Digital Commons Network^™

Nature Calls, Angela White

Theses and Dissertations

I am wandering wonderingly through the unplanned material atmosphere shaped by differences in temperature and moisture. The chaotic nature of weather phenomena is the catalyst for visual exploration of the subterranean catacombs of reality. The work is metaphor of nature and its creation of form and substance. Observing art and nature: I am allowing nature to be the instigator of art.

Design For Conspicuous Transit, Peter Bain

Theses and Dissertations

My creative project explores design for transit advocacy; aimed at shifting a car-dependent society into one where transit helps meet climate change, energy, and land-use challenges. It incorporates my research into aspects of designing for transit, an understanding of urbanism in Richmond and New York, and an appreciation of planning.

Comparative Study Of The Ritual Aspects Of Western And Asian Performance, Hyung Don Lee

Theses and Dissertations

This comparative study focuses on ritual aspects of Western and Asian performance. We may say that ritual in contemporary theater production has limitation to become realization. The limitation arises from contemporary period’s nature. We know that these days we do not have common or collective psyche. However, some theatre artists are trying to get back ritual function and process to recover real communion between spectator and performer throughout performance.

A Comparative Analysis Of Directing & Choreographing Musical Productions For Professional, Academic And Community Theatres, Alison Angelone

Theses and Dissertations

In my thesis, I plan to explore the realms of academic, professional and community theatre through the eyes of a director and choreographer. Highlighted themes will consist of the varying approaches to the script, music and choreography. This thesis will also include specific teaching and or non-existent teaching methods for professional, academic and community theatre. Included will be three definitive case studies which will consist of one musical production per academic, community and professional theatrical setting. I will focus on the director/choreographer’s overall approach to the research, rehearsal and final performance processes for the Pioneer Theatre Company’s production of My …

Musical Theatre Handbook For The Actor, Maggie Marlin

Theses and Dissertations

MUSICAL THEATRE HANDBOOK FOR THE ACTOR By Maggie Elizabeth Marlin, MFA A Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts at Virginia Commonwealth University. Virginia Commonwealth University, 2009 Major Director: David S. Leong Chairman, Department of Theatre Musical Theatre is a performance style deeply woven into the fabric of the American theatre. We live in time and social climate where over half of the productions open on Broadway right now are musicals. If actor training institutions profess a mission to prepare their students for a career in the entertainment industry, why are …

A Survey Of Articulation And Transfer Issues In Mississippi's Community College Art Programs, Deitra R. Davis

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the perceptions and attitudes of community college art faculty toward articulation and transfer in the community college art programs. Since there has been little research on articulation and transfer in the arts at the community college level there was a need for this study. Specifically, this study was concerned with the following variables: gender, age, years of experience, transfer and better articulation agreements as they relate to the perceptions and attitudes of community college art faculty members towards articulation and transfer in art programs. A survey research design was used for this …

Interdisciplinary Teaching And Learning, Adonna Clark

Theses and Dissertations

In the early 1600's, the Pilgrims and the Puritans brought their musical traditions with them to establish a new life. The survival of their families depended upon their ability to provide food, shelter and clothing. Despite the challenges they faced, the colonists recognized the importance of educating their children. In 1642, the Massachusetts School Law was passed. It required town leaders to require parents to provide their children with an elementary education. Music training was not part of this newly required education. Due to the demands of life, the colonists were unable to nurture their musical abilities. Those who had …

Adapting The End: Responding To Standards Of Learning In Theatre For Children, Jamie Lish

Theses and Dissertations

Theatre is the passport to the creation of a balanced educational system in the United States (US), while standardized testing is the downfall of the ideology behind ‘No Child Left Behind’ (NCLB). As an educator, I was greatly influenced by Howard Gardner, theorist of Multiple Intelligences and Neil Fleming theorist of learning modalities. This work has carried over into my work in theatre as a director. Theatre does not have to didactically serve formal education, which emphasizes mathematics and reading/writing, nor does it have to be merely a spectacle. Theatre can be experimental, artistic, cathartic, foster social and intrapersonal skills …

De-Masking The Silence - Drama Therapy: For Children With Asd, Joshua M. Galligan

Theses and Dissertations

This dynamic form of pedagogy attempts to cross the interdisciplinary boundaries between theatre, psychology, and modern medicine. What I attempt to present in this thesis is a systematic developmental framework for the theoretical use of drama therapy with children suffering from Autism Spectrum Disorder. This approach has been based on in-depth interdisciplinary study which makes use of the most current research looking at the neurological makeup of the autistic brain. This systematic approach examines the mirror neuron system which has been labeled as a major defect in children with ASD. Through the use of theatrical techniques such as acting, movement, …

"Unsex Me Here...:" Looking At Gender In Nude Performance, Vanessa Passini

Theses and Dissertations

"Unsex Me Here…" is an examination of our bodies, what they mean in terms of gender and power, and why they mean what they do. Plucked from Lady Macbeth’s infamous soliloquy, the title suggests the stripping away of something essential that transforms. Sex is not the right word, but gender is. Often, these two are mistaken and interchanged. Myths that support our social structure exist at the intersection of sex and gender. In this production, I collaborated with Pete Guither of the Living Canvas to challenge notions of gender in different textual mediums (via the written text of Shakespeare’s "Macbeth" …

What's A Female Director To Do? The Women Of Medea Redux And The Men Of Someone Who'll Watch Over Me: A Study Of The Sexes, Sarah Mansell Yount

Theses and Dissertations

My thesis will explore the role of the female director. The two plays on which I will focus, Neil LaBute’s medea redux and Frank McGuinness’s Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me, call for quite different casts. The former involves a woman in a police interrogation room; the latter involves three men in a Lebanese prison. Despite the overt masculinity of these plays, traces of femininity permeate. Indeed, my status as a female director provided one of the clearest paths into these plays when I directed them last year at Virginia Commonwealth University. My gender also greatly influenced my direction of the …

The Freedom Quilt, April Jones

Theses and Dissertations

The Freedom Quilt is a play that I have written and adapted from Deborah Hokinson’s book, Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt. This story explores the historic and dramatic implications in the idea of coded quilts as a form of communication among African American slaves; specifically as coded maps to freedom. There is an ongoing scholarly debate challenging the existence of these quilts, let alone that they could have been used in such a complex manner. The Freedom Quilt however, is one girl’s unique and individual story, and does not in any way suggest that maps, encoded in quilts were …

The Politics Of Tea And Theatre: How Women’S Suffrage Groups Used Tea And Theatre To Influence Working And Middle Class Women To Become Politically Active, Lisa Kelly

Theses and Dissertations

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the members of the woman’s suffrage movement in the United States and Britain looked to soften their hard masculine image given to them by the press and to increase participation in the cause. They found that by including theatrical performances and benefits at meetings, and hosting tea socials afterwards, they could motivate many women to join without alienating or threatening men. This study looks at how tea socials and theatrical performances were used subversively to recruit new members, to debate ideas, and to disseminate information about the cause. Playwrights wrote plays that …

Pedagogy And Performing Shakespeare's Text: A Comparative Study, Sally Southall

Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT PEDAGOGY AND PERFORMING SHAKESPEARE’S TEXT: A COMPARATIVE STUDY By Sally Parrish Southall A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts at Virginia Commonwealth University Virginia Commonwealth University, 2009 Director: Dr. Noreen C. Barnes Professor, Director of Graduate Studies School of the Arts In the Master of Fine Arts program in Theatre Pedagogy at Virginia Commonwealth University, and in a second program, the Master of Letters/Master of Fine Arts in Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature in Performance at Mary Baldwin College - two specific pedagogical approaches to accessing and performing Shakespeare’s text, …

Working From The Outside: Discovering Truth Within A Mask, Rebecca Bernard

Theses and Dissertations

It is the purpose of this thesis to explore the different principles of mask performance in modern theatre and the unique relationship it allows the actor to develop with an audience. The author uses exercises from her training experience with different mask artists such as Teatro Punto, Familie Floz, Torbjorn Alstrom, and Marcello Bartoli. These exercises document a process of training the body in preparation for the mask, how to perform with mask, and how to connect with an audience. The mask is used as a tool to discover an engagement of work that activates both body and imagination of …

Collaboration Of Feminist And Postcolonial Discourses In The Plays Of Aphra Behn And Caryl Churchill, Erica Spiller

Theses and Dissertations

Subjugated groups studied by discourses of feminism and postcolonialism are commonly oppressed by white, male, imperial power systems. As different marginalized groups are exploited by the same dominant ideology the disparate discourses should collaborate in an attempt to fight the powers of oppression en masse. This thesis will explore not only how feminism and postcolonialism should collaborate, but that they have already been doing so for hundreds of years. In the seventeenth century the playwright Aphra Behn was already exploring the discourses as inseparable, and three-hundred-years later, playwright Caryl Churchill continues to do the same. By studying conventions of drama …

Steampunk: An Exploration In Design, Christopher Mueller

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to detail my first professional costume design job after my unofficial graduation in May 2008. This thesis will serve primarily as a design thesis, and will concentrate the majority of its efforts in the presentation of a final, original costume design for a realized production of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street as produced by Duke University. During the course of this presentation, I will seek to detail my own design process and the inspiration and research I used to achieve my goal. I will also discuss the execution of the design, …

The Roberta Jones Junior Theatre: A Model Children's Theatre, Chareen Hardy Lauritzen

Theses and Dissertations

Since its beginning in 1968, the Roberta Jones Junior Theatre, a children's theatre, connected to the Parks and Recreation Department of Santa Clara, California, has been creating child-centered performances for young audiences. This thesis will explore the history of the Santa Clara/Roberta Jones Junior Theatre and discuss the components that have contributed to its forty-year success. For a children's theatre to be successful it needs to be first centered on the learning of the children, in tune with the need of its community, and have a staff focused on the same goals. By examining the Roberta Jones Junior Theatre, the …

Onye Mbu: 'My Identity' Pedagogical Applications Of The Surreal And Absurd In Adrienne Kennedy's Funnyhouse Of A Negro, Adanma Onyedike

Theses and Dissertations

ONYE MBU: MY IDENTITY PEDAGOGICAL APPLICATIONS OF THE SURREAL AND ABSURD IN ADRIENNE KENNEDY'S FUNNYHOUSE OF A NEGRO By Adanma N. Onyedike, M.F.A A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts at Virginia Commonwealth University. Virginia Commonwealth University, 2009 Major Director: Dr. Noreen Barnes, Director of Graduate Studies Department of Theater This document investigated my personal journey of discovering, developing, and later executing skill in teaching the theatrical arts. The re examination of the steps that led to my current success was important in order to qualify the receiving of my …

"Splintered And A Great Silence": The Production Of Return To The Upright Position By Caridad Svich, Catherine (Cate) Brewer

Theses and Dissertations

Like the Tribute in Light that grew phoenix-like from the ashes of the broken hearts of the artists who created it, Return to the Upright Position is a beautiful on-line collaboration amongst fourteen artists in the six months following 9/11. Conceived and edited by Caridad Svich, the play is moving and delicate and instantly brings us back to those moments when American history and sentiment were forever changed. Demoralized, terrorized, afraid, and alone, our country dragged its shocked and weary carcass from the ash, and pulled itself back up again. That is after all the American way, pulling yourself up …

Return Of Russia To World Politics, Enis H. Rexhepi

Theses and Dissertations

Relations between east and west were relatively calm for many decades, if we don’t count the 1962 cold war crisis betweenU.S.and those days BRSS, the atmosphere was stable during this 47 years that passed. During this timeU.S.developed in every field against BRSS, dominating militarily and economically. The Europe, which due to its geographical position stands between two powers, was relatively prosperous and peaceful during these years. Much of the western oriented states faced integration toU.S.supported NATO and EU.Russiafelling itself expelled and sometimes opposite to this integration, found itself in difficult position by time. Its military and economy was not more …

Speaking Of Myself: Independence, Self-Representation, And The Speeches Of Rudyard Kipling, Jacob M. Wilkes

Theses and Dissertations

Rudyard Kipling is a man of immense diversity. He successfully managed to write for over half a century in a variety of genres: short story, travelogue, ballad, personal narrative, and news reporting, to name only a few. While doing so, Kipling readily interacted with a range of subjects and created a multitude of ideas. Likewise, on a personal level, Kipling led an immensely diverse life. He could easily claim four separate continents as home, living variously in India, the United States, England, and South Africa. By profession he was a writer, but as an observer he was so skilled that …

The Design Of A Blended Approach For Teaching The Tpck Framework In A Technology Integrated Course, Andrea Velasquez

Theses and Dissertations

This report describes the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of a web-based unit that was designed to enable blended learning in a course for pre-service teachers learning about technology integration. The unit aims to teach students about the TPCK (Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge) framework and how to incorporate it in their teaching designs to make their instruction more effective. The report describes the process of design and development using the rapid prototyping technique. The evaluation section describes the results of the implementation of the design. Finally, the conclusion provides a critique of the project's strengths and weaknesses.

Theatrical Ideology: Toward A Rhetoric Theatricality, Jacob L. Robertson

Theses and Dissertations

When used in common vernacular, the terminology of the medium of theatre—"theatricality," "drama," "performance," "acting," "scene," etc."”form a vocabulary of "ideographs" as defined by Michael Calvin McGee. My analysis reveals that common usage of theatrical terms is more than merely metaphorical; the "theatre," rather, is a fundamental orienting concept for defining lived experience—it is ideology. By viewing the use of theatrical language as ideological, and analyzing how such terms define situations rhetorically, we begin to reveal the underlying ideology upon which the medium of theatre operates, and which it unconsciously conveys. I demonstrate this claim by analyzing the argument made …

Strategic Management Of Sme Construction Companies In Kosovo, Lulzim Beqiri

Theses and Dissertations

Now days there are a lot of books, journals, international conferences in regards of Strategic Planning that shows to be a very interesting subject to be discussed and focused our studies in this field.

Kosovo, a part that is a newborn country, as well was release from a communist way of organising economy therefore I thing that we do not have that much experience in strategic management of Small and Medium Size (SME) companies, and my study is focused on strategic management of SME construction Companies in Kosovo as a contemporary need of development in construction field.

The SME have …

Responding To The Plague Years: Aids Theatre In The 1980s, Jason Campbell

Theses and Dissertations

Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) was first discovered in 1981 and consequently changed United States history. Initially, it affected the gay community, and the United States Government did not actively combat the spread of the disease for the first four years of the epidemic. In response to a need for education, the theatre community took it upon itself to raise awareness about the disease. Artists such as Robert Chesley and Larry Kramer created pieces of theatre that helped society deal with AIDS. This thesis explores the AIDS theatre canon while focusing on two major works: Robert Chesley’s Night Sweat: A …

The Machine's Effect On The Psyche Of The American Woman: A Dramaturgical Analysis Of Machinal By Sophie Treadwell, Kori Jackson

Theses and Dissertations

Sophie Treadwell's style is often associated with the male contemporaries of her time: Eugene O'Neill and Elmer Rice. During the 1920s, these writers were being influenced by German Expressionistic theatre in a way that the American stage had not yet witnessed. Expressionistic drama is characterized by Jackson 15 of 26 heightened text that is often expansive, clipped, or musical. This type of dialogue connected the audience with a rhythm particular to the play. Expressionist drama is also characterized by the environment often being boiled down to its essence. This often involved bare-boned sets and dynamic levels. Sophie Treadwell' s style …

Gender Equality Within The Aerospace And Defense Industry, Shreyas Gandhi

Theses and Dissertations

Three of America's largest aerospace and defense companies (ADC1, ADC2, and ADC3) have major operations in the Los Angeles region of Southern California. This study focused on a single aerospace and defense company, ADC1. In the broader population of ADC1, there are almost as many females (45%) as there are males. However, of the 19 members of ADC1's leadership team for its Southern California region-based division, as of October 2008, less than 16% were women. The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand what it is like to be a female senior executive leader in the male-dominated aerospace and …

Global Consciousness: The Transformative Power Of Love Autoethnography And Personal Narratives, Donia Newman

Theses and Dissertations

The central theme of this dissertation is the transformational learning journey with Pepperdine University utilizing the research method of autoethnography personal narratives. Autoethnography is bold, yet vulnerable, genuine and authentic. It provides a heartfelt and soulful invitation to create a dynamic relationship between storyteller and the reader to share the lived experience and personal reflections of the researcher. The purpose of this dissertation is to explore my transformational learning journey with Pepperdine University utilizing theoretical framework of transformational learning. The top five elements of transformational learning are as follows: critical reflection, communication, soulful qualities, feelings and affect transformation and freedom …

The Garden Estate : An Excerpt, Wolfgang Prometheus Wright

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.