Theatre and Performance Studies Commons^™

Ideology And Iconography In Gustav Machatý’S Ecstasy (1933), Karl E. Toepfer

Open Educational Resources

This essay discusses the cinematic construction of sexual ecstatic experience in Gustav Machaty's 1933 film Ecstasy. Sergei Eisenstein's theory of cinematic montage governs the shapes the way the filmmakers organize the representation of erotic desire and rapture. But the film also shows affinity with the Czech "Poetist" movement of the 1920s in constructing a guiding view of ecstatic experience. The essay analyzes many images in the film, and concludes with an application of montage theory of ecstatic cinema to the consumption of erotic videos and internet imagery.

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 …

A Foreign Perspective Of Early Modern Dance In Estonia: How Ella Ilbak’S Photographic Image (1915-1948) Changed My Life, Karl E. Toepfer

Open Educational Resources

This essay describes how Estonian modern dancer Ella Ilbak (1895-1997) used photography to shape and promote her identity as a dance artist. The essay compares photographic images of Ilbak with paintings and drawings of her. It also describes the evolving and unstable relationships with photographers that Ilbak pursued over nearly thirty years (12915-1948).

Life In Quarantine Poem, Oluchi Nwokocha

All Assignment Prompts

No abstract provided.

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.

Pantomime: The History And Metamorphosis Of A Theatrical Ideology, Karl E. Toepfer

Open Educational Resources

This book offers perhaps the most comprehensive history of pantomime ever written. No other book so thoroughly examines the varieties of pantomimic performance from the early Roman Empire, when the term “pantomime” came into use, until the present. After thoroughly examining the complexities and startlingly imaginative performance strategies of Roman pantomime, the author identifies the peculiar political circumstances that revived and shaped pantomime in France and Austria in the eighteenth century, leading to the Pierrot obsession in the nineteenth century. Modernist aesthetics awakened a huge, highly diverse fascination with pantomime. The book explores an extraordinary variety of modernist and postmodern …

Scenic Design For "Native Gardens", Andrea Bechert

Published Works by SJSU Honorees

Andrea Bechert created the scenic design for TheatreWorks production of Karen Zacarias' comedy Native Gardens, which ran from August 22 to September 16, 2018 at the Mountain View Center for Performing Arts.

Image credit: Kevin Berne

Telethon, Jen Kennedy, Liz Linden

Published Works by SJSU Honorees

Inspired by experimental performances of the 1960s, Jen Kennedy and Liz Linden's TELETHON is a participatory performance staged in front of a live audience. The sounds of phone calls to random numbers—dial tones, ringing, voicemail, asking about feminism, surprised responses, clicks—are projected toward the audience to create a cacophonous illustration of contemporary feminism and connection. This event took place at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles on March 4, 2017.

Rehearsing Justice: Theatre, Sexuality And The Sacred, Victoria Rue

Faculty Publications, Social Sciences

The theatre actor’s process in a rehearsal hall is reality and metaphor. It can be a rehearsal for justice, where we can live freely. In this laboratory the actor becomes all of us. Like the actor, we inhabit our bodies and our sexualities, sometimes as spiritual practice, or as sacred and creative, even as incarnations. In particular, women’s bodies remember what it is like to be no-body and what it is like to be a some-body. The texts of women’s bodies contain their history of pain, wellness and illness.In creating a character, the actor creates a biography, an inner life, …

Upbeat, Feb. 2015, San Jose State University, School Of Music And Dance

Upbeat (School of Music and Dance)

No abstract provided.

Upbeat, Dec. 2014, San Jose State University, School Of Music And Dance

Upbeat (School of Music and Dance)

No abstract provided.

Upbeat, Nov. 2014, San Jose State University, School Of Music And Dance

Upbeat (School of Music and Dance)

No abstract provided.

Stay In Time, Sept. 2014, San Jose State University, School Of Music And Dance

Upbeat (School of Music and Dance)

No abstract provided.

Ta 100w: Writing Workshop -Theatre Arts Textbook Alternatives, Kathryn Kahn

Textbook Alternatives Project Posters 2014

Poster summarizing cost saving textbook alternatives for TA 100W: Writing Workshop - Theatre Arts.

Stay In Time, Apr. 2014, San Jose State University, School Of Music And Dance

Upbeat (School of Music and Dance)

No abstract provided.

Stay In Time, Feb. 2014, San Jose State University, School Of Music And Dance

Upbeat (School of Music and Dance)

No abstract provided.

Are You There?, Liz Solo

SWITCH

Performance artist Liz Solo describes her journey from traditional theatre into virtual performance art.

Interview With Helen Homan Wu, Kristin Trethewey

SWITCH

In this interview, Helen Homan Wu discusses “Navigating Darkness,” a one-night art exhibit she co-curated in Berlin. Wu reflects on curating the show remotely from China and exploring how sound, sculpture, and video were used to guide viewers through a dark, cavernous space.

Halflifers, George Pfau

SWITCH

In this interview with the creators of HalfLifers, an experimental art collaboration that explores the zombie as a metaphor, Torsten Zenas Burns and Anthony Discenza describe their work, its themes, and their inspirations.

Stay In Time, Nov. 2013, San Jose State University, School Of Music And Dance

Upbeat (School of Music and Dance)

No abstract provided.

Stay In Time, Oct. 2013, San Jose State University, School Of Music And Dance

Upbeat (School of Music and Dance)

No abstract provided.

Stay In Time, Aug. 2013, San Jose State University, School Of Music And Dance

Upbeat (School of Music and Dance)

No abstract provided.

Stay In Time, Feb. 2013, San Jose State University, School Of Music And Dance

Upbeat (School of Music and Dance)

No abstract provided.

Review: Irish Culture And Colonial Modernity, 1800–2000: The Transformation Of Oral Space, Matthew Spangler

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Art Of Sharon Paz, Dörte Ilsabé Denneman

SWITCH

This article describes Sharon Paz’s performances, theatrical installations, and video works, which combine themes of war, entertainment, and everyday life.

Music In The Lives Of Two Children With Autism : A Case Study, Elizabeth Ron Fang

Master's Theses

This thesis is a qualitative case study about two children with autism spectrum disorder and the role of music in their lives. It explores how music serves as a non-threatening medium for learning and developing skills necessary to function successfully in life. The stories of the children and their parents are shared through their personal account and the author's observations. The literature in the field reveals that a structured/functional use of music helps communication, social interaction, appropriate behavior, motor skills, and academics in children with autism. Each child is able to actively participate in music-making within varied and appropriate settings …

Indigenous Ecology And Chicanada Coalition Building In The Dramatic Works Of Cherríe Moraga: “Living Models” For A Sustainable Future, Paula Straile-Costa

NACCS Annual Conference Proceedings

Abstract:

This study focuses on three recent dramatic works by Cherríe Moraga’s written in the same period as her essay and poetry collection, The Last Generation. Heroes and Saints, Watsonville: Some Place Not Here, and Circle in the Dirt: El Pueblo de East Palo Alto draw from indigenous ecology and the historical archive of Chicano struggle that provide models for a sustainable future she envisions. The author shifts from poetry and essay - the lyrical, reflective mode of self-inquiry and expression for which she is so well known – to a collective dramatic dialogue allowing her to …

Power To The Panza: The Politics Of Panza Positive Cultural Production, A Performance, Virgina Grise, Irma Mayorga

NACCS Annual Conference Proceedings

Abstract:

The Panza Monologues is a solo performance piece both written by Virginia Grise and Irma Mayorga and also composed from contributions by Chicanas in San Antonio, TX gathered by Grise and Mayorga. In live production of the piece, Grise is the solo actor and Mayorga serves as director, dramaturge, and designer. As a whole, the play focuses on stories that hinge on the metaphor of “la panza” to articulate and describe the multiple conditions of Chicanas’ lives in terms of their physical, social, racial, and class dimensions. The piece has been performed in various locations from its inception in …

Reviewed Work: The Parable Of The Plums By Brian Fleming, Raymond Keane, Bisi Adigun, Matthew Spangler

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The New Performer, Sheila A. Malone

SWITCH

This article presents a discussion of the broadening definitions of performer and performance and the ways in which technology contributes to that flexibility through this intermix of the real world and its interaction with virtual reality. The author then details how the nature of this relationship not only shifts the role of performer but redefines performance as both real and virtual. She argues how new media in the age of technology has opened the doors for its visual, aural and textual information to both mimic and record reality.