Digital Commons Network^™

Inspiring The Imagination, Nathan Terracio

Theses and Dissertations

As someone who has been a life-long audience member and who has worked in over a hundred different theatres on countless different productions over the course of my professional career, I have always been fascinated by the process of creating art out of thin air. I have watched artists undergo careful planning only to have that work thrown out during the rehearsal or technical process, or even sometimes during the last preview performance. I have watched moments unfold on stage at the last minute with seemingly no planning or effort. I have seen the reactions of audiences to moments that …

Analysis Of Selected Pieces Influenced By Taiwanese Aboriginal Music For Solo Violin And String Quartet, Isabel Hsin-Yi Ong

Theses and Dissertations

This is an analysis of three pieces that contribute to solo violin and string quartet repertoire through the lens of intervallic relationships, rhythmic and gestural motifs, and instrumental technique. Briefly delving into the Aboriginal history of Taiwan and illuminating aural concepts inherent within each tribe, the research blends musicological research, theoretical analysis, and intuitive performance-based interpretations to meld and expand the technical and musical possibilities of the violin with the essence and impact of these songs.

Scenic Design – Capturing The Essence Of A Play Through Metaphoric And Symbolic Imagery, Mona Maria Damian Ulmu

Theses and Dissertations

The following paper is meant to develop my experience as an MFA Candidate at the University of South Carolina. It was an MFA in Theatre, at the Department of Theatre and Dance, College of Arts and Sciences. I was a Scenic Design major but also studied Costume Design, Costume Construction and Patterning, Lighting Design, Vectorworks, Text Analysis, Pedagogy, etc. I was also hired as a teaching assistant, graduate assistant, working in the Theatre shop with undergraduate students, under Technical Director and Technical Director’s assistant supervision. This paper mainly explores my experience of making shows as a Scenic Designer and Scenic …

Timeless Light: A Singer’S Compendium Of Art Songs For Tenor By Black Composers, Johnnie J. Felder

Theses and Dissertations

This compendium of Black art songs is intended to serve as both a resource and reference for teachers of singing and performers who desire to assign or program reputable, contemporary art song literature by lesser-known, marginalized composers of the African Diaspora. The American academic structure needs a compendium of African American Art Songs, specifically for the tenor fach, that will provide biographical information, composers’ names, publishing details, and exact locations as to where to retrieve these worthy gems that are still too often excluded from the academic and classical canon. Comprised of more than 331 songs, this document is sure …

Futurist Art And Touch: Dinamismo Plastico, Tattilismo, Polimaterismo, Molly J. Everett

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis considers the Futurist engagement with touch, primarily through the artwork and writing of four Italian artists: Umberto Boccioni (1882–1916), F. T. Marinetti (1876–1944), Benedetta (Cappa) Marinetti (1897–1977), and Enrico Prampolini (1894–1956). Informed by childhood education, art theory and aesthetics, and perceptual psychology, these Futurists embraced tactility as a vehicle for avant-garde invention.

Cinematic Poe: A Survey Of Films Inspired By Edgar Allan Poe And Their Importance In Film History, Devon V. Bradley

Theses and Dissertations

The relationship of Edgar Allan Poe’s works, their respective adaptations, and their place in film history remains underappreciated in contemporary scholarship. Additionally, many of the most significant director/auteurs in cinema history have Poe inspired films. This project explores the filmic legacy Poe and his stories share across a survey of significant filmmakers, who have created memorable interpretations of Poe’s works. This thesis seeks to consider connections between several well-known Poe film adaptations and what I consider to be their significance in the development of film as a medium over its history. My investigation compares a range of films inspired by …

Latina Preservice Teachers Embodying Teacher Identity Through Improvisation, Zulema Williams

Theses and Dissertations

Latina preservice science teachers make the transition from science student to teacher is scant. This study aims to address this gap by exploring improvisation as a pedagogical tool in order for Latina pre-service teachers make meaning of the transition from student to teacher and what this might mean in terms of identity.

According to Pool et al. (2011), “[u]sing arts-based instruction in a preservice teacher program has promise for fostering better pedagogical decisions to benefit learners at every level.” (p. 9). The purpose of this case-study is not only to fill a gap in the literature but also to explore …

Mestiza Teatro: An Examination On The Historical Artform Of The Latina / Chicana Theatre Collective, Cheyenne Felicitas Flores

Theses and Dissertations

Teatro groups were a form of devised theatre that came to shape after the influential times of the Chicano National Movement of the 1960s and 70s. Due to its strong relationship with the movement, teatro became the epitome of performance culture for the Chicano/Latino public. But as Chicana scholars argue, the female narrative on stage through the use of teatro was limited, static, dichotomous, and misrepresented. This confining restriction to seeing Latina performers only as mothers, strippers, maids, and other stereotypical roles is still present today. This paper aims to articulate that this gender-subordinate representation has a history in formation, …

Water-Soluble Porphyrin Complexes For The Biological Inactivation Of Fentanyl, Anneli Nina

Theses and Dissertations

This work aimed to investigate the degradation of fentanyl in aqueous solutions using unsupported water-soluble cobalt(III) porphyrins (55 and 56), AuNP supported water-soluble cobalt(III) porphyrins (67 and 68), and liposome supported water-soluble cobalt(III) porphyrins (69 and 70). Complexes 55, 56, 68, and 69 have been shown to remove fentanyl from aqueous solutions at 37 ºC. The degradation of fentanyl, and the identification of breakdown products were analyzed with the use of time-of-flight mass spectrometry (TOFMS). Complex 55 has been shown to completely degrade fentanyl at 37 ºC in as little as two hours with a 400 mol% catalyst loading. Complex …

Using Visual Arts To Teach Beginning Literacy Skills, Stacy Phaxaysithideth

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the effect of using visual arts to teach rhyming words and word family words. Two interventions were used, both utilizing the use of visual arts to learn both literacy skills. The interventions were then assessed with a pre- and post-test to see the if the interventions were successful. A student attitude survey was also given at the end of the study to see how the students felt about the interventions. A semi-structured interview was done at the end of the interventions as well to collect the thoughts of my co-teacher on the interventions. Lastly, my teacher observations …

A Hawaiian Heroine’S Journey: The Early Life And Career Of Dancer Jean Erdman Campbell, Diane B. Mcghee

Theses and Dissertations

This biographical study covers the early life and career of dancer, choreographer, and avant-garde theatre artist, Jean Erdman Campbell (1916-2020). Based on extensive research of historical literature and archival materials, the manuscript traces Erdman’s ancestry and follows the subject through age 32, when she became established as a star of modern dance and prepared for a world tour. The guiding question for this study was what influences shaped the life course, identity and artistry of Erdman, and how might the subject be presented as biography? The researcher examined the influences on Erdman as related to various dance traditions, especially Hawaiian …

Bells Like Hooves, Elizabeth Mixter

Theses and Dissertations

BELLS LIKE HOOVES is an exploration of grief and love. This play wrestles with what it feels like when someone disappears, or “ghosts”, and the complexities of survivorship. The play delves into what it means to be the one who’s left behind, our need for stories, and the limits of language.

Norm And The People, Jacqueline N. Wade

Theses and Dissertations

Norm and the People is a 90-minute hybrid film about the Minister and activist Norman Eddy and the work he and other activists did in Spanish Harlem from the 1940s through his death in 2013. The film is told through interviews, archival photos and videos, reenactments, and puppets.

Somebody Is Looking Back At Me, Jesse Jae Hoon

Theses and Dissertations

Somebody is Looking Back At Me, a new play by Jesse Jae Hoon, is a time-jumping fever dream satire following bestselling Asian American author Olivia, who returns to a gentrifying Chinatown. As her new successful friends transform the neighborhood, she must confront the district’s troubled past and her own allegiances.

Ruth And Lydia: The Last Scenes Of The Last Act Of A Very Long Play, In No Particular Order, Jamie Rubenstein

Theses and Dissertations

Ruth and Lydia spend their last years/months/weeks/days/minutes at the Brandywine Retirement Community in this time-bending, kaleidoscopic play about the sublime beauty of being alive.

Anamnesis: A Film About Forgetting, Neville Pullar Elder

Theses and Dissertations

In the film Anamnesis I bear witness to the injury and death of my childhood best friend Dominic, when I was 11. The film is a quest: A search for a visual memory that I have forgotten or perhaps, deliberately hidden from myself. Can remembering the events in their entirety and chronological order help me heal? Is searching for the lost memories nothing more than a smokescreen to avoid the steps I must take to deal/heal the trauma?

I communicate the relationship between the interplay of memory-making and sense-making and the reconstruction process that enables our past and present to …

Hard Places, Garrett Zuercher

Theses and Dissertations

In rehab, Deaf alcoholic Tip endures an inane system of rules, a revolving door of inept interpreters, and terrible coffee, but he also finds a glimmer of human kindness on the perilous and lonely journey to sobriety.

Rethinking Watteau In The Context Of Early Eighteenth-Century Bourgeois Culture, Bronwyn C. Roe

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis reexamines the work of Antoine Watteau through a social-art historical lens. Traditionally, Watteau's fêtes galantes have been closely aligned to the culture of the French nobility. However, a closer look into the artist's background, training, social milieu, and the class identity of his primary buyers reveals an alternative class alignment, inviting new interpretations for Watteau's most elusive work. This thesis challenges the close association between Watteau and the French nobility and aims to broaden the socio-visual landscape from which Watteau was drawing, namely that of a burgeoning bourgeois consumer culture. In particular, the culture of emulation, with its …

Slaying The Dragon: Dances Created During The Time Of The Pandemic, Regina Nejman

Theses and Dissertations

Regina Nejman’s paper details a dance artist’s negotiation of art-making in a global pandemic. It focuses on her improvisational dance films that were combined with live performance and animation in a gallery-like viewing environment. She situates herself among the many screendances and digital archives shared during NYC’s lockdown.

Bodyverse, Colin B. Stilwell

Theses and Dissertations

This paper supports the MFA dance thesis film BodyVerse. Exploring the intertwining relationship of body systems with the natural world, it brings somatic principles such as Body Mind Centering and dance improvisation together with film legacies and digital platforms.

Galvanizing Steel, Francesca Dominguez

Theses and Dissertations

This paper examines Galvanizing Steel, a performance event through the lens of John Martin’s concept of “metakinesis,” Dominguez considers spectatorship and interpretation as active participation. She queries kinesthetic empathy and whether centering the corporeal experience of the audience enhances their overall ability to connect with the performers and the performance.

Meet And Run, Gia M. Binner

Theses and Dissertations

A defense for Gia Binner’s MFA Thesis, Meet and Run, argues that accessible art, known in this paper as commercial dance, is a meaningful vehicle for social change and that it has the ability to dismantle the outdated, European concert dance dominance by modeling the interdependency of both worlds.

Letters To Medusa, Maiya Redding

Theses and Dissertations

This context paper for the MFA thesis dance film Letters to Medusa connects the mythology of Medusa as a narrative of trauma. Engaging #metoo and Micaela Coel’s I May Destroy You and Misfits, Redding discusses the power of art to serve as a vehicle for healing and forgiveness.

Huérfanos: A Memoir, Mauricio Garcia

Theses and Dissertations

If you look hard enough, there are stories of children in foster care. Tales of their plight, longing for love, the love of their parents, love from the foster care system, or a foster care family. However, despite their existence, so much is left in the unknown. The story of how this child’s life came into the world, what outcomes transpired for a parent to give up a child, and the journey the child may have to take for closure. Answers to the why. Why was I given up, why was I not sought out, why did my family …

Aiding Semantic Memory Creation With Navigational Context, Thomas Benjamin Lyle Wasden

Theses and Dissertations

While we have traditionally understood the hippocampus to be involved in memory and navigation, it also appears that it has a role in language processing, creation and prediction. An obvious explanation for this is that language is impossible if linguistic signs cannot be remembered and retrieved. Because linguistic signs are definitionally biologically neutral or arbitrary, we must use the brain's apparatus for learning and storing information from the external world to store and retrieve them. Although plausible, this explanation fails to take into account the hippocampus' role in navigation as a contributing element in the processing, storage and retrieval of …

Performing Italian Identity: Through The Plays Gemini And A View From The Bridge, Angela Dicarolo Moser

Theses and Dissertations

"Italian Identity"is the set of values and beliefs performed daily, that are markers of what it is to be "Italian,"whether those carrying those beliefs live in Italy or not. The latter point became evident in the United States following the vast wave of Italian immigration during the late-19th and early-20th centuries. Italian identity has been greatly influenced by Catholicism and its centering of values and beliefs on the family, heavily defined Italian life in America. One principal mode for constructing and disseminating these values and beliefs among Italian Americans was through the theatre. This thesis provides a close reading of …

It’S An Old Song, But We’Re Gonna Sing It Again: The Myth Of Orpheus & Eurydice In Modern And Postmodern Theatrical Performance, Tiffani Brooks Hagan

Theses and Dissertations

Since theatre was established as an art form, productions have adapted myths into performance, creating an array of theatrical texts based on the oral practice of storytelling of ancient civilizations. This concept of adaptation, where playwrights draw from stories of the past in new works, has expanded in recent years to include new scholarship regarding the dramaturgy of theatrical adaptations and what it means to adapt a work, whether originally for theatre or not, into a text meant for theatrical performance. One such myth that has captivated audiences since its first recorded utilization has been the myth of Orpheus and …

Metaphors Of Memory: Complexity And The Fourth Canon, Amber Lee

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines four main sites of memory scholarship (bodily memory, historical and historiographical memory, material memory, and digital memory), arguing that at each site, memory is treated in ways which are inconsistent with most current scholarly understandings of how it operates. Each chapter focuses on one of the major sites of memory scholarship, demonstrating how particular uses of keywords at that site undercut its own attempt to address memory’s complexity. In the process, I lay the groundwork for alternative conceptions of memory in that site that offer new avenues for memory research.

Costume Design And Technology – A Process Of Growth During A Global Pandemic, Heather Gonzalez

Theses and Dissertations

In the best of circumstances, obtaining a Master of Fine Arts in Costume Design and Technology requires dedication and persistence. However, another layer of complication is added when the world shuts down due to a global pandemic. This thesis provides a look at three realized designs and delves into the way in which the pandemic affected my process for each of the designs. I also discuss my growth technologically as a costumer as I examine the class projects and shop work completed. Additionally, I review my growth artistically, and my professional experiences. My thesis provides a look at each facet …

“Zoom Degrees”: A Reflection On Education And Experience During The Covid-19 Pandemic Of The 2020s, Campbell Childers

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a self-reflection on time in the three-year Master of Fine Arts in Theater program at the University of South Carolina, during the 2020 rise of the Covid-19 Pandemic and the years after. It is a chronologically structured examination of two years of academic experiences, both prior to and during the pandemic, and one year of professionally application experience post-pandemic. The academics cover course experiences to production assignments and design opportunities, going into detail on the student’s process and thoughts at the time. The reflections on professional experience discuss the student’s future goals and how they have evolved …