Theatre and Performance Studies Commons^™

I Am, Braylee Polson

Undergraduate Honors Theses

I Am is a creative thesis in the form of a theatrical play. This play creates a new Appalachian legend based around the Biblical Story of Moses, feminism, and the African Deity Mami Wata.

Echoes Of The Past: A New Play, Cayson Miles

Honors Theses

My project is a new play titled Echoes of the Past. In this two-act full length play, two different diseases are explored: the HIV/AIDS epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s, and the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. The show follows a trio of characters from each time period, and as the play progresses, the time periods begin to intersect, and the characters begin to interact with one another. I chose to write this play because as a member of the LGBT community, when I watched the response to the coronavirus pandemic unfold, I could not help but see the parallels to …

Chickens In Texas: A Farce In One Act, Lawson Marchetti

Honors Theses

Herein lies a one-act farce written by Lawson David Marchetti, an English major in the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College at the University of Mississippi. His emphasis is in Creative Writing, and his minors are in Theatre Arts and in Music. This farce was written as his senior thesis, for the completion of requirements of the Honors College. The play was conceived in August of 2020, and completed in April of 2021. The play itself is set in modern times, sans pandemic, and is highly whimsical in style. It requires a cast of twelve comedic actors, and several complicated technical …

The Story Of A Journey: Awakenings Before, During And After The Zoom Production Of The Play Thrift Store Junkie, Brendan Beseth

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis tells the story of several awakenings I had while pursuing my M.F.A. in playwriting at the University of Arkansas. It details some of the traps a writer can fall into. It tells of how to get out of the quicksand. Also contained within is an account of the thesis production of my play Thrift Store Junkie and the play’s script.

A Playwright’S Process: How Ideas Change From Germination To Execution, Austin Roberts

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

The Tempest 2021, Otterbein Theatre And Dance Department

2020-2021 Season

Abducted and set adrift to die by her power-hungry sister and a jealous king, Prospera and her daughter, Miranda have survived 12 long years shipwrecked on a lonely island. When Prospera learns though her magical arts that those whose sought her child’s death are within her reach, she is consumed by rage. Conjuring the greatest of storms to break their ship upon her shores, Prospera brings her enemies to her feet. But when the opportunity to wreak her final vengeance is upon her, Prospera can no longer recognize the thing she has become, and she is forced to choose between …

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 …

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 …

The Island Heritage / El Patrimonio De La Isla, Susana Castillo-Rodriguez

Languages and Literatures

In 1926, Philip. J. Fisher published “The Island Heritage. Episodes from the Missionary History of Fernando Poo, West Africa. A Play for Young People”. This book has remained unknown until present. There is one copy at Archives and Special Collections, SOAS Library (London).

This play is of enormous interest not just for it has been mentioned above but also because:

1. It is a vivid narration of the settlement of Protestant missionaries in Clarence, based on historical facts and personal experience collected first hand by Philip. J. Fisher as he interviewed some of the protagonists in the play.

2. It is the …

Ataka, Anthony H. Chambers

Mime Journal

No abstract provided.

Introducing Genzai Nō: Categorization And Conventions, With A Focus On Ataka And Mochizuki, Diego Pellecchia

Mime Journal

No abstract provided.

Mochizuki: History And Context, Michael Watson

Mime Journal

No abstract provided.

From Ataka To Kanjinchō: Adaptation Of Text And Performance In A Nineteenth-Century Nō-Derived Kabuki Play, Katherine Saltzman-Li

Mime Journal

Nō techniques and play borrowings provided important infusions into kabuki throughout its history, but in the nineteenth century, a genre of kabuki plays in close imitation of nō or kyōgen wasadded to the kabuki repertoire. The genre came to be called matsubamemono, meaning “[nō/kyōgen-derived kabuki] plays [performed] on a stage with a pine painted on the back wall” or “pine-boardplays.”1 These plays are the focus of this article, in which I first introduce the genre and its place in kabuki history, and then discuss its most famous example, the play Kanjinchō (Hattori 17–40; Meisakukabuki zenshū 181–197; Brandon, The Subscription List …

Paragons Of Loyalty On The Japanese Stage, J. Thomas Rimer

Mime Journal

No abstract provided.

Emmie And The Enchanted Orchid: Portraying Positive Disability Representation In Children's Media, Adrianna Waters

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Disability representation in media and storytelling is often negative or inaccurate, with disability narratives equating disability to evil or lesser than abled bodies. The harmful representation is especially prevalent and dangerous in children’s media as the depiction of characters with disabilities may be children’s first introduction to disability, and thus the portrayal is likely to stay with them, especially as stories for adults continue to perpetuate the inaccurate representation of disabilities. “Emmie and the Enchanted Orchid”: Portraying Positive Disability Representation in Children’s Media seeks to examine the harmful portrayal of disabilities in children’s media while also recognizing how disability can …

Cut Song Cabaret: Performing The Replaced, Rewritten, And Recycled Songs Of Musical Theatre, Claire Wilson

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

In musical theatre, “cut songs” are the pieces of music that are removed from a show, whether the cut occur in the early creative stages, a pre-Broadway run, minutes before opening night, or even for a major revival years after its initial debut. These songs easily go unnoticed, as some are never made public while some are sneakily recycled for other musicals. Cut songs, though greatly varying in quality, are still works of art that at one time fulfilled their sacred duty of entertaining an audience and required just as much artistic effort to produce as the songs that survived …

Direction Of The Play: Another One, Chris Hansen

All Graduate Projects

Another One

Written and Directed by Chris Hansen, Spokane Falls Community College Theatre Department

Produced November 2020

This project encompasses the selection, research, casting, production, and post-production process of the play, Another One, for Spokane Falls Community College Theatre Arts Department. Documentation includes: analysis of the play for our program, research, script analysis, scenic and technical challenges of our time, a record of the production period and a post-production evaluation.

New Play Collaborations, Kathleen Potts

Open Educational Resources

This is a syllabus for a New Play Collaborations course, which explores the creative, collaborative process of creating a new play. It is comprised of sets of actors, directors, and playwrights, who will team up to create a number of original works for the stage.

The Pajama Game, Otterbein Theatre And Dance Department

2021-2022 Season Production

Based on the novel 7 ½,The Pajama Game tells the story of a labor furor over a seven-and-a-half-cent pay raise at a pajama plant that complicates the course of true love for Sid Sorokin, the new factory superintendent, and Babe Williams, the feisty firebrand heading the Union Grievance Committee.

Group Playwriting Project, Thomas L. Rothacker

Open Educational Resources

This assignment is designed for any lecture based course that does not inherently have collaborative work or assignments as part of the curriculum. For any student taking a theatre arts course, understanding how it is to work with others and create something is one of the biggest lessons that can be learned. To take the pressure off the idea of "performance", this playwriting assignment starts with the role of the Playwright and how to create from the ground up.

[Insert Play Title Here] Collage Assignment, Thomas L. Rothacker

Open Educational Resources

Approaching analysis of Dramatic Literature can easily be accomplished via class discussion and through writing. Since plays are “written to be performed”, other approaches of analysis must be explored. The collage assignment and synthesis focuses on the visual aspects of the writing and how the playwright offers clues as to what can or should be focused on.

Renouncing Chance: A Comprehensive Analysis Of Brian Friel’S Faith Healer, Forest Clark, Forest C. Clark Mr.

Honors College Theses

Faith Healer by Brian Friel is a play about trauma, addiction, co-dependency, and the inconsistencies of multiples perspectives upon the same narrative. This in-depth academic analysis attempts to examine the themes at play, as well as break-down the script and the characters who are a part of it.

Purchased, Becky Retz

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

A play in two acts, Purchased tells the story of Francois DeLord and his journey from being a French Creole of New Orleans to becoming a Black man in America. In 1803, Napoleon sold France’s North American holdings to the United States in what became known as the Louisiana Purchase. Americans flooded into the city, bringing with them boatloads of money and a social philosophy that clashed with long-held local traditions. The sale doubled the size of the young nation, and ignited a culture war in New Orleans,

Lemonade Stand: An Original Theatre For Young Audiences Play For Neurodiverse Children, Kate Tayler

Honors Projects

Lemonade Stand is an original play a Theatre For Young Audiences-style play written with accessibility in mind for neurodiverse children, especially with ADHD and autism.

The Gilded Finch: An Exploration Of Class Conflict, Mattea Harrison

Senior Honors Theses

Research is applied to create a play exploring the conflict between two women in the American upper class at the end of the nineteenth century. Both Mrs. Astor and Mrs. Vanderbilt’s family, wealth, and relationships were researched through studying primary and secondary accounts of their lives and times. A study of the women has produced a comprehensive picture of their motivations in their lives’ actions. The relationships between the women and their daughters has also been examined and applied. These two women are interesting characters in history to examine due to their family history and the families that they married …

Dance 2020: The Wild Within, Otterbein Theatre And Dance Department

2020-2021 Season

The Dance Concert, inspired by Maurice Sendak’s children’s classic, “Where the Wild Things Are,” will include a collection of solos, duets and trios which will illuminate the immense power of imagination and prove without a doubt that there’s a wild thing within us all.

An Enemy Of The People, Otterbein Theatre And Dance Department

2020-2021 Season

When a water contamination crisis puts their community in peril, siblings face off in a battle of political ambitions and moral integrity.

Making A Musical: The Art Of Adapting A Film Or A Book For The Stage, David Wohl

Winthrop Faculty and Staff Publications

Over the past 100 years, stage musicals have been made from original works as varied as straight plays, novels, magazine articles, movies, short stories, poems, and biographies. This article explores two original works (a film and a novel) created separately by two faculty members at a historically black university in West Virginia and which were turned into staged musicals produced by professional theatre companies in 2019. The article includes information and advice on the adaptation process from composers, playwrights, and other collaborators.

The Theory Of Relativity, Otterbein Theatre And Dance Department

2020-2021 Season

Whether you're allergic to cats, in love for the first or tenth time, a child of divorce, a germaphobe, or simply a unique individual, you’re sure to find yourself in this fresh new musical.

A Reflective Practitioner Case Study Approach To Researching Verbatim Theatre, Sarah Peters

The Qualitative Report

The Reflective Practitioner Case Study (RPCS) methodology, as defined by John O’Toole in Doing Drama Research (2006), is situated within the broader category of qualitative practice-led research, with a focus on inducing practice based data for analysis and research. This article details my application of the RPCS methodology when researching the process and impact of verbatim theatre practice within the context of writing and performing the verbatim play bald heads & blue stars. I provide examples of the triangulated documentation of the creative process, demonstrate strategic planning for the induction of data in order to research the values that influence …