the West, the author contends that religion serves as an essential—and frequently overlooked—pillar in restoring historical consciousness and moral resilience against totalitarian and geopolitical threats.

Focusing on the unique intellectual ecosystem of the Catholic University of Lublin (KUL) during the communist regime, the article details Krupski’s pioneering role in establishing an underground publishing movement, most notably the independent Catholic journal Spotkania (Encounters …

[Introduction To] Shakespeare And Identity In A Divided World, Kristin M.S. Bezio

Bookshelf

Shakespeare and Identity in a Divided World examines some of the most pressing issues about identity and so-called identity politics in the highly polarized twenty-first century. The book uses Shakespeare’s plays and the history of sixteenth and seventeenth-century England to discuss gender, race, mental health, disability, and fatness as they were perceived in Shakespeare’s age and then considers ways in which audiences, readers, and classrooms might use them to think about those same topics in the twenty-first century.

The book includes discussion of both Shakespeare’s text and contemporary productions, films, and reimaginings of those plays, as well as the historical …

0897: William A. “Red” Dawson Collection, 1915-2023, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

William Alfred “Red” Dawson, a native of Valdosta, Georgia, led his high school football team to a state championship and played for four years at Florida State University. Dawson briefly played professional football for the Boston Patriots in the AFL and the Orlando Panthers. He was serving as an assistant football coach at Marshall University when a fatal plane crash killed seventy-five players, coaches, staff, and prominent citizens of Huntington. Dawson was essential in restarting the Marshall University football program, serving as acting head coach and coached through the 1971 season. He then began working in the construction industry and …

You Are Your Ancestors’ Wildest Dreams: A Journey Beyond The Lens Blueprinting The Influence And Impact Of Media And Podcast Pedagogy On Black And Brown Creatives In Higher Education And Beyond, Diamond N. Morgan Dr.

West Chester University Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Final Projects

Explores the influence and impact of media and podcast pedagogy on Black and Brown creatives (BBC) in higher education. Grounded in Critical Race Theory (CRT), the Black Creative Educational Experience (BCEEs) framework, and the conceptual lenses of sociological and public podcasting, this study examines how podcasting functions as a transformative pedagogical and sociocultural tool for storytelling, identity development, creative expression, and community building within collegiate environments. Utilizing a convergent parallel mixed methods design, the study integrates quantitative survey data from 65 participants with qualitative focus group discussions to provide a holistic understanding of participant experiences across personal, professional, academic, social, …

Good Girl Bootcamp: Performative Femininity, Purity Culture, And Other Things Girls Are Taught, Kiersten Holland

Masters Theses

Performative femininity is a dangerous and controlling idea that subjugates women and places their inherent worth on how well they can conform to societal standards in male dominated spaces. Consequently, the reactionary messaging that surfaced as a result of these social pressures created a series of stereotypical female characterizations often depicted in the material and visual cultures of each period. By comparing contemporary literature with literature from the Victorian time period, it emphasizes the longstanding and controlling gender stereotypes pervasive throughout the past few centuries. This thesis attempts to understand and analyze the way that literature both critiques and supports …

Through The Eyes Of A Daughter: Blues City Cultural Center And The Black Arts Movement, Ayana Williams

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This creative dissertation examines the Blues City Cultural Center (BCCC) as a living continuation of the Black Arts Movement in the American South. Founded in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1979 by Deborah Frazier and Levi Frazier, Jr., BCCC emerged from the cultural and political momentum of the Black Arts and Black Power Movements and continues to sustain their principles through original theater, community-based arts education, and grassroots cultural organizing. Challenging the notion that the Black Arts Movement is a concluded historical period, this study argues that the movement remains ongoing, adaptive, and deeply embedded within Southern Black communities. Using a creative …

Women In Science: A Theoretical, Historical, And Creative Work, Stephen M. Devito

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This creative dissertation investigates the barriers that patriarchy has historically created for women scientists as they pursue scientific discovery. It also examines theater as a critical and creative practice for challenging the patriarchal system. To contextualize this inquiry, the study reviews literature on women scientists whose significant contributions were historically minimized, overlooked, or neglected. Additionally, multiple plays, movies, and creative theatrical works are discussed in the literature review, with particular emphasis on different styles of using theater to illuminate the achievements of women scientists. The creative component of this dissertation is an original musical play that explores Albert Einstein’s relationship …

The Lived Experience Of Tenders Of Community Grief Rituals, Margaret Y. Wilson

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The purpose of this research study is to gain an understanding of the lived experience of tenders of community grief rituals, and how tenders make meaning of their experiences. This study utilized photo elicitation and a reflexive thematic analysis. Participants (N = 11) provided one to three photographs that captured their experience of grief and/or tending grief rituals. The results identified 10 themes supported by subthemes: (a) Grief Tender Wisdom About the Nature of Grief, (b) Life’s Many Experiences are Sources of Grief, (c) The Multifaceted Impacts of Grief-Body, Anger, Compassion, Empathy, Resilience, Gratitude, Joy, and Love, (d) The Nuances …

Winter Term Choir Tour To London And Paris, Bryon Black Ii

Music Faculty publications

This program explores the universal longing for home—a place of belonging, safety and peace. Spanning choral traditions from England, France, Estonia, Mexico, South Africa and the United States, the music reflects how hope, faith and shared humanity shape our understanding of where we belong. Across cultures and centuries, these works reveal music’s power to foster connection and community, even far from familiar ground. We hope this program invites listeners to consider home not only as a physical place, but as a space where we are known, connected and held.

Modern Day Saints And The Production Of A Contemporary Pilgrimage Site: Comparative Analysis Of St. Pio Of San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy And Sai Baba Of Shirdi, India, Kiran Shinde, Anna Trono Prof

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Places valorised by saints have attracted pilgrimage for a long time as devotion to saints is a way to achieve both material wellbeing and spiritual growth. Yet, the cult following of modern-day saints in contemporary societies has become a topic for exploration only in recent years (Di Giovine, 2010; Shinde & Pinkney; 2013, Srinivas, 2008). A few excellent hagiographies discuss the material and non-material world created around charismatic modern-day saints with global followership (Waghorne, 2004; Weiss, 2005; Shepherd, 1986). Given the immense popularity of modern-day saints many questions arise- what kind of pilgrimage landscape is created around them? Are they …

Presupposition In Shaqraa Al-Madkhali's "I Almost See Me": A Pragmatic Study, Hadiah Faiz Monawer Alrashidy

University of Tabuk Journal for Humanities and Social Sciences

This research investigates the presuppositions inherent in the poetic collection (Diwan) titled "Akadu Arani" (I Almost See Myself) by the poetess, Shaqra al-Madkhali. The study aims to categorize these presuppositions and analyze their functional role in articulating the poetess's intentionality, ultimately facilitating the efficacy of the communicative process. Methodologically, the paper adopts a pragmatic framework complemented by a descriptive-analytical approach. The study is organized into an introduction, a theoretical preamble on the concept of presupposition, and five core analytical sections: (1) Existential, (2) Factive, (3) Lexical, (4) Structural, and (5) Non-factive presupposition. The investigation concludes with several key findings, most …

Active And Dreamy Minds: The Desire To Be Heard In The Girlhood Film Subgenre, Kiersten L. Blaylock

Honors Undergraduate Theses

In a growing digital age it is important to highlight films that shed light on young girls’ sense of self. Within the genre of independent cinema, there are plenty of films that identify themselves as ‘coming-of-age,’ but there is a subgenre within that category that highlights female driven stories that express what it is like to grow up as a girl. Active and Dreamy Minds, an analytical research project, theorizes guidelines for a girlhood subgenre. Four films have been selected and identified as clear-cut examples of what a girlhood film should look, sound, and feel like and examined to …

Stages Of Being Foreign As Portrayed In Daughter Of Keltoum And Lost Birds, Fran Hassencahl

Communication & Theatre Arts Faculty Publications

In this paper, I use the intercultural communication model, The Stages of Being Foreign, developed by anthropologist Oberg (1960) and modified by Gullahorn & Gullahorn (1963), Lewis & Jungman (1986), and Ward, Bochner, and Furnham (2001) to explain the experience of culture shock. This model describes the stages that individuals experience when they leave, either voluntarily or involuntarily, their home country/culture and must adapt to a new culture. These stages as described by Oberg are a preliminary stage (a spectator stage), an increasing participation stage, the pit of the culture shock stage, the adaptation stage, and for some migrants a …

The Travelling Dancer: The Exploration Of Strength And Conditioning And Lifestyle Strategies To Mitigate The Risk Of Posterior Ankle Impingement Whilst Dancing Abroad, Emma Tucker

Theses : Honours

Ballet dancers commonly experience posterior ankle impingement (PAI), and while there is research regarding the biomechanical risk factors for PAI in ballet dancers, and mitigation and rehabilitation strategies for this type of injury, there is little research conducted surrounding further barriers posed by international travel. This study investigated the implications of international travel on the risk mitigation and rehabilitation of posterior ankle impingement in ballet dancers, exploring barriers posed by international travel to regular strength and conditioning and lifestyle practices. Three ballet dancers and two physiotherapists were interviewed and shared their lived experience with, or treating, posterior ankle impingement in …

Puppet Lab: Investigating Digital Technologies In Creative Learning, Harrison Lorenz-Daniel

Theses : Honours

This study interrogates the impact that digital technologies and digital mediation have on creative learning workshops run by arts organisations and delivered by teaching artists. It responds to a wave of new creative learning initiatives supported by arts organisations, state governments, and schools following the COVID-19 pandemic. Situating the research primarily in the investigation of Puppet Lab, a new digital workshop developed by Spare Parts Puppet Theatre in Walyalup (Fremantle), qualitative data was collected over a series of 5 semi-structured interviews with Western Australian teaching artists. The study found that digital technologies did not meaningfully impact the standard delivery of …

Directing Young Actors, Mitchell Whelan

Theses : Honours

This reflective practice case study examines the studio environment of a small ensemble of female actors aged 16-19, in the rehearsal of a one-act play. Performing arts researchers working in youth spaces commonly adhere to conventions of ethnodrama and facilitate a process in which participants contribute personal stories as performance material. The present paper uses a published text (Slut by Patricia Cornelius) to position participants as actors, rather than devisors who must conjure original material. Through critical reflection, the project assesses the impact of developing performance material slowly while also making time for socialisation between castmates. Drawing on my repertoire …

Symbolism And Choreographic Practice: Exploring The Application Of Symbolism To Dance Through The Creation Of A Solo Choreographic Work, Ruby Brazzalotto

Theses : Honours

This research project explored the significance of symbolism as a communicative tool within dance theatre. The project drew upon Symbolist theory and Pina Bausch’s choreographic approaches, in an attempt to understand how the symbolic use of props and gestural movement can communicate and elevate meaning within dance performance. This project involved the creation of a new solo dance work, self-reflexivity, and analysis of how Bausch’s and Symbolists’ modes of presenting ideas overlap. The project sought to document how symbolic props can be chosen, developed and combined with theatrical choreography to convey meaning to audiences.

The Thing About Stuff: Exploring Consumerism Through Contemporary Print, Collage And Self-Reflection, Alexandra Lee Cox

Theses and Dissertations

The Thing about Stuff is an exhibition of editioned prints and book forms that pertain to personal and societal contradictions under capitalism. I use a combination of collage, design, print, traditional research and writing to form a better understanding of my place in capitalism by redefining my participation in it. Historical and contemporary research in combination with self-reflection and artmaking assists in my exploration of consumerism through the lens of human-object relationships. This body of work translates my own material desire for an audience through intentional composition, limited color pallets and intentional display. The accompanying supportive statement focuses on the …

Lucha Libre: Legends Of The Mask, Anthony J. Aguilar

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

Lucha libre, also known as Mexican wrestling, is a cultural phenomenon whose history dates to 1933. Every wrestling match pits flamboyantly costumed and masked wrestlers (luchadores), classified as either the good guys (técnicos) or the bad guys (rudos), against each other in choreographed and dramatized battles. Although lucha libre is often seen as campy or “low brow” due to its exaggerated, theatrical style, this perception overlooks the deeper cultural significance and narrative potential inherent in the form. This thesis will explore the cultural evolution of lucha libre as a highly interactive themed ride attraction. By integrating guest participation through custom …