Digital Commons Network^™

Dust To Dust, Emma Ask

SPARK Symposium Presentations

"Dust to Dust" is a small group dance composition inspired by Genesis 3:19 and other passages referring to the human experience as that which is Earthly (dust). In this piece, the scripture is used as a framework for telling the story of life and the cyclical nature of being molded and created by God, the interweaving pathways of life in Creation and the eventual return to that which we were created from. In this piece, we are offered a chance reflect on the juxtaposition of the intricacy of our individual lives and the vastness and beauty of the collective human …

Alicia Alonso’S Giselle: A Cuban Dancer’S Journey Into Romantic Ballet And Modern Dramaturgy | La Giselle Di Alicia Alonso: Il Viaggio Di Una Ballerina Cubana Nel Balletto Romantico E Nella Drammaturgia Moderna, Lester Tomé

Dance: Faculty Books

This article examines the trajectory of Cuban ballerina Alicia Alonso as both performer and restager of Giselle. After offering a historical overview of Romantic ballet in nineteenth-century Cuba, the study traces Alonso’s transformation into one of the most acclaimed figures in the performance history of Giselle. The text considers her interpretation of the eponymous role in the United States, Cuba and beyond, beginning with her 1943 debut as Giselle with Ballet Theatre in New York, and highlights the interplay between her performances and stagings of the piece. It charts the evolution of Alonso’s productions of Giselle from the first time …

2025 Cave Run Storytelling Festival, Cave Run Storytelling Festival Committee (Morehead, Ky.)

Cave Run Storytelling Festival Posters

Promotional development poster for the Cave Run Storytelling Festival held on September 26 and September 27, 2025. Those performing included: Donald Davis, Mary Hamilton, Bil Lepp, Bobby Norfolk, Paul Strickland, Kim Weitkamp, and Don White.

The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University's performance of The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams.

Performed September 25-28, 2025 in the Mitchell Theatre at Taylor University.

At its heart, The Glass Menagerie is a story about the grace that vulnerability makes possible. The Wingfield family—Tom, Amanda, and Laura—are fragile, flawed, and fiercely human. Their lives are marked by disappointment and desire, yet Williams invites us to approach them with tenderness. Laura’s glass animals, so delicate and beautiful, are not just a metaphor for her own inner world but for the human spirit itself—easily broken, but capable of reflecting light in ways that …

Tom Wingfield Is The Villain: A Re-Examination Of The Glass Menagerie, Genevive K. Bevell

SPARK Symposium Presentations

This essay is an exploration of the play The Glass Menagerie, by Tennessee Williams, through a feminist lens that offers a new interpretation of the famous play, supported by evidence from Williams’s own personal history, feminist interpretations of Williams’s work, and the discussion of what a protagonist really is. I argue that Tom, who is traditionally considered the protagonist, operates as an unreliable narrator and, therefore, the antagonist to Amanda and his sister Laura, impeding their happiness and sense of well-being. I propose that The Glass Menagerie is not about a man defying societal expectations or choosing happiness in …

Will Anyone Play With Me? Building Resilience Through Community Play With Transgender And Gender Diverse Young Adults, Lee Lebeda

Expressive Therapies Theses

The recent increase in anti-trans legislature in the United States has negatively impacted the mental health of transgender young adults nationwide. Current research suggests that creative expression in a group setting may be uniquely suited to help transgender people combat the negative mental health effects of internalized anti-trans messaging. Based on this research, a community engagement project was designed for transgender young adult participants to explore resilience building through drama therapy-informed community play. Three play-based support groups, facilitated by a drama therapy graduate student who identified as a peer to the participants, were offered to transgender young adults in their …

Augusto Boal’S Forum Theater In Language And Culture Courses A Reflective Documentation, Mona Eikel-Pohen, Mona Eikel-Pohen

Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics - All Scholarship

This documentation is the revised and translated version of the 2024 article Augusto Boals Forumtheater im Deutschunterricht (Eikel-Pohen 2024). It features new observations from the second iteration of a Forum Theater project in a GER 202 language and culture class from 2025 and is again based on autoethnographic notes (Rodriguez-Mejia 2023: 71). It documents the revised application of Augusto Boal’s Forum Theater applied to language and cultural teaching in a socially critical, holistic, cooperative, intercultural, and practical way. Boal’s method aims at exposing structural oppression and allows individuals to explore options for action through play. The instructor followed Boal’s model …

The Onnagata: A Note Regarding The Male Actor Of Female Roles In Japanese Theatre, John M. Metcalf

The Ozark Historical Review

This paper discusses the influence of the Kabuki onnagata, male actors portraying female characters, on Japanese culture.

Idlewild Documentary, Arise Rock

Honors Theses

This honors thesis and documentary, “I Can Breathe, the story of how Idlewild changed my life,” explores my personal journey to Idlewild with the Lee Honors College Study in the States Program. Over the past three years, I have attended every trip to Idlewild, and captured footage showcasing the enduring legacy and spirit of Idlewild, Michigan. This place was a once-thriving African American resort community during the Jim Crow era, and now is home to year-round locals who seek hope and restoration for the community. Through a deeply personal lens, this project seeks to honor Idlewild’s past and also envision …

Creating The Conditions, Laurel A. Koerner

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"Creative activity... becomes a teacher of presence, patience, joy, and hopeful surrender to something more than what we can perceive at the start."

Posting about embracing the creative process from In All Things, an online hub that offers insight into maintaining and faithful and orthodox Reformed Christian worldview while fearlessly engaging in every aspect of contemporary life – until all is made new.

Creating the Conditions

Restorationland: The Lost And Found Objects Of Atlanta's Doll's Head Trail, Thomas Fish

Faculty Articles

The Doll’s Head Trail is a grassroots, low-art installation nestled within a Southeast Atlanta wildlife preserve. Constructed by volunteers and visitors from decades of environmental debris, the trail converts waste into folk art-inspired “junk” displays. The creative upcycling ranges from a miniscule shrine to “Toxic Masculinity” to a stark shoe pile commemorating child gun violence. This article details how queer theory’s “temporal turn” provides insights into material performance as collaborative regeneration. The curious vignettes playfully invert hierarchies, revealing the merits of small-time memorialization. Through these defiantly unofficial grassroot performances, the Doll’s Head Trail both remembers and restores community ruins, demonstrating …

Interspecies Responsivity In Early Modern Drama And Animal Performances, Taylor C. Culbert

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation proposes an expansive, interspecies definition of performance that uses behavior rather than cognition as the decisive feature and illustrates how such a definition can reshape our approach to theatre and performance history. Using the concept of responsivity, which refers to the embodied and affective ways that humans and non-human animals acknowledge and react to one another, I trace human–animal interactions across a variety of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century performance genres, from the aristocratic stag hunt and entertainments involving trained animals to the plays of Molière and Shakespeare. Drawing on my experience training animals, I offer a new perspective on …

Disability Theatre Communities: Engaging Artists And Audiences In Contemporary International Performance, Joseph Paul Hill

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

“Disability Theatre Communities” examines how communities are constructed in, through, and around contemporary international disability theatre performances. It explores ideas of community formation and intersection across three case studies to elucidate the various ways in which disability theatre artists, productions, companies, and organizations attract, engage, and educate variable artist and audience communities. The project analyzes Rome, Italy’s Teatro Patologico and its Integrated Theatre of Emotion, a theatrical training program for neurodivergent performers; Wales-based writer, theatre-maker, and dramaturg Kaite O’Reilly, whose international collaborations center d/Deaf and disabled performers and foreground audience accessibility; and the biennial BIT (Blind in Theatre) International Festival …

A New Exit: The Impact Of Historical Play Adaptations On Modern Audiences, Karli Jean Lonnquist

SURF Posters and Papers

Contemporary theatrical adaptation involves deconstructing, reimagining, and rewriting historical plays for modern audiences. Adaptation appropriates theatrical conventions, changes the lens through which the audience may view the play, and offers new entry points into thinking and practice. Adaptation asks, “why this source as theatre now?” and proposes that history provides tools for engagement with contemporary issues. By employing a Practice as Research (PaR) methodology, I will investigate the art of historical adaptation and adapt No Exit, a 1945 existentialist play by Jean-Paul Sartre, through the lenses of constructivism and performance studies. I will develop my script through collaborative workshops, stage …

Full Issue: Summer 2025

DePaul Magazine

In DePaul Magazine's summer 2025 issue, we celebrate The Theatre School's centennial by asking past and present faculty and administrators and illustrious alumni to comment on the venerable institution's enduring legacy of hands-on learning, collaboration and critical dialogue. Plus, learn about the remarkable relationship between the School of Music and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra that connects music performance students to world-class musicians, see images of campus life snapped by a new student photo agency, and more.

Class Act

DePaul Magazine

As The Theatre School at DePaul University turns 100, past and present administrators and faculty and illustrious alumni comment on the school's enduring legacy of hands-on learning, collaboration and critical dialogue.

“What Are You Saying On That Headset, Anyway?”- A Practical Look At Stage Management Through Silent Sky, Jade A. Randle

Theatre Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis is a dive into the process of the stage manager during the University of Arkansas' spring 2025 production of Silent Sky.

The Uses Of Dramaturgical Research In Cinematic Storytelling, Asset Design, And Adaptation In Animation, Delaney L. Walker

All Theses

“The Black Hair” is a creative project that explores the convergence of cinematic adaptation, dramaturgical research, and animation design in retelling a traditional Japanese short folktale from the Heian Era. Rooted in the practice of theatrical dramaturgy, this thesis advocates for a research-driven creative pipeline by developing a culturally respectful and historically grounded approach to developing cinematic storyboards. By thoroughly examining the chronicles of history and the sociocultural context, the project seeks to foster deeper cultural appreciation while reintroducing a lesser-known narrative to modern audiences through a visual medium. The project draws stylistic and narrative inspiration from iconic Japanese filmmakers …

A Study Of The History, Repertory And Instrumentation Of The Band Of The Corfu Philharmonic Society From 1840 Until 1920, Foteini Angeli

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

The Corfu Philharmonic Society band was founded in 1840 and is still active today. It is considered the one of the oldest continuously operating music education organizations in Greece. The people, repertoire, and instrumentation of this band influenced all other wind bands in Greece. There are important resources available on the topic, but dedicated research to the organization is in its infancy. Focusing on the changes in instrumentation through original manuscripts from the inaugural band (1840) through the end of the First World War reveals significant multinational influences that continue to be felt to this day. This is the first …

Selected Projects In Scenic Design And Technical Direction, Ky Trupp

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

A selection of projects in scenic design and technical direction produced by Utah State Theater involving Ky Trupp and others. Each chapter studies the design process and production process of three individual shows where Ky was the Scenic Designer or Technical Director.

Right To Work Laws – The Effects On Unionization With A Theatrical Emphasis, Jade A. Randle

Political Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

A look at the impacts that right to work laws may have on theatrical unions.

Modifying Italian Consonants In The Voice Studio: An Exploratory Sequential Mixed Methods Study, Elisa Ramon

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

The body of lyric diction literature, particularly on Italian, has grown substantially in the second half of the twentieth century. Lyric diction courses are now a required part of many voice programs across the United States. The widespread use of International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) transcriptions and transcription rules has significantly contributed to the field. However, relatively few sources focus on the pedagogical strategies needed to teach and modify Italian consonants effectively.

This two-phase exploratory sequential mixed methods study identifies the features of Italian consonants that differentiate the lyric diction of novice singers from that of native speakers. It also proposes …

An Exploration Of Elderly Representation & Stereotypes In Animation, Tyler Kidd

All Theses

In the world of animated features, supporting cast members are often reduced down to simple character traits in order to give the audience a simple idea of their personality or role in the story, or to support the creation of a work that is easier to understand for people of all ages. However, this can often result in the application of negative tropes that do not reflect kindly on those being depicted. The elderly are a group that often get caught in these stereotypes, being depicted as wrinkly, clumsy, overweight villains. While you can still find many positive portrayals in …

The Diviners: A Play, Jeffrey Dale

Consensus

Thiessen, V., Barker, K., Nolan, Y., & Laurence, M. (2024). The diviners : a play. Scirocco Drama. ISBN: 9781990738593

Building The Playground: The Direction Of Children’S Theatre With Junie B. Jones, Michael Oberton

Scholarly Horizons: University of Minnesota, Morris Undergraduate Journal

An insight and analysis into the process of directing an engaging and meaningful production of children’s theatre through Alison Gregory’s Junie B. Jones Is Not a Crook, adapted from Barbara Park’s vibrant stories. This examination considers how a thoughtful directorial approach can elevate a play beyond entertainment, using the unique power of children’s theatre to inspire joy, curiosity, and learning, not only to entertain, but also to enrich the minds of all who experience it. Through a careful study of the directorial process, this work explores how a well executed piece of children’s theatre can create an impactful experience for …