Theatre and Performance Studies Commons^™

Creating The Role Of Aunt Eller In Oklahoma!, Phyllis Horridge

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This document is a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the Master of Fine Arts degree in Theatre Arts with concentration in Musical Theatre. It is a detailed account of author Phyllis Horridge’s artistic process in creating the role of Aunt Eller in Minnesota State University, Mankato’s Fall 2025 production of Oklahoma! This thesis follows the actor’s process through pre-production analysis, an historical and critical perspective, journals detailing the rehearsal and performance process, a post-production analysis, and process development. Appendices and works cited follow the process development.

The Transforming Image | Wintersession 2026 Syllabus, Hunter Whitaker-Morrow, Movement Lab

Course Materials

This studio course engages the contemporary digital moving (and sounding) image as a medium undergoing rapid development. Advancing the exploratory ethos of early video art, participants will probe new possibilities for experimentation against the contemporary backdrop of ubiquitous access to smartphones and production capabilities as well as the proliferation of tools for digital signal manipulation, media recycling, and image sequencing.

Coursework will center on a variety of hands-on creative exercises that challenge predominant conceptions of the moving image and engage with medium-specific approaches including video installation, desktop performance, generative cinematics, recycling media, realtime audio-visual performance, and notions of digital materiality. …

The Transforming Image | Class 1.1, Hunter Whitaker-Morrow, Movement Lab

Course Materials

No abstract provided.

The Transforming Image | Class 1.2, Hunter Whitaker-Morrow, Movement Lab

Course Materials

No abstract provided.

The Transforming Image | Class 1.3, Hunter Whitaker-Morrow, Movement Lab

Course Materials

No abstract provided.

The Transforming Image | Class 3.2, Hunter Whitaker-Morrow, Movement Lab

Course Materials

No abstract provided.

Transversal Storytelling Course Work, Patrick Buhr, Movement Lab

Course Materials

No abstract provided.

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.

Health Determinant Effects Of Audience Experiences At Live First Nations Music Events In Central Australia, Naomi Sunderland, Kristy Apps, Brigitta Scarfe, Ping Zhang, Darren Garvey, Rae Cooper, Brydie Leigh Bartleet, Phil Graham, Glenn Barry

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Objectives: First Nations musicians often describe live performance as a means of fostering social, cultural, and political change that shapes determinants of health (DoH) for First Nations Peoples. This study examined how audience experiences of First Nations live music events in Central Australia may influence those DoH–including intercultural understanding, social cohesion, and community wellbeing–and explored the durability of such effects over time. Design: Guided by an Indigenist mixed‑methods approach, we conducted a pilot survey at two arts festivals featuring diverse First Nations musicians, followed by optional six‑month “mini yarn” interviews to explore immediate and longer‑term audience experiences. Quantitative analyses included …

Relating To Difficult Weather Through Creative Practice: Responses To Marrugeku’S Cut The Sky, Helena Grehan, Jo Pollitt, O. J.E. Slater, Sam Fox

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

In this paper we argue that performance and the arts invite a deliberate sensorial connection with the body and can support a bodily turn or return, in order to help artists, scholars and communities more broadly, better attune to increasing climate instability, through collaborative, supportive and reflexive storytelling. Drawing on the three “weather” symposia, the paper focusses on the second symposium which featured a keynote presentation by Rachael Swain, co-artistic director of Marrugeku, Australia’s leading Indigenous Intercultural Dance and Performance Company. Responses to Marrugeku’s work Cut the Sky are collectively presented to illuminate what Swain argues are, “Dramaturgies of consequence” …

Adapting Dramaturgical Pedagogy Into A Practical Framework For Young Dramaturgs, Kirby Lee

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

Dramaturgy, while more established as practice in professional theatre, remains inconsistently applied and often underutilized in university theatre contexts. Despite its historical significance and continued evolution, some theatre companies and many academic institutions still struggle to clearly define or effectively integrate the dramaturg’s role. This thesis hopes to create a framework for novice dramaturgs by examining the origins and development of dramaturgy, analyzing its shifting functions in contemporary theatre, offering my own dramaturgical experiences through the lens of three quite different plays and finally, establishing basic principles of the discipline. Beyond its historical and professional contexts, this study investigates the …

Staging Violence With Intentionality, Toby O'Brien

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the role of the fight choreographer in the theatre while addressing the potential issues staged violence has in distracting an audience from the intended narrative of the play. Avoiding the instruction manual approach of stage combat in favor of expounding on the theory of violent entertainment, I have constructed a thesis that informs the reader of certain types of violence found in both classical and modern productions and have researched the psychological ramifications of violent spectatorship and the necessity for content acknowledgements as well as consideration for the performer’s well-being. By exploring the history of violent entertainment …

Your Left Or Mine: A Journey To Accessibility For Learning Disabilities And Neurodivergence In Stage Combat Pedagogy, Ambria Campbell

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines stage combat pedagogy from its inception to the present day through the lens of accessibility for learning disabilities and neurodivergence. Relevant research in education as it relates to disability is analyzed and applied to the field of stage combat pedagogy. What follows is a deconstruction and reconstruction of beginning level stage combat pedagogy to increase accessibility. These ideas are then tested and the results reflected on. This thesis focuses on college level and aged students who are the most likely demographic for beginning stage combat students. The completion of this thesis does not represent an endpoint in …

Dodgeballs And Dragons: Gamified Live Theatre In The Service Of Community Betterment, Teddy Mcpherson

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis qualifies and documents a new genre of interdisciplinary, interactive theatre called Dodgeballs and Dragons. It covers a brief history of Dungeons and Dragons and Theatre of the Oppressed (the two foundational works for the new genre) as well as previous uses of D&D as a form of theatrical entertainment. After establishing the precedence used to create this product, the rest of the thesis breaks down how to write, lead, and play these shows on a regular basis. The document culminates in collected data providing concrete evidence for the future of the form and its many applications.

Through The Eyes Of A Daughter: Blues City Cultural Center And The Black Arts Movement, Ayana Williams

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This creative dissertation examines the Blues City Cultural Center (BCCC) as a living continuation of the Black Arts Movement in the American South. Founded in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1979 by Deborah Frazier and Levi Frazier, Jr., BCCC emerged from the cultural and political momentum of the Black Arts and Black Power Movements and continues to sustain their principles through original theater, community-based arts education, and grassroots cultural organizing. Challenging the notion that the Black Arts Movement is a concluded historical period, this study argues that the movement remains ongoing, adaptive, and deeply embedded within Southern Black communities. Using a creative …