Theatre and Performance Studies Commons^™

Black Cats, Berlin, Broadway And Beyond: The Genre Of Cabaret, Deborah Tedrick

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Music and Theatre have always captivated me. As a child, my parents would take me to live performances and cinematic shows and I would sit rapt, watching the theatrical events and emotional moments unfold before my eyes. Movie musicals and live shows that combined music and theatre were my favorite, especially theatrical banter and improvisation or sketch comedy. Some of my favorite youthful memories were my annual family summer trips to Las Vegas to visit my grandparents for six weeks. As a youngster, I got to experience the "old school" Las Vegas, replete with extravaganza, spectacle, cabaret, circus, lounge and …

Black Cats, Berlin, Broadway And Beyond: Cabaret History In The Making, Josephine Leffner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cabaret as a genre has influenced and is influenced by musical theatre. As cabaret has evolved throughout history, musical theatre has often paralleled its journey. Cabaret thrived before the term "musical theatre" was coined and suffered hard times during the Golden Age of Musical Theatre. The correlation of the two genres cannot be denied, and exploring cabaret history will reveal how deeply the connection lies. My collaborator Debbie Tedrick and I will attempt to define cabaret through a two-woman cabaret show we will write, produce, and perform together. The show, Black Cats, Berlin, Broadway and Beyond, will be a one-act …

Producing “The Diary Of Anne Frank” In The 21St Century, Nancy Camina

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This thesis is a Creative Study involving the directing of The Diary of Anne Frank . Three basic areas are addressed: Preplanning, Production and Evaluation. The Preplanning chapter entails discovering every aspect of the play through an external an internal analysis of the script. The external analysis examines various historical events that preceded and are concurrent to the action of the play. The internal analysis looks at various elements within the play that may be unfamiliar to both the actors and the audience. The production chapter details every phase involved in producing the play. The last chapter, Evaluation, uses both …

Stop Kiss, December 8-10, 2005, Theatre Arts Discipline

Theatre Programs

University of Minnesota, Morris production of Stop Kiss by Diana Son and directed by Megan Losure.

Synopsis: "A poignant and funny play about the ways, both sudden and slow, that lives can change irrevocably," says Variety. After Callie meets Sara, the two unexpectedly fall in love. Their first kiss provokes a violent attack that transforms their lives in a way they could never anticipate.

The Merchant Of Venice, November 2-5, 2005, Theatre Arts Discipline

Theatre Programs

University of Minnesota, Morris production of The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare and directed by Ray Schultz.

Synopsis: In the melting pot of Venice, currency opens many doors. A multicultural metropolis, Venice welcomes its arms to all – so long as they come prepared for the brutality of the business of trade. Young Bassanio wants to take a gamble for brilliant Portia, the wealthy heiress of Belmont. He is willing to risk all he has to win her hand, but all he has is not enough. In need of extra money to make a proper suit, Bassanio enlists the …

Beginnings, 2005, Columbia College Chicago

Dialogue

First issue of a Theater department publication later known as Dialogue. Articles include "Building a Character Within an Ensemble Through the Games"; "Can I Wear Your Hat?"; "The Box Theatre Group"; "Trials and Tribe-ulations"; "Kissing Gertrude Stein, or Ionesco Buys a Stein a Beer"; "March 1966"; "The Martinez Manifesto"; "Deranged Inhabitants"; "My Autobiography"; and "Kali Ma". 16 pages.

Thea1010 - Understanding Theatre, Fall 2005, David Sidwell

Theatre Arts - OCW

The goal of this course is to understand the arts of theatre, their application to daily life and to the enjoyment of theatre as an art form.

John Millington Synge And The Irish Women's Suffrage Movement, Nicholas A. Ewen

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

John Millington Synge is considered to be among the greatest playwrights of the English language. During his lifetime, however, his plays caused controversy and even riots. Of particular interest is the fact that much of the controversy surrounded Synge's portrayal of Irish women. Because of the radical Irish nationalism that developed in the early 20 th century, much of Synge's work has been interpreted in light of this movement. This thesis, however, explores the theory that Synge was more closely connected with an another movement that was taking place in the early 1900's: women's suffrage. His sympathies for the enfranchisement …

Pretend Play At Home: Creating An Educationally Enriched Environment For Emergent Literacy Among Preschool-Aged Children, Kelly King Anderson

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis will illustrate how pretend play can be used in the home for educational purposes. The major emphasis of the work will be emergent literacy, however, application principles can be applied in all subject areas. Parents who desire to expand their child's literacy skills while exposing the child to an arts enriched home environment need ideas and tools developed with supportive research to strengthen and focus their efforts. These tools will greatly expand parental resources by offering several principles as a guide for adapting existing classroom materials for home use. The following Seven Components form the core foundation for …

Mutiny In The Lone Star: Hats, Boots, And Hip-Hop In Texas, Kimi Buser

Whittier Scholars Program

This project includes 8 drafts of Mutiny in the Lone Star: Hats, Boots and Hip-Hop in Texas along with a letter of introduction, data sheet, publicity and DVD of Mutiny and House Music. This project is a one-woman theater piece about the author’s home in Alief, Texas.

The Civil War: A Collaboration In Direction And Choreography, Cara E. Rawlings

Theses and Dissertations

This text is a partial record of the development of the Virginia Commonwealth University production of The Civil War: A Musical that opened on April 7, 2005 for a three-week run ending April 28, 2005. The greater part of the text is devoted to the evaluation of the underlying principles of direction and choreography applied in the creation of an artistically aid financially successful production of this size. Included in the evaluation of The Civil War: A Musical are analyses of the directors' --Patti D'Beck and David Leong --individual creative processes, aesthetics, and working styles. The result of this evaluation …

Proof, December 9-11, 2004, Theatre Arts Discipline

Theatre Programs

University of Minnesota, Morris production of Proof by David Auburn and directed by Tiffany Roufs.

Synopsis Catherine has inherited her late father’s mathematical brilliance, but she is haunted by the fear that she might also share his debilitating mental illness. She has spent years caring for her now-deceased father, and upon his death, she feels left alone to pick up the pieces of her life without him. Caught between a new-found connection with Hal, one of her father’s former students, and the reappearance of her sister, Claire, Catherine finds both her world and her mind growing increasingly unstable. Then Hal …

Plot Lines, Fall 2004, Columbia College Chicago

Plot Lines

Columbia College Chicago Theater Department Student Newsletter. 6 pages.

Blithe Spirit, October 28-30, 2004, Theatre Arts Discipline

Theatre Programs

University of Minnesota, Morris production of Blithe Spirit by Noel Coward and directed by Siobhan Bremer.

Synopsis: Cantankerous novelist Charles Condomine, re-married but haunted (literally) by the ghost of his late first wife, the clever and insistent Elvira who is called up by a visiting “happy medium,” one Madame Arcati. As the (worldly and un-) personalities clash, Charles’ current wife, Ruth, is accidentally killed, “passes over,” joins Elvira, and the two “blithe spirits” haunt the hapless Charles into perpetuity.

The Hobbit, April 16-17, 2004, Theatre Arts Discipline

Theatre Programs

University of Minnesota, Morris production of The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, adapted by Markland Taylor and directed by Siobhan Bremer.

Synopsis: The classic fantasy about Bilbo, a young and extremely reluctant Hobbit, who leaves home and sets off with a band of adventurers to slay Smaug the dragon and recover an enormous treasure, discovering the ring in the process. Told with wit and humor, this entirely new play based on the Tolkien classic is especially designed for a small cast and suitable for touring.

The Shadow Box, February 5-7, 2004, Theatre Arts Discipline

Theatre Programs

University of Minnesota, Morris production of The Shadow Box by Michael Cristofer and directed by Christopher Anderson.

Synopsis: n this compelling dramatic triptych, three terminal cancer patients dwell in separate cottages on a hospital's grounds. The three are attended and visited by family and close friends: Agnes and her mother Felicity, estranged further by the latter's dementia; Brian and Beverly, whose marital complications are exacerbated by Brian's new lover, Mark; and Joe and Maggie, unready for the strain of Joe's impending death and its effect on their teenage son.

The Merry Wives Of Windsor: A University Actress's Approach To The Role Of Mistress Ford, Brook Akya Hanemann

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Art is too ethereal a thing to judge by tangible measure. There is no scale to weigh a performance on, no level to gauge a character’s balance, no plumb line to measure its depth. No critic can appoint an allotment of stars to represent the worth of a production, and the audience, though a vital participant within the performance experience, cannot act as Jury and deliberate together to reach an absolute verdict of approval or disapproval. How then can an actor go about working towards giving a successful performance? The Merry Wives of Windsor was written at a time when …

When The Carnival Is Over : Peter Barnes' Red Noses And The Theories Of Mikhail Bakhtin, Duncan A. Sharp

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Peter Barnes, acknowledged as one of Britain's most important contemporary playwrights, writes plays that are of an enormous scale, both physically and intellectually. Red Noses is one such play. Like Barnes' other works, Red Noses makes great technical demands on directors, designers, actors and audiences. As with all of Barnes' plays, Red Noses is, moreover, informed by a wide variety of theatrical styles. As Bernard Dukore (1990, p. 65) states, actors may be required to quickly "switch from intellectual discourse, to period argot, to poetry, to modern slang, to rhetoric, to musical comedy, to ritual, to dance, to opera, to …

The Mystery Of Edwin Drood, November 5-8, 2003, Theatre Arts Discipline

Theatre Programs

University of Minnesota, Morris production The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens directed by Ray Schultz.

Synopsis: The Mystery of Edwin Drood is a hilarious, interactive whodunit mystery musical that allows the audience to enter the action and become the ultimate detectives. The show is based on Charles Dickens’ unfinished novel of the same name. In small town of Chesterham, England, the young and charming Edwin Drood has been mysteriously murdered. But by whom? His leering romantic rival, John Jasper? The infamous purveyor of opium and vice, Princess Puffer? The mysterious Landless twins, newly arrived from Ceylon? Or someone …

Hyronomous A. Frog: The Frog Prince, April 11-12, 2003, Theatre Arts Discipline

Theatre Programs

University of Minnesota, Morris production of Hyronomous A. Frog: The Frog Prince by Edith Weiss directed by Kimberly Gamradt.

Synopsis: Hyronomous, an inept and lonely frog prince, lives in a bog in the kingdom of Spamelot. Hyronomous is bored and unhappy as a frog. He’s larger than the other frogs and hates the taste of flies. One day, the good witch Gloria appears to tell him he was once a human prince and it was a spell that turned him into an amphibian. To break this croak-filled wizardry, Hyronomous must be kissed by a maiden. In a hysterical scene, he …

Direction And Production Of Shakespeare's Comedy Much Ado About Nothing, Lisa Kraus Morford

Master of Theater Production Graduate Projects

This project includes the selection, background research and documentation, direction, production, and post-production analysis of Sammamish High School's production of William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. Documentation includes research, analysis of the play, and an evaluation of the comedy as a production for Sammamish High School.

L'Espace Scriptural Chez Kourouma Ou La Tragicomédie Du Roman, Jean Ouédraogo

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

Ahmadou Koruouma's fiction transcends the traditional limits of the novelistic genre. This explains, in part, the irritation of both the French and the African establishments following the appearance of his first novel, Les soleils des independances, in which both writing and language enhance the subversive effect. The banning and subsequent disappearance of Kourouma's play, Tougnatigui ou le Diseur de verite and the dramatic adaptations of his first two novels call for an appreciation of his entire work from a dramaturgical perspective. In this study, we shall analyse the constitutive elements of the intergeneric qualities underlying Kourouma's writing. To this end, …

The Memory And The Legacy: The Whittlin' Whistlin' Brigade -- The Young Company 1974-2001, Ruth Ann Lay

Theses and Dissertations

The Memory and The Legacy: The Whittlin' Whistlin' Brigade - The Young Company 1974-2001, is a history of the children's theatre of Brigham Young University. The Whittlin' Whistlin' Brigade - The Young Company acts as a training ground for graduate students working in theatre for young audiences. Then directing a production for The Whittlin' Whistlin' Brigade - The Young Company, students are instructed to perform all functions required of a professional company. As the The Whittlin' Whistlin' Brigade - The Young Company (WWB-TYC) spends much of its performance time on tour, those responsibilities are relegated to the students. Developed and …

Dancing At Lughnasa, Oct. 31- Nov. 2, 2002, Theatre Arts Discipline

Theatre Programs

University of Minnesota, Morris production of Dancing at Lughnasa by Brian Friel and directed by Ray Schultz.

Synopsis: Set in the fictional Irish village of Ballybeg, Ireland, Dancing at Lughnasa is a memory play, told from the perspective of an adult Michael. He recalls one summer he spent at his aunts' home when he was seven years old. The five Mundy sisters, all unmarried, live in a big cottage just outside of the small village. Kate, the eldest, is a schoolteacher; Agnes and Rose knit gloves and help keep house with Maggie and Christine (Michael's mother), who have no income …

Broadway And The Paycock: The Broadway Musical Adaptation Of Sean O'Casey's Juno And The Paycock, Julia M. Furay

Publications and Research

The 1959 Broadway musical Juno, based on Sean O'Casey's 1924 classic Juno and the Paycock, is notable despite its ultimate artistic and financial failure. Musical adaptors Joseph Stein and Marc Blitzstein were inspired by the inherent musicality of O'Casey's play. However, O'Casey's linguistic complexity, profound characterization and political commentary were impossible to translate onto the Broadway stage. Instead, Stein, Blitzstein and de Mille emphasized ritualism and psychology within the story of the Boyle family, and were careful to conform O'Casey's world to that of 1950s Broadway. In doing so, however, the adaptation became different thematically from its predecessor. …

The Royal Family

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s Spring 2002 performance of The Royal Family by _George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber

The Little Prince, April 19-20, 2002, Theatre Arts Discipline

Theatre Programs

University of Minnesota, Morris production of The Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry adapted by Rick Cummings, John Scoullar and directed by Kimberly Gamradt.

Synopsis: The Little Prince may have returned to his own tiny planet to tend his Rose and look after his Sheep, but for a short enchanted time he returns to us and comes alive on stage. This play/musical tells the story of a world-weary and disenchanted Aviator whose sputtering plane strands him in the Sahara Desert and a mysterious, regal "little man" who appears and asks him to "Please, sir, draw me a sheep." During their two …

The Laramie Project, February 14-16, 2002, Theatre Arts Discipline

Theatre Programs

University of Minnesota, Morris production of The Laramie Project by Moisés Kaufman and directed by Ray Schultz.

Synopsis: In October 1998 in the middle of the prairie outside Laramie, Wyoming, Matthew Shepard, a 21 year old student at the University of Wyoming, was tied to a fence post, severely beaten, robbed, , tortured and left, alone, to die. His body -- battered, bloody, barely clinging to life -- was discovered eighteen hours later. He was rushed to the hospital and put on life support. He died five days later. The reason for this brutal crime? Matthew Shepard was gay.

The …

Taylor Theatre 2002-2003, Taylor University

Season Announcements

The 2002-2003 Taylor Theatre season announcement.

A Majestic Presence: A Study Of The Development Of The Majestic Theater In Gettysburg, Jay Gallagher, Kelly Burnham, Nancy Moll

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

In an era of collective entertainment, before private home entertainment systems, people sought amusement within their communities. One aspect of this community entertainment, the theater, offered a social gathering place. Theaters provided an important dual role for the community—both for entertainment and also a certain amount of public service. Theaters in the 1920s and 1930s, in small towns such as Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, served a much different purpose than they do today, with a more prominent and more important role within society. In the 1920s and 1930s, Gettysburg had several theaters. The two most prominent were the Majestic and the Strand …