Theatre and Performance Studies Commons^™

How William F. Cody Helped Save The Buffalo Without Really Trying, David Nesheim

Department of History: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Many historical accounts of the restoration of the American bison omit an important piece of that phenomenon. Most historians have focused their attention on two elements: western ranchers who started the earliest private herds and eastern conservationists who raised funds and lobbied for the creation of the first national preserves. However, the perpetuation of the image of buffalo in the hearts and minds of Americans was equally important in the eventual recovery of the species. No one was a more effective popularizer than William F. Cody, despite his belief that bison neither could nor would recover. Buffalo Bill's Wild West …

The Blackfriars Gladiators: Masters Of Fence, Playing A Prize, And The Elizabethan And Stuart Theater, Ian Borden

Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film: Faculty Publications and Creative Activity

Attempting to determine the nature of staged combat during the Elizabethan and Stuart periods is a difficult venture, for very few descriptions of stage fighting exist. Most plays from these periods, even when a moment of combat is central to the plot, simply describe swordplay as "They fight." Yet dueling was common to the theatrical venues of the day, not just in period drama, but also in contests between skilled professional fencers and instructors called Masters of Fence or Masters of Defence. Known as "playing a prize," or "prize fighting," competitions between these masters attracted substantial crowds. Beginning as amateur, …

The Theatrical Concession System In Prussia, 1811-1869, William Grange

Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film: Faculty Publications and Creative Activity

In 1869, the Prussian House of Deputies passed a law that transformed theatre practice in Berlin and other Prussian cities. When the newly unified Germany came into being two years later, the 1869 law became the legal order of business for all theatres within the new Reich. That law, called the Gewerbefreiheit Gesetz (Freedom to Engage in Business Act), put an end to the way theatre had formerly been produced, dissolving the concession system that had been in operation for decades previous; it also terminated a tradition that had functioned for centuries, both in Prussia and in nearly all other …

"Rules, Regulations, And The Reich: Comedy Under The Auspices Of The Propaganda Ministry", William Grange Prof. Dr.

Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film: Faculty Publications and Creative Activity

On September 22, 1933 the National Socialist cabinet, under Chancellor Adolf Hitler, passed the Reich Cultural Chamber Law (the Reichskulturkammergesetz), giving Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels charge of an organization the new Law created, the Reich Cultural Chamber. Theatre Chamber reserved the right to license productions for any theatre performance; but like most bureaucracies, it expanded its domain of authority, increased its budgetary needs, and consolidated its power. The Reich Theater Act (Reichstheatergesetz) in 1934 sustained those efforts. On September 15, 1935 the Theatrical Trade Guild (Fachschaft Bühne) was founded in accordance with the so-called Nuremberg …

Rules, Regulations, And The Reich: Comedy Under The Auspices Of The Propaganda Ministry, William Grange

Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film: Faculty Publications and Creative Activity

When the National Socialist regime assumed power in Germany on January 30, 1933, it set about immediately to formulate regulations, edicts, and policies for a "renewal" of the German theatre. Adolf Hitler had an interest of long standing in the theatre, and Nazi strategies for controlling, supporting, and re-generating the theatre went into effect over a period of about eighteen months. On September 22, 1933 Hitler's cabinet passed the Reich Cultural Chamber Law (Reichskulturkammergesetz), giving Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels charge of an organization the new Law created, the Reich Cultural Chamber. The legislation stipulated seven individual chambers subsumed …

"Oskar Blumenthal And The Lessing Theater In Berlin, 1888-1904", William Grange Prof. Dr.

Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film: Faculty Publications and Creative Activity

Oskar Blumenthal (1852-1917) was Berlin’s most feared theatre critic in the early years of the new German Reich. He had the audacity of referring to Goethe as “an egghead” who had no understanding of what made plays effective for audiences, and in other critiques he ridiculed Kleist, Hebbel, and other “important” playwrights—prompting an adversary publicly to call him a “one-man lynch mob.” In the 1880s Blumenthal himself began writing plays, and he was so successful that many self-appointed cultural guardians accused him of damaging the German theatre beyond repair. His became the most frequently performed plays on any German stage …

“Promise Me Nothing On Heroes’ Square: Marianne Hoppe’S Twentieth Century", William Grange Prof. Dr.

Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film: Faculty Publications and Creative Activity

On the occasion of Marianne Hoppe=s death in Siegsdorf, Bavaria on October 23, 2002, obituaries in several German newspapers recalled her as one of the great stars of the Third Reich. Most recalled her rise under the Nazis, and some inferred that she attained stardom largely for the wrong reasons. Her marriage to Hermann Goering's favorite actor and director, Gustaf Gründgens (1899-1963), was a political cloud that hovered over her until her death. Her frank admission that she was aware of the regime=s persecution, terror, and concentration camps did little to dispel persistent misgivings about her, even as she continued …

Foreign-Language Comedy Production In The Third Reich, William Grange

Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film: Faculty Publications and Creative Activity

The two most frequently performed non-German comic playwrights on German-language stages from 1933 to 1944 were Carlo Goldoni (1707-1793) and Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), whose plays served the purposes of cultural transmission both by the theatre establishment and the political regime in power at the time. Goethe had seen Goldoni productions in Venice during his "Italian Journeys" between 1786 and 1788, and he reported that never in his life had he heard such "laughter and bellowing at a theatre." It remains unclear whether he meant laughing and bellowing on the part of audiences or the actors, but since his other remarks …

“The Popular Repertory And The German-American Audience: The Pabst Theater In Milwaukee, 1885-1909”, William Grange

Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film: Faculty Publications and Creative Activity

German-language theatre in Milwaukee reached its pinnacle in 1895 with the construction of the Pabst Theater, and there it flourished until 1909. The first theatre performances in Milwaukee, however, had taken place at mid-point in the nineteenth century.

Rev. Of Theatre Under The Nazis, Ed. John London., William Grange

Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film: Faculty Publications and Creative Activity

John London’s edition of six essays attempts no comprehensive estimation of theatre under the Nazis as one might assume from the title, but rather provides six valuable windows through which one may glimpse sometimes startling illustrations of how political forces can easily overcome and subdue artistic expression, exploit idealism for totalitarian purposes, and give the sheen of political correctness to cultural perversion.

Giving Myself Permission: An Account Of The Performance Of The Role Of Masha In Three Sisters By Anton Chekhov, Amy Rafa

Open Access Master's Theses (through 2010)

This thesis is a documentation of my rehearsal and performance process in the University of Nebraska’s 1999 production of Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov. The document is composed in six parts: introduction, research, rehearsal and performance, journal, responses, conclusion and appendix.The introduction gives a general overview of my thoughts on acting and how this project was chosen. The research portion focuses on how the life and times of Chekhov pertain to my vision of Masha.The journal focuses on my character progression as Masha.The response section offers outside feedback on my performance.The conclusion sums up my thoughts and feelings about the …

Rev. Of Moissi: Triest, Berlin, New York: Eine Schauspielerlegende By Rüdiger Schaper. A Biography Of The Legendary Actor Alexander Moissi., William Grange

Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film: Faculty Publications and Creative Activity

Unlike most of the great German actors before him, Alexander Moissi was not a native German speaker. He was born in Albania and grew up speaking Greek and Italian--yet he had a forty-year career in German that earned him millions of dollars in performances all over the world. In none of those performances did Moissi lose the Mediterranean inflections in the language of Goethe and Schiller. But that did not diminish his stature; it enhanced it.

Theodor Lebrun And Industrial Comedy Space In Nineteenth Century Berlin, William Grange

Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film: Faculty Publications and Creative Activity

The formation of the German Reich in 1871 was an occasion of unprecedented economic growth, accompanied by an equally conspicuous increase of both theatre construction and audience growth. One important aesthetic result, to paraphrase Hélène Cixous by way of Jacques Lacan, was "re-locating and un-making" the comic self in an alternative space of the Wilhelminian “Imaginary.” The victorious conclusion of the Franco-Prussian War in 1871 and the collection of billions in war reparations from the vanquished French allowed the German economy between 1871 and 1890 to surpass that of France and soon thereafter that of Great Britain. The erstwhile Prussian …

"Ersatz Comedy In The Third Reich", William Grange Prof. Dr.

Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film: Faculty Publications and Creative Activity

The idea performing comedy, and performing a lot of comedy, during one the most systematic reigns of terror the world has ever known may at first blush seem somewhat degraded. The perception of most people, especially in the English-speaking world, is that “German comedy” in the first place is an oxymoron. The fact is, however, that 42,000 productions were staged between 1933 and 1944 in the Third Reich, and the majority of them were comedies. The most frequently performed were plays by the now forgotten likes of August Hinrichs, Maximilian Böttcher, and Fritz Peter Buch, Jochen Huth, and Charlotte Rissmann. …

Hitler's "Whiff Of Champagne": Curt Goetz And Celebrity In The Third Reich, William Grange

Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film: Faculty Publications and Creative Activity

Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist German Workers' Party were obsessed with keeping the German theatre tradition vital and maintaining Berlin as a "cultural metropolis" after Hitler's appointment as Reich Chancellor on 30 January 1933. Upholding a dynamic and energetic cultural life for the nation was a task for which National Socialism, as a political movement embodying the "will of the people," felt itself eminently well qualified. The Nazis, therefore, began almost as soon as they took over the reins of government in Germany to support theatre as an art form and theatres as institutions to an extent unprecedented in …

Choices Of Evil: Brecht's Modernism In The Work With Eisler And Dessau, William Grange

Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film: Faculty Publications and Creative Activity

Brecht wanted composers of music for his mature work who were capable of creating an idiom complementary to his own modernist ideas of theatrical performance. That idiom he called "gestic" music, the kind capable of "conveying particular attitudes adopted by the speaker towards other men" [bestimmte Haltungen des Sprechenden anzeigt, die dieser anderen Menschen gegenüber einnimmt]. When playing a fascist, for example, the actor was not merely to present the character's pompousness; he or she was to illustrate a political stance toward that pompousness. Nor was the actor to reveal layers of the character's motivation, like girls in Broadway burlesque …

"The Blondest Of The Blondes", William Grange Prof. Dr.

Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film: Faculty Publications and Creative Activity

The German theatre underwent a revolution of shattering magnitude in 1933 when the National Socialists assumed power. The Nazis had an avid interest in theatre as an expression of “the peoples’ will,” even as they viewed the theatre of the Weimar Republic as a Babylon of “hyper-modern, bolshevistic, mollusk-like, and neurasthenic aesthetics.”

Sternheim's Burger Schippel And The Theatre Scene In Cologne, William Grange

Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film: Faculty Publications and Creative Activity

Cologne has for centuries been one of the most important cities in Europe; wealth and comfort are nothing new here. Yet unlike other German cities with perhaps an equal amount of prosperity it has never had a theatre history to match its stature as a major metropolitan center on the Continent. It has indeed had a troublesome and complicated relationship with theatre despite the fact that it is the fourth largest city in Germany (after Berlin, Hamburg, and Munich).

Horváth's Glaube Liebe Hoffnung And The Current Scene In Dresden, William Grange

Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film: Faculty Publications and Creative Activity

While the venerable Dresden Schauspielhaus, built in 1910, is undergoing renovation (the process was begun in August of 1993 and is scheduled for completion next summer), the Staatschauspiel Dresden is located in numerous venues throughout the city. They include the Kleines Haus in der Neustadt, a former recital hall on the north bank of the Elbe; a small space in a former recital hall on the north bank of the Elbe; a small space in a former automotive factory; a small chapel in the restored Dresden Castle; and a tent near the present Schauspielhaus. The tent is called the "Kuppeltheater" …

"Tweaked Roman" In The Menaechmus Twins By Plautus, William Grange

Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film: Faculty Publications and Creative Activity

Why do a production of The Menaechmus Twins by Plautus at Marquette University in Milwaukee? Most people think of Milwaukee as the city of Laverne and Shirley, where a large percentage of the population is employed in one of numerous breweries, and citizens spend their non-working hours in bowling alleys or at fish fries. True, Milwaukee boasts more bowling alleys per capita than any other city in the country, but Milwaukee has more Equity theatres than breweries, one of which is an outstanding LORT A repertory theatre with an international reputation. The University itself features a major in classics, and …

Review Of "Glaube Liebe Hoffnung" By Ödön Von Horváth At Staatsschaupiel Dresden., William Grange

Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film: Faculty Publications and Creative Activity

Glaube Liebe Hoffnung marks the first time a Horváth play has ever been performed in Dresden, a fact remarkable in view of the city’s importance as a theatre center. In the 1920s Dresden was home to at least seven theatres, though none of them were particularly noted for premiering new plays. That Horváth has never been performed here is a reflection of the repressive cultural policy of the old German Democratic Republic; productions of Geschichten aus dem Wienerwald and of Kasimir und Karoline took place in East Germany after the “Horváth revival” in the late 1960s, but those productions did …

Zuckmayer At The Berliner Ensemble, William Grange

Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film: Faculty Publications and Creative Activity

When the Berliner Ensemble at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm stages a production of Carl Zuckmayer's Der Hauptmann von Köpenick, one can without reservation conclude that enormous changes are indeed taking place in Germany. That statement may at first seem disingenuous, but to connoisseurs of footnotes in German theatre history, few developments could rival this latest evidence of reconciliation along political, cultural, and especially theatrical lines. Theatre and politics have a long history of close association in Germany, and no theatre has been more politically conscious than the Berliner Ensemble. Brecht was, as "his" Berliner Ensemble subsequently became, an advertisement for …

Rev. Of "Mccarthy," Play By Jeff Goldsmith With James Pickering As Sen. Joseph Mccarthy, William Grange

Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film: Faculty Publications and Creative Activity

Review of McCarthy by Jeff Goldsmith, directed by Frank Condon, with James Pickering as Sen. Joseph McCarthy.

Heinz Hilpert: The Revitalization Of German Theatre After World War Ii, William Grange

Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film: Faculty Publications and Creative Activity

When Heinz Hilpert died in Gottingen on 25 November 1967 at the age of seventy-seven, obituary notices throughout the German-speaking world hailed him as the last of the great theatre directors, a group that had included Otto Brahm, Max Reinhardt, Leopold Jessner, Jurgen Fehling, Erich Engel, and Gustaf Griindgens. As early as 1931, numerous critics considered him perhaps the best director in Berlin, second only to Reinhardt himself. Hilpert had indeed succeeded Reinhardt as Intendant of the Deutsches Theater in Berlin in 1933; when he did so he pledged himself to the task of preserving the Deutsches Theater as an …

Shakespeare In The Weimar Republic, William Grange

Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film: Faculty Publications and Creative Activity

The Weimar Republic occupies a period in German history that has long fascinated students of theatre and drama. It was a period of profound change in German social, political, and cultural experience, and rarely has the confluence of those experiences figured so influentially upon the performance of William Shakespeare's plays. In decades previous to Weimar, German Shakespeare productions manifested the awed reverence in which the playwright was held, since most German actors, directors, and designers regarded Shakespeare in the same light as they did Goethe and Schiller. In 1864, for example, Germany celebrated the three-hundredth anniversary of the playwright's birth …

Channing Pollock: The American Theatre's Forgotten Polemicist, William Grange

Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film: Faculty Publications and Creative Activity

Channing Pollock (1880-1946) is an obscure figure in the American theatre, whose well-structured plays reflected the quixotic idealism of their creator, his firm belief in traditional values, and his sense of moral urgency. His obscurity is unwarranted, for he was the foremost theatrical polemicist of his day, and the quality of his work far surpasses that of other, more well known polemicists such as John Howard Lawson or George Sklar. Moreoever, he was associated in the performance of his plays with some of the most talented and noteworthy production personnel the theatre in New York City has ever seen.

Rev. Of Wallensteins Tod By Friedrich Schiller, Staged At The Deutsches Theater Berlin (German Democratic Republic) 1979., William Grange

Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film: Faculty Publications and Creative Activity

Friedo Solter's production of Wallenstein's Death by Friedrich Schiller, with Eberhard Esche in the title role.

Rev. Of Der Rote Hahn By Gerhart Hauptmann, Staged At The Schiller Theater In West Berlin In 1979., William Grange

Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film: Faculty Publications and Creative Activity

Boleslaw Barlog's production of The Red Rooster by Gerhart Hauptmann, featuring well known actor Carl Raddatz.

An Examination Of The Male Sex Role Model In Prime Time Television Commercials, Renee Meyers

Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film: Theses, Student Research, and Creative Work

The purpose of this thesis is to examine male role models in prime time television commercials. The plan for the study is as follows: Chapter Two will review research on the importance of television to our society and its influence on the socialization process through which children and adults learn appropriate role behavior and attitudes. Then a review of the research which examines the characteristics of the female role model on television will illustrate the stereotypic female models television is now portraying. Chapter Three will discuss the methods and procedures necessary for examination of the male sex role model in …

A Study Of The Architectural Space Necessary To Perform The Theatre Of Antonin Artaud, Larry L. Peterson

Masters in Architecture Program: Theses

Preface excerpt

The theatre of Artaud was being attempted by a few companies, notably, the Royal Shakespeare Company with Peter Brook doing "Marat/Sade;" and the Living Theatre with Judith and Julian Beck performing "The Brig."

I found the style of both performances exciting, and as a student of architectural design, I found great challenge in attempting a theatre space study which would allow the environmental qualities of the space itself to become another tool of the mise en scene.

My point of view, which developed during this study, was that the theatre should demand the entire company's complete involvement …