Theatre and Performance Studies Commons^™

Effort Reduction In Articulation In Sign Languages And Dance, Donna Jo Napoli, Stephanie Liapis

Linguistics Faculty Works

Sign languages exhibit the drive for ease of articulation found in spoken languages, particularly in fast and casual conversation, where the methods that reduce effort are shown here to be limited by the need to maintain recognizability. Participatory dance, which uses the same articulators as sign languages plus additional ones, also demonstrates methods of reducing biomechanical effort, analogous to those seen in sign languages, and, again, limited by the need to maintain recognizability of the dance figures/phrases. However, when we look at performance language (here, sign poetry) and performance dance, we find a contrast: sign language poetry uses reduced and …

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.

Disney Buyout, Kevin Clifford

Student Publications

Disney Buyout

A man listens to the radio to find out that the White House has been bought out by Disney.
*Edited/adapted for the performance by Tim Brown and Thomas Edwards

Creative Writer's Festival 2019 Playbill, Providence College

Playbill and Promotion

Creative Writers Festival 2019

House Managers: Emily Clark & Ailish Egan
Poster Design: Emily Clark
Archive Photography: Ashley DiCaro

THEATRE, DANCE & FILM FESTIVAL STAFF
Creative Writers Festival Curator: Dave Rabinow
Managing Director: Jimmy Calitri
Department Chair: Dr. Wendy Oliver
Technical Director: George Marks
Assistant Technical Director: Trevor Elliott
Costume Shop Supervisor: Maxine Wheelock
Academic Administrative Coordinator: Ali Boyd
Production Administrative Coordinator: Talia Triangolo

MATER TUA
Written by Julia Zygiel
Directed by Mireya Lopez
Sydney Cahill, Catie Capolongo, Mireya Lopez, Halle Pratt
Location: Green room

KNOWING (PT.1)
Written by Thomas Edwards
Directed by Dan Jameson
Amanda Piechota, Aisling Sheahan
Location: …

Creative Writer's Festival 2019 Submisson Ad, Providence College

Playbill and Promotion

No abstract provided.

Creative Writer's Festival 2019 Poster, Providence College

Playbill and Promotion

The Dept. of Theatre, Dance & Film presents the 6th Annual

Creative Writers Festival 2019

Eavesdropping

May 23 & 24, 2019

Sat. at 7:30pm Sun. at 2:00pm

House Managers: Emily Clark & Ailish Egan
Poster Design: Emily Clark
Archive Photography: Ashley DiCaro

THEATRE, DANCE & FILM FESTIVAL STAFF
Creative Writers Festival Curator: Dave Rabinow
Managing Director: Jimmy Calitri
Department Chair: Dr. Wendy Oliver
Technical Director: George Marks
Assistant Technical Director: Trevor Elliott
Costume Shop Supervisor: Maxine Wheelock
Academic Administrative Coordinator: Ali Boyd
Production Administrative Coordinator: Talia Triangolo

Do We Make A Sound? An American Morality Play, Bennett A. Kirschner

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Class, Capital And Colonies In India And Palestine/Israel, Amir Locker-Biletzki

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

The article “Class, Capital and Colonies in India and Palestine/Israel” studies the way Indian and Israeli Communist intellectuals conceptualized and understood European Colonialism. In contrast to present day settler-colonial theories – that disregarded Marxist critic of European expansion – Indian and Israeli Communists developed a Bolshevik colonial thinking. For Communists the triple forces of imperialism, capital and class devastated the “archaic” native way of life. In doing so they clear a path for European domination, settlement and class differentiation of both colonizers and colonized. The article traces Bolshevik colonial thinking to its origins in Marx’s and Lenin’s writings. It continuous …

Israeli Literature And The Time Of "Post-Post-Zionism", Oded Nir

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In this essay, I argue that contemporary Israeli literature possesses a more “advanced” historical imaginary than that of contemporary “post-post-Zionist” Israeli historiography, and I relate this gap to the neoliberalization of the Israeli economy. I begin by arguing that contemporary literature’s historical imaginary marks a departure from its 80s and 90s postmodern predecessors. I show that this departure is evident in contemporary Israeli literature’s explicit recognition of an inability to relate subjective experience to larger history. This recognition constitutes a dialectical overcoming of Israeli postmodernism’s playful dismantling of the national historical narrative. I then argue that Israeli “post-post-Zionist” historiography constitutes …

"You Prefer Your Enemies Simple And Well Defined": Reading Anton Shammas’ Arabesques As A Novel That Strategically Resists Interpellation, Yiftach Ashkenazi, Omri Grinberg

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

Anton Shammas’s 1986 novel Arabesques has been the subject of much literary criticism and on-going discussions in Hebrew literature circles. This article argues that existing interpretations of this work share a fundamental similarity to the extent that they assume Arabesques to be a novel whose primary aim is to depict a certain kind of subject, in accordance with the complicated emplacement of Shammas as a Palestinian writing in Hebrew. Against such interpretations, we suggest that Arabesques is better understood as a text that resists the process of subject formation as linked to Althusser’s notion of ideology. Instead, Shammas explores the …

The Materiality And Embodiment Of Violence: Ronit Matalon’S Poetics Of Responsibility, Shiri Goren

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her essay “The Materiality and Embodiment of Violence: Ronit Matalon’s Poetics of Responsibility” Shiri Goren discusses Matalon’s novel Bliss (Sarah-Sarah, 2000) as a complex and bleak account of domestic and political decline. On the backdrop of the first Intifada, a Tel Avivian marriage falls apart and a lifelong powerful and intimate friendship between two women ends abruptly. In another geographical location and slightly different timeframe, early November 1995, a French-Jewish family prepares for the cremation of one of its sons, who died of AIDS. Rejecting potential interpretations of national allegory, Goren argues that one of the foundational …

Subjectivity, Institutions And Language In Contemporary Israeli Film, Ari Ofengenden

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "Subjectivity, Institutions and Language in Contemporary Israeli Film" Ari Ofengenden analyzes the transnational characteristics of contemporary Israeli films (from 2000 until today). He claims that a new regime of globally networked production and distribution of Israeli film has articulated a specific kind of subjectivity presented in these films. In this article, he will concentrate on two characteristics of this subjectivity: the relations of protagonist with social institutions and use of language. Relations with social institutions starts with the highly prevalent representations of a sensitive and individualist protagonist who suffers under collective and coercive institutions like the army, …

Watching Fight Club In Tel Aviv: Or The 2011 Social Protests In Israel, A Political Postmortem, Eran Kaplan

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article “Watching Fight Club in Tel Aviv: Or The 2011 Social Protests in Israel, a Political Postmortem,” Eran Kaplan provides an analysis of the ideological underpinnings of the social protests that swept Israel in 2011 and the failure of these protests to bring about actual political change. The article draws on the manner by which David Fincher’s film Fight Club exposes the ideological dimensions of modern, neoliberal consumerist society as a way to understand the driving forces behind the Israeli protests and to suggest a possible way out of the ideological quagmire that the protesters and their leaders …

Coping With Fear: Frontier Kibbutzes And The Syrian-Israeli Border War, Orit Rozin

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Coping with Fear: Frontier Kibbutzes and the Syrian-Israeli Border War,” Orit Rozin discusses the practices and norms of border kibbutzes coping with daily hostilities. The Israel-Syrian border was a constant point of friction. Hostilities erupted over the cultivation and the control of the demilitarized zones and over water resources. Northern Kibbutzes both took part in triggering Syrian violence and were victims of that violence. Covering the interwar period 1956-1967, Rozin traces the subjective emotional reaction of kibbutz members exposed to Syrian violence. Focusing on fear and employing Barbara Rosenwein’s concept of emotional communities, she shows that members …

The Catastrophic Horizon: Contemporary Israeli Cinema's Critique Of Neo-Liberal Israel, Yael Munk

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article, Munk analyzes the gradual decline in social solidarity of the once-socialist Israeli society has become discernible in arts and society alike. This process has been voiced in films that described the dangers of a segregated society in a graphic manner, pointing an accusing finger at what Israeli society has become. In these films, the prolonged Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories considered by some as the source of all evil, has been removed from the intellectual foreground in order to provide by a deeper look into the catastrophic outcomes of the social dead end Zionism has reached. …

Suburban Realities: The Israeli Case, Tamar Berger

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Suburban Realities: The Israeli Case" Tamar Berger discusses the nature of the new building in Israel in the last 3-4 decades. Israel, she claims, has been going through a process of massive suburbanization, which is drastically changing the face of the country. Some of the features of the new space are similar to those of other places, globally, but it has its particularity, the result of both the local spatial history and the nature of Israeli society. Suburbs in general are hard to define. Still, a set of typical features of the Israeli suburbs can be noted: …

Irony, Revenge, And The Naqba In Yehuda Amichai’S Early Work, Hannan Hever

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

This article offers a materialist reading of the poetry of Yehuda Amichai, the most well-known Israeli poet outside Israel. The article explores the political role of irony in Amichai’s early work, situating him as a prominent member of the “State Generation” poetry. Challenging accepted readings, the essay argues that Amichai’s poems that deal with the 1948 war, should be read as a post-traumatic response, which uses irony and rich and bold metaphorical devices to distance itself from the horrors of the war, and therefore also form the political and ethical meanings of the Naqba. That Amichai’s poetry translates the language …

Introduction: Israeli Critical Reflection After Post-Zionism, Or The Opening As Interpretive Horizon, Oded Nir, Ari Ofengenden

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

This essay attempts to situate this special issue as an intervention, from a materialist perspective, in the field of Israeli cultural studies. We interrogate the common periodizations of Israeli culture, and its contemporary characterization as “post-post-Zionist.” We try to show that the latter betrays an unacknowledged failure of historical narration, present throughout Israeli cultural production. We then argue that rather than being satisfied with this failure, the goal of Israeli cultural critique today should be to search for new ways to narrate “big” history, to reassert the indispensability of relating personal experience of the present, in all its details, to …

Dmt And “The Man Box:” Provoking Change And Encouraging Authentic Living, An Arts-Based Project, Steven Reynolds

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

This thesis explores the mind-body experience through an arts-based research approach to examine, and redefine the emotional capacity and usefulness of males through societal determinants that limits and hinders men from living their authentic selves. Through the lens of a metaphoric “Man Box” 112 men participated in a workshop recreating their personal narratives of socialization through, style of dress, coping mechanisms, belief systems and who they should be as men through society's standards. In the “Man Box,” male bonding, and emotional feelings are discouraged, while the objectification of women, material property and physical/emotional strength are encouraged. This research investigates the …

Moving Blind Spots: Cultural Bias In The Movement Repertoire Of Dance/Movement Therapists, Ebony Nichols

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

This thesis explores the need for cultural diversity in the field of dance/movement therapy and the impact of unconscious bias as it relates to cultural rhythmic patterns, movement styles, and music choices in therapeutic practice. This literature review examines the historical context that has contributed to the field of dance/movement therapy while outlining cultural competency and ethical considerations in practice as it relates to cultural and/or race identity. Common themes are summarized notating the effects of oppression, bias, and trauma on populations of statistically marginalized communities with specific emphases on African American cultural identity. With consideration toward action steps, culturally …

A Literature Review On Substance Related Grief And Expressive Art Therapy Support Groups, Holly N. St. Cyr

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

In the year of 2017, 18.7 million Americans aged 18 years or older were reported to have a substance use disorder and the pervasiveness of substance related deaths escalated (McCance- Katz, 2017). Researchers have examined how grief experienced by substance users and their loved ones is often disenfranchised by social stigmatization, loss of support, and feelings of regret, blame, humiliation, and shame. According to Valentine, Bauld, and Walter, (2016) “bereavement following a drug or alcohol related death has been largely neglected in research and service provision, despite its global prevalence and potentially devastating consequences for those concerned,” (p. 283). Studies …

"The Chinese Animation Industry: From The Mao Era To The Digital Age", Stephanie Jones

Master's Projects and Capstones

Since the 1950’s the Chinese Animation industry has been trying to create a unique national style for China. The national style of the 1950’s and early 1960’s was one of freedom, fantasy, and creativity. With the success of “Heroic Little Sisters of the Grassland”/草原英雄小姐妹(1965), the government administration, namely Jiang Qing of the “Gang of Four”, demanded that all animation should follow specific guidelines based on Social Realism guidelines. This in turn, ushered in a new national style of animation during the Cultural Revolution(1966-1976). During this ten-year period government policies imposed strict restrictions on animators and cause a drain of creative …

Baggage: An Original Script And Production Furthering The Evolution Of Deaf Theatre, Nikolya Sereda

Undergraduate University Honors Capstones

As an homage to the musical RENT, I wrote and directed an original play entitled Baggage, a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story, that was produced for the Gallaudet University Theatre Department’s spring 2019 production. Baggage follows three Deaf teenagers, Michaela, Gage, and Isabel, who connect through the music of RENT, as they find themselves entangled which ultimately ends in a falling out. The play also shows the experience of growing up in a hearing family as Michaela, Gage, and Isabel face frustration, underestimation, and neglect in their families. To spotlight the multifaceted ways of experiencing deafness, three songs from RENT were incorporated …

Dialogical Practice, Meenakshi Jha

Graduate School of Art Theses

Within an interdisciplinary and dialogical practice where process is as significant as final form/s, I delve in matters not to resolve but to explore them. Digging deep in my studio practice over my philosophical yearnings to talking loud and clear about my life in performances, I venture out in the geographical expanse to connect with self and others. In fact, the more I practice my craft, I feel a lesser and lesser gap between my ‘self’ and others. The walk outwards brings me closer to my internal realizations as a human being. In short, my practice is based on the …

Enhancing Motor Coordination: An Eshkol-Wachman Movement Notation (Ewmn) Perspective, Dr. Nira Al-Dor

Journal of Movement Arts Literacy Archive (2013-2019)

The article integrates multi-layered learning and its potential for human development in parallel domains—psycho-motor, cognitive and social-emotional—while focusing on the complex motor coordination that is involved in mastering literacy skills. It presents Eshkol-Wachman Movement Notation (EWMN) and the coordination phenomena that are based on this method and supported by pilot study on the impact of learning EWMN on the development of coordination. The present pilot study provides proof of concept both for its assessment tools and the idea that EWMN may facilitate coordination. Objectives: to examine improvement in coordination during an intervention program. Participants: 45 dance department students, …

Dancing Around A Memory, Tyler Lovie, Bailey Erwin, Aislinn Williamson

Symposium Of University Research and Creative Expression (SOURCE)

Sometimes music speaks to you. The words and rhythm it presents translates into physical communication. The story is told in a vulnerable way that elicits how each individual in the audience can relate it to their own life. As choreographers, we enjoyed exploring our individual approaches and interpretations to the movement dynamics and how they balanced each other. At times we went for a literal translation of movement while at other times abstracted the lyrics. Key words triggered key phrases of movement and sometimes the literal movements reinforced the statement. The goal was that the movement and music blend together, …

Art As A Collective: Common Ground, Katelyn Stewart

Symposium Of University Research and Creative Expression (SOURCE)

In the modern day of our busy lives, we often forget the integral role art plays in human life. Through art, we are reminded and forced to reflect on our commonalities and past experiences. As artists, we have the power to elicit emotional response and reflection. As an audience, we have the responsibility to ourselves to take the time to listen. Art comes in many equally powerful forms, but dance has the unique ability to intertwine art forms into one collective piece of work. To demonstrate this concept we will examine the student choreographed piece, “Common Ground”. This piece follows …

Moving Through Feelings Integrating Dance And Private Counseling: A Creative Dance Technique Based Curriculum For Children Ages 10-12 Undergoing Talk Therapy, Jessica Bourassa

Honors Program Theses and Projects

According to Private counselors, one of the top reasons children are undergoing talk therapy is because they have experienced a trauma that affects their day to day lives, learning abilities, difficulties with social interactions, and behavioral issues. More than sixty-eight percent of children have experienced a traumatic event by the age of twelve and more than twenty percent of those children develop side effects that can lead to anxiety disorders, depression, suicidal thoughts and other emotional issues (Hamner 1). With these side effects, children often undergo talk therapy in order to work through their experiences and learn to heal from …

Love The Art In Yourself: Empowering Actors To Honestly, Comfortably, And Successfully Embody Their Characters, Alyssa Germaine

Honors Program Theses and Projects

As an actor, I have performed in more than twenty plays and worked with ten different directors over the years. The outcomes of these performances have varied, and so has the effectiveness of the different approaches I have experienced. As an early career director, I am working to find my own creative voice as well as my personal style of directing and communicating with actors. The purpose of this process is to address the relationship between the actor and the director and how this can best serve a production from the rehearsal process and into performances. A director’s initial role …

Power In The Hands Of The Uninvolved, Sarah Vita

Across the Bridge: The Merrimack Undergraduate Research Journal

The Dutchman, written by Amiri Baraka, expresses the racism of the 1960s. While skimming the surface to find the tones of racism and white oppression exhibited by Lula, Baraka craftily sneaks the bystander effect into his stage directions. The bystander effect is easily looked past in this play because the words of Lula and her actions distract from the small details that create the real problem.