Digital Commons Network^™

Redirecting My Path And Reclaiming My Voice: An Actor Becomes A Director, Lindsay Rae Taylor

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is an exploration of my growth as a director. I dissect and discuss five of the seven productions I have directed over the past three years, discovering my directing style and identifying the tools that I will take with me as I shift into my profession. Each chapter describes my preparation, process, and evaluation for every project. It is a reflection of my journey and a celebration of my work.

Bel Canto To Punk And Back: Lessons For The Vocal Cross-Training Singer And Teacher, Lara C. Wilson

Theses and Dissertations

Most singing studied and taught before the 20th century was based on western European classical forms. The continual development of opera and its increase in popularity caused singers to adjust vocally as orchestras grew in size and theaters became larger. As a result, the pedagogy of classical vocal styles has been studied, developed and described in print for hundreds of years.

With the invention of both recorded and amplified sound however, new styles of singing emerged, allowing singers to be heard without the need to project over large orchestras in huge spaces. These new singing styles, developed for the most …

An Examination Of Lukas Ligeti’S Thinking Songs: An Analysis Of Compositional Techniques For Ligeti’S Contemporary Solo Marimba Composition, Caitlin Jones

Theses and Dissertations

Thinking Songs by Lukas Ligeti is a contemporary solo five-octave marimba work containing five movements. Thinking Songs is expansive in terms of length, content, and marimba technique. This study explores compositional influences throughout the piece and unveils influences in both Western Classical music and African music. This document contains seven chapters and a bibliography. Each movement unveils unique compositional influences that will be explored. Movement One, “Dance,” reveals the music of the Chopi people and timbila xylophones to be a compositional influence. The standard lamento bass line, as well as György Kurtág are stylistic influences in movement II, “Lamento.” Movement …

Perspective: Performance Art As A Measured Perception, Nicolas Tyler Stewart

Theses and Dissertations

Coining a seventh principle of architecture allowed for the creation of a solo performance based on architecture, performance and artificial intelligence. The future is impacted on what is presented today. The importance of the ever-changing American theatre is that it has the ability to influence and capture an audience. A sensation of existence crafted by feeling and poetry. A product of productivity – Disconnect is themed off of unconventional innovation. The six principles: Axis, Symmetry, Rhythm, Datum, Hierarchy and Transformation were all tools used to develop a script in characterizing the established space. The stage created the script, the script …

The Warped One: Nationalist Adaptations Of The Cuchulain Myth, Martha J. Lee

Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, I trace the use of the mythic Irish hero Cuchulain by early Irish nationalists. From 1878 to 1939, Standish James O’Grady, Lady Augusta Gregory, and William Butler Yeats employed this figure for specific political and cultural agendas. Cuchulain makes a fitting symbol for the “poet warrior” stereotype that was purposely and incidentally cultivated during the cultural nationalist phase of the Irish Literary Revival, when writers were beginning to explore the Cuchulain myth to demonstrate cultural and linguistic ideals. Nationalists found in Cuchulain a symbol that could tie the cultural to the political and the political to the …

The Golden Age, Or Trials And Tribulations Of A Working Man, Kaleb Edward Edley

Theses and Dissertations

In my second year at the University of South Carolina, I was tasked with creating a solo show. When first presented with this I was a bit nervous. However, after coming up with my idea, writing my script and beginning to rehearse I found the value in it. It is a freeing experience. It provides the actor with a sense of exploration they wouldn’t normally get with a regular ensemble play or performing someone else’s work. It becomes deeply personal reveals things about you that you might not have known otherwise

Bffs, Donavon St.Andre

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this assignment was to create, perform and evaluate my own show. Over the course of approximately twelve months, many ideas were brought to the table. None of these ideas were censored or frowned upon; each was very genuine and had the potential to become the final product presented. Throughout the process, I dove deeper into my own thoughts, beliefs and feelings as I attempted to decide and design my performance. Once a commitment was made, I applied my fears, troubles and insecurities on paper to ten adolescent students in a classroom setting. Drafting the script took little …

The Toccatas Of Johannes Hieronymus Kapsberger’S Libro Primo D’Intavolatura Di Lauto: Analysis, Performance Practice, And Transcription For Modern Classical Guitar, Brett Edwin Floyd

Theses and Dissertations

Johannes Kapsberger (1580-1651) was an Italian composer of the early Baroque era. Known for his compositions for the lute, and chitarrone, Kapsberger was a talented composer who worked for great patrons like Francesco Barberini and Pope Urban VIII. Kapsberger published his only surviving lute works in 1611, which contained eight lute toccatas, twelve galliards and twelve courantes. Music produced for the lute during the renaissance and baroque eras are products of their time. Published lute music was written in tablature and relied heavily on the performance practices of its day. Today, trained lutenists have the skills and knowledge needed to …

Who Am I Really? : Questioning The Patriarchal “Girl World ” To Find Identity In Mean Girls, Heathers The Musical, And Carrie: The Musical, Megan Renner

Theses and Dissertations

Both musicals and stories about teenage girls are genres that tend to be overlooked by scholars, and to not receive serious analysis. Some scholars may dismiss these genres as being shallow and unworthy of scrutiny through a critical lens. However, much may be learned about patriarchal influence on teenage girls in musicals such as Mean Girls, Heathers the Musical and Carrie: The Musical. This thesis analyzes the patriarchal influence on the teen girl characters in these three musicals, using Girl Studies and feminist theory. This study applies arguments that state that patriarchal influence is what causes girls to form cliques, …

Innie / Outie, Josh Roach

Theses and Dissertations

My practice is focused around the characters that I become through the wearing of things that I have made, and the subsequent performances that I do in both constructed and real-world spaces. This paper outlines how my practice is framed by own experience of coming out as a queer person, how that experience relates to my love of play and materials, and how they both inform the strategies I use to relate the ideas surrounding queerness, sexuality, and gender to my audience.

“Qendër Kulturore”, Erzë Sadiku

Theses and Dissertations

Kultura është pjesë thelbësore e shoqërisë. Luan rol të rëndësishëm dhe ka ndikim të drejtpërdrejtë në vlerat brenda një komuniteti.

Në një periudhë ku ngarkesat, stresi dhe “veset” negative të shoqërisë si: pabarazia, problemet e përbashkëta sociale që na bëjnë të ballafaqohemi çdo ditë, mënyra më e mire për t’u arratisur nga jeta bashkëkohore dhe për të gjeneruar pozitivitet është përmes aktiviteteve të ndryshme kulturore.

Mungesa e hapësirave të tilla, që bëjnë promovimin dhe pasqyrimin e artit dhe kulturës, nuk duhet të ndjehet në shoqëri.

Mirëpo, mungesë e tillë ndjehet edhe në qytetin tim. Mungesë të hapësirave dedikuar kulturës si: …

Localizing Orientalism: Mariano Fortuny Between Morocco And Spain, Susie Sofranko

Theses and Dissertations

The works of Mariano Fortuny y Cabral (1838-1874) illustrate the exploration of an individual's identity that mirrored that of the Spanish nation as a place geographically, temporally, and politically caught in-between, thus confronting the genre of Orientalism by subjecting it to the specificities of a Spanish context.

At The Risk Of Enchantment, Amy M. Butowicz

Theses and Dissertations

Through a lexicon of painted soft sculptures, salvaged furniture and objects referencing the hand-made, my work explores the absurdity of life through a lens of theatricality. My cast of characters are humanized with both physicality and interiority. The works haptic sensibility creates an oscillation between tangible object and metaphysical presence.

The Material Turn: Charles-Germain De Saint-Aubin And The Art Of Embroidery In Louis Xv’S France, Pamela J. Koons

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines Charles-Germain de Saint-Aubin and his prolific treatise, L’art du Brodeur— both of which elevated the status of eighteenth-century embroidery under the reign of Louis XV, as seen in the context of embroidered court dress, concepts of etiquette and the luxury guilds.

Surviving Isis:Life Stories Of Yezidi Women, Marian Mounir Rizkalla

Theses and Dissertations

My research centers on the experiences of five Yezidi female refugees in Kurdistan and how they survived the ISIS siege of their hometown- Sinjar. Yezidis, an ethno-religious community living in northern Iraq were the center of most news stories for the massacres they faced under ISIS and the sex-enslavement of thousands of them. This research attempts to show how a large-scale event like genocide impacts the life of the individual on the micro-level, but also how individual narratives are instrumental in constructing a collective identity, presenting Yezidis as a historically persecuted group. By examining sectarian relations in Iraq before and …

Media Piracy In The Middle East: A Case Study Of 2018 World Cup, Ruba Sayed

Theses and Dissertations

The main aim of this dissertation is to study the audience's perception, awareness, behavior and attitude towards pirating live sports broadcasting media content in one of the Middle Eastern countries, which is Egypt. Moreover, this research fills a gap in the literature by investigating the media landscape in the Middle East in the age of digitalization, presenting an overview of media piracy, internet penetration and social media usage in the region in general and in Egypt in specific. It also studies the recent piracy activity in the case of 2018 FIFA World Cup in Egypt, by examining the legal and …

Best Practices To Promote Racial Unity In Theatre, Cassandra Epps

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis I will be presenting a variety of practices that I believe will promote racial unity in theatre. I have included lesson plans and games that will help instructors create an open environment for students of all races. I will present research from theatre experts to conclude my best practices to create a more unified ensemble and culturally diverse curriculum in my theatre program, as well as present a list of activities, lesson plans, and production methods for directors and teachers to consider implementing. We as instructors must look critically at ourselves and our world view to begin …

A Mother Honors College Alternative To The Thesis, Amanda L. Ellenburg

Theses and Dissertations

My thesis was intended to inform readers about the one-woman show I performed, A Mother. In addition, my thesis described job positions within my field and the research I conducted for my production. Essentially, this may allow readers without any experience in the theatre to understand the process an actor undergoes during a production. Typically there are many people on a production team performing various roles. Instead, my tremendous challenge was acting as producer, director, actor, event coordinator, part designer, and marketing director. This paper includes acting advice from classmates, my instructor, Larry McDonald, and details of my use …

On Satyrs: Brutes, Monsters, And Demons: Of Their Nature And Worship: François Hédelin's Des Satyres As A Defense Of God And Humankind, Danielle Skjelver

Theses and Dissertations

Best known for his 1657 La Pratique du Theatre, François Hédelin was a cleric with a keen interest in the stage. As the abbé d’Aubignac, he wrangled in debate with the most respected scholars of his day, and Hédelin’s contacts extended to the crown itself. His Des Satyres, brutes, monstres et démons is an attempt to do with a species what he did with the stage - to bring disorder and immorality to heel.

This dissertation provides historical context, analysis, and translation of François Hédelin’s 1627 Des Satyres, brutes, monstres et démons. De leur nature et adoration Contre l'opinion de …

Touched With All The Radiance That A Sudden Sun Discloses, Marie Fornaro

Theses and Dissertations

The thread running through my work is a constant impulse to rend and repair; to make, unmake, and remake. This repetitive and circular approach allows me to confront the cyclical nature of gendered oppression. What does it mean to make something beautiful and then to dismantle it? How do we reckon with the pieces that remain? By deconstructing the beautiful and lovingly crafted objects that I spend hours making, I recenter “craft” as a verb rather than a noun, forcing myself and my audience to resist the comforting illusion of certainty.

I contextualize my piecework and quilting in a long …

Incidence And Predictor Variables Of Pressure Injuries In Patients Undergoing Ventricular Assist Device And Total Artificial Heart Surgeries: An Eight-Year Retrospective Review, Christopher T. Brindle

Theses and Dissertations

BACKGROUND

Cardiac surgery patients have some of the highest reported incidence and prevalence of pressure injuries (PI). A growing subset of cardiac surgery include patients with end-stage heart failure who undergo ventricular assist device (VAD) or total artificial heart (TAH) surgery. The risk of PI and their natural history of development in this population are unknown and the specific risk factors for PI development remain unexplored.

OBJECTIVES

To perform a systematic review of the literature to identify the incidence and risk factors of PI development in patients undergoing VAD-TAH surgery and thereby inform study design and variables in an eight-year …

Dark On Campus: A Phenomenological Study Of Being A Dark-Skinned Black College Student, Kiara Lee

Theses and Dissertations

As recent research finally starts to recognize colorism, a form of discrimination where light skin is valued over dark skin within an ethnic group, as a legitimate form of discrimination in the Black community, research on colorism in higher education still wanes. A limited amount of scholarship focuses on the manifestation of colorism in education and even less research examines the implications of complexion on Black college students and their intersectional identities. As empirical studies describe how complexion often denotes institutional degradation for dark-skinned Black students in K-12 and beyond -- from teacher perceptions, to the school-to-prison pipeline, to social …

Dramatic Themes: Active Learning And Thematic Teaching In The Theatre History Classroom, Brandon Lareau

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores major texts dealing with pedagogical theory and active learning in the context of a theatre history class. By comparing a class which is taught in the traditional, chronological format relying heavily on lectures to a class taught in a newer, thematic format utilizing active learning the thesis defines what student-centered learning means. Active learning, its benefits, and its implementation are explained and explored, along with the advantages and benefits of teaching thematically instead of chronologically. All of this is applied to a theatre history class in the resulting syllabus in chapter three. The syllabus creates a curriculum …

“The Ground On Which I Stand” Healing Queer Trauma Through Performance: Crafting A Solo Performance Through The Investigation Of Ritual Poetic Drama Within The African Continuum, Ashley W. Grantham

Theses and Dissertations

“The Ground On Which I Stand”

Healing Queer Trauma through Performance:

Crafting a Solo Performance through the investigation of Ritual Poetic Drama within the African Continuum.

By: Ashley W. Grantham

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts in Performance Pedagogy at Virginia Commonwealth University

Virginia Commonwealth University

April 16^th, 2019

Thesis Adjudicator: Dr. Tawnya Pettiford-Wates

Committee: Dr. Keith Byron Kirk, Director of Graduate Studies and Karen Kopryanski, Head of Voice and Speech

How does this method of Ritual Poetic Drama within the African Continuum, by extension, solo performance, …

Class/Act Embodied Practices For Performative Pedagogy, Chauntee Irving

Theses and Dissertations

Class/Act: Embodied Practices for Performative Pedagogy is a personal and practical exploration of embodiment’s role in higher education acting pedagogy. In my thesis, I propose that embodied acting practices rooted in phenomenology and corporeal dramaturgy surpass conventional acting curricula. Embodied training is often confused with movement curricula and is regularly considered a shallow and/or unintelligent means to approaching acting work. However, I will argue the efficiency and effectiveness of embodied teaching techniques in four parts. Part One: Seeing is a retrospective of how my personal experiences outside of the classroom have drawn me toward embodied aesthetics. Part Two: Knowing unveils …

Bantaba: Designing The Sacred Circle, Tashiara Scott

Theses and Dissertations

MOTIVATION In Richmond, there are 1.21 times as many African Americans as any other ethnic group. Yet 63.4% of African Americans live in poverty (Richmond, VA). African Americans face greater exposure to stress due to low socioeconomic status and poverty. In these communities, “discrimination and deprivation undermine individuals’ ability to accumulate the social and material resources to mitigate the effects of stress” (Brondolo, 2018). In this city’s African American community, where stress levels are high and consequential health concerns are prevalent, dance can be a remedy for managing stress and improving health (Hanna, 2006).

DESIGN PROBLEM How can an intentionally …

Humans Aren't Boxes, Art Isn't Finite, Brianne Alta Humphreys

Theses and Dissertations

I am bored. All around me are systems that perpetuate repetitive, reductive, and mundane modes of living. In an attempt to counter a culture obsessed with singular ways of existence and bite-sized perfection, I utilize moving mediums of video and performance to dive head first into a vast array of sloppy sincerity. The crisp, white-washed, analytical, and restrictive is loudly replaced with the empirical, haphazard, and instinctual. My intention is to create and encourage raw, performative-based work that is as multifaceted as unbridled life itself. This alive and physical practice hosts a conglomeration of sweat, memories, heartbreaks, hymn singing, line …

(And I Can't Stress This Enough) In My Mouth: Extradiegetic Affect As Material, C. Klockner

Theses and Dissertations

(and i can’t stress this enough) in my mouth: Extradiegetic Affect as Material is a non-linear exploration into the structures of feeling that exist in relation to cinema in its role as a technology for generating subjectivity. In the development of this research, a proposal of cinema’s likeness to the ecological circulation of microplastics is drawn in order to illustrate cinema’s materiality and nearly invisible ubiquity. The notion of extradiegetic affect is outlined as a post-cinematic condition in which lived experience becomes secondary to cinematic representation and which, simultaneously, becomes directly shaped by engaging with these representations.

The Puppets Look Like Flowers At Last, Evie Metz

Theses and Dissertations

The urge to uncover aspects of human condition permeates my work, from the fundamental curiosity of a child tearing apart their doll to uncover what lies within to continuing a quest in uncovering basic human urges through my puppet animated dramas and tragedies. There is a controversial line between the childlike and the adult-like that can be ambiguous, and at some times more discernible while other times less. I create handcrafted stop-frame puppet animations that explore self-conscious emotions such as embarrassment, shame, and envy within unpredictable life scenarios. These are animations about inner life, attempting to resolve conflicting elements of …

Tone And Texture, Leather And Lace : A Case For Making Strong Choices In The Costume Design For The Three Musketeers., Emily L. Tappan

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores and describes key factors in the design process leading to production of The Three Musketeers by Catherine Bush. The document encompasses the justification and discussion of the choices made during the research, design, and production stages of developing the play for the stage, as well as impressions gained throughout the process to use in future design projects.