Arts and Humanities Commons^™

The Freedom Quilt, April Jones

Theses and Dissertations

The Freedom Quilt is a play that I have written and adapted from Deborah Hokinson’s book, Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt. This story explores the historic and dramatic implications in the idea of coded quilts as a form of communication among African American slaves; specifically as coded maps to freedom. There is an ongoing scholarly debate challenging the existence of these quilts, let alone that they could have been used in such a complex manner. The Freedom Quilt however, is one girl’s unique and individual story, and does not in any way suggest that maps, encoded in quilts were …

The Politics Of Tea And Theatre: How Women’S Suffrage Groups Used Tea And Theatre To Influence Working And Middle Class Women To Become Politically Active, Lisa Kelly

Theses and Dissertations

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the members of the woman’s suffrage movement in the United States and Britain looked to soften their hard masculine image given to them by the press and to increase participation in the cause. They found that by including theatrical performances and benefits at meetings, and hosting tea socials afterwards, they could motivate many women to join without alienating or threatening men. This study looks at how tea socials and theatrical performances were used subversively to recruit new members, to debate ideas, and to disseminate information about the cause. Playwrights wrote plays that …

Pedagogy And Performing Shakespeare's Text: A Comparative Study, Sally Southall

Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT PEDAGOGY AND PERFORMING SHAKESPEARE’S TEXT: A COMPARATIVE STUDY By Sally Parrish Southall A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts at Virginia Commonwealth University Virginia Commonwealth University, 2009 Director: Dr. Noreen C. Barnes Professor, Director of Graduate Studies School of the Arts In the Master of Fine Arts program in Theatre Pedagogy at Virginia Commonwealth University, and in a second program, the Master of Letters/Master of Fine Arts in Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature in Performance at Mary Baldwin College - two specific pedagogical approaches to accessing and performing Shakespeare’s text, …

Blood & Thunder Classics, Vol. 2, Brian Taylor

Theses and Dissertations

A MAGAZINE – A game of Chutes and Ladders – a network of pools connected by streams, rivulets, creeks and rivers. Concerns: aluminum, sculpture, film, an endless image or an image-object, cork, shoulders as the center of movement, archery, wicker, nystagmus, darkness or the penumbral near-darkness, constant movement, beer, tone, musical forms, bells, gongs, The Titanic, purple, black and white, indeterminacy, Ghostface, yodeling, John Smith, John Adams, David Hammons, Beyoncé, Honda CR-V’s, Har-khebi, Ahnighito, Hermann Doomer, Prince, Yvonne Rainer, perception, double rainbows, composers from Transylvania, Los Angeles, and chandeliers. “Everything is everything.” and “A woman is the first teacher.”

Connectivity, Jennifer Farris

Theses and Dissertations

Create a place for learning Develop an interior system that addresses the under utilized spaces in existing higher education schools directed towards distance learning Design a place for one and a place for few, within a place for many Traditional classroom/school environments were developed around a specific program that addresses the needs of a teacher-class environment. Distance learning programs are introducing a new approach to higher education and require a new approach to learning environments. The goal of this project is to understand the development of the traditional classroom environment in order to assess the changes that need to be …

The Imagination And The Real, Thomas Ryan Gothrup

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis challenges the sedentary nature of living vicariously through the television, whether it be watching sports or playing video games. Since the advent of professional sports spectators have become accustomed to stadiums stuffed with people cheering on their favorite teams. The television substitutes for this visceral experience and allows viewers to live surrogate lives without leaving the living room. Ultimately, I see this thesis as a social commentary on the impact of sports and media in our society. This project highlights the sociological implications of the loss of interpersonal contact perpetuated by media.

Culture And A Connection, Chris Arias

Theses and Dissertations

Culture and a Connection In the Spanish province of Asturias, many homes built in the16th and 17th centuries are constructed of dry-stacked stone and large timbers for floor joists, rafters, decking. They are topped with large, irregularly shaped roof slates. Alongside many of these homes stands a rectangular granary called a cabazo. The cabazo, similarly constructed, is a stand-alone structure about twenty feet tall, six feet wide and twenty feet long. The main portion, (the storage area), stands ten feet off the ground atop two large, tapered columns. The upper level is typically separated form the lower level by a …

Paper Tricks, Edward Gardner

Theses and Dissertations

Prefabricated post disaster housing

Finding Myself Here, Cari Freno

Theses and Dissertations

Both the natural and civilized worlds establish a context within which I may understand my own existence. My search for “self” and the emotive qualities of life within these contexts provides the impetus for my work. I create juxtapositions: from found art assemblages to, more recently, intimate experiences in public park environments. Within these curated experiences I challenge myself to open up to unknown experiences derived from my relationship to the landscape and the life forms found within. My videos are a kind of self-surveillance fostering absurdly promiscuous behavior when I am alone, in front of a camera. These conjured …

Working From The Outside: Discovering Truth Within A Mask, Rebecca Bernard

Theses and Dissertations

It is the purpose of this thesis to explore the different principles of mask performance in modern theatre and the unique relationship it allows the actor to develop with an audience. The author uses exercises from her training experience with different mask artists such as Teatro Punto, Familie Floz, Torbjorn Alstrom, and Marcello Bartoli. These exercises document a process of training the body in preparation for the mask, how to perform with mask, and how to connect with an audience. The mask is used as a tool to discover an engagement of work that activates both body and imagination of …

Legacy, Susana Almuiña

Theses and Dissertations

I am interested in family secrets and the rules and mores that may constrain family behavior or adversely affect a member’s destiny. I make work that looks askance at the efforts to hide from the world those events or secrets that reflect badly on a family. I look at the places where I have discovered some of them: family furniture and objects around the house, which can shed, metaphorically, the secrets and stories that are part of family tradition. I focus light on the lives of my uncelebrated ancestors and bring them, however briefly, into the collective consciousness.

Collaboration Of Feminist And Postcolonial Discourses In The Plays Of Aphra Behn And Caryl Churchill, Erica Spiller

Theses and Dissertations

Subjugated groups studied by discourses of feminism and postcolonialism are commonly oppressed by white, male, imperial power systems. As different marginalized groups are exploited by the same dominant ideology the disparate discourses should collaborate in an attempt to fight the powers of oppression en masse. This thesis will explore not only how feminism and postcolonialism should collaborate, but that they have already been doing so for hundreds of years. In the seventeenth century the playwright Aphra Behn was already exploring the discourses as inseparable, and three-hundred-years later, playwright Caryl Churchill continues to do the same. By studying conventions of drama …

Steampunk: An Exploration In Design, Christopher Mueller

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to detail my first professional costume design job after my unofficial graduation in May 2008. This thesis will serve primarily as a design thesis, and will concentrate the majority of its efforts in the presentation of a final, original costume design for a realized production of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street as produced by Duke University. During the course of this presentation, I will seek to detail my own design process and the inspiration and research I used to achieve my goal. I will also discuss the execution of the design, …

The Roberta Jones Junior Theatre: A Model Children's Theatre, Chareen Hardy Lauritzen

Theses and Dissertations

Since its beginning in 1968, the Roberta Jones Junior Theatre, a children's theatre, connected to the Parks and Recreation Department of Santa Clara, California, has been creating child-centered performances for young audiences. This thesis will explore the history of the Santa Clara/Roberta Jones Junior Theatre and discuss the components that have contributed to its forty-year success. For a children's theatre to be successful it needs to be first centered on the learning of the children, in tune with the need of its community, and have a staff focused on the same goals. By examining the Roberta Jones Junior Theatre, the …

Onye Mbu: 'My Identity' Pedagogical Applications Of The Surreal And Absurd In Adrienne Kennedy's Funnyhouse Of A Negro, Adanma Onyedike

Theses and Dissertations

ONYE MBU: MY IDENTITY PEDAGOGICAL APPLICATIONS OF THE SURREAL AND ABSURD IN ADRIENNE KENNEDY'S FUNNYHOUSE OF A NEGRO By Adanma N. Onyedike, M.F.A A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts at Virginia Commonwealth University. Virginia Commonwealth University, 2009 Major Director: Dr. Noreen Barnes, Director of Graduate Studies Department of Theater This document investigated my personal journey of discovering, developing, and later executing skill in teaching the theatrical arts. The re examination of the steps that led to my current success was important in order to qualify the receiving of my …

"Splintered And A Great Silence": The Production Of Return To The Upright Position By Caridad Svich, Catherine (Cate) Brewer

Theses and Dissertations

Like the Tribute in Light that grew phoenix-like from the ashes of the broken hearts of the artists who created it, Return to the Upright Position is a beautiful on-line collaboration amongst fourteen artists in the six months following 9/11. Conceived and edited by Caridad Svich, the play is moving and delicate and instantly brings us back to those moments when American history and sentiment were forever changed. Demoralized, terrorized, afraid, and alone, our country dragged its shocked and weary carcass from the ash, and pulled itself back up again. That is after all the American way, pulling yourself up …

Teaching Vocabulary Meaningfully With Language, Image, And Sound., Doraina D. Pyle

Theses and Dissertations

This study was an exploration of how an instructional technique that uses language, image, and sound—that of a meaningful presentation of language with image by gradual, step-by-step sequencing—affects vocabulary acquisition. Research was carried out with volunteers from the BYU language community, who were randomly assigned to one of two testing groups. The two groups viewed Arabic language presentations wherein the presentation for the experimental group received line drawings to indicate vocabulary meanings, and the other group received English translations. Following the treatment, learners completed an online vocabulary test, and one week later, the same online vocabulary test. Statistical analyses indicated …

Place Names In Israeli Sign Language, Bettina Revilla

Theses and Dissertations

One of the obstacles in translating the Hebrew Scriptures into sign language is the lack of signs for Biblical places in most sign languages of the world. What solutions are there? One possibility is to borrow existing signs for Biblical places from another sign language, particularly from Israeli Sign Language, since Israeli Deaf already have signs for the places where they live.

There is a trend towards borrowing foreign place name signs (toponyms), especially when a language does not have a sign. This research provides a corpus of Israeli Sign Language (ISL) toponyms for ninety-two place names, documenting in photos …

An Analytical And Educational Survey Of Roger Boutry's Métachrome, Kimberly Renée Perkins

Theses and Dissertations

This project is an analytical and educational survey of Roger Boutry's Metachrome, a French wind band piece written in 2003. Part I of this project explores the history of modem French music. Part II is an analytical perspective of the composition. Part III presents a teaching approach, including teaching materials such as lesson plans, assignments, and rubrics. Part IV includes student handouts that coincide with the teacher lesson plans. Additional resources for the conductor can be found in the Appendix section.

A Beginning Teacher's Guide To Beginner Violinists, Anjuli Coe

Theses and Dissertations

In the following pages, the beginning teacher will find a guide to establishing a studio and ideas for teaching students. These ideas are meant to be a springboard for developing personalized organization and teaching tools for the violin studio. Ability to play the violin is not the only ingredient for a successful violin studio. Teaching the violin requires skill in understanding students and how they learn. It also requires a significant amount of planning, preparation, organization, and the setting of goals and objectives.

Beginner violinists may vary from a four-year-old with highly involved parents, to a professional trumpet player who …

Speaking Of Myself: Independence, Self-Representation, And The Speeches Of Rudyard Kipling, Jacob M. Wilkes

Theses and Dissertations

Rudyard Kipling is a man of immense diversity. He successfully managed to write for over half a century in a variety of genres: short story, travelogue, ballad, personal narrative, and news reporting, to name only a few. While doing so, Kipling readily interacted with a range of subjects and created a multitude of ideas. Likewise, on a personal level, Kipling led an immensely diverse life. He could easily claim four separate continents as home, living variously in India, the United States, England, and South Africa. By profession he was a writer, but as an observer he was so skilled that …

Theatrical Ideology: Toward A Rhetoric Theatricality, Jacob L. Robertson

Theses and Dissertations

When used in common vernacular, the terminology of the medium of theatre—"theatricality," "drama," "performance," "acting," "scene," etc."”form a vocabulary of "ideographs" as defined by Michael Calvin McGee. My analysis reveals that common usage of theatrical terms is more than merely metaphorical; the "theatre," rather, is a fundamental orienting concept for defining lived experience—it is ideology. By viewing the use of theatrical language as ideological, and analyzing how such terms define situations rhetorically, we begin to reveal the underlying ideology upon which the medium of theatre operates, and which it unconsciously conveys. I demonstrate this claim by analyzing the argument made …

Leigh And Lorne: Lost In The Credit Maze, Tatanya Stewart

Theses and Dissertations

Leigh and Lorne: Lost in the Credit Maze is a tool designed to teach teenagers, ages 15-17, about key consumer credit terms and concepts. Included in this document is the "Leigh and Lorne Credit Adventure Series," which is a collection of short stories introducing adolescents to key credit terms and concepts. The document also consists of the storyboard for an interactive video game, "Leigh and Lorne: Lost in the Credit Maze," the rules for the interactive game, initial questions for the game. A reflective essay notes the theories consulted when designing the project and explains how they influenced the final …

A Southern Paradox: The Social Activism Of Adolphine Fletcher Terry, Stephanie Bayless

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the motivations behind the social activism of Little Rock, Arkansas aristocratic matron Adolphine Fletcher Terry, the daughter of a Confederate soldier who became a devoted social activist for multiple groups of people, to answer the question, "Who is Adolphine Fletcher Terry?" Excerpts from Terry's unpublished autobiography "Life is My Song, Also," have been reproduced with added footnotes. Through these excerpts and the additional contextual analysis, the reader will see that Terry had a variety of motives behind her social activism ranging from boredom, to perceived obligations due to class and social status, to an overwhelming interest in …

Communication Handbook For Beginning Entrepreneurs, Janet Emanuella Harris-George

Theses and Dissertations

This document is an unpublished book manuscript termed Communication Handbook for Beginning Entrepreneurs. It consists of step by step instructions to assist students to compose documents they will encounter in a business setting.

Wing Beats And Rice Fields, Tommy Alan Bennett

Theses and Dissertations

"Wing Beats and Rice Fields" is my story about my outdoor adventures that took place in the fields of Stuttgart and across the Grand Prairie of Arkansas. These fields helped me realize my greatest triumphs as a hunter and as a human being. My memoir reflects my respect and admiration for nature and the waterfowl I hunted. It also provides a message of hope through one of life's toughest challenges.

Reinventing Virtue: Sensibility And Sentiment In The Works Of Maria Edgeworth, Octavia Cathryn Sawyer

Theses and Dissertations

While literary scholars have written extensively about sensibility in the past two decades, most of the studies have treated either the history of sensibility itself or how it interacted with a particular aspect of English culture and literature, such as sexuality or politics. My project instead examines how a single author, Maria Edgeworth, used sensibility in her writing over the course of her career. I analyze the use of sensibility in three of her novels: Belinda (1801), her first full-length novel; The Absentee (1812), her influential Irish national tale, written at the height of her popularity in the middle years …

Doctrinal And Historical Analysis Of Young Women's Education In The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints, Andrea Erickson

Theses and Dissertations

First, this thesis acknowledges that Jesus Christ is the central figure in the plan of salvation, and that the principal doctrine in the young women's curriculum should detail the Lord's atoning sacrifice (see Helaman 5:12). Second, it emphasizes the importance of God's law of witnesses (see Duet 19:15, Matt 18:16, 2 Cor 13:1, D&C 6:28). Third, it discusses the principles of edification within the young women's learning environment. Fourth, it explains the need to focus curriculum on universal and unchanging doctrine. The doctrine is the most crucial component in measuring the young women curriculum according to the latest standards offered …

Public Environmental Rhetoric: The Rhetorical Fashioning Of Civic Responsibility, Maggie Ngar Dik Hong

Theses and Dissertations

Environmental rhetoric has the capacity to render private citizens a concerned public. In doing so, it can prompt in individual practices of what, in classical rhetoric, was described as civic virtue and engage them in activities of responsible citizenship that work toward practical change. Within the recent tradition of environmental public discourse in the United States, Rachel Carson and Al Gore have each realized this capacity in their use of environmental rhetoric, by addressing, respectively, the issues of pesticide pollution and global warming in ways that galvanized citizens as an active public. This thesis examines the reasons behind this effectiveness. …

French Laïcité And The Popularity Of The Pacs, Ashley Gaylene Trupp Mattson

Theses and Dissertations

Civil unions are currently a divisive issues in the United States. Religion has historically influenced these debates. The French version of civil union, the Pacte Civil de Solidarité (Pacs,) was created in 1999 after seven years of debate. Many have written about the Pacs in the last decade. However, few have explored the direct correlations with France's relationship with Catholicism, her dominant religion that is doctrinally opposed to any sexual relationships outside of marriage. Laïcité has influenced a steady decrease in religiosity among French Catholics. This thesis explores the impact of this religious decline on the creation and surprising popularity …