Theatre and Performance Studies Commons^™

Summer Of Shrew, Part 2: Tamed? Really?, Daniel Pollack-Pelzner

Faculty Publications

In the second of a four-part series on Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, Daniel Pollack-Pelzner argues that Shakespeare’s play raises challenging questions about the way we define gender roles, and the answers aren’t as obvious as they might seem.

Summer Of Shrew, Part 1: A Tale Of Two Cities, Daniel Pollack-Pelzner

Faculty Publications

In the first of a four-part series on Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, Daniel Pollack-Pelzner introduces two high-concept professional productions of the play — one in Ashland, Oregon at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and one in Portland, Oregon at the Portland Shakespeare Project.

Former Students' Perceptions Of How Theatre Impacted Life Skills And Psychological Needs, Tia Cowart

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to investigate former high school theatre students' perceptions of how theatre education addressed their psychological needs and impacted life skills. Participants were graduates of a large metropolitan high school, located near Atlanta, GA. A focus group, individual semi-structured interviews and collection of artifacts were the data collection procedures utilized to discover students' perceptions. Pseudonyms were used to protect the identities of the participants. The data analysis process included initial coding, axial coding and memo writing. Based on the information from the interviews, this case study showed the benefits of offering youth opportunities …

Women As Victims In Tennessee Williams' First Three Major Plays, Ruth Foley

Masters Theses

Although Tennessee Williams does not openly champion the rights of women in his plays, he presents strong cases against their social alienation in a harsh and brutal world governed by men. Williams' emotional leanings, sensitivity, and intuition enable him to see life through women's eyes. In The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, and Summer and Smoke, Williams astutely sounds the battle cry for women to fight against male oppression. He shows how Amanda Wingfield, Laura Wingfield, Blanche Dubois, Stella Kowalski, and Alma Winemiller are held hostage to the rules governing patriarchal society and become unhappy marginalized victims. The self-contained …

Shimmers Of Truth In The Art Of Theatre, Natasha M. Goetz

Senior Honors Theses

Many Christians have noted Romans 1:20’s statement that God is reflected in His creation. As a theater student, I have found this to be true even in how theatrical artists actually execute their craft. Thus, for my senior honors thesis I have decided to further study this connection between the Lord and theater, for which I expect to find more of what I have already found in parallels between the Christian walk and theater arts. For the completion of this thesis, research for theatrical content will include acting and design, and research for biblical content will include the Bible and …

His Right Eye: A Modern Radio Drama Adaptation Of Edgar Allan Poe’S “The Tell-Tale Heart”, Carson Burkett

Senior Honors Theses

Watching an actor manipulate emotions and physicality to breathe life into a character is extraordinary. Even more impressive is the ability of a performer to do this without being seen. Radio drama is an intriguing aspect of performance that is often underappreciated in current culture, but it can play an incredible role in communicating and allowing for emotion and truth to be presented richly.

Using Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Tell-Tale Heart” as the basis for this thesis, I have written a script for a radio drama that adapts the story for a modern culture. The Department of Theatre …

Fearless: V Rosenberger And Tori Reynolds, Veronica B. Rosenberger, Victoria J. Reynolds

SURGE

“Getting Out,” the compelling prison drama by Marsha Norman, is opening tonight at 7:30pm on Kline Theater at Gettysburg, and bringing this play to life are two very fearless women. [excerpt]

An Evening Of One Acts, April 25-27, 2013, Theatre Arts Discipline

Theatre Programs

University of Minnesota, Morris production of Legend by Floyd Dell and directed by Ian Donahue; Time Flies by David Ives and directed by Will Hanson; The Visitor by Dean Laccohee and directed by Dean Haider.

Synopsis: Legend- Luciano has a present for Donna Violante. The gift is actually from her husband - a mirror he found in the catacombs. Luciano keeps her from seeing it because he wants to talk his love for her. He begs her to leave her husband. Faced with rejection, Luciano leaves. When Donna finally looks at the mirror, her life changes.

Time Flies- Two …

The King Stag, April 12-13, 2013, Theatre Arts Discipline

Theatre Programs

University of Minnesota, Morris production of The King Stag by Carlo Gozzi adapted by Sylvia Ashby and directed by Kathy Ray.

Synopsis King Stag takes place in a theatre where we see the kingdom of Serendippo appear before our eyes with the help of the great and magnificent wizard, Durandarte. At issue is the wish of King Deramo to find an honest woman to be his queen. He does so with the help of the wizard's invention, a statue whose smiles can alert the king to lies and dishonesty. Unfortunately, his prime minister, Tartaglia, wickedly undermines his trust, his government …

Hangin' With Judas: A Narrative Analysis Of Stephen Adly Guirgis's 'The Last Days Of Judas Iscariot', Constance Falconer

Masters Theses

Stephen Adly Guirgis has created an era-melting play, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, which explores the timeless debate between divine mercy and free will. A systematic application of Walter R. Fisher's narrative analysis, through form identification and a functional analysis, determined how Guirgis accomplishes persuasion. This qualitative study focused on Guirgis's narrative, using Walter R. Fisher's narrative paradigm as a framework to answer the research question(s): (1) If Guirgis's ideology and created world in The Last Days of Judas Iscariot are foreign and imagined, how is narrative probability and narrative fidelity achieved?; and, (2) How does Guirgis persuade his …

The Tweet's The Thing: Exploring The Intersection Of Social Media And Broadway, Hilary Sutton

Masters Theses

In 2009 the little known Broadway musical Next to Normal rose to fame through the aid of an unprecedented Twitter campaign conducted by Situation Interactive, a digital marketing agency. The Next to Normal Twitter account gathered over one million followers throughout a six-week campaign in which the Situation Interactive team joined forces with the book writer and lyricist of Next to Normal to recreate the plot in one hundred and forty-character snippets. By analyzing the data collected the researcher cultivates a collection of best practices for running a successful Twitter marketing campaign for a live experience.

"It's Just That For The First Time, I Feel... Wicked": A Rhetorical Analysis Of Wicked's Elphaba Using Kenneth Burke's Guilt-Purification-Redemption Cycle, Patricia Foreman

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine the Broadway production, Wicked, and more specifically, the character of Elphaba, or the Wicked Witch of the West. The study utilized Kenneth Burke's theory of the guilt-purification-redemption cycle, and considered Elphaba's journey between the three steps of Burke's cycle. In order to understand this journey better, the researcher considered various facets of the show, including the script, lyrics, costuming, including attire and make-up, and interactions with other characters in the production. Elphaba's causes of guilt, including her mother's death, her relationship with Glinda, her cause in working with Animals, and failed magic …

God Of Carnage, February 7-9, 2013, Theatre Arts Discipline

Theatre Programs

University of Minnesota, Morris production of God of Carnage by Yasmina Reza and directed by Siobhan Bremer.

Synopsis: Winner of the 2009 Tony Award for Best Play, God of Carnage relates an evening in the lives of two couples, residents of a tony Brooklyn neighborhood, who meet to discuss a playground incident. Alan and Annette’s son hit Michael and Veronica’s son in the face with a stick, resulting in two broken teeth. The four of them agree to discuss the incident civilly, but, as the night wears on and drinks are imbibed, the polite veneer breaks down. The couples initially …

Going Further: Designing, Producing, And Directing Three Edward Albee One Act Plays, Thomas Cornelius Finnegan

Theses Digitization Project

The purpose of this project was to direct a college theatre production composed of three one-act plays written by Edward Albee, one of America's most honored playwrights.

Suzan-Lori Parks: Essays On The Plays And Other Works Edited By Philip C. Kolin (Review), Jocelyn Buckner

Theatre Faculty Articles and Research

The anthology Suzan-Lori Parks: Essays on the Plays and Other Works offers new perspectives to the growing body of scholarship about Parks’s artistic achievements. The text features a contextualizing preface and twelve new essays about her plays, novel, and screenplays. It also contains two new interviews, one with Parks herself and another with her longtime friend and collaborator, director Liz Diamond, as well as a timeline featuring major productions of her works from her first play reading in 1984, to projects anticipated for future production on stage and screen. While Parks’s works, and works on Parks are widely anthologized in …

A Director's Approach To I Love You Because, Adam Karal Sahli

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

It is a detailed account of author Adam Karal Sahli's artistic process in directing the musical I Love You Because at Minnesota State University, Mankato in the Fall of 2012. The thesis records the artist's process from production selection through performance in five chapters: a preproduction analysis, a historical and critical analysis of the work, a production meeting and performance journals, a post-production analysis and a process development analysis. Appendices, works cited and works consulted follow.

Technical Direction For Abe Burrows' Cactus Flower, Lawrence A. Lopez

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This paper is a comprehensive report of Lopez's production process of Abe Burrows' play Cactus Flower which was performed in the Ted Paul theatre November 8th through 18th, 2012. It is a record of Lopez's particular process from pre-production analysis to an examination of the final product manifested in the scenery for the production. It examines this production process in five chapters: pre-production analysis, historical and critical analysis, a production journal, post-production analysis and a record of process development concluding with three appendices and a works cited page.

Technical Direction Of Chicago, Joseph Jerome Skala

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This document provides a detailed and comprehensive record of Joseph Skala's process for the technical direction of Chicago, written by John Kander, Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse. It is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts in Theatre from Minnesota State Mankato. This thesis traces the technical director's process beginning with a preproduction analysis of the scenic design. It includes a historical and critical analysis of the production, a journal detailing the technical director's process, post production analysis and an analysis of the technical director's process development. Appendices and works cited are …

The Lighting Design For A Chorus Line, Jordan William Green

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This paper describes the process involved in designing the lighting for A Chorus Line with book by James Kirkwood and Nicholas Dante and lyrics by Edward Kleban. The play was produced in the Ted Paul Theatre at Minnesota State University, Mankato and ran from October 4 - 14, 2012. The paper consists of five chapters and an appendix. The first chapter is an analysis of the script and the requirements for lighting the play. The second chapter is an historical and critical analysis of the play. The third chapter consists of a journal of the designer's experience and processes throughout …

A Costume Designer's Approach To Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, Angela Kristie Sahli

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

It is a detailed account of author Angela Sahli's artistic process in designing costumes for Minnesota State University, Mankato's production of And Then There Were None in the early spring of 2013. The thesis chronicles the designer's artistic process from pre-production through performance in five chapters: a pre-production analysis, a historical and critical perspective, a journal, a post-production analysis and a process development analysis. Appendices and works cited are included.

Stage As Street: Representation At The Juncture Of The Arts And Justice, E. Gabriel Dattatreyan, Daniel L. Stageman

Publications and Research

Arts educators working with court-involved youth face a set of complex and imbricated challenges. First, how do we gain the interest of the young people we would have participate in what we imagine are col-laborative and mutually generative projects? Second, how do we mediate representational tensions when the project is not solely therapeutic but has a broader public pedagogical purpose—to disrupt the simplistic and pathologizing discourses of poverty and violence that so often capture young men and women of color in the United States? (Bourgois, 2002; Noguera, 2008). Third, and not least, how do we navigate the institutional settings where …

An Archive, Public Participation And A Performance: Five Perspectives, Laura Browder, Patricia Herrera

English Faculty Publications

This essay discusses our work on the digital archive, The Fight for Knowledge: Civil Rights and Education in Richmond, Virginia, which grew out of our five-year documentary theater project at the University of Richmond. We include the voices of six collaborators—students, a special collections librarian, a digital archivist, and faculty members—to closely examine the multiple archives that have grown out of this project, and the way this has led us to propose a new way of thinking both about archives and about our documentary theater methodologies. This collaborative process has helped us to reconceptualize the relationship between archive and …

Creating The Role Of Nicia In The Mandrake, Robert T. Krueger

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. It is a detailed account of author Robert Krueger's artistic process in creating the role of Nicia in Minnesota State University, Mankato's production of The Mandrake in the fall of 2012. The thesis chronicles the actor's artistic process from pre-production through performance in five chapters: a pre-production analysis, a historical and critical perspective, a rehearsal and performance journal, a post-production analysis and a process development analysis. Appendices and works cited are included.

An Actor's Approach: Stepping Into A Role And A World Of The Past, Danielle Gosselin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

To step into a character and a world of the past, the actor must not discard the present, but seek to find connections and links between the worlds. I was cast in the Orlando Shakespeare Theater production of Sense and Sensibility, a Jon Jory adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel, in the role of Lucy Steele. This was an equity production, and it ran February 6th – March 17th, 2013, in the Orlando Shakespeare Theater’s Margeson Theater. Lucy is a female character from England in a period often referred to as the Regency era. As a woman from today’s United States …

Immediacy In Comedy: How Gertrude Stein, Long Form Improv, And 5 Second Films Can Revolutionize The Comedic Form, Alexander Hluch

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Comedy has typically been derided as second-tier to drama in all aspects of narrative. Throughout history, comedy has seen short shrift in both critical reception and academic investigation. Merit is simply placed on drama far before that of comedy. This is not for comedy’s own lack of skill or craft, but simply for comedy’s misappropriation as a narrative form. Throughout the years, by way of either competition or economic superiority, comedy has been pigeonholed into the typified dramatic structure that drama so thoroughly encapsulates. Being forced into a form that exemplifies complex, climactic structure and explicit character development, comedy in …

An Actor On The Line: Becoming Judy Turner In A Chorus Line, Morgan Mallory

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

It is a detailed account of author Morgan Mallory's artistic process in creating the role of Judy Turner in the Minnesota State University, Mankato's production of A Chorus Line in the Fall of 2012. The thesis follows the actor's process beginning with the early production analysis in the first chapter. The actor then discusses the work in its historical context followed by a detailed journal of the acting process in chapters two and three. Chapter four is the post-production analysis and the fifth chapter gives an overview of Mallory's growth and process through her time at Minnesota State Mankato. Appendices …

Scene Design Of A Chorus Line, Naoko Ishizuka Skala

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This document is a detailed account of Naoko Skala's design process for A Chorus Line by James Kirkwood and Nicholas Dante. It is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts in Theatre from Minnesota State University, Mankato. These documents trace the design process from the designer's preproduction analysis, historical and critical analysis and post production analysis of the effort. Included also is the designer's journal which documents the process chronologically from its inception through its realization. Finally, the designer has provided an analysis of her overall artistic development as it has been …

The Process Of Directing Edward Albee's The Goat, Or Who Is Sylvia, Shelley Whitehead

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This paper will follow director Shelley Whitehead's process of bringing The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? by Edward Albee to production at Minnesota State University, Mankato. Within the paper the director discusses her initial concepts and ideas; a historical look at the playwright and play; journals regarding the rehearsal and performance process; a dissection of that process to ascertain success or failure of the ideas set forth in the first chapter; and a final look at how her years at Minnesota State Mankato shaped her as a director. Included in the paper is an Appendix to supplement the paper's findings. …

How To Improve Theatre Arts Education In Chinese Higher Educational Institutes, Ji Ding

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This document is a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the Master of Arts degree in theatre. Theatre Arts in China is in a state of decline. There are several possible ways to change this situation. This thesis will, through the comparison of Theatre Arts in higher education between China and the US, discuss what good lessons China may draw from the US in order to improve. The improved education of Theatre Arts in Chinese higher educational institutes may then be able to help the decline of Theatre Arts in China.

Play Selection Process Of Minnesota Catholic High Schools, Amanda Pyfferoen

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This document is a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the Master of Arts degree in theatre. It details the parameters and results of a survey distributed to Catholic high school theatre directors in Minnesota. The survey inquired about the process for selecting plays, what themes or lessons the directors refrain from presenting and if there is a need for a list of guidelines that could assist directors in selecting Catholic appropriate theatre pieces to present. There is further development of a proposed guideline and potential rating system that could be implemented into Catholic high school theatre programs.