Theatre and Performance Studies Commons^™

Brighter But Not Clearer: Entertainment-Dependent Destinations Dealing With Long Covid, Louis-Etienne Dubois, Frederic Dimanche

Journal of Themed Experience and Attractions Studies

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, we explored a range of very different possible outcomes for destinations that rely heavily on their entertainment sector (Dubois & Dimanche, 2021). Several months later, this article seeks to revisit those outcomes, while also highlighting the ongoing recovery efforts and evolving strategies of entertainment-dependent destinations (EDDs). To do so, we reconnected with the panel of respondents from various destinations (i.e., Las Vegas, Nashville, New Orleans etc.) to take stock of both new challenges and opportunities, as well as emerging factors impacting their respective markets. Our results show that while EDDs are facing a …

Theme Parks, Staycation Practices, And Covid-19: Opportunities And Uncertainties, Salvador Anton Clavé

Journal of Themed Experience and Attractions Studies

The effects of COVID-19 on the market transformation of the theme park industry has been significant in the short term because of travel restrictions. Challenges, impacts, responses, and strategies might vary from one region to another and even from one theme park to another. However, it can be assumed that domestic travel will continue to have an effect on the theme park industry during the months to come and likely beyond the pandemic. In this context, the “staycation” is becoming a booming trend in the leisure, entertainment, and tourism industry, creating new, current, and future unexpected economic winners and losers. …

Disney During Covid-19: The Tourist And The Actor’S Nightmare, Jennifer A. Kokai, Tom Robson

Journal of Themed Experience and Attractions Studies

In this essay, we argue that the experience of being at Disney theme parks in COVID times was a waking version of what is sometimes called “The Actor’s Nightmare.” Due to safety regulations, theme parks either dropped live entertainment that structures the day as a show with a clear beginning and end (e.g. park-opening rope drop performances, and the fireworks), attempted to include references to COVID in live entertainment (like in

the Frozen Ever After singalong, which added some COVID jokes), or to ignore it (like the Festival of the Lion King). In any case, due to these measures the …

The “Politics Of Inclusion/Exclusion” In Times Of The Pandemic, Florian Freitag

Journal of Themed Experience and Attractions Studies

As commercial enterprises that depend on attracting a maximum number of visitors in order to be economically successful, theme parks have generally been careful to avoid unpleasant, sensitive, or controversial themes (or aspects of a theme) that might offend or alienate potential customers. Due to official regulations concerning e.g. the wearing of masks in waiting lines and during rides, however, the pandemic cannot simply be “excluded” from the parks and remains constantly visually present, thus seriously undermining the companies’ efforts to keep the park grounds rigidly separated from the rest of the world. Particular operational decisions by some theme park …

“It Takes People To Make The Dream A Reality”: Disney’S Hr Strategy In Response To Covid-19, Jaime L. Williams, Allison A. Toth

Journal of Themed Experience and Attractions Studies

From January 2020 to the beginning of fall 2021, theme parks around the world have been required to engage in abnormal, abrupt, and major shifts in operations caused by the ongoing global pandemic (COVID-19). Through the process of sensemaking, this paper will focus on the human resources related decisions made by The Walt Disney Company in an effort to better understand the organization’s responses to changes in the external environment and the resulting outcomes during the pandemic. The overall management of Cast Members in the United States during this time period with specific focuses on the layoff and re-hiring of …

Are European Theme Parks Likely To Suffer From Long Covid?, Pieter Cornelis

Journal of Themed Experience and Attractions Studies

COVID-19 has had a major impact on the theme park industry. Visits to European parks were significantly lower in 2020 than the year before. This article discusses the short-term and long-term economic consequences of the pandemic for the theme park industry. Attitudinal loyalty, inertia effects of guest satisfaction on repeat visits, (deferred) reinvestments, and the difference between theme and amusement parks will be considered. To compensate for losses in 2020, many parks increased their visitor numbers in the 2021 season to the maximum permitted capacity, especially in the summer months. As a result, analysis of waiting times at 22 investigated …

Introduction: Theme Parks And Covid-19, Salvador Anton Clavé, Florian Freitag

Journal of Themed Experience and Attractions Studies

In the tourism industry, “crises” have been conceptualized as local and temporary phenomena, interval states that may require imminent action, but that can eventually be overcome, with business simply resuming. At the moment of writing, however, it is not at all clear when or if the theme park sector can simply return to a pre-pandemic state of affairs. Even if tourism may once again attain pre-COVID numbers, it may well be through entirely new and different forms. The essays collected here provide scholarly and professional snapshots of the current (winter 2021/2022) state of the theme park industry, with special attention …

Ar Fantasia: An Augmented Reality Musical Experience, Joe Geigel, Yunn-Shan Ma, Juilee Decker

Frameless

In 1940, Walt Disney Pictures released their third full length animated feature film, the classic film Fantasia. The concept and challenge behind Fantasia was simple: To merge music and visuals, using the media of animation, to provide an integrated backdrop for, and interpretation of, classical music. The complete film consisted of eight such animated sequences, each providing a visual landscape as a setting for a classical musical piece (Granata 2002).

Been Set Free: A Distributed Virtual Theatre Dance Performance, Joe Geigel

Frameless

For Frameless 2021, we present a fully realized example of virtual theatre. We define virtual theatre as a live theatrical performance, experienced on a stage in virtual reality, with participants in different physical locations (Geigel 2018).

Jet Of Blood Vr: First Playable Demo, Elizabeth Goins, Andy Head, Mason Hayes

Frameless

A VR staging of Anonin Artaud’s 1925 surrealist play, Jet of Blood. The project experiments with virtual reality as a means to reimagine performance and frame the player, the audience, as actor. Ideas from Artaud’s philosophy such as the Theatre of Cruelty are incorporated along with spatial storytelling and game design. The project also seeks to expand accessibility to deaf and hard of hearing audiences through use of particle and text effects to visually express audio and sound.

Misticismo Y Arcadismo En El Villancico Novohispano. Manuel De Sumaya Y Sus Contemporáneos, Luciana Kube Tamayo

Vernacular: New Connections in Language, Literature, & Culture

El siglo XVIII trajo consigo una evolución estilística vertiginosa en todas las artes. La plástica, la literatura y la música confluyen y sirven de soporte a un arte nuevo, el Rococó. La floración churrigueresca está intensamente presente, además de en lienzos y biombos, en el vocabulario de la lírica de la Nueva España; a la vez que se afianzan los modelos religiosos, por un lado, se asientan los modelos pastoriles por otro. En cuanto a la espiritualidad, los modelos se encuentran encajados en la miniatura poética y el ingenio dieciochesco, desbordante de naturaleza y fantasía. En el presente trabajo me …

Nationless States And Stateless Beings: The Politics Of Identity And Citizenship In Claudio Mir’S Mondongo Scam And Cheech Marin’S Born In East L.A., Rebecca A. Barnes

Vernacular: New Connections in Language, Literature, & Culture

In the colloquial sense of the term, the word citizen refers to an individual who belongs to a nation, either by birthright or by naturalization. Therefore, citizenship denotes a political and a social belonging, an ideological home, and, in most cases, a strong foundation for the development of one’s personal identity. However, since nations are inherently artificial structures, made only tangible in the present day by a few centuries of recorded history, a philosophical approach to the term citizen complicates this definition. Based off critics including Hannah Arendt, Homi Bhabha, Fernando Ortiz, and Jacques Derrida, this essay seeks to explore …

La Contribución De La Ópera Bufa Manita En El Suelo De Carpentier Y García Caturla En El Debate Primitivista De Principios Del Siglo Xx, Anna M. Martija Perez

Vernacular: New Connections in Language, Literature, & Culture

The present work is an approach to Manita en el suelo, the only opera bufa that Alejo Carpentier created in collaboration with the Cuban musician Alejandro García Caturla. The genuine friendship that united Carpentier and Caturla was the result of their identification not only in their love for music, but also an accentuated interest in all things primitive, together with a deep sense of social justice. At the same time, they are also united by respect for the African heritage and the recognition that it should have in the history of Cuba. In Manita en el suelo, Carpentier …

Thematic Use Of Non-Conformity In "Changing My Major" (Ft. Gay Panic), Yazmeen Mayes

Symposium of Student Scholars

CW: Presentation includes references to sex and suicide.

This presentation is an in-depth score analysis of “Changing My Major” from the musical Fun Home by Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori, which is based on Alison Bechdel’s autobiographical memoir by the same name. The musical examines the similarities and differences between Alison and her father as she attempts to contruct a future without a queer elder to model it. This presentation demonstrates the collaborative, tight structure of thematic messaging in musical theatre. Overall, ““Changing My Major” personifies the show at large and celebrates the process of questioning as its own epic, …

“All The Daughters Of My Father's House, And All The Brothers Too”: Shakespeare’S Portrayal Of Gender Fluidity, Sebastian Lopez

Symposium of Student Scholars

This paper analyzes how Shakespeare's personal life influenced the relationship between Viola and Cesario in Twelfth Night through a feminist lens and an analysis of gender fluidity in the Elizabethan Era. It is a common misconception that conversations revolving around gender are a modern discussion. Shakespeare popularized the idea of gender fluidity in English literature in his play, Twelfth Night.

At the height of Shakespeare’s career, he wrote many comedies, yet few tragedies, however, a tonal shift occurred after the death of his son, Hamnet. Shakespeare was father to a pair of fraternal twins, Judith and Hamnet. However, the …

Revelations Found After The Storm Through The Lens Of Personal Narrative, Jetta Whitehurst

Symposium of Student Scholars

This personal narrative storytelling performance is based on my involvement in a weekend-long church-led service project in Panama City, Florida assisting those impacted by Hurricane Michael in 2018. The story explores the social dynamics present in the midst of a natural disaster, reflects on the layers of the storm’s impact, and unpacks the concept of “voluntourism,” all while demonstrating techniques of personal narrative performance. The goal of the project is to discover meaningful connections personal narrative helps establish by application.

A Woman's War: The Global Feminist Impact Of The Reclamation And Emulation Of Lysistrata, Sierra Benning

Symposium of Student Scholars

Sierra Benning Kennesaw State University [email protected]

A Woman’s War: The Global Feminist Impact of the Reclamation and Emulation of Lysistrata

Can one consider literature, art, film, or theatre created by men, despite the presence of empowered and intelligent female characters, as truly and accurately feminist? This presentation seeks to answer this question through calling forth the concept proposed by Sue-Ellen Case in her book Feminism and Theatre of the “male-produced” woman, and the unrealistic image that product has created for women through time. This presentation explores the idea that when these male-written female characters are reclaimed by female audiences, they …

Approaching The 'Small Planet': Remain In Light's Starship Road Trip As Metaphor For Theatrical World-Building, Amy Yourd

Theatre & Dance ETDs

Using Elinor Fuchs’ “Visit to a Small Planet” as inspiration, I consider my play Remain in Light as its own small planet, examining theories of world-building, science fiction, and utopian performativity to investigate possible functions of imaginary worlds onstage. In chapter one, I appropriate Fuchs’ script analysis exercise for my own purposes of play development, discovering a world of sensory detail that parallels the characters’ experience in the play. In chapter two, I conceive of the play’s starship as an imaginary world crashing towards this one, its escape a hopeful reflection on the utopian possibilities of alternate worlds. In chapter …

Beware The Ides Of March: A Digital Journal On The Acting Process In Julius Caesar, Sterling Barbett

Research and Creativity Symposium

In January 2022, Theatre major Sterling Barbett was cast in the University of Mary Washington’s workshop production of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare. He played the Soothsayer, Claudius, Octavius’ Servant, and Servant to Caesar in the final performances, which took place close to the ides of March (March 10-13). Throughout rehearsals, he conducted research of Ancient Rome and acting processes by renowned Shakespearean actors to better analyze his characters. Personal accounts were documented to foster a sense of belonging: not only in this dystopian version of Rome, but also in a strong ensemble. He writes about self-reflection and the feelings …

Eccentric: Writing Through The Lens Of Empathy, Steven M. Blacksmith

Theatre & Dance ETDs

In this essay, I detail my growth as a writer through different periods of empathic learning. I examine my childhood struggle to understand many common emotions and the ways in which I began to logically dissect and replicate them in life and in art. I further delve into this examination through my discovery of comedy and the lifelong process of understand the deep connections humans make with humor. I then discuss how my understanding of empathy allowed me to write my dissertation play, The Eccentrics, and create a world in which empathy among the characters can be a catalyst …

Serving As A Dramaturg To On Campus Productions: The Development And Execution Of Thea 6910: A Dramaturgy Of Three Plays, Megan Kimball

LMU Theses and Dissertations

In the Fall of 2021, I served as the dramaturge for the Loyola Marymount campus productions of Anna Deavere's Smiths, "Twilight Los Angeles," Brandon Jacob Jenkins, "Everybody "and Melanie Marnich's "These Shining Lives." One can't ignore the distinct and separate story designs of these plays. "Twilight Los Angeles" is a verbatim theatre style, with an arrangement of monologues. "Everybody" is a modern-day morality play with a lottery. "These shining lives" is a period piece set as a docudrama. My process for this thesis will be a reflective and experiential study on performing the role of the dramaturg for these three …

Spring Play Festival (April 14-16, 2022), Lindenwood University

Student Theatre Programs

Program for the Spring Play Festival (April 14-16, 2022).

Plays included:

• The Parisian Woman
• Every Brilliant Thing
• Beauty

Ruined By Lynn Nottage: An Exploration Of Women And Violence, Olivia Harrington

Research and Creativity Symposium

This project is a dramaturgical exploration of the play Ruined by Lynn Nottage. Ruined is based on the true stories of women from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, who experienced trauma such as rape, torture, and family disownment. Nottage’s play gives a voice to women and their experiences in a war zone. Dramaturgy is defined as the study of dramatic composition and theatrical representation. The purpose is to create a guide for the artistic team for the production to be as accurate as possible. This guide includes information on the author including her process and research while writing this …

The Big Meal, Department Of Theatre And Dance

Spring 2022

Somewhere in America, in a typical restaurant on a typical night, Sam and Nicole first meet. Sparks fly. And so, begins the extraordinary tale of five generations of an ordinary family, from first kiss to final good-bye. Packed with humanity and humor, The Big Meal chronicles the loves, trials, and resilience of modern families. Playwright Dan LeFranc won the 2010 NYT Outstanding Playwright Award for this big-hearted, theatrically inventive comedy.

Whitton Drama Production Materials: Finding Aid, Bethany Latham

Finding Aids

This collection contains hand-annotated scripts, playbills, schedules for rehearsal/performance, congratulatory notes, and other materials related to plays performed by JSU’s Department of Theatre and Film (formerly the Drama Department). The materials were compiled by Dr. Steven J. Whitton, Professor Emeritus of English at JSU (English Department faculty 1973-2017) and represent productions in which he acted and/or directed. The scripts contain his notes regarding the productions.

Some of these materials have been digitized and are available through the JSU Department of Theatre & Film Production Archive.

Theatre & Film Production Archive: Finding Aid, Bethany Latham

Finding Aids

This collection contains a chronological listing of all plays performed at Jacksonville State University, as far as known, from 1947 to the present. Materials created for these productions and donated to the Library by the Department of Theatre & Film (formerly the Drama Department) include photographs, slides, playbills, posters, flyers, and other materials. The bulk of the original collection materials date from the 1980s to the early 2000s.

Supplementary digital items were also shared with the Library (eg, digital image files), and the Library acquired other digital images from the Photographic Services Department in order to build a more complete …

1860'S Clothing In America, Lynna Levin

Undergraduate Research Conference

My research focused on the Crinoline period which was a transitional period between the Romantic and Bustle Period. In addition, I explored clothing of slaves, and clothing during the American Civil War. There were clothing variations depending on wealth, class, and location. The most notable changes of this period were the use of the crinoline and Civil War uniforms. The transition of art from Romanticism to Realism and Impressionism illustrates the transition in clothing from flowy and delicate to that of a stiff and structured style.

I’Ve Lost Respect For Bertolt Brecht: A Look Into The Disappearance Of The Original Production Of Pioneers In Ingolstadt By Marieluise Fleißer, Jenna Alley

Undergraduate Research Conference

No abstract provided.

Mexican Folklorico And The Costumes Thereof, Gabrielle Trevino

Undergraduate Research Conference

Folk dance appears around the world and much of the time what these performers wear becomes the most famous image of a nation or country. Mexico folklorico spans throughout the nation. Its regions are home to a variety of iconic looks that vary even more so within each subculture. The image of the many folk dresses of Mexico is unmistakable and rooted in both the indigenous cultures and the colonial Spanish ties of the nation, both of which can still be visually traced back today in modern folklorico. In no way are the following examples a comprehensive list of the …

30. Dragaganza 2025 [Social Media Post, April 9, 2022], University Of Northern Iowa

LGBTQIA+ Archive Class Projects

A social media promotional post advertising the Dragaganza thrown by UNI Proud.