Theatre and Performance Studies Commons^™

Applying Girls' Studies To Contemporary Theatre And New Play Development, Sophia Menconi

Playwriting (MFA) Theses

Girls’ Studies is a relatively new academic field characterized by its focus on the complexity of girlhood experiences and understanding girl as a unique social identity separate from the notion of future women. In bringing Girls' Studies theory into the work of theatre scholarship and new play development, I present a framework for the interdisciplinary field of Girls' Theatre Studies. Chapter One is an exploration of girlhood presentations in contemporary theatre through a postfeminist lens. Examining the theatrical manifestations of the "female victim-hero” in contemporary presentations of girlhood, I argue that girl audiences are able to feel with and through …

Frieda And Open House, Arlynn Parker

Playwriting (MFA) Theses

Frieda: This one-act play revolves around a young woman wandering through a near-lifeless forest she wants to escape. As she speculates directly to the audience about what brought her to this place, she reveals herself to be the stepmother to a pair of challenging children. The expectations of what she imagined her life to be and what she was saddled with collide as she recounts her story. Taking place in the woods in which she lost her way, details of her childhood, loveless marriage, and the desperate hunger that drove her to make the most important decision of her life …

Portraying Women In Eugene O’Neill Plays: How Life Affects Art And How Art Is Made Manifest, Charity M. Turley

Senior Honors Theses

Throughout his career, Eugene O’Neill wrote plays with strong and compelling female characters which have earned him much recognition. O’Neill’s ability to perceivably tap into a humans’ psyche and portray the deep desires of humanity was done to an extent rarely portrayed on the stage before; especially giving such complex characteristics to women, which was unconventional and unexpected for his time. Many have asked, therefore, what led O’Neill to write women as boldly as he did? It is known that his formative familial and romantic relationships were plagued by hardship, even so, he admitted to writing many of his characters …

Stage Clutter: An Interactive Journey Following A Theater’S Existential Ponderings, Taylor Tsiamas

Scripps Senior Theses

“Stage Clutter” is a devised, interactive theater piece that focuses on accessibility in theater, as well as questioning what theater is by deconstructing the divide between the “audience” and “performer”. The event consisted of audience participation and exploration, as well as solo performance and puppetry, along with other accessibility features. It aims to center community and joy and subvert Western theatrical “norms” in order to help decolonize theater spaces.

Sibelius’S Scaramouche: A Comparative Production History Of A Tragic Pantomime, 1913–1977, Karl E. Toepfer, Eija Kurki

Open Educational Resources

The book describes the historical context for the Scaramouche tragic pantomime created by Poul Knudsen and Jean Sibelius in 1913. The pantomime had numerous productions in various European countries between 1922 and 1977, and the book examines all of them according to all available evidence. The text explains the historical and cultural significance of the pantomime and how it uniquely explores a dark and complex intersection of female sexuality, marriage, and class control of erotic desire. The authors examine all productions of Scaramouche from the premiere production in Copenhagen in 1922 to the last major production in Karl-Marx-Stadt, East Germany …

The Merit Of Adaptation: An Exploration Of Adaptation In Regard To Sophocles’ Theban Plays And The Role Of Antigone Within The Story, Hogan T. Holt

Theses and Dissertations

The creation of an adaptation is extremely challenging and time-consuming, but with the right tools and inspiration, that task of creation can be eased. By looking at three different adaptations of the Theban plays, the goal of creating a new adaptation of this series of plays can be achieved. At the same time, this adaptation can achieve a goal of highlighting an important character from the original set of plays, Antigone, and give her a role that elevates her to the main protagonist across all three plays, thus allowing the Theban plays to become a more feminine piece that works …

Anne, Martin, Emmett, And Harriet: Plays About Anne Frank And Historical African American Personages, Erin R. Scheidegger-Menendez

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Anne Frank is linked to her contemporaries in about 80% of 18 English-language published and produced plays. The remaining plays pair Frank and African American icons Harriet Tubman, Emmett Till, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Research on dramatic literature with Frank as a character, the writing of plays linking her with African American personages, or history, analysis, or comparison of the process of multiple plays about Frank does not exist. A few articles extant compare the Goodrich and Hackett play with the Kesselman rewrite, a dissertation on five plays about Frank (those five plays are in the 80% mentioned earlier). …

The Black Caucus: A Theatrical Exploration Of The Black Experience In A Predominantly White Institution, Isaiah Owens

Honors Theses

The foundation of my thesis was laid in May of 2022 when I had the privilege of taking part in a transformative journey to Kenya through the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga's Honors College. During this remarkable experience, we immersed ourselves in the lives of the Kenyan people in Nairobi and the Maasai Mara, looking to unravel the interplay between innovation, empathy, and culture. As an African American, I experienced a profound sense of belonging in a majority Black environment for the first time in my life, which left an indelible impression on me, offering a sense of relief and …

Reflecting On Academic Freedom Through Fiction: A Theatrical Exploration Of The Blurry Contours Of The Freedom To Teach, Julie Paquin, Maude Choko

The Qualitative Report

This article aims at exploring the contribution that creative forms of research can make to the study of a little-known aspect of academic freedom in the Canadian context – academic freedom in curriculum development. It seeks to address the methodological challenge posed by research on academic freedom, that is, the fact that any academic writing on this topic necessarily draws initially, though not exclusively, from the researchers’ own experiences and perspectives. The article brings to life a fictional faculty meeting, during which questions about academic freedom in teaching are discussed. Although this meeting is the product of our imagination, its …

In Yellow: A Solo Poem-Play, Emily Kitchens

Faculty Articles

“In Yellow” was developed in the INKubator residency at Art House Productions (Jersey City, NJ) in 2019 with the following blurb:

In Yellow is a solo poem-play about a relationship between a young woman and a ceramic doll her grandmother made that she has just accidentally broken. It is about grief. It is about breaking out of generationally instilled feminine values. It is about the color yellow. It’s all true.

“In Yellow” is an experiment of a poem and play for one voice. I was in New York City for about 10 years, before that The Bay Area, but am …

Everybody

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University's performance of Everybody by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins.

Performed September 14-17, 2023 at the Mitchell Theatre.

Everybody is a modern adaptation of the 15th-century morality play Everyman. The story follows a character named Everybody, who is summoned by Death to embark on a journey to account for their life and choices before God. As Everybody seeks companionship for this final journey, they encounter personifications of abstract concepts like Friendship, Kinship, Stuff, Mind, and Love. The play uses a unique casting lottery system, where roles are assigned randomly at each performance, symbolizing the unpredictability of death. Through …

Palestine Without Borders: A Study Of Arab And Western Voices In Theater, Bassem Mohsen Ahmed El-Sayed Ahmed Ibrahim

Theses and Dissertations

Theater has always been perceived as a way to link different cultures together and bring them under one large domain. Regardless, the genre does not give the needed attention to works written in certain regions that may otherwise fall outside the consensus. One good example is Palestine and any works that deal with it as a setting. The first thing that comes to mind whenever the word “Palestine” is brought up is almost always of a political nature, having to do with the Palestinians’ national conflict with Israel. This thesis undertakes to amend this by probing into plays written by …

Regulars, Michael Sieburt Wiener

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

My thesis play unfolds in the wake of the pandemic we’ve collectively faced, which hovers over its dramatic landscape, but is rarely directly addressed, a narrative penumbra subtle enough to be merely suggestive, almost subliminal, even as today, in America and around the world, we navigate the pandemic’s lingering aftermath by way of our quiet struggles, individual and collective, with mental health—an insidious, one might say endemic, pandemic of its own— that we ignore at our societal peril. My mother struggled with manic depression, which inflected our fraught bond in sometimes volatile ways and may have contributed to her early …

Smokebox: Writing Into Embarrassment, Julia Storch

Theatre & Dance ETDs

Engaging with theoretical concepts and dramaturgical tools, this essay follows my journey through The Dramatic Writing MFA program at the University of New Mexico, focusing on the production of my thesis play, Smokebox. In Part I, I give the background and development of my journey as a playwright, exploring the obstacles I faced and overcame through my engagement with coursework and staged readings. I map out the development of Smokebox, from its humble beginnings as a class assignment, to its transformation through workshop, and finally its realization through an intense rehearsal and production process. In Part II, I …

Edward & Sons: An Improvised Opera, Ian Robles

Theses and Dissertations

A hurricane is coming, but at Edward & Sons Hardware and Plumbing the shelves are bare, the gringo debt collectors are calling and the owners is getting high in the back room. An improvised opera about the demise of the very last family-owned hardware store in Puerto Rico.

Zeus Iv, Lauren Holmes

Theses and Dissertations

How do you survive a pandemic? When you’re trapped inside for weeks? When society’s rules are revealed as largely arbitrary?

You get a dog and bring it to the park.

This play is about a group of devoted dog owners in Boston who stumble on an unexpected community. It's a dog park ballet about the close care of strangers.

I Could Never, Chad Kaydo

Theses and Dissertations

Isn’t it horrible? What she did? Can you even *imagine* doing that? Three women reckon with the dark myths we tell ourselves…while their husbands golf.

Walk Away, Anna May, Kim Diana Ly

Theses and Dissertations

Remember how Anna May Wong was passed over for white actors in yellowface? An emerging Asian American screenwriter moves on a kaleidoscopic journey through the entertainment industry -- from Kabuki to Crazy Rich Asians -- in order to understand why she's even trying to make it in Hollywood.

Riverside Drive, Phillip C. Smith

Theses and Dissertations

RIVERSIDE DRIVE: Eugene, a mild-mannered librarian by day and a foul-mouthed comedian by night, uncovers the hidden legacy of his family’s Harlem home which forces him to transform his life.

Sweat Equity: Lynn Nottage's Radical Dialectic Of Deindustrialization, Jocelyn L. Buckner

Theatre Faculty Books and Book Chapters

"Lynn Nottage has devoted her career to researching and telling stories of Black individuals and communities with expressed interest in laborers, advocating for their agency, humanity, and legacy. In her second Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Sweat, Nottage dramatizes more recent US history, illuminating the lives of workers marginalized by the deindustrialization of the Rust Belt in the early 2000s. Sweat is emblematic of Nottage's sustained effort to deploy playwriting as activism and stand in solidarity with those whose stories she chooses to tell. As a constant theme in her works, Lynn Nottage's stories align with marginalized workers' efforts and histories, …

Me, Myself, And Hedda, Gabriel J. Franco-Kull

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis paper will focus on the process of creating my one-person show, relevant aspects of my life and history, my journey and growth in the MFA acting program, my thesis performance, and how therapy helped me grow not only as a person but artistically. Additional materials include headshot, resume, and a link to my website.

One-Person Show: Field Notes On Writing, Producing, And Performing My Own Work, Riley Newsome

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is an examination and journal for my process of writing my full-length one-person show Isolation, the organization and steps of producing it from scratch, and the preparation and performance of the show. It will also include the version of the Isolation used in the performance, a statement of artistry, some of my current acting materials such as a link to my website, a headshot, and a resume.

Hunter: Redneck Hamlet, Ewan Whaley

Honors Theses

Hunter: Redneck Hamlet is an adaptation of Shakespeare's Hamlet placed within the rural American South in order to tackle the topics of grief, paranoia, conspiracy, toxic masculinity, misogyny, and substance abuse through the lens of Hamlet. The study analyzes these aspects of the South in order to attempt to understand what makes certain people act the way that they do, and displays it through the lens of Hamlet in order to characterize these phenomenon. The thesis begins with the full five act play written in pentameter, followed by a craft essay analyzing the various research and aspects of the play …

“The Urgent Necessity For More Original Creative Works By Transgender And Gender Expansive Artists" Is Not The Title Of My Thesis., Alicia Fireel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a mix of personal reflection, academic research, and an examination of The Girl Crazy Queer and Other Fairy Tales, a play I wrote and performed in October of 2023, co-produced by The University of Louisville’s Department of Theatre Arts and Pandora Productions, a Louisville-based theatre company dedicated to Queer theatre. This thesis and the play mirror each other; both contemplate Queer experiences, Queer histories, Queer trauma, and Queer stories. In the thesis I accomplish this through examining four subjects: myself, my play, the connection between modes of storytelling and aspects of transgender Queerness, and the perils that …

Anatomy 101 (A Mysterium) Revelations On Process, Sarah Dianne Loucks

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

I came to graduate school thinking all I needed to become a stronger writer was an understanding of craft and technique. To my dismay, I discovered that craft and technique, while helpful and important, are not magic bullets. Instead, I discovered that the main obstacle to my growth as a writer is my own self. This thesis discusses my battle with perfectionism and fear of the unknown in the context of writing my thesis play, Anatomy 101 (A Mysterium), and the subsequent production that occurred at The Global Campus Theatre in Fayetteville, AR in March of 2023.

Living As Past In The Present, Grace Taylor

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, I will be discussing how I used my nine roles in A Christmas Carol at TheatreSquared to practice getting out of my head onstage and into the hearts of each character. I will also include the script of my original play, GORILLA, the composition and performance of which were some of the greatest challenges of my artistic career thus far. Additionally, I am including my artistic statement, show posters, program, photos, website link, headshot & resume, and proofs of permission for use of media.

How This Bitch Made This Bitch: A Play On Defiant Women Of Color, Adrienne B. Dawes

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The workshop production of my full-length, bilingual play “This Bitch: Esta Sangre Quiero” marks the culmination of my course of study at the University of Arkansas. In this thesis, I will discuss the development process of “This Bitch” from its humble Zoom reading beginnings to regional theater development to its workshop production as part of the university’s 2022-2023 Mainstage season. Through the lens of this new play process, I outline my artistic evolution during my four years of graduate school, interrogating and celebrating the ways this bitch has been inspired by “This Bitch.”

Creating A Play Using Noh And The Stanislavski Method, John Alex Nunnery

Merge

No abstract provided.

The Theatre Of Math: The Stage As A Tool For Abstract Math Education, Blaine Hudak

Honors Projects

So often in the education of Mathematics does instruction solely consist of the lecture. While this can be an effective method of communicating the ideas of math, it leaves much to be desired in gathering the interest and intrigue of those who have not dedicated their lives to the study of the subject. Theatre, by contrast, is a tool that has been used in the past as means of teaching complicated and difficult to understand moral and emotional subjects. While Theatre and Mathematics have been used in combination many times in the past, it is most often done in the …

Adapting The Classics: Making The Invisible Visible, Kate Isabel Foley

Theater Honors Papers

This project seeks to answer the question, “How can a writer use an old story to shine new light on modern issues and make the invisible visible?” My adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is a genderbent retelling with queer themes while my adaptation of J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan is a dark reimagining of Mrs. Darling as an antihero protagonist who must become Captain Hook to try to save her children. Both my research and these two plays focus on bringing visibility to marginalized communities, specifically women and members of the queer community.