Theatre and Performance Studies Commons^™

From Idea To Screen, The Making Of Residiuum, Christopher Fowler

Theses and Dissertations

This project is designed to give an inside look at taking an idea and turning it into a film. In this project I combine research with practical experience to give an in depth look, at the process I undertook while making my film Residiuum. Part one of this project lays out research, knowledge, and thought process behind my decision making. Part two of this project is a finished short film that shows the culmination, and combination of skills required to combine my artistic and scholarly side. These two parts allow an in depth view of my project from a kernel …

The Flying University, Catherine Friesen

Theses and Dissertations

The Flying University is solo theater performance framed as an academic lecture about Marie Curie and her discovery of radium, delivered to a group of women who have gathered in secret to further their education. As the lecture proceeds, the professor brings in her own research based on a study of Esther Horsch (1905-1991) who lived on a farm in central Illinois. She introduces data from Esther's journals, personal memories, and dreams about Esther's life. The professor's investigation of radium plays at the intersections of magical and mundane, decay and the transformation of life, and the place of ambition in …

Moonbird, Samuel Kinsman

Theses and Dissertations

Love is a formless entity. Transformative and elusive, it can wreak havoc in one's life if misplaced. Unrequited love has potential toxicity, rage can stem from the most loving of places, and countless crimes of passion are committed every year.

However, in its base nature, love is formative. It has the potential to bring two separate energies together, the ensuing combination is what people dream of. The chemical process of love, the intellectual understanding of attraction and the visceral pit-in-stomach when one looks across the room at their lover are all worth exploring, especially in the theater.

In this piece …

Ziggy The Clown, Donald T. Russell

Theses and Dissertations

The contents included here consist of the research, editing, and rehearsal process for the written script, as well as the live performance. There is also a brief analysis of the process, and documentation of how to proceed with the piece in its current state, or if any additions will be made. The full script is included. The solo show itself was a culmination of what my Master's Training provided, up until the point of performance.

The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later, November 1-3, 2012, Theatre Arts Discipline

Theatre Programs

University of Minnesota, Morris production of The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later by Moisés Kaufman, Leigh Fondakowski, Greg Pierotti, Andy Paris, Stephen Belber and directed by Ray Schultz.

Synopsis: On October 7, 1998, a young gay man was discovered bound to a fence outside Laramie, Wyoming, savagely beaten and left to die in an act of brutality and hate that shocked the nation. Matthew Shepard’s death became a national symbol of intolerance, but for the people of the town, the event was deeply personal. In the aftermath, Moisés Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theater Project went to Laramie and …

The Gods Come For Play: Visualizing The Divine In Balinese Theatre, Chandler Payne, John Park

Featured Research

Playwrights, practitioners, and art historians have been shocked and inspired by Balinese theatre time and time again because it reveals the extent of devotion the Balinese have for their religion. Although many researchers have investigated the functionality through the performance aspect of the play, there is a lack of published research devoted how the functionality of the ritual and play are influenced by the physical aesthetic properties of the Barong and Rangda mask. The theatrical aspects are to be considered through investigating these masks in relation to the temple space of the Taman Aran. By investigating the aesthetic properties of …

Three Musketeers And A Rock Band, Brandi K. Kawamoto

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

This thesis is the culmination of my scenic design work for Ken Ludwig’s The Three Musketeers in the Howell Theater at the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in the spring semester of 2012. Within this paper I will look at the conceptualization process, historical research, execution of the set design, the realized final product, and the critique process. The rough sketches, research images, computer draftings, finalized renderings, and production photos are featured within the thesis.

Advisor: Sandy Veneziano

A Broken Butterfly: Playing The Role Of Daisy In Elmer Rice's The Adding Machine, Brandi Lynn Hoofnagle

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis will examine the process of acting the role of Daisy in Elmer Rice's The Adding Machine. Rehearsals for this production began September 21 continued through November 20, 2011. The production was directed by third year M F A candidate Esteban Arevalo Ibanez and produced at the Kernodle Theatre by the University of Arkansas. The body of this thesis is constructed with a text and character analysis integrated into daily rehearsal journals, documenting the process of this production from auditions to the final performance. Through reflection and description of process, I hope to show the creation the actor goes …

Medea, April 26-28, 2012, Theatre Arts Discipline

Theatre Programs

University of Minnesota, Morris production of Medea by Euripides, translated by Frederic Raphael & Kenneth McLeish and directed by Lynn Bixler.

Synopsis: In a continuation of the stories of Jason and the Argonauts, foreign princess and sorceress Medea has murdered her own father to help Jason win the Golden Fleece and the kingdom of Thessaly. They have married and have two sons. Now in ancient Corinth, Medea is told that Jason will be marrying the Corinthian princess. The King of Corinth, anticipating her wrath, sends her into exile. She plans revenge against Jason and negotiates safe haven with the naïve …

Blance And Beyond: Letters Of Tennessee Williams, March 1-2, 2012, Theatre Arts Discipline

Theatre Programs

University of Minnesota, Morris production of Blanche and Beyond: Letters of Tennessee Williams adapted by Steve Lawson and performed by Ray Schultz.

Synopsis: Blanche and Beyond is the stage sequel to A Distant Country Called Youth. While the first play traced the evolution of a young man finding his artistic voice, Blanche and Beyond spans the peak of Williams' career - the period of Streetcar, Rose Tattoo, Summer and Smoke, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof - and explores a no-longer obscure playwright facing the seismic shock of international fame.

The Emperor's New Clothes, March 30-31, 2012, Theatre Arts Discipline

Theatre Programs

University of Minnesota, Morris production of The Emperor’s New Clothes by Blanche Marvin and directed by Shaune Wunder.

Synopsis: A parody of medieval morality plays, this delightful version of the classic tale incorporates comedy traditions from Moliere to Giraudoux.

No Placed Called Home, February 24, 2012, Theatre Arts Discipline

Theatre Programs

University of Minnesota, Morris production of No Place Called Home by Kim Schultz and directed by Sarah Cameron Sunde.

Synopsis: No Place Called Home is an unexpected story—a story about an American woman and an Iraqi man, a story about one refugee out of millions, a story that isn’t supposed to be a love story.

Shakespeare Burlesque And The Performing Self, Daniel Pollack-Pelzner

Faculty Publications

This paper argues that Victorian Shakespeare burlesques reveal an alternate literary history: a movement away from private, novelistic consciousness toward collaborative performance. Many materialist scholars fault post-Romantic critics for casting Shakespeare as a psychological realist and reading his plays as if they were novels. The burlesque treatment of Hamlet’s soliloquies, however, suggests a contrary trajectory, challenging the equation of Shakespearean character with psychological reflection. Rather than inaugurating a tradition of interiority, Hamlet’s soliloquies generate social speech in works like Gilbert’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, inviting audience participation. The burlesque imperative also inflects novels like Dickens’s Great Expectations, turning the …

"Spectacular Opacities": The Hyers Sisters' Performances Of Respectability And Resistance, Jocelyn Buckner

Theatre Faculty Articles and Research

This essay analyzes the Hyers Sisters, a Reconstruction-era African American sister act, and their radical efforts to transcend social limits of gender, class, and race in their early concert careers and three major productions, Out of Bondage and Peculiar Sam, or The Underground Railroad, two slavery-to-freedom epics, and Urlina, the African Princess, the first known African American play set in Africa. At a time when serious, realistic roles and romantic plotlines featuring black actors were nearly nonexistent due to the country’s appetite for stereotypical caricatures, the Hyers Sisters used gender passing to perform opposite one another as heterosexual lovers in …

The Masks Of Commedia Del’Arte, Noh Theater And Classical Greece: The Cultural Meanings, Influences And Similarities, Makena Bennett

A with Honors Projects

This essay examines the use and meanings of masks in Noh, commedia dell'art, and classical Greek theatre.

Gross Indecency: The Three Trials Of Oscar Wilde, December 9-10, 2011, Theatre Arts Discipline

Theatre Programs

University of Minnesota, Morris production of Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde by Moisés Kaufman and directed by Jessie Sherman.

Synopsis: In early 1895, the Marquess of Queensberry, the father of Wilde's young lover, Lord Alfred Douglas, left a card at Wilde's club bearing the phrase "posing somdomite." Wilde sued the Marquess for criminal libel. The defense denounced Wilde's art and literature as immoral, leading the prosecuting attorney to declare, "It would appear that what is on trial is not Lord Queensberry but Mr. Wilde's art!" In the end Queensberry was acquitted, and evidence that had been gathered …

Korean Mask-Dance And Aristotle's Poetics, Teayong Pakr

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Korean mask-dance is the traditional theatre of Korea. It was formerly the country's most well-known form of drama among traditional theatrical entertainments. This study explores the theatrical structure of Korean mask-dance as well as its historical background.

The rise of Korean mask-dance may be traced back to the shamanistic village ritual which gradually became similar to the extant form after absorbing aspects of the Buddhism festival through the Goryeo Dynasty, which lasted from 918-1392). During the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910), the mask-dance had acquired its basic form with aspects of professional theatrical entertainment. The mask-dances have been performed during traditional holidays …

Anything Goes, November 16-19, 2011, Theatre Arts Discipline

Theatre Programs

University of Minnesota, Morris production of Anything Goes by Cole Porter and directed by Siobhan Bremer.

Synopsis: The S. S. American is sailing between New York and England with a comically colorful assemblage of passengers: Reno Sweeney, a popular nightclub singer and former evangelist, her pal Billy Crocker, a lovelorn Wall Street broker who has come aboard to try to win the favor of his beloved Hope Harcourt (who is engaged to another passenger, Sir Evelyn Oakleigh), and a second-rate conman named Moonface Martin, aka “Public Enemy #13.” Song, dance, and farcical antics ensue as Reno and Moonface try to …

Audition Technique: A Survival Guide (For College Undergraduate Students), Meghan Kelleher

Theses and Dissertations

Many great actors don’t work and many mediocre actors do. Why? The perfect monologue and great song isn’t enough to get you hired. Sadly, students are not prepared and equipped with the necessary skill set to take control of their careers. In this economic climate, the ability to audition could not be more imperative. In this thesis, readers will be introduced to the basics of audition technique as developed for Theatre majors at Virginia Commonwealth University as a precursor to their senior year. It will guide them through the first stage of their career. Furthermore, there are unspoken rules, etiquette, …

Willi Red Buhay Interview, Lauren Todd

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Bio: Willi Red Buhay was a graduate of San Beda College and the University of Sto. Tomas. He was the first artistic director for design of the Cultural Center of the Philippines and the Folk Arts Theater, a position he held for fifteen years. He also held a teaching post at the University of the Philippines and his alma mater.

One of Manila’s celebrated design-artist-painters, Willi had staged over 300 productions from theater and cinema to gallery exhibitions. In 1970, he won the prestigious design competition for the Philippine Center in New York. It was the start of numerous design …

The Konami Code: An Experiment In Dialect Pedagogy, Thomas Cunningham

Theses and Dissertations

The Konami Code is a tool for teaching stage dialects that I have been developing for the past three years. I wanted a method that didn’t rely on students’ having a keen ear for phonetics; rather one that offered context for each dialect, and presented individual sound-changes as small parts of an easy way to digest the whole. Most importantly, I wanted a process that was portable: a set series of applications that my students could incorporate easily into their actor’s tool-kit and carry with them into the professional world. The Konami Code incorporates kinesthetic and imaginative elements into the …

Room 314: A Comedy In Two Acts, Hannah Blough

Senior Honors Theses

This thesis is an original play consisting of two acts. Using the traditional structure and plot constructs of a murder mystery, the thesis also incorporates elements of comedy to create a unique work. A young couple on their honeymoon hears a strange noise from the room next door and attempts to find an explanation. As they search for a satisfactory conclusion, Emma and Peter meet some of the other guests at the hotel, making new friends and encountering new challenges along the way. This thesis attempts to answer the question “can an actor tell a good story with her own …

Sophie And The Adventures Of Ice Island, April 15-16, 2011, Theatre Arts Discipline

Theatre Programs

University of Minnesota, Morris production of Sophie and the Adventures of Ice Island by Forrest Musselman and directed by Siobhan Bremer.

Synopsis: Sophie always wanted to be a superhero, so when her homemade sail boat travels to Ice Island, Sophie gets a chance to save the island from melting. Can she be the hero or will the Dark Figure and his minion of penguins stop her? This play received its world premiere at the University of Minnesota-Morris and was also shown on local PBS stations: Pioneer TV and KMSQ.

Panes, Brittany Moss Leazer

Dissertations, Theses and Capstone Projects

A two act play.

Recent Tragic Events, February 10-12, 2011, Theatre Arts Discipline

Theatre Programs

University of Minnesota, Morris production of Recent Tragic Eventsf by Craig Wright and directed by Alex McGreavey.

Synopsis: It is September 12th, 2001; the setting is the Minneapolis apartment of Waverly, a young advertising executive. Soon to venture on a blind date amidst the television news coverage of the September 11th attacks, Waverly becomes preoccupied when she discovers that her twin sister, Wendy, a student in New York, has not been heard from. Waverly reassures herself that Wendy had no reason to be at the World Trade Center. As the evening unfolds, Waverly and her blind date, Andrew, an airport …

Dickens And Shakespeare’S Household Words, Daniel Pollack-Pelzner

Faculty Publications

Though Dickens' Shakespearean qualities have often been noted, less attention has been paid to the way that Dickens constructed the terms of his comparison to Shakespeare, scripting the response he received from critics from the nineteenth century to the present and shaping Shakespeare's reception as well. Focusing on The Pickwick Papers and David Copperfield in the context of their Victorian reception, this essay shows how Dickens used Shakespearean quotation to market his characters' quotability, turning them into household words and popularizing Shakespeare's sayings in turn, even as he challenged the universality of quotable phrases.

Harriet Jacobs Kansas City Repertory Theatre (Review), Jocelyn Buckner

Theatre Faculty Articles and Research

This is a review of the play based on Harriet Jacobs, a slave in nineteenth-century America, who documented her life and the ordeal of her escape in her memoir Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.

Directing Beyond The Boundaries: A Director's Journey To Personal Style In Directing Diaspora, Mary Elizabeth Wlodarczyk

Theses

Even though, the text of Diaspora was technically "mine" in the sense that J wrote Diaspora, the play text itself became a separate creature at its completion. So the production of Diaspora was not so much my directing a play I wrote, as much as it was an agreement between me and the new text, an autonomous life. In this exacting negotiation, I had to chose where I reside on the spectrum directing philosophies, whether I would embrace complete fidelity to the text or would I see the directing process as more intuitive and flexible (Benedetti 14-15)?

The writers and …

Mieko Gavia: The Dog Project, Mieko Gavia

Honors Papers

This thesis chronicles my journey with my original theatrical piece, Dog, from inception to the end of its Oberlin College run, and includes a reflection of my experience and ideas for the future of the piece. I will provide both sociological and literary context for several important aspects of the show, as well as personal reflections on the process and discoveries made therein.

Fearlessness The Seventh Element Of Drama, Matt Wenge

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Aristotle proclaimed in his Poetics that there were six elements to drama: spectacle, music, diction, thought, character, and plot. This paper will analyze the play Thom Pain (based on nothing) against these six elements. I will discuss the aspects of each element that are present in the show as well as the ideas and concepts my director, Tad Ingram, and I brought to the show. Through the rehearsal and performance process I discovered a seventh element; the element of fearlessness. In his Poetics, Aristotle does not fully address what the actor brings to the performance and this aspect is just …