Digital Commons Network^™

To, From: Of Time, Of Distance, Of Body And Mind, Fanxi Sun

Theses and Dissertations

This paper introduces the concepts, theories, and techniques associated with my thesis project “To, From.” The paper consists of three parts: Time as Structure, Distance as Premise, and Body and Mind. Each chapter is written in a mixture of personal narration and a general introduction to materials that are directly or implicatively relevant and important to the creation of my project. In this experimental narrative comprises film screening and live performance with multi-channel sound, I tell a story of non-story. Words and the exchange of words, movements and non- movements, objects that are being handled and subjects that are handling... …

From Silence To Forte: Developing An Inclusive Space For Persian Musicians To Flourish, Sholeh Salimi

Theses and Dissertations

Music serves as a reflection of culture and conveys various emotional and intellectual states, such as a nation's perspective, social attitudes, and historical background. However, the Iranian revolution in 1979 led to the ban of music by the new regime, limiting the output and audience for Iranian music. In addition, the emergence of Western music accessibility through technology posed challenges for traditional Persian music, and the government's restrictions on music further compounded the problem. To support and advance the preservation and dissemination of Iranian music, this study aims to explore how an interior designer can create a space that enables …

Buckets In A Deep Well: Essays About Shakespeare’S History Play Characters And An Original Drama, Brian C. Bassett

Theses and Dissertations

Buckets in a Deep Well is a set of essays that examines various characters portrayed in Shakespeare’s history plays, as well as parallel figures in 20th and 21st century works. Each essay primarily focuses on a single character’s response to a power structure: Richard Gloucester to the Tudor England of his audience in Richard III; Richard Nixon’s campaign-produced version of himself to 20th century American democracy in “Checkers;” Falstaff to organized society in Henry IV, Part 1; Marlo Stanfield to the drug economy of early 2000’s Baltimore in The Wire; the Duke of York to the disrupted monarchy of The …

Adapting Higher Education: Revamping Curricula For The Inclusion Of Theatre Students With Disabilities, Kevin Kemler

Theses and Dissertations

Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion initiatives in higher education have been largely driven by administrators who have little to no contact with the students for whom they are working for. This top-down approach negatively impacts marginalized students and disproportionately affects the quality of experience for students with Disabilities, an often-overlooked demographic. For Disabled students enrolled in performance programs, barriers to access and inclusion don’t just exist at the institutional level, they also exist in the traditional classroom or studio as well. Through a dismantling of ableist structures inherent within higher education (i.e., American grading practices, the Western and Theatrical Canons), I …

An Introduction To Theatrical Scent Design As Compared To Traditional Design Areas With A Consideration For The Scientifically Notated Physical And Emotional Effects On The Human Body As It Potentially Relates To Future Creative Endeavors: A Framework, Katherine R. Holland

Theses and Dissertations

Traditional areas of theatrical design are established to the point of having a solid foundation for current and future designers to rely on as they strive to innovate. The same cannot be said for scent. I believe that art, like science, is a sector where the imagination is used to push the boundaries of what we currently know and can do. Artists are therefore entrusted with the responsibility to continue testing those boundaries, and that is what my topic lays the foundation for when it comes to scent. With my topic, I plan to look at the practical and ethical …

Investigating Actor Speech Training History Through The Lens Of Knight-Thompson Speechwork: How A Nonprescriptive Approach Revolutionizes The Field And Applications Outside Of A Theatrical Context, Harrison G. Runion

Theses and Dissertations

Speech training for actors in the United States has a history deeply rooted in prescriptive practices. Many speech trainers have and still do teach from a model that they consider to be the “correct” way to speak. These practices have proven to be quite damaging to students’ emotional and cultural identities, as speech is an inherent part of who we are as individuals. This thesis first examines such speech training pedagogies of the past, specifically the progression of William Tilly’s World English to Edith Skinner’s Good American Speech. Doing so establishes the necessary contextual understanding required to provide an alternative …

Welcome To The Sitting Garden At The Busy Hands Museum, Stacie Sabady

Theses and Dissertations

I wanted to attend VCU to learn how to unravel my mind and find the words to describe it. While I did make progress in that area, my surprise discovery is that I need to unravel my body too. It has become unbalanced from years of neglect. When working, I find solace through escape. I find a positive outlet for my perfectionist tendencies. I find a way to visually illustrate my obsessive qualities. Throughout the years of these findings, I have ignored my body pleading with me to take it easy. I have always honored the materials and the tools, …

An Arbitrary Aesthetic: Cultural Reproduction And Hegemonic Canonical Formations In The Western Theatrical Academy, Sim C. Rivers

Theses and Dissertations

Theatre as an artistic practice has often been celebrated as an art of and for the people, being a modality that in theory the common person has access to learn, explore and experience. In recent years I have become preoccupied with the growing rarification and privileging of this art form, particularly in how it is cognized and taught in the academic world. As such, I set out to investigate the mechanisms at work at levels structural, artistic, and personal that determine how theatre is taught and understood within the western academy.

This thesis seeks to examine and unpack the perceived …

The Five Senses: Fundamentals In Acting Training, Landon A. Nagel

Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

THE FIVE SENSES: FUNDAMENTALS IN ACTING TRAINING

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MFA Theatre Pedagogy at Virginia Commonwealth University

by

LANDON NAGEL

Thesis Chair: Aaron Anderson, PH.D.

Theatre Graduate Program Director, Department of Theatre

The following is presented as a tool for new acting teachers, students and potentially parents. It identifies and explores the fundamental lessons that I believe are necessary inside a beginning acting studio, inspired by that which I believe is necessary when raising a young child. Rather than focusing on one particular technique, system or method - I …

Commonwealth Times 2022-11-30

Commonwealth Times, 1969-

No abstract provided.

Commonwealth Times 2022-11-02

Commonwealth Times, 1969-

No abstract provided.

Commonwealth Times 2022-10-19

Commonwealth Times, 1969-

No abstract provided.

Lola's Story: Love And Resiliency, Susan R. Whiteland

International Journal of Lifelong Learning in Art Education

Lola, a hand puppet, tells her story of being constructed in a university’s special topics class for the purpose of encouraging older adults who may be experiencing loneliness and isolation. Lola is introduced to an elderly woman who bonds with the puppet. Engagement with the puppet encourages positive emotions that contribute toward resilience and subjective well-being. Lola’s story supports the idea that feelings of happiness and positivity attributed to puppetry may be instrumental in memory retention and overall socio-emotional health.

Virginia Commonwealth University Courses [2022], Virginia Commonwealth University

VCU Bulletins

Listing of courses for the 2022-2023 year.

Virginia Commonwealth University Undergraduate Bulletin [2022], Virginia Commonwealth University

VCU Bulletins

Undergraduate bulletin for Virginia Commonwealth University for the academic year 2022-2023. It includes information on academic regulations, degree requirements, course offerings, faculty, academic calendar, and tuition and expenses for undergraduate programs.

Virginia Commonwealth University Graduate Bulletin [2022], Virginia Commonwealth University

VCU Bulletins

Graduate bulletin for Virginia Commonwealth University for the academic year 2022-2023. It includes information on academic regulations, degree requirements, course offerings, faculty, academic calendar, and tuition and expenses for graduate programs.

Identification Of The New Synthetic Opioid Bucinnazine And Its Metabolites Using Liquid Chromatography Tandem Mass Spectrometry (Lc-Ms/Ms), Karissa N. Resnik

Master of Science in Forensic Science Directed Research Projects

In the past 20 years, the rate of opioid use increased drastically in the United States. The country has experienced an enormous number of deaths caused by opioid overdose, opioid use disorder (OUD), as well as other harms as a consequence of the high numbers of opioid prescriptions. Fentanyl, a well-known synthetic opioid, has been a contributor to the opioid crisis since 2013 due to its popularity in clinical and illicit use. It has a high potency, which makes it an effective analgesic but a dangerous illicit substance. A new synthetic opioid, bucinnazine, has recently become a new black-market opioid …

Playful Rebellion: The Anarchic Clown And Pushing The Boundaries Of Contemporary Theatre, William Browning

Theses and Dissertations

In the many decades since live theatre began certain rules, conventions, and norms took hold. These conventions would change over the years but as these customs were formed there were always those who pushed back against the hegemony. There were always figures, people, and organizations that rebelled against the status quo and wished to push the boundaries of the theatre. This is where the anarchic clown enters the fray. Those who wish to push the boundaries of theatre have existed since its creation, but the anarchic clown is a specific form of rebel. The anarchic clown wishes to break the …

Bowling Green Main Street Revitalization Plan, Amy Guzulaitis

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

The Town of Bowling Green is a historic, rural community located in Caroline County, Virginia. The Town is the pride of residents who enjoy the community and small town nature of the area. The Town currently has a small arts business cluster and sought ways to use that, as well as the Main Street Method, as a basis for spurring revitalization in the Town. Research Methods & Findings Today, the Town of Bowling Green faces challenges to its future growth and development due in part to the small market size available. Demographic indicators from ESRI Business Analyst show that Bowling …

Exploration Of Brookland Park And Surrounding Neighborhoods: Exploration Of Race And Space, Kearra M. Bright

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

This project explores how race and space have impacted the neighborhoods of Brookland Park, North Barton Heights, and Providence Park from the start of their development in the 1890’s to the present day. And how systemic racism has impacted these neighborhoods over time. This paper will explore this through the history, existing conditions, findings, and policy and program recommendations. And will aid in combating systemic racism and starting the conversation about what is currently happening in some of Richmond’s Northside Neighborhoods.

Revitalization Strategies For Downtown Elkton, Virginia, Gabrielle Dean

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

Elkton is a rural Virginia town eager to revitalize its downtown. After years of decline, there is a newfound interest in developing the downtown commercial district. This plan addresses community goals and current market conditions to provide implementable recommendations for revitalization in a rural context. The recommendations are modeled after the Main Street America Community Transformation strategy and primarily focus on vacant property abatement and utilizing urban design tactics to create a walkable district.

16th Annual Higher Ground Women's Leadership Conference, Grace E. Harris Leadership Institute, Virginia Commonwealth University, Kiara S. Faulks, Sianna Westley, Nakeina E. Douglas-Glenn

GEHLI - 2026 VCUL Team Project Publications

"Seizing Tomorrow, Today," challenges participants to develop a practice of Prospective Reflection- a deliberate practice of strategic foresight to aid in facing the challenges and opportunities that exist beyond us. Prospective reflection is unique because it forces us to capitalize on this time of era-defining moments and to imagine what is possible. Today's conference will aid you in translating your values into actions, your dreams into reality, and your hopes into happens. Delivered through a high-impact combination of short, narrative-driven lectures, interactive panels, and individualized strategic reflection activities, the day will culminate in an action plan for moving your leadership …

Childhood Reliquary De Una Catracha/Mexi Entre Nopales, Juliana Bustillo

Theses and Dissertations

Childhood Reliquary De Una CatrachaMexi Entre Nopales is a multisensory based installation consisting of three large and six medium scale mixed media paintings with performance. It is informed by my upbringing in Boyle Heights in the projects during the 90s, followed by East LA in the mid 2000s. It is the reliquary for my discomfort in institutional spaces and why I have found comfort in dystopian-like installations. This is the landscape in which I exist, regardless of where I am now. It is where I place my work. It is the context in which I celebrate the powerful delicacy of …

Spectrum Of Shit, Hannah Hiaasen

Theses and Dissertations

Contending with the loss of a parent to a mass shooting in their workplace, a newsroom, I find myself suspended in time, in an office. Post-its, fans, button-ups, snow globes, clipboards, reporters notebooks, scrap paper, jot downs, keyboards hold me up. I crave the comfort of repetitive cumulative hand work. Quilting, weaving, and cutting away help me breathe, haptically process and memorialize these grieving objects, this grieving person. Weed-wacking towards intimacy, my work employs a range of materials to mourn the mundanity of a workday, fantasize transformative justice, and steward embodied grief to the surface. My only speed is slow-- …

She: Performing Biography As A Dramatic Narrative, Ashley J. Love

Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

SHE: PERFORMING BIOGRAPHY AS DRAMATIC NARRATIVE

By Ashley Love, Master of Fine Arts at Virginia Commonwealth University

Partial Fulfillment Statement:

Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for a Master of Fine Arts in Theatre Pedagogy at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Director: Dr. Aaron Anderson

Interim Director of Graduate Studies, Theatre Department

Amid the current wave of feminism, women continue to strive for equal ground within societal constructs. Progress is being made in the workplace, the arts, and media presence, but why does it seem that women’s stories of the past continue to be overlooked as if insignificant? This …

City Revitalization Through Adaptive Reuse And The Arts, Patricia D. Lamb

Theses and Dissertations

This study focuses on the stabilization and revitalization of two Historic Districts, in the City of Hopewell, Virginia. With artists as first stage revitalizers, an emphasis was put on bringing the arts to the area. Four vacant buildings in these districts were reinvented rather than removed. Three of the buildings are located in close proximity in the historic neighborhood of City Point. These vacant buildings, a church, a school, and a tavern, are destabilizing factors in a residential area. Focus was placed on the repurposing and modernization of the three buildings for today’s living, as artists' homes. Reuse of the …

A Gun For Every Woman, Gentë Retkoceri

Theses and Dissertations

Six centuries ago in Kosova, my home country, unmarried women known as sworn virgins, were forced to adopt a male persona and carry a gun to protect themselves. But today, guns have become tools of oppression and violence against women. And while the legal system carries penalties for domestic violence, marital rape is excluded. To shine a light on, and expose the topic of hidden violence, my thesis uses artivism to address a sensitive but provocative issue, exhibiting a large-scale sculpture of a gun, designed to provoke raw emotions; to challenge visitors to consider the terror felt by women threatened …

Dungeons And Devised Theatre: A Study Of Tabletop Gaming And Its Application In Playwriting And Character Development, Sabrina E. Becker

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is an exploration of the connections and application of tabletop gaming in theatre. It looks at the initial process that was used in devising a play from tabletop gaming and also the applications of using tabletop gaming to further character development. This paper serves as a journal of first-hand accounts and interviews during this process so you may be inspired to build your own process either based in what you read here or discovering your own. There is a sample excerpt of the play to show what can be accomplished as well as other artistic works that came …

Learning Robot Motion From Creative Human Demonstration, Charles C. Dietzel

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents a learning from demonstration framework that enables a robot to learn and perform creative motions from human demonstrations in real-time. In order to satisfy all of the functional requirements for the framework, the developed technique is comprised of two modular components, which integrate together to provide the desired functionality. The first component, called Dancing from Demonstration (DfD), is a kinesthetic learning from demonstration technique. This technique is capable of playing back newly learned motions in real-time, as well as combining multiple learned motions together in a configurable way, either to reduce trajectory error or to generate entirely …

Madeleine Béjart: La Femme Galante, Katherine E. Jackson

Theses and Dissertations

The 17th Century marked the beginning of women professionally joining the acting profession and as such brought about change in the career opportunities for women. Madeleine Béjart was one of these actresses who is notorious for her liaison and working relationship with famed playwright, Molière. Through this personal relationship her role in history was relegated to that of mistress and the scandal concerning Molière’s wife Armande who is speculated to either be Madeleine's daughter or sister. By using historical and biographical information on Madeleine along with two works of Molière in which she originated roles, I will explore the intricacies …