Digital Commons Network^™

Music Direction And Piano Accompaniment In Musical Theatre: A Practical Guide, Danielle Hayes

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Music direction for musical theatre is not a topic that has been widely theorized, defined, or researched; there are a handful of resources available to the inclined reader, and a scant few universities that offer a degree in Music Direction for Musical Theatre. Due to this, many music directors, myself included, have had to piece together our educations á la carte, researching each aspect of the job individually. Thus, I have created a practical "how to" guide that can be used to advance you, the reader, through a production as the music director from booking the gig to closing night. …

Flow Theory In The Actor's Process: Can The Pursuit Of Optimal Experience Alleviate Anxiety?, Kimberly (Kimber) King

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Using techniques from acting scholars and practitioners, this practice as research study seeks to lesson anxiety in actors by measuring the actor's preparation, rehearsal and performance process against each of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's conditions of flow. Csikszentmihalyi's flow theory describes flow as an "optimal experience" in which a person is so invested in their goals, there is "no threat for the self to defend against" (M. Csikszentmihalyi 76). His research identified conditions that when present, can induce a state of flow. However, actors can be plagued by negative thoughts and self-consciousness. While a certain amount of anxiety is expected and normal, …

The Process Is A Journey, Victoria Micaletti

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Actors are tasked with the opportunity to perform roles from multiple assorted styles of theatre performance throughout their career. How can performers best create an effective acting process that allows them to develop a pathway that is unique and dynamic across all styles to best embody the characters that they are cast as? I am seeking to refine and develop an approach that will be comprised of a series of steps which include exercises from the acting techniques of Jerzy Grotowski, Michael Chekhov, and Konstantin Stanislavski to create a character that is unique and dynamic. Through the investigation of the …

Creative Collaborations: An Arts Integrated Educational Business, Michele Perkins

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

One of the main reasons I have been attracted to the world of theatre is its versatility. Theatre incorporates many other disciplines: Science, Mathematics, History, Language, Philosophy, and Psychology to name a few. I have always had daydreams about running a school program that utilizes a play as the unifying force behind the research and application of traditional academic subject. When I first started as an English teacher, I created many projects that incorporated other disciplines, such as creative writing, acting, and music. When I began teaching theatre, I began to focus solely on skills that applied to theatre. I …

Keeping The Ball Alive: The Marriage Between Sports And Acting, Giuseppe Pipicella

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

This thesis examines the link between sports and theatre from the actor's perspective and concludes that these two practices should be used together to achieve optimal performance. Using context provided by great physical theatre practitioners such as Jacques LeCoq, Vsevolod Meyerhold, and Rudolf Von Laban, the candidate used his past experience as a gymnast and a soccer player, and the teachings of Timothy Gallwey's The Inner Game of Tennis, to craft a rehearsal and performance regimen for Theatre UCF's production of Paula Vogel's Indecent. This regimen included an experiment where he alternated days in which he swam to days in …

Time Of Day Effects On Maximal Effort Strength/Power And Fatigability Assessments, Justine Renziehausen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

The circadian rhythm is a 24-hour cycle present within most biological systems that is controlled by the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) of the hypothalamus. The SCN is responsible for synchronizing the peripheral "clocks" present in other tissues so that all rhythms, such as heart rate, body temperature, and hormone secretion, are functioning together. As most systems experience a circadian rhythm, physical performance likely does as well. Previous studies have investigated time of day effects on maximal strength, power, and endurance performance, however, factors (e.g., sex, chronotype, age, etc.) have not clearly been distinguished. Additionally, body temperature has been suggested to be …

Theatrical Intimacy: Navigating A New Normal, Elizabeth Smith-Cortelyou

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

This thesis explores theatrical intimacy choreography and coordination during current significant social shifts. Covid restrictions, keen awareness of "correctness", and a desire to "do better" have allowed protective practices like theatrical intimacy to become not only generally accepted but expected in rehearsal spaces. Using techniques such as consent-based spaces, actor disclosures, and common language acquired through training with Chelsea Pace and Laura Rikard, the founders of Theatrical Intimacy Education (TIE), I explore choreographing close relationship moments through high school productions of Jane Eyre and Footloose presented in 2021-22 at Lake Highland Preparatory in Orlando and with older BFA/MFA student actors …

Play As A Means Of Connection, Charles Street

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

This thesis research and practical application focuses on rediscovering the playfulness of the actor's process and evaluating how that translates into an actor's performance. An actor's confidence can be found in their willingness to play with vocal placement, physical tensions, and emotional and mental patterns and depth. As an actor, my definition of play theory is the act of choosing to be spontaneous, creative, and explorative in the process of storytelling to ultimately lead to stronger choices that develop rich connections. Through the lens of play theory, I demonstrate how play affects our mind, emotions, body, and voice. This thesis …

Automated Machine Learning: Intellient Binning Data Preparation And Regularized Regression Classfier, Jianbin Zhu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Automated machine learning (AutoML) has become a new trend which is the process of automating the complete pipeline from the raw dataset to the development of machine learning model. It not only can relief data scientists' works but also allows non-experts to finish the jobs without solid knowledge and understanding of statistical inference and machine learning. One limitation of AutoML framework is the data quality differs significantly batch by batch. Consequently, fitted model quality for some batches of data can be very poor due to distribution shift for some numerical predictors. In this dissertation, we develop an intelligent binning to …

Compact And High Optical Efficiency Near-Eye Displays With Liquid Crystal Flat Optics, Junyu Zou

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Since the concepts of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) were introduced, they have attracted people's attention worldwide, both in the industry and research areas. As the most promising hardware architecture that can bring AR/VR into daily life, near eye displays (NEDs) have been studied and investigated heavily over the past half-century, especially the concept of "Metaverse" introduced by some top companies in recent years. However, the form factor and optical efficiency are two major bottlenecks for the current NEDs before they can become the major platform. Liquid crystal (LC) flat optics have several advantages, including compact, high diffraction …

Volume Xxx (2023)

The Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Journal of Florida Literature

No abstract provided.

Remembering Norton Baskin, 1901-1997, David Nolan

The Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Journal of Florida Literature

No abstract provided.

Getting The Story, Ann Mccutchan

The Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Journal of Florida Literature

No abstract provided.

What Makes Travelers Choose Japan Over Other Destinations: The Application Of Customer-Based Brand Equity Theory And Tourism Xenophilia, Midori Yamazaki

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

Customer-based brand equity (CBBE) has been extensively applied to examine a variety of travelers' behavioral intentions and tourism destination choices. However, from the perspective of competition among destinations, the use of the overall destination brand equity (ODBE) dimension is still in its experimental stage. The objective of this research is to determine the impact of destination brand awareness (DBA), image (DBI), quality (DBQ), and value (DBV) on ODBE. Specifically, this study focuses on the case of Japan tourism from the view of American travelers. Moreover, this study aims to incorporate tourism xenophilia (TXI), which is an emerging concept in tourism …

Improving Educational Access, Quality, And Environment In Rural Intabazwe, South Africa, Divya Joshi

High Impact Practices Student Showcase Fall 2023

Despite the rapid modernization and urban development in South Africa in the 20^th and 21^st centuries, many of the country’s citizens in its rural and underdeveloped areas struggle with meeting their basic needs such as food security, sanitation, and education due to mismanagement of resources and government corruption. Through my Service-Learning Project, I aimed to try to lessen these disparities through targeting educational access, quality, and environment in the rural town of Intabazwe, South Africa. For access to education, I wanted to have a menstrual product drive since millions of South African girls miss a large part of …

Exploring English As A Foreign Language (Efl) Saudi Arabian Teachers' Perceptions Vis-A-Vis The English Education Context In Primary And Secondary Schools, Mona Abdullah A. Al Mogeerah

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

The education system in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is given a great deal of attention by the government as it is keen to provide an educational system that caters to teacher and student needs. Because English has the potential to provide access to resources that may facilitate advancement in science and technology, it is difficult to deny or underestimate the importance of the English language in Saudi Arabia. Despite the history of EFL teaching and resources allocated to the teaching of English in Arabia, the quality of Saudi students' English language skills has raised many concerns. Saudi students currently …

Decolonized Femininity And Post-Colonial Trauma Autobiographies: Reading Adriana Páramo, Julia Alvarez, And Azar Nafisi Through 'Scriptotherapy', Nicole Suárez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

This thesis investigates testimonies of three female authors from Latin America and the Middle East through scriptotherapy narratives which "give voice to previously repressed memories," defined by Sidonie Smith and Julia Watson. Through the genre of autobiography, women have an opportunity to showcase acts of resistance towards the inner turmoil of colonial trauma that has been brought upon their existence. Decoloniality re-integrates the roots of colonial power into re-invigorated narratives that will become lineage. The only way that they can create their own identity is through "legending," Gilles Deleuze's conceptualized theoretical framework, which does not offer an escape from colonialism …

Body-Image Distress In Breast Cancer Survivors And Their Evaluation Of Medical Tattooing Following Surgery, Miranda Proctor

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

A review of the literature reveals a high incidence of body-image distress among breast cancer survivors who have undergone surgery, which is a natural response to the significant changes in their appearance. Reconstructive surgery, utilizing implants or flaps, may be employed to restore breast size and shape. Medical tattooing can simulate the nipple-areola complex and decorative appliques can conceal scars and skin color variations. Both reconstructive surgery and medical tattoos are associated with patient-reported satisfaction, yet further research is necessary to understand their combined impact on body-image distress. To investigate this, a survey was distributed among national breast cancer support …

Locating The Attentional Template Using Theta-Gamma Coupling, Michael Miuccio

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

A significant amount of research has investigated the underlying neural mechanisms that enable the direction of attention throughout a search array. The biased competition model (Desimone & Duncan, 1995) proposes that an attentional template (the neural instantiation of the search target) is created when the target representation in visual working memory (VWM) is communicated to frontal regions which then bias early visual areas to attend to target features. Despite this, much of the current work focuses solely on the target representation in VWM, which is only one small part of the attentional template according to biased competition. Thus, I used …

Deep Learning Approaches For Automatic Colorization, Super-Resolution, And Representation Of Volumetric Data, Sudarshan Devkota

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

This dissertation includes a collection of studies that aim to improve the way we represent and visualize volume data. The advancement of medical imaging has revolutionized healthcare, providing crucial anatomical insights for accurate diagnosis and treatment planning. Our first study introduces an innovative technique to enhance the utility of medical images, transitioning from monochromatic scans to vivid 3D representations. It presents a framework for reference-based automatic color transfer, establishing deep semantic correspondences between a colored reference image and grayscale medical scans. This methodology extends to volumetric rendering, eliminating the need for manual intervention in parameter tuning. Next, it delves into …

Healthcare Access And Experiences Among Transgender University Students, Micah Reisner

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Background

As transgender identification rises in younger generations, it is imperative that colleges and universities account for the health and wellbeing of this growing subset of the student body. Previous research indicates that transgender populations experience unique barriers to accessing healthcare, including socioeconomic barriers and a lack of healthcare providers experienced in transgender medicine. These barriers contribute to low rates of healthcare utilization and significant health disparities in transgender populations.

Methods

A community health assessment of transgender and gender-nonconforming (TGNC) students at the University of Central Florida was conducted in order to assess: (1) students' access to and experiences with …

The Perfect Storm: Motherhood, Intimate Partner Violence, And Covid-19, Kelly Blauschild

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is an insidious societal problem with potentially lethal ramifications. At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, widespread conditions and virus risk mitigation procedures like social distancing and stay-at-home orders exacerbated factors that contribute to IPV such as poverty and substance use. Though anyone can experience IPV, mothers carried unparalleled burdens in the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic such as increasing childcare responsibilities, growing financial difficulties, and worsening mental health, and many of these factors have been linked to experiencing IPV. The growing body of literature indicates a rise in IPV during COVID-19, but little has …

Reflections On White-Passing Black Identity, Edi Mucka

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Now, there are more options than ever for racial identity. Identities such as Black, White, Native, Asian, and Latino have put into contention how past racial boundaries and definitions interact with newer racial color lines. Racial passing is one concept that captures both older and newer forms of identity maintenance. Racial passing refers to when a person classified as a member of a racial group is accepted or perceived as a member of another. In this thesis, I review the literature on racial passing to understand its history and theoretical explanations. Based on the review, I examine a convenience sample …

Becoming Racially Aware: A Social Process Of (Re)Constructing An Alternative White Identity, Ashley Sobke

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Structural and systemic mechanisms reinforce institutionalized racism, whiteness, and white supremacy in the United States. These mechanisms prove adaptable and resilient, shifting and changing to continuously restructure and reinforce the material reality that people experience within a racialized social order. White people's incomprehension of complicity in racism and privilege, along with color-blind ideologies, perpetuate racialized disparities resulting from this social order and render white superiority as "normal" and "universal." This underlies an often internalized sense of normative, white American identity interconnected with racism and white supremacy. In a society where many white Americans remain sheltered from and/or resistant to acknowledging …

Christian Perspectives On Natural Disasters Using A Religious Systems Approach, Lakelyn Taylor

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

This study investigated how Christian beliefs and the perceived importance of practice at each level of the religious systems model may impact Protestant Christian beliefs about natural disasters and natural disaster responses. This study was conducted to address diverging trends in religious interpretations of and reactions to risk and crisis events. Participants answered a series of close- and open-ended questions via on online survey about religious beliefs and practices and their personal experiences with natural disasters and responses. Qualitative findings demonstrated an overarching Christian ethic underlying participants' experiences and responses. Most comments from participants mentioned individual and micro level actions …

Overtourism In Dichotomies: Uncovering Dynamic And Non-Dynamic Costs And Benefits In Three Tourism Destinations, Aarash Baktash

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

The phenomenon of overtourism, characterized by its multifaceted impacts on destinations, has emerged as a major concern in the tourism industry. This dissertation aims to explore the dynamics of overtourism, emphasizing the dual impacts of main-source tourism markets on destinations in terms of their economic, social, and environmental consequences. Unlike existing literature, which focuses primarily on the negative aspects of overtourism, the present study illustrates the nuanced interaction between tourism markets by highlighting both their potential benefits and disadvantages. This study offers an in-depth analysis of cost and benefit factors based on a priori and a posteriori segmentation methodologies, combined …

Communication Scholarship And The Quest For Open Access, Preston Carmack, Michael R. Kearney, Abbey Mccann

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

The advent of black, green, and gold open access publication models poses unique questions for scholars of communication. Plato’s (1956) classic critique of writing in the legend of Theuth and Thamus warned that the printed word “rolls about all over the place, falling into the hands of those who have no concern with it” (pp. 69–70). More than two 2 millennia later, scholars and administrators at all levels of the discipline face just such a phenomenon. As scholars of cyberspace debate whether “information wants to be free” (Levy, 2014), a communication perspective involves consideration of the importance of authorship and …

The Impact Of Student Motivation, Preparation, And Learned Helplessness On Undergraduate Students’ Communication With Advisors, Heather Carmack

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine communication factors that influence students’ academic advising appointments, including predictors of scheduling future advising appointments. Undergraduate students’ motivation and feelings of learned helplessness were related to their advising meeting preparation and their communication involvement during advising meetings. Students who reported high levels of motivation and low levels of learned helplessness were more likely to prepare for advising meetings and be communicative during meetings. Students with immediate advisors were more likely to communicate with their advisors during meetings. Advising meeting preparation, motivation, and learned helplessness were significant factors in future advising appointments.

Learning To Think Like A Leader, Mark Hickson Iii

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

This is the second in a three-part series that the author has been working on. The first part was included in an earlier issue of this journal.

A Typology Of Perceived Negative Course Evaluations, Heather Carmack, Leah E. Lefebvre

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

Instructors and administrators continue to debate the merit and value of using course evaluations to assess instructor effectiveness and course outcomes, especially when students see course evaluations as satisfaction surveys where they can unload negative and/or hurtful comments directed at instructors. Little is known about instructors’ perceptions of negative course evaluations. This study qualitatively examined faculty’s (N = 90) perceptions of negative course evaluation qualitative comments. Using a grounded analyst-constructed typologies approach, three types of negative course evaluation comments were identified: professional, personal, and performance. These types of negative comments call into question the disconnection between what students and instructors …