Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Asexual Dramaturgies: Reading For Asexuality In The Western Theatrical Canon, Anna Maria Ruffino Broussard

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Asexuality has recently gained recognition and visibility as a legitimate sexual orientation and identity standpoint that is usually defined as lacking sexual desire for any gender. Popular culture and the academy have both seen the emergence of a robust conversation about the definition and import of asexuality, recognizing the term as an umbrella concept covering an ever-diversifying array of identities. Within the nascent critical discourse on asexuality, theorists have sought to identify asexuality as a sexual orientation, to rethink our society’s sexual normativity, and to question compulsory sexuality, or the assumption that sexual desire is intrinsic to all people, thus …

The Arena Players, Inc.: The Oldest Continuously Operating African American Community Theatre In The United States, Alexis Michelle Skinner

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Hay (1994) gave the Arena Players the moniker, “the oldest continuously operating African American community theatre company” in the U.S. But, if Black Theatre is increasingly found in mainstream venues in regional theatre and Broadway while Black Drama is relegated to syllabi, where is the living practice of African American, or black, community theatre? And what guarantees its survival? Craig (1980) and Fraden (1994) give voice to black critics, like Locke (1925), in co-creating objectives for black theatre during the FTP which took stage as the Negro Little Theatre continued. Hill & Hatch (2003) solidify the geographical and ideological connections …

Mini-Actors, Mega-Stages: Examining The Use Of Theatre Among Children And Youth In U.S. Evangelical Megachurches, Carla Elisha Lahey

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

How do children and youth first encounter the performing arts? While schools may stand out as an obvious answer, a recent study conducted by the U.S. Department of Education shows that the percentage of public schools offering theatre classes dropped at both the primary and secondary level from 2000-2010 (Brenchley). Yet, even as arts offerings experience a decline in some public schools, many students are being introduced to performance through another venue – the evangelical megachurch.

Since the birth of the church growth movement in the 1970s, megachurches (defined as Protestant congregations that average at least 2,000 weekly attendees) have …

Cuban Routes Of Avant-Garde Theatre: Havana, New York, Miami, 1965-1991., Eric Mayer-Garcia

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

My dissertation interrogates how the movement of artists between Havana, New York, and Miami shaped experimental theatre aesthetics, formed a shared discourse of theatrical thought, and introduced a particular vein of experimental practices into U.S. American avant-garde theatre, especially as it intersects with U.S. Latina/o theatre and LGBTQ theatre. I interrogate the theatre history of these three cities as horizontal and contiguous, challenging historical narratives of U.S. American neocolonial dominance and superiority, as well as narratives of diaspora that position Havana as an authentic origin. The central contribution of my dissertation is to synthesize the archival evidence that documents connections …

Professional Wrestling: Local Performance History, Global Performance Praxis, Neal Anderson Hebert

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Professional Wrestling: Local Performance History, Global Performance Praxis, is a work of interdisciplinary scholarship (combining elements of theatre history, performance studies, and philosophy) that addresses an area of performance currently under-researched within the liberal arts and humanities: professional wrestling. My dissertation directs much-needed attention to the fact that professional wrestling is the only kind of live drama many Americans ever see (or even want to see). Although it is no doubt easy for theatre historians and performance theorists to dismiss this performance practice because of its location somewhere between “illegitimate sport” and “lowbrow popular entertainment,” I contend that United States …

Perception, Power, Plays, And Print: Charles Ii And The Restoration Theatre Of Consensus, Christopher William Nelson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation aims to establish the importance of Charles II in the shaping and evolution of Restoration theatre. Even more so than the playwrights themselves, Charles II determined the future of the theatre, both by his conscious efforts to do so, as well as unintentionally through his own behavior and image. The tradition of Restoration theatre began in 1660 with Charles’s efforts at establishing a consensus theatre, in which it would appear that he enjoyed unanimous support for his return to England from exile. Consensus theatre was determined by the perception of Charles’s rule and character, his power to manipulate …

New Orleans Center For Creative Arts: A History In Progress, Suzanne Michelle Blanchard Chambliss

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In the state of Louisiana, a quality education for secondary school students can be hard to come by in any area of study much less in the areas of the arts. The New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA) provides a quality education to those talented students who audition and are accepted into the program. NOCCA has only existed since 1974 and in its relatively short life it has become a model for half-day pre-professional training programs throughout the United States and it has proven that it is possible to receive a quality education in Louisiana.

Southern Bellas: The Construction Of Mestiza Identity In Southern Narratives, Wendy Aimee Braun

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This project analyzes representations and self-representations of Mestizas living in areas of the Deep South that lack a significant Latino presence. Incorporating a range of media, I take a comparative approach to Southern cultural narratives and propose a re-reading of these works through an examination of identity formation and cultural negotiation. By centering the Southern Mestiza, this dissertation advances concepts of intersectionality to address the role of region, as well as race and gender, in the representation and experiences of women often overlooked in Southern and U.S. Latino studies. The Introductory chapter summarizes the theoretical framework for the study, including …

Performing Citizenship: Tensions In The Creation Of The Citizen Image On Stage And Screen, John William Wright

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

What does it mean to be a “citizen” of the United States? In the simplest of terms, citizenship is a limited position of identity, relegated to a narrow definition of legal and geographical position for an individual. But to be a “citizen” in America means far more than that – it becomes an accepted image of our collective identity which seeks an historical and political supremacy that allows America, and its citizens, to claim ideological status over anyone who is not a part of that nationalistic frame. The citizen has, for us, become a set of understood rights and privileges, …