Theatre and Performance Studies Commons^™

The Changed Woman: Analyzing Narrative Parallels In The Stories Of Biblical Women And Musical Theatre Heroines, Finleigh Klein

Honors Projects

Musical theatre has become popular with audiences around the world. Many musicals contain stories of hope and overcoming obstacles, especially in narratives concerning young women. Since the Bible also contains a wealth of stories that focus on strong women, it is interesting to consider what connections may be found between the women represented in this ancient text and the female characters in various musical theatre productions.

With these potential connections in mind, I ask the question: how is the Biblical trope of the uplifting of women represented in songs sung by female characters in musical theatre? Furthermore, how can the …

Taking Up Space: A Love Letter To Healing, Heartbreak, And Hairspray, Hailee Amerson

Honors Program Theses

An Honors Thesis disguised as a one-woman show, "Taking Up Space: A Love Letter to Healing, Heartbreak, and Hairspray" is a cabaret revue-style performance. Through original monologues, and songs from the musical theatre canon, this cabaret takes audiences through where plus-size women fit (or do not fit) in the theatre industry. The piece takes a sociological perspective, beginning with the history of beauty and health standards, while asking audiences to confront their own views on what it means to be "fat". Interspersed through the show is my own story of growing up fat in an industry where thin is “in”, …

Stanislavski And Operatic Acting: What Caused The Divide Between Stanislavski’S Ideals And The Opera World?, Max Smith

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

There is a difference between the realism of acting in opera and in other theatrical art forms. One reason for this might be due to theatre practitioner Konstantin Stanislavski’s ideals not being readily adopted in the opera world. Due to translation and publication issues in both the West and in the USSR, his work on opera has been largely neglected by theatre and opera historians. Certain demands of opera as an art form limit or make more difficult the ability for realism in portraying a character, but Stanislavski and others show that it is possible. A look at literature reflecting …

Urinetown: The Musical, Otterbein Theatre And Dance Department

2025-2026 Season Productions

No abstract provided.

Dames At Sea, Otterbein Theatre And Dance Department

2025 Summer Theatre

No abstract provided.

Always... Patsy Cline, Otterbein Theatre And Dance Department

2025 Summer Theatre

No abstract provided.

Musical Theatre Nyc Industry Showcase -Senior Capstone, Erica Aubrey

SPARK Symposium Presentations

Musical Theatre BFA candidates put together and perform a 35-minute Senior Showcase for New York City Industry Personnel. This culminating performance was presented in NYC on April 8, 2025 for Casting Directors, Agents, Directors, Choreographers and Managers. Post this performance, students are asked to meetings with talent reps, and are are asked to auditions for projects they are right for, further launching them into their professional careers post graduation.

Footloose: The Musical, Otterbein Theatre And Dance Department

2024-2025 Season Productions

No abstract provided.

Natasha, Pierre, & The Great Comet Of 1812, Otterbein Theatre And Dance Department

2024-2025 Season Productions

No abstract provided.

The Importance Of Being Earnest, Otterbein Theatre And Dance Department

2024-2025 Season Productions

No abstract provided.

Beehive: The '60s Musical, Otterbein Theatre And Dance Department

2024 Summer Theatre

No abstract provided.

It's A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, Otterbein Theatre And Dance Department

2024 Summer Theatre

No abstract provided.

Forever Plaid, Otterbein Theatre And Dance Department

2024 Summer Theatre

No abstract provided.

Two Roads To Hell: Rebirth And Relevance In Musical Adaptations Of Katabatic Myth, Jarrod Deprado

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

The paper examines two myth-inspired musicals—The Frogs by Burt Shevelove and Stephen Sondheim and Hadestown by Anaïs Mitchell—concerning journeys to the underworld that benefit society. Both musicals undergo adaptation and revision processes that reflect the political and social concerns of the day. The Frogs depicts Dionysus’ journey to Hades to bring back a poet (originally Euripides, now George Bernard Shaw). However, it was not until the 2004 Broadway adaptation that overtly anti-authoritarian messages were added, aimed at the Bush administration. As a “folk opera,” Hadestown retells Orpheus’ descent to the Underworld to rescue Euridice as a commentary on economic …

Proud Of Your Boy: Toxic Masculinity, Boyhood, And The American Musical, Aaron J. Wood

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This project traces the cultural historiography of the phrase "boys will be boys" and examines the pattern of white male excusal it embodies through a case-study based survey of onstage depictions of boyhood in musical theatre. I argue that the generational idea of manhood as aggressive, competitive, and violent is continually reasserted through our passive acceptance of white boy violence. This dissertation looks to the musicals Newsies, West Side Story, Heathers, and Dear Evan Hansen as case studies for exploring the cultural lineage of the phrase “boys will be boys.” Like the works of Aaron Thomas, Raymond …

Needs Salt, Joshua Lang

Dance (MFA) Theses

Researcher Joshua Lang investigates the development of the Eden narrative in western culture. Near the beginning of the book of Genesis, the Eden narrative provides a lens to culturally significant elements of early Hebrew culture. Genesis illustrates early Hebrew culture’s relationship with the natural world, sex, sin, judgment, and death. Similarly, John Milton’s retelling of the narrative in Paradise Lost divulges information about the culture that Milton lived in, as well as a great deal about the author himself. Milton’s blindness, and his opinions on heteronormative marriage, Protestantism, sin, judgment, and death are evident in the text. In Paradise Lost …

Generational Theory As A Lens For Approaching Musical Theatre History, 1943-2023, Or A Strange Loop, Ben J. Lundy

Theses and Dissertations

In 1991, William Strauss and Neil Howe published generational theory in Generations: The History of America’s Future, 1584-2069. Though critiqued, Strauss and Howe’s generational theory suggests that American history occurs in cycles characterized by four distinct generational turnings or moods that occur approximately every eighty years, roughly the span of a human life. Though the theory has been applied to American history, usually through a political and economic lens, this thesis will focus on the most recent Millennial Cycle and apply the theory to the development of Broadway musical theatre history. Innovative musicals such as Oklahoma! (1943), Hair (1968), Rent …

The Launch 2020: A Senior Cabaret, Otterbein Theatre And Dance Department

2020-2021 Season

No abstract provided.

"That Is Not The Way To Do It" Queerness, Race, And Citizenship In Rodgers And Hammerstein, Dennis Sloan

Communication & Theatre Faculty Publications

This article examines the ways in which Rodgers and Hammerstein's Asia-Pacific musicals - South Pacific, The King And I, and Flower Drum Song - mark characters of color with signs of queerness. It argues that Asian and Pacific characters are placed outside Cold War era ideals of American white heter-normativity in their performances of gender, their marriage practices, and the queer spaces they occupy, in ways that both encourage assimilation and make integration impossible.

The Good War?: Reinterpreting The Second World War In Contemporary Musical Theatre, Leana Sottile

SURF Posters and Papers

For years, American musicals have contributed to the mythologization of the Second World War and upheld ‘Greatest Generation’ nostalgia in mainstream war memory. For example, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific is effectively silent on the brutality and dehumanization of the Pacific Theater and exoticizes the experience of service members. In the past five years, the New York theatre scene has seen three shows that portray the Second World War more accurately and less romantically: Allegiance, Bandstand, and Alice by Heart. While none of these shows ran for longer than a few months in New York, in that short …

Desegregation Through Entertainment: Rodgers And Hammerstein’S South Pacific As An Instrument Of Military Policy, Leana Sottile

Voces Novae

In the aftermath of the Second World War, the 1949 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific became a staple of mainstream popular culture. However, the musical also served a specific function within the American military where its usage by the United Service Organizations and Department of Defense was widespread. This case study examines how South Pacific arguably served a way to ease the blow of desegregation on the military by other means, in this case, entertainment. This was achieved by combining the show’s progressive views on racial tolerance with the prevalent wartime nostalgia and romanticism in the piece. All of …

In The Pit: The Sight And Sound Of Broadway Pit Orchestras, Kyle Krygielski

Undergraduate Distinction Papers

The number of musicians in a Broadway pit orchestra has always been a point of contention between the American Federation of Musicians, Local 802 and the League of American Theatres and Producers. These two organizations have had many collective bargaining agreements that have helped dictate and alter the size of orchestras on Broadway. On one side you have the musicians, who are concerned with preserving jobs and the musical integrity of a show, and on the other you have the producers who are trying to ensure the overall and financial success of the show. This thesis examines these orchestral changes …

The School For Scandal, Otterbein Theatre And Dance Department

2019-2020 Season

The London gossip scene is buzzing. Masquerading behind the veneer of polite society, malicious prattlers trade gossip like gamblers and ruin reputations for sport. As much as we are all familiar with reports of lies, rumors, backhanded comments, and fake-news, this is 1777 England, and the newspaper industry is just getting started. Two brothers are tested for their trustworthiness by their wealthy uncle amidst a myriad of hilarious twists and subplots involving a crazy cast of characters including Lady Teazle, Lady Sneerwell, Surface, Backbite, Snake, and more. In what is often considered one of the best comedy of manners plays, …

Radium Girls, Otterbein Theatre And Dance Department

2019-2020 Season

Inspired by a true story, Radium Girls traces the efforts of Grace Fryer, a dial painter, as she fights for her day in court. ... As the case goes on, however, Grace finds herself battling not just with the U.S. Radium Corporation, but with her own family and friends, who fear that her campaign for justice will backfire.

www.dramaticpublishing.com › radium-girls

Chicago, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2019-2020 Season

Set in Jazz-age Chicago, the musical is based on a 1926 play of the same name by reporter Maurine Dallas Watkins about actual criminals and crimes she reported on. The story is a satire on corruption in the administration of criminal justice and the concept of the "celebrity criminal". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_(musical)

Music Direction For The Stage: Training For Success In Christian-Based Performing Arts, David Keith Schubert

Masters Theses

The stage production music director is a position requiring highly advanced musical, managerial, and administrative skills. Many churches, Christian schools, and community groups have an interest in mounting a show or launching a performing arts ministry; however, most worship pastors, choral/instrumental conductors, and music teachers have not been adequately prepared for this specialized assignment. Of the available training resources on production and theatrical work, few address the role of the music director. Additionally, most of the literature is written for the mainstream theatrical environment. Still missing is a treatment that blends standard industry practices with the pastoral leadership and spiritual …

Smoke On The Mountain, Otterbein University Department Of Theatre And Dance

2019 Summer Theatre

n this delightful tale of the Sanders Family Singers, the audience is invited to go back to 1938 and pull up a pew for an evening of more than two dozen songs, many of them vintage pop hymns. The more-or-less devout members of the family don’t just sing, but also have hilarious stories, which are delivered despite the mild protestations of the Reverend Oglethorpe.

Embodied Nostalgia: Early Twentieth Century Social Dance And U.S. Musical Theatre, Phoebe Rumsey

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this dissertation, I claim the collective emotional connections and historical explorations characteristic of musical theatre constitute a nostalgic impulse dramaturgically inherent in the form. In my intervention in the link between nostalgia and musical theatre, I look to an area underrepresented in musical theatre scholarship: social dance. Through case studies that focus specifically on how social dance in musical theatre brings forth the dancer on stage as a site of embodied history, cultural memory, and nostalgia, I ask what social dance is doing in musical theatre and how the dancing body functions as a catalyst for nostalgic thinking for …

Reclaiming The Musical Burlesque: A Reconstruction Of The 1855 Musical Score To John Brougham’S Po-Ca-Hon-Tas: Or, The Gentle Savage, Christopher Drobny

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Most historians begin their musical theatre chronologies with the 1866 premiere of The Black Crook. However, a few respected scholars cite Po-Ca-Hon-Tas: or, The Gentle Savage, John Brougham’s 1855 musical burlesque, as an important development in the art form’s earlier evolution. The neglect of Brougham’s work is often justified for two reasons. First, his practice of creating lyrics to pre-existing melodies reduces his work to second-tier status. Second, because none of Brougham’s musical scores are extant, it is impossible to recreate a performance of his work and access its qualities. I offer two responses. First, as our contemporary musical …

Direction Of The Musical: The Drowsy Chaperone, Jed Broberg

All Graduate Projects

This project encompasses the selection, research, casting, production, and post-production process of the musical, The Drowsy Chaperone for Ogden High School's Theatre Arts Department. Documentation includes analysis of the play as a production vehicle for our program, research, script analysis, a record of the production period and a post-production evaluation.