Arts and Humanities Commons^™

We Are Dancers, Jeanette Hiyama

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

This project focuses on dance and what it means to different people. My goal was to explore this topic through a movement piece supplemented by text and human responses. I wanted to express that dance does not fall under one definition and that you don’t have to be a dancer to enjoy or be touched by this performing art. Anyone can appreciate dance and that’s one of the messages I wanted to share through my project. This work was a reminder to never take things for granted and that dance has a place in everyone’s hearts.

Bewitching The Blame: The Crucible's Legacy Of Appropriation And Sexual Shame In Popular Culture, Hope Kristine Morris

Theses and Dissertations

In The Crucible Arthur Miller uses tropes of female characters, Abigail and Tituba, to tell a story of male heroism. In the process, he dismisses and appropriates the true stories of women who suffered during the Salem witch trials for his own political and personal gain. In this thesis, I argue that Miller’s appropriation and sexualization of women continues into contemporary popular culture depictions of the Salem witch trials including the movie adaptation of The Crucible and the television shows Salem and American Horror Story: Coven. These depictions appropriate and sexualize women’s stories in order to fulfill the male gaze. …

Titanic : The Musical, Department Of Theatre And Dance

Spring 2021

The sinking of the Titanic in the early hours of April 15, 1912 remains the quintessential disaster of the twentieth century. A total of 1,517 souls- men, women, and children- lost their lives (only 711 survived). The fact that the finest, largest, strongest ship in the world- called, in fact, the unsinkable ship- should have been lost during it’s maiden voyage is so incredible that, had it not actually happened, no author would have dared to contrive it.

Using Theatre To Teach Social Skills To Students On The Autism Spectrum, Meaghan Nicole Ritchie

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Theatre-based interventions are an emerging field to improve social skills in individuals with autism. This study analyzed 10 different articles using theatre-based interventions, combined with evidence-based practices, to increase social skills deficits in students, ages 8-17, diagnosed with autism. Results indicate improvement in social skills for individuals with autism after participating in theatre-based interventions.

La Llorona, Picante Pero Sabroso: The Mexican Horror Legend As A Story Of Survival And A Reclamation Of The Monster, Camille Maria Acosta

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

For centuries, the relationship between Mexico and its infatuation with scary stories has been profoundly complex, but why? Perhaps it is the easiest way to communicate a Mexican culture, although proud and resilient, riddled with haunting narratives. For myself personally, the Mexican horror narrative La Llorona has served as a lens for conversation and communication that is unique and important.

In this thesis, I explore how Mexicans and Mexican Americans alike use the legend of La Llorona as a unique form of communication through personifying what truly haunts us. From using the narrative as a tool for entertainment, cautionary tales, …

Brigadoon, Department Of Theatre And Dance

Department of Theatre and Dance Performances

Lerner and Loewe’s Brigadoon is the enchanting and beloved Broadway and West End musical that inspired the classic MGM film, and numerous productions all over the world. Featuring such standards as "Almost Like Being in Love," "Come to Me, Bend To Me," and "Heather on the Hill," Brigadoon is a timeless, romantic classic which vividly brings the mystery and magic of the Scottish highlands to life. New Yorker Tommy Albright unexpectedly arrives at the mysterious Scottish Highland village of Brigadoon, which only appears for one day every 100 years. When Tommy meets and falls in love with Fiona, a beautiful …

Brooklyn's Bridge, Department Of Theatre And Dance

Spring 2021

Brooklyn’s Bridge is inspired by the extraordinary life of Emily Roebling, wife of Brooklyn Bridge Chief Engineer Washington Roebling. While working in the caissons under the east river, Washington had a debilitating attack of “the bends” and became bedridden. For the next eleven years, only Emily was seen on the worksite, delivering plans, handling both engineering and political issues. The New York Times recently revised their obituary acknowledging that, SHE built the bridge. And as the Brooklyn Bridge grows stronger, foundations to towers, cables to roadway…so does their love for one another, as Emily navigates the uncharted waters; a Victorian …

'Tasha, Department Of Theatre And Dance

Spring 2021

T A S H A, inspired by Socrates' Antigone, is set in a modern republic where White Supremacy and Black Civil Disobedience, each, are at their height. The play centers on Natasha Brown, a fictional Sasha Obama. 'Tasha buries her cousin, defying the edict - 'no one shall bury a law-breaker who dies in the act of committing a crime.' The issuer is President Waters, a Trump-Clinton-like character. Will 'Tasha's death restore order or fuel injustice? Is the criminalization of Brown people irreversible?

The Names We Gave Him : Music Capture, Department Of Theatre And Dance

Spring 2021

Loosely based on a true story, this is a musical about an amnesiac veteran of the First World War, the doctor who treated him, and the many women who, in denial of their grief, claimed him as their lost beloved. The piece explores the agony of war for both the soldiers and the families they leave behind, the distorting power of loss, and the insistence of love. What is a country’s identity in the aftermath of such devastation? What is a self without memory?

Top Girls, Department Of Theatre And Dance

Spring 2021

Just as timely and provocative as when it debuted in the early ‘80s, Top Girls highlight the sacrifices made by women in their quest for success and what happens to those left behind. With her characteristically bold theatricality, Caryl Churchill examines women in the workplace in Maggie Thatcher’s Britain who choose to take on the worst traits of men. At the heart of her emotionally blistering and sharply witty play, two sisters, one an upwardly mobile businesswoman and the other passionately committed to her working-class roots, battle over personal and deeply held political views in a confrontation that will forever …

Pivot: Spring Dance Concert, April 29-May 1, 2021, School Of Theatre And Dance

Programs - Theatre, Dance, and Film

In Collaboration with Creative Technologies

April 29, 30; May 1, 2021, 7:30 p.m.

Presented online, pre-recorded via Zoom

Sonnets In Viral Times, Sarah Kate Anderson

All Assignment Prompts

To illuminate our personal experiences during this time of sheltering-in, we will continue our investigation of sonnets as performance texts by writing and acting in our own creations. Held by the structure of the verse, we will create and perform sonnets that communicate our thoughts and feelings about life, loss, survival, resilience, and love during these unprecedented times. We will continue to lend our voices to the verse with specific concentration on embodiment, clarity, personal connection, and the merging of the emotional and intellectual through-line. This collaborative assignment has two parts: a creative writing component, and a skilled performance component.

The Psychology Of Dance Medicine: Self-Perception Of Dancers, Karina Desai

Senior Theses

Derived from sports medicine, dance medicine is a subcategory that focuses on the health and well-being of dancers on a scientific and medical level. Dancers are considered “elite” athletes and artists, which requires this specific niche of medicine to study the injuries and other health-related issues that develop as a result of dancers’ unique movement. Studies show that in addition to physical injuries, dancers are also susceptible to mental health issues. There are many factors of the dance environment, such as the instructor, peers, and mirrors, that alter the self-perception of dancers. Due to dancers being required to train in …

Into A Lamplit Room, Otterbein Theatre And Dance Department

2020-2021 Season

The life of Composer and Social Activist, Kurt Weill, is celebrated in this cabaret-style compilation of his work. The production includes more than 30 songs, ranging from his life in Berlin during the Weimar Era during which he was a voice against the Nazi regime, to his emigration to the U.S. where he was a supporter of the American war effort in the 1930’s, and finally his contributions to the American Musical Theatre canon. Audiences will particularly recognize his collaborations with Ira Gershwin, Bertolt Brecht, and Maxwell Anderson in the songs written for Broadway including Tschaikowsky, Mack the Knife, Pirate …

Barbeque, April 22-24, 2021, School Of Theatre And Dance

Programs - Theatre, Dance, and Film

Written by Robert O'Hara

April 22-24, 2021, 7:30 p.m.

Online performance, via Zoom

Roe, April 8-10, 2021, School Of Theatre And Dance

Programs - Theatre, Dance, and Film

Written by Lisa Loomer

April 8-10, 2021, 7:30 p.m.

Presented online, live stream via Zoom

Gross Indecency: The Three Trials Of Oscar Wilde, March 4-6, 2021, School Of Theatre And Dance

Programs - Theatre, Dance, and Film

Written by Moises Kaufman

March 4-6, 2021, 7:30 p.m.

Online presentation, live stream via Zoom

Old Maid And The Thief; Gallantry, April 8, 2021, School Of Theatre And Dance

Programs - Theatre, Dance, and Film

The School of Theatre and Dance and School of Music present:

Gallantry, written by Arnold Sundgaard; book, music, and lyrics by Douglas Moore

Old Maid and the Thief, written by Gian Carlo Menotti

April 30, 2021, 8:00 p.m.

Presented on WGLT Radio

Stage Manager And Director For Julius Caesar, University Of North Florida

UNF Shakespeare - Julius Caesar

Stage Manager and Director for UNF's production of Julius Caesar

Chimeric Ideals, Carter Hoffer

Honors Thesis

What comes next and how do you move on from something that seems all-encompassing? These are just a couple of the questions author Carter Hoffer asks within his original play, Chimeric Ideals. Inspired by a nation rife with gun violence and no plan to reign it in, Chimeric Ideals follows the story of Percy, Adam, Jed, and Henry immediately after the most traumatic experience of their young lives, exploring the difficulty of healing in a world where mental health is a taboo subject, and its' sufferers sometimes refuse to admit to even having a problem. Originally conceived as a …

Life In Quarantine Poem, Oluchi Nwokocha

All Assignment Prompts

No abstract provided.

This New Colossus, Sean M. Ardor

Theses and Dissertations

This New Colossus was an original work of theater which I conceived, wrote, designed, directed, and performed four times over three consecutive evenings in mid-November 2019 at the Center for Performance Experiment in Columbia, South Carolina (A video recording of this performance is included in my thesis submission). This New Colossus tells the a story of an unnamed Grandfather and his Grandson struggling against a fictional communist government of the United States during its rise in the 1930's and its fall in the 1970's. The work was inspired by the lives of 20th century leftist revolutionaries, the poetry of Walt …

Failure And The Amiable Lie, Timothy Giles

Theses and Dissertations

This document details the creation and execution of my solo theatrical piece The Man and the Demon. The first chapter serves as an exploration of how the show was conceived, created, rehearsed, and presented before an audience. In the second chapter, I detail why this piece resists traditional standardization for the purpose of repetition. Through both chapters I investigate the intimacy and immediacy of theatre, the benefits of risk, the essence of storytelling, and the usefulness of theatre’s “amiable lie.”

Julius Caesar's Director, Stage Manager, And Dramaturge Team, University Of North Florida

UNF Shakespeare - Julius Caesar

UNF's Production of Julius Caesar's director, stage manager, and dramaturge team

A Still From Julius Caesar Act Ii, University Of North Florida

UNF Shakespeare - Julius Caesar

UNF's Production of Julius Caesar at MOCA Jacksonville.

Full Company Of Unf's Production Of Julius Caesar, University Of North Florida

UNF Shakespeare - Julius Caesar

Full cast and crew pose for a picture in Rome, Florida Farmer's Market

Final Script: Julius Caesar, University Of North Florida, William Shakespeare

UNF Shakespeare - Julius Caesar

Final Script of UNF's production of Julius Caesar. Updated on January 25,2021

Julius Caesar: Director Team, University Of North Florida

UNF Shakespeare - Julius Caesar

UNF's Production of Julius Caesar at MOCA Jacksonville, Director team

Spring Dance Concert (April 29-30, 2021), Lindenwood University

Student Dance Programs & Brochures

Program for the Spring Dance Concert (April 29-30, 2021).

Urinetown: The Musical (April 8-10, 2021), Greg Kotis, Mark Holloman

Student Theatre Programs

Program for Urinetown: The Musical (April 8-10, 2021).

To view the photos from this production of Urinetown: The Musical, please click here.