Digital Commons Network^™

A "Time-Conscious" Christmas Carol, Jack Lundquist

Theses and Dissertations

Shortly after Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol was released in 1843, a tradition of adaptation began which has continued seemingly unabated to the present day. Consequently, the tale has become so widely known that one is arguably as likely to have first encountered the iconic miser Scrooge through any number of audio-visual adaptations as through the original work itself. Significant critical attention has been paid to the nature of Scrooge's drastic change from miser to philanthropist. Many would argue that the change, happening both literally and figuratively overnight, is not representative of a genuine psychological transformation. On Christmas day, 2010, …

Speech In America: Tracking The Evolution Of Speech Pedagogy In Theatre Training, Zachary Campion

Theses and Dissertations

Speech work, as it relates to actor training, has undergone many important changes since its formal introduction to the field over a century ago by Edith Skinner. Unfortunately, there are many who hold on to antiquated, misinformed and often harmful approaches to this kind of training. This thesis questioned the traditional models of speech pedagogy by creating a narrative for its development, questioning its efficacy, and exploring the alternatives that have developed over the years. I looked at the texts and approaches of Edith Skinner, Patricia Fletcher, Louis Coliaini, and Dudley Knight/Phil Thompson. I acknowledge that each practitioner has made …

The Development And Gentrification Of Musical Commerce In Williamsburg, Virginia, 1716-1775, Joshua R. Lehuray

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the burgeoning musical commerce industry in Williamsburg, Virginia between approximately 1716 to 1775. It especially focuses on the gentrification of this industry and the ways in which elite Virginians made use of music to establish themselves as inheritors of British culture and musical entertainment. A diversity of musical businesses appeared in Williamsburg during the eighteenth century, including instrument sellers, music and dancing teachers, and two theaters utilized by theatrical troupes, to name a few. Drawing on evidence from the Virginia Gazette, as well as journals, letters, playhouse reports, and account books, the thesis concludes that music provided …

Going The Distance: Themes Of The Hero In Disney's Hercules, Amy Elizabeth Burchfield

Theses and Dissertations

Disney's Hercules is an apt modern reception of the ancient mythology of Herakles, acknowledging ancient and modern sources surrounding three types of classical hero: the archetypal hero, influenced by the ideas of Joseph Campbell; the Pan-Hellenic hero, distilled from ancient Greek exempla of heroism from epic and other genres of ancient literature; and the tragic hero, inspired by the heroic criteria presented in Aristotle's Poetics. By adapting these heroic types from their traditional ancient source myths, Disney's Hercules produces a new, contemporary definition of heroism—one informed by modern, Western family values. This adaptation renews the power of the myth of …

A Survey Of Those In The U.S. Deaf Community About Reading And Writing Asl, Jennifer Keogh

Theses and Dissertations

On average, students who are deaf do not develop English literacy skills as well as their hearing peers. The linguistic interdependence principle suggests that literacy in American Sign Language (ASL) may improve literacy in English for students who are deaf. However, the Deaf community in the United States has not widely adopted a written form of ASL. This research surveys individuals in the U.S. Deaf community to better understand the opinions surrounding literacy in ASL.

The survey was presented online, containing both ASL in embedded videos and written English. The survey asked for the participants' demographic information, language and educational …

Who Do You Play For? : Naming, Difference And The Creation Of Scandal In Literature, Tristan Lipe

Theses and Dissertations

An exploration of how the creation of groups and interactions between groups impact people in the world. Beginning with an introduction that explores, specifically, how the creation of groups can function in the literary world when they are used as scandals. The introduction focuses on the rise of Poet, Kenneth Goldsmith and his use of Conceptualism to promote his brand. Following the introduction is a poetic exploration of groups and group conflict. It draws on social psychology, sociology as well as instances of violence partially resulting from rivalry between groups.

"You've Got To Be Carefully Taught": Reflections On War, Imperialism And Patriotism In America's South Pacific, Jayna D. Butler

Theses and Dissertations

Underneath the romance, comedy and exoticism, South Pacific is a story that questioned core American values, exploring issues of race and power at a time when these topics were intensely relevant-the original opened just four years post WWII, on the heels of Roosevelt's aggressive expansionist response to domestic instabilities. Much has been written about the depiction of war and racial prejudice in South Pacific. However, examining such topics in the context of their cultural and political moment (both in 1949 and 2008) and through the lens of Terry Eagleton's unique take on morality, is not only a fascinating study, but …

An Analysis Of The Marketing Tactics Used To Influence Millennial Generation Students In Their Decision To Attend A Two-Year Or A Four-Year College, Andrea Stanton

Theses and Dissertations

This study will attempt to evaluate the effectiveness of college recruitment marketing tactics used to influence Millennial Generation students, ages 17 to 22 years old, in their decision to attend either a two-year or a four-year college. Changing demographics and projections indicate a decline in the number of high school graduates within the next three to five years. This shift translates into fewer college applications and more competition among institutions of higher learning making it easier for most students to get accepted into college. The researcher will use focus groups and a survey to examine the perception of community colleges …

Conversations With Inanimate Objects: A Mortuary Analysis Of Oakland-Fraternal Cemeteries In Little Rock, Arkansas., Jeff L. Wright

Theses and Dissertations

From 2012-2013 a mortuary analysis of Oakland-Fraternal cemeteries in Little Rock, Arkansas was conducted for this thesis. Evidence that this cemetery serves as a cultural database for the city of Little Rock and that resources like this should be preserved as Cultural Resource Management projects are presented in an interdisciplinary approach to mortuary analysis combining the disciplines of Anthropology and Rhetoric. Analysis of iconography found on grave markers was conducted employing Robert E. Horn's visual rhetoric theories and methodologies. Kenneth Burke's Dramatic Pentad was also employed as a tool for measuring the motivations behind the authorship of grave markers. Issues …

Alexander Volkov And The Dancing Bacha: Uzbek Motifs In Motion, Rachel S. Golden

Theses and Dissertations

Alexander Volkov (1886-1957), an Uzbek artist identified by his expressive style, vibrant palette, and devotion to folk subjects, was a leading figure in the movement known as the Uzbek avant-garde. Volkov's influence is still at work among artists in Uzbekistan, though his legacy remains largely unexplored by Western scholars. The Arkansas Arts Center owns one drawing by Volkov depicting the tradition of dancing boys or bachas, a subject the artist also painted among his reflections on Uzbek culture. Work from the same period by fellow artist Alexander Nikolaev (Usto Mumin, 1897-1957), who was better known for his attachment to bachas, …

John White Alexander And The Feminine Aesthetic: A Discussion Of The Artist's Late Works (1901-1915), Jeanne-Marie Adelle Meyer

Theses and Dissertations

Upon his death in 1915, John White Alexander was recognized as a popular portrait painter, muralist, and genre painter in America. Scholarship on Alexander is limited and, in many instances, his later works are overlooked suggesting that Alexander's late paintings suffered due to the focus on of his artistic philanthropy to American art schools. His style, at the end of his life, is believed to have decreased from a strong Art Nouveau style seen in his earlier works. It is the intent of this thesis to show that Alexander's late works did not decline from his earlier style, but displayed …

Code-Switching In The Classroom: Teaching The Neutral American Dialect To The 21st Century Student, Hollis Louise Casini

Theses and Dissertations

Language is a personal process, a product of not only our development, but of one’s culture. Yet in the United States, an actor must be able to speak without a detectable dialect to be competitive in the entertainment world. How can voice teachers in a multi-cultural society, train students with more attention to the individuality of the students we educate? In this thesis, I present the information I have found important in my development as a voice teacher that has influenced my approach to training actors to use the Neutral American dialect. I begin by outlining human language acquisition and …

Applied Theatre: History, Practice, And Place In American Higher Education, Joseph A. Obermueller

Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this paper is to examine the practice of Applied Theatre in order to better define the genre and make a case for its legitimization and inclusion in higher theatre education. By looking at the theatre practitioners of the 20th century who paved the way for its existence as well as modern practitioners, a definition will be distilled down to five core characteristics of the practice with several case studies illustrating those characteristics. Once a clear distinction has been made between Applied Theatre and other similar genres, the case will be made for why the field should be …

The Physical Theatre Of War: Language, Memory, And Gender In Black Watch And War Horse, Andrea M. Gunoe

Theses and Dissertations

The public's perception of war is influenced by every media story they see, every account they read, and every story they hear. News telecasts and newspapers tend to lean towards a focus of the grand narratives of war such as political involvement and overarching strategy. Media such as books and film can tell a more personal narrative of the events of war and attempt to display how war "really is" through the use of written and visual language that focuses more on how things happened as opposed to simply what happened. Theatre provides a unique perspective on war as the …

Looking Outside The Canon: Owen Vincent Dodson'sboy At The Window, Sarah Anne Campbell

Theses and Dissertations

Scholars have viewed African American texts written in the years between 1950 and 1960 as espousing confrontation, protest, and resistance. Although fruitful in identifying large writing trends, much of that scholarship narrowly defines what writing during that time accomplished, leaving out important writers whose writing does not fit the mold. One such writer is Owen Vincent Dodson (1914-1983), who published Boy at the Window in 1951. The novel uses modes of drama including song and call-and-response to invite reader sympathy and identification with characters, and eventually provides reader the opportunity to participate in creating meaning. Dodson's novel subtly combats racism …

The Contribution Of Family Leisure To Family Functioning And Family Satisfaction Among Urban Russian Families, Mikale N. Williamson

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between family leisure involvement and family leisure satisfaction to aspects of family functioning and satisfaction with family life among urban Russian families. Specifically, this study examined how both family leisure involvement (core and balance) and family leisure satisfaction contributed to the explanation of variance in family functioning and satisfaction with family life. The behavioral factor of family alcohol consumption was also included in the analysis. Furthermore, because the data were nested in families, and because most family leisure research has been limited to individual-level analyses, this study accounted for family-level …

Giving Birth To Empowerment: Motherhood And Autonomy In Greek Tragedy, Maggie Sharon Hoyt

Theses and Dissertations

The Greek tragedies of Classical Athens frequently portray mothers in central roles, but despite this significance, the relationship between mother and child has long been overshadowed in secondary scholarship by the relationship between husband and wife. This study demonstrates the direct relationship between a female character's active possession of her children and her autonomy, or her ability to act in her own interests, in three plays of Euripides: Electra, Medea, and Ion. In general, women who internalize their ownership of their children, expressed on stage both in word and action, have greater influence over the men around them and the …

Determining Code Choice: Written Slogans During Egyptian Revolution-January 2011, Hanzada Hesham Amin

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study aims at depicting the phenomenon of the written code switching between Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and Egyptian colloquial Arabic (ECA) in the written slogans during the Egyptian revolution January 2011. Findings show that ECA clauses comprise a significant percentage as observed from the survey done through the questionnaire and application of Myers-Scotton's (1993) theoretical framework of Matrix Language Frame (MLF). These findings shed light on 1) Merging between MSA and ECA is a distinctive feature in Arabic in many domains 2)The best ways to benefit from this phenomenon in AFL teaching 3)The importance of the event in …

Television Human-Puppet Talk Show: Sensationalism, Conflict And Emotional Concerns "Case Study Of Abla Fahita Live", Mary Yousry Kamel Habib

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the effect of sensationalism in human-puppet talk shows and the rate of adoption or rejection of viewers to the new innovation for Egyptian Television “Abla Fahita.” Two theories are used as a framework: diffusion of innovation theory (DOI) and cultivation theory. The study’s main hypotheses were H1: Youngesters adopt innovativeness earlier than others in their social system. H2: Audience who watch more show episode’s segments, the more they tend to adopt sensational contents spontaneously. H3: Abla Fahita human-puppet talk show’s heavy viewers tend to watch the episodes on YouTube channel than television. The primary research linked sensationalism …

B Is For Burka, C Is For Counterinsurgency: Us Troops Experiences Of And With Afghan Society, Sarah Cosette

Theses and Dissertations

Since 2001, members of the U.S. military and Afghan communities have been living alongside each other as part of the international political intervention and military campaign Operation Enduring Freedom. A schism occurred between Afghan societies in relation to this involvement, which in turn produced relationships between foreign troops and Afghan civilians, the state apparatus and insurgents. An international discourse of propaganda using gender as a tool surrounded the conflict and attempted to justify the presence of foreign militaries in Afghanistan by framing the U.S. as rescuers, liberating Afghan victims from Afghan oppressors. A counterinsurgency doctrine was developed after Afghanistan resisted …

The Effect Of Project Read On The Reading Fluency And Comprehension Of Third Grade Students With Special Needs, Andrea Derringer

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect Project Read has on the reading fluency and comprehension of third grade students with special needs. This study implemented a two group, pretest-posttest design. The participants were six students with special needs from a third grade inclusion classroom who scored about two grade levels below grade three. A pretest, intervention mid-test, and intervention posttest were utilized to collect data. The independent variables were the use of the Project Read Story Form Literature Connection materials. The dependent variable was the measure of the participants reading fluency and comprehension using the Developmental …

Devastating Diva: Pauline Viardot And Rewriting The Image Of Women In Nineteenth-Century French Opera Culture, Rebecca Bennett Fairbank

Theses and Dissertations

Historically vilified, the vocalizing woman developed a stereotyped image with the emergence of the prima donna in eighteenth-century opera. By the nineteenth century, the prima donna became the focal point for socio-cultural polemics: women sought financial and social independence through a career on the operatic stage while society attempted to maintain through various means the socio-cultural stability now threatened by women's mobility. The prima donna represented both a positive ideal for women as well as a great threat to western patriarchy. A discourse emerged in which the symbol of female independence and success ”the prima donna" became the site of …

We Dream Of An Age That Is Equal To Our Passions, William Winks

Theses and Dissertations

We dream of an age that is equal to our passions is a series of soliloquies and ideas that look at the false narratives I tell myself in order to get out bed in the morning, at the depression that came after failed revolutions, at the unrealistic hopes of my politics, and of my desire to become a whole human being.

Branch Public Baths, Whitney Cardozo

Theses and Dissertations

Is it possible for a small hotel to strengthen connections between local and transient groups? Can a small hotel serve as a host to visitors to Richmond, Virginia but also serve as a ‘third place’ for people who live and work in the city? The Branch Public Baths Building in Richmond, Virginia will be renovated to strengthen community by serving as a restaurant and providing accommodations and interaction to a wide variety of travelers through an urban hotel setting. The Branch Public Baths cafe and restaurant can be an ‘anchor’ third space. This unique design solution can strategically integrate the …

Serve The Ones Below: The Dramaturgy Of Sweeney Todd, Michael Hegarty

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a personal journey. My work on VCU’s production of SWEENEY TODD began in the Spring of 2012 when I came on board the production as dramaturg. Part of what is contained within is both an explanation of my dramaturgical research method as well as samples of the research I have compiled. However, my role was drastically changed in the Fall of 2012 when I was cast as the primary antagonist in the production. The thesis chronicles the rehearsal process as my role as dramaturg increasingly gave way to my role as actor. It attempts to answer the …

In Perceiving Monsters: A Costume Design For Caryl Churchill's The Skriker, Joshua Quinn

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to document my process for a costume design of The Skriker by Caryl Churchill. Included is the design account confronted in telling the story, analyzing the script, developing concepts and looks, and final rendering of the characters. The paper finishes with a reflection on how the design served the script and my conclusions on its success.

Shockheaded Peter: A Junk Opera. Costume Design., J. Theresa Bush

Theses and Dissertations

My concept is rooted in the fairy tail land of the dark woods like so many other terrifying fairy tails from my youth. Shockheaded Peter, our boogie man, is of the trees. The blood of the rotten children feeds the trees in this concept for the marbles that fall from our children literally representing blood will flow down the rake, across tin gutters, and into a huge tin washbasin out of which grows our gnarly set tree, a gnarly knobby willow. Peter comes from this tree that is fed by the blood of children. I set my costumes in the …

Laughing Together: Comedic Theatre As A Mechanism Of Survival During The Holocaust, Robin Knepp

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis aims to analyze the ways many Jewish victims of the Holocaust used comedic theatre to help them overcome their dire circumstances by exploring the high demand for comedic performance in both the ghettoes and concentration camps and analyzing the numerous comedic works that were penned amidst the terror and catastrophic loss surrounding the Jews at this time. The second portion delves into the therapeutic values of comedy and explores the ways laughing may have benefitted those who partook in comedic theatre events. The final chapter investigate whether or not laughter should still be used to help cope with …

Teaching And Performing Theatre For Youth Using Physical Storytelling, Brooke Turner Alison

Theses and Dissertations

For children to enjoy theatre they must see a story played out physically. The same is true when children act. Young performers must be taught to act using a simplified version of the Stanislavski System that puts emphasis on playable action. This thesis evaluates current acting texts for youth based on whether or not the author is able to outline a method that is accessible for children, and highlights the importance of playable action in scene work. It also provides a guide to teaching theatre for youth based on a class of the author’s design where students developed curriculum, managed …

Considering Strasberg’S Method In The Twenty-First Century: A New Pedagogy, Terry Hardcastle

Theses and Dissertations

Student of Richard Boleslavsky and Maria Ouspenskaya, co-founder of the Group Theatre, Artistic Director of the Actors Studio, founder of the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute, and developer of The Method, Lee Strasberg is one of the most famous acting teachers of the twentieth century. In the same way a concert pianist must practice her scales daily to maintain expertise, Strasberg believed an actor must regularly practice the use of sense memory to be emotionally authentic. Using Strasberg’s Method, this is achieved through a combination of relaxation and concentration, which leads to a sense of truth in performance. The …