Acting Commons^™

Reading Exercise (You Are The Hero): Dedicated To The Providence River Under The Mall, 02.17.2026, Deborah Fischer

Masters Theses

This play uses the performative potential of guilt, forgiveness, and self-help techniques as a catalyst for a new dynamic, one in which the pursuit of a false narrative, along with the structures it generates, becomes more real than reality itself. It employs “bad acting” and the practice of cold reading to stage a series of acts that function as an entry point into one’s own psyche, leveraging the peripheral space around familiar actions to allow chance, free will, and the experience of “real time” to temporarily come into effect. PLAYER 1: The bad actor is the most utopian one. CLOWN: …

Stanislavski And Operatic Acting: What Caused The Divide Between Stanislavski’S Ideals And The Opera World?, Max Smith

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

There is a difference between the realism of acting in opera and in other theatrical art forms. One reason for this might be due to theatre practitioner Konstantin Stanislavski’s ideals not being readily adopted in the opera world. Due to translation and publication issues in both the West and in the USSR, his work on opera has been largely neglected by theatre and opera historians. Certain demands of opera as an art form limit or make more difficult the ability for realism in portraying a character, but Stanislavski and others show that it is possible. A look at literature reflecting …

Behind The Curtain: A Literature Review Of Personal And Ecological Risk Factors And Current Multi-Level Interventions For Performing Artists, Christopher A. Robles

Social Work Theses

Performing artists experience psychological distress, including anxiety, depression, burnout, and substance use disorders, at rates significantly exceeding those of the general population. Guided by Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory (EST) and the Person-in-Environment (PIE) perspective, this structured literature review synthesizes research published between 2010 and 2026 to examine individual personality traits, environmental stressors across meso- and macro-systems, and existing multi-level mental health interventions for performing artists. Findings reveal that while traits such as high openness to experience, sensory processing sensitivity, and perfectionism foster artistic expression, they also heighten vulnerability to occupational stressors, financial precarity, social isolation, and venue-based substance exposure. Current …

Singing Our Story: Composing And Writing An Original Musical, Gianna C. Daiuto

Music Summer Fellows

How can we use music to deepen the emotions of the stories we tell? What is the effect of combining song and speech? Through an extensive independent project, I have composed several pieces of original music alongside a script to create an original musical. While it is still in its infancy, this project is the first full draft of this story, and will hopefully be fleshed out to be staged and performed one day in its entirety.

A Special Little Guy, Amelia Emory

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

Amelia Emory’s Senior Project for UMW Theatre’s production of Matilda the Musical.

Musical Theatre Nyc Industry Showcase -Senior Capstone, Erica Aubrey

SPARK Symposium Presentations

Musical Theatre BFA candidates put together and perform a 35-minute Senior Showcase for New York City Industry Personnel. This culminating performance was presented in NYC on April 8, 2025 for Casting Directors, Agents, Directors, Choreographers and Managers. Post this performance, students are asked to meetings with talent reps, and are are asked to auditions for projects they are right for, further launching them into their professional careers post graduation.

Do Androids Dream Of Bad Tv?: Un/Originality In Neil Burger’S Voyagers, Tom Ue, Callum M. Mcnutt

Proceedings from the Document Academy

Critics did not take kindly to Neil Burger’s Voyager (2021). On Rotten Tomatoes, the film scored a dismal 25%, and the consensus is that it’s a trip best not taken: “It has a game cast and a premise ripe with potential, but Voyagers drifts in familiar orbit rather than fully exploring its intriguing themes.” This article seeks neither to reclaim the film as an unjustly neglected cinematic masterpiece nor to assert its importance in the canon of dystopian works. Rather, it treats Voyagers as a test case for exploring our own critical investment in the genre. Our aims are …

Feldenkrais And Music Informed Listening: A Neurophenomenological Perspective On Autism, Arona Primalani

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Phenomenologists identify the subjective body and its felt-senses as the basis for human development and consciousness, including mental health. Several mental health disorders, when viewed from a phenomenological perspective, share common symptomology related to varying extents of fractured selves, which in turn hinders dynamic interaction between individuals, their actions, and their relationships with their social and material worlds. Autism is one such condition. Hence, I created an intervention to investigate how listening, which foster subjective and intersubjective experiences, lies at the heart of somatic and arts-based interventions. This thesis, first, begins with a summary of the presenting symptoms observed in …

With Love, ; An Interdisciplinary And Intersectional Look At Why Creativity Is Essential, Theo Starr Gardner

Whittier Scholars Program

My Whittier Scholars Program self-designed major, Teaching Creativity, is a mixture of Art, Literature, and Education classes. My research and praxis classes have been focused on the ‘how?’s and 'why?’s of creativity, so it felt only right that my project should be a constructivist, generative project. The project I have been working on throughout my time at Whittier, and that has just fully come to fruition on April 11th, 2024, was a solo art gallery/open mic event entitled ‘With Love,’. With Love, was conceptually inspired by the research I’ve conducted on creativity and creative arts education over the past few …

Bedeviled Beauty: My Journey Through White American Theater Institutions, J'Aila C. Price

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Game console: Oculus Quest

World: American Theater Institutions

Player: Minority

Place: United States

Level: “Ain’t no way.”

This thesis explores the contrast between the Westernized philosophies ingrained in my education and my identity as a Black female artist. It sheds light on the difficulties of pursuing higher education in the arts and the gaps that arise from limited exposure to culturally diverse Black resources, revealing the systemic issues in Western performance education. The paper also discusses the insights gained from my journey as a Black female artist, focusing on my thesis performance of Blood at the Root, which is …

A Performance-Based Exploration Of Vocal Anatomy And Pedagogy: Maximizing Technical, Stylistic, And Physiological Frameworks For Superlative Vocal Technique In Artistic Function, Michael J. Civitano

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the influence of specific frameworks in performance and vocal pedagogy on artists' capacity to enact evidence-based learning outcomes, with emphasis on vocal physiology and educator-performer relationships. Employing an experimental design, five philosophies that support capacity-building were tested across two trial settings, varying in intensity. The participant utilized narrative reasoning, diversified methods, and mentorship from specialized educators to apply frameworks. Findings indicate that, in practicing evidence-based learning and maximizing anatomic foundations of the voice, substantial developments in artistic capacity ensued. Educator-performer relationships mediate this process through reciprocal collaborations that foster capacity-building. Performers display optimal artistic capacity by effectively …

The Providence College Opera Workshop Presents Dido & Aeneas Playbill, Providence College

Playbill and Promotion

Providence College Department of Music

Ryan Concert Hall, Smith Center for the Arts

Dideo & Aeneas, an opera by Henry Purcell

Friday, December 1, 2023, 7pm

Sunday, December 3, 2023, 3pm

Instrumental Director & Harpsichordist - Catherine Gordon

Stage Director - John Garrity

Vocal Director - Elizabeth Heath

Choreographer - Wendy Oliver

Production & Costume Designer - David Costa Cabral

Choral Director - Krishan Oberoi

Rehearsal Accompanist - Michael Kregler

Stage Manager - Alexander Lamoureux

Load-in Crew - Anthony Joseph, Alexander Lamoureux, Anthony Maldonado

Performers: Dido - Victoria Leblanc ‘24; Aeneas - Dominic DaSilva ‘24; Belinda - Liliana Massa …

Depaul Digest

DePaul Magazine

College of Education Professor Jason Goulah fosters hope, happiness and global citizenship through DePaul’s Institute for Daisaku Ikeda Studies in Education. Associate Journalism Professor Jill Hopke shares how to talk about climate change. News briefs from DePaul’s 10 colleges and schools: Occupational Therapy Standardized Patient Program, Financial Planning Certificate program, Business Education in Technology and Analytics Hub, Racial Justice Initiative, Teacher Quality Partnership grant, Intimate Partner Violence and Brain Injury collaboration, School of Music Career Closet, Sports Photojournalism course, DePaul Migration Collaborative’s Solutions Lab, Inclusive Screenwriting courses. New appointments: School of Music Dean John Milbauer, College of Education Dean Jennifer …

New Paradigms In Band Performance: An Analysis Of Three Prototypes, Scott Walker-Parker

Glenn Korff School of Music: Dissertations, Theses, Student Creative Work, and Performances

This document seeks to propose new paradigms in band performance through inter-, multi-, and transdisciplinarity. Initial inspirations were drawn from performance innovations shaped by the new music theater which became popular in the 20^th century. Key concepts which were used throughout the creative, planning, logistic, rehearsal, and performance processes are analyzed in three recitals through prototypes of new paradigms in band performance. These concepts include accessibility and community, nonverbal/multimodal performance and instruction versus time, and nonverbal/multimodal communication.

The document has been organized in a manner which highlights successes and breakdowns of each process so future refinement can be made. …

Unifying Text And Music: Applying Shurtleff's Twelve Guideposts To Operatic Arias For Soprano, Jamey J. Wright

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In the present culture of operatic performance, artistry is measured not only by singers’ musical interpretation and vocal technique, but also by their ability to communicate compelling characterization. This monograph explores a helpful technique for dramatic interpretation in opera. The discipline of musical performance provides helpful guides to characterization through elements such phrasing, rhythm, harmony, and instrumentation. Techniques borrowed from the spoken theater, particularly those pioneered by Constantin Stanislavski, include the Magic If, objectives, actions, and tactics. The literature on auditioning for the theater is useful for synthesizing these techniques for singers, because audition techniques emphasize compelling characterization with …

Finding My Place In The Piazza: An Exploration Of Learning And Performing A Lead Role During A Pandemic, Emma Johnson

Honors Theses

The following thesis is a reflection of one student’s process as she learns a lead role in a musical amidst a global pandemic. The author begins with why she chose to be a performer and what has led her to this moment. She examines how significantly the pandemic has affected the performing arts job sector. The author explores her first exposure to the musical “The Light in the Piazza” and the role of Clara in a scenes program at the university which took place in the spring semester of 2021. The thesis then follows her journey through the abnormal virtual …

Reclamation: The Crown Of African American Identity, Lindsey Kellogg

English MA Theses

African American voices have been the main sources of influence on society and culture. For this reason, it is important that African Americans speak up and reclaim their voices. Not only are their voices important, but the stories that lie behind the voices are what need to be amplified. With the application of postcolonial theory, this thesis takes modern stories located in North America depicting racist behavior towards African Americans from the year 1970 to present-day New York City in order to fully amplify the process of social struggle. As these narratives are passed down through generations serving as a …

Program: Through The Looking Glass, And What You Found There, University Of Dayton, Teejai Dorsey

Dance and Theater Programs

Co-produced by the Theatre, Dance, and Performance Technology program and the Department of Music

What do you see when you look in the mirror? If you were on the other side looking back, in a land of opposites, how would your perception of reality be altered? Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There reflect the larger truths that underscore our social experience in this constantly changing nonsensical world. Journey with us through a wonderland of mystery and delight while exploring who we were, who we are, and who we are yet to become in this dramatic …

Us, Abundantly: From Africa To The Americas, Karisma Jay

Theses and Dissertations

"Us, AbunDantly," a Live theatrical dance performance and film, delves into the African Diaspora and its influences. An artistic and academic project built upon the amplification of Black excellence and Black pride, this paper contextualizes a work within the oral histories and contemporary dance studies of a powerfully ancestral community.

Creating The Role Of Crissy In Hair, Yu Miao

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 Musical Theatre. It is a detailed account of author Yu Miao’s artistic process in creating the role of Crissy in the Minnesota State University, Mankato’s production of Hair in the Fall of 2020. The thesis follows the actor’s process beginning with the early production analysis in chapter one. The actor then researched its historical background followed by a detailed journal of the rehearsal process in chapters two and three. Chapter four is the post-production analysis, and the fifth chapter gives an overall review …

Black Expressions Of Dillard University: How One Historically Black College Pioneered African American Arts, Makenzee Brown

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The proposed public history project, Within These Walls (WTW), will be one component of a larger exhibit produced by Dillard University’s, Library Archives and Special Collections entitled The Star Burns Bright: History of Dillard’s Theatrical and Musical Arts, Faculty and Students. WTW will focus on Dillard’s historic African American faculty, students and alumni who became prominent painters, musicians, writers, actors and directors among them Adella Gautier, Randolph Edmonds, Ted Shine Frederick Hall, Theodore Gilliam, and Brenda Osbey. This exhibit will also highlight the many art programs, across genres, offered at the university between 1935 and 1970. This exhibit will demonstrate …

Musical Ability And Accent Imitation, Maria Murljacic

Honors Scholar Theses

This study investigates the intersection of musical ability and accent imitation, more specifically defining what factors cause a relationship between the two. The study was run on 50 participants, who each completed an accent imitation ability assessment, a musical ability assessment, and an articulation ability assessment. The scores for the accent imitation portion were rated by anonymous online raters. Each participant filled out a questionnaire on prior musical experience and were either classified as a musician or non-musician. The analysis found that those in the musician group performed better on the musical ability, articulation, and accent ability assessment than non-musicians. …

Exploring A Qualitative Approach To Arts Advocacy And Evaluation, Lycette C. Belisle

Undergraduate Theses

The quantitative impact of the arts has become an increasingly important factor in determining the overall value of a project, and is often used to determine acceptance of submissions, public recognition and funding disbursement. This project evaluates current understandings of how the arts function within society, popular methods for determining the value of the arts and explores how qualitative reasoning can be utilized to communicate the value of supporting artistic endeavors. While placing a numerical value on the arts based on data collection can be important, this project will aim to evaluate the implications of relying so heavily on facts …

An Actor's Process In Bridging The Gap Between First-Generation And Multi-Generational African-American Identities., Mutiyat Ade-Salu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis reflects my process assimilating into the role of Chelle in the production of Detroit '67 at the University of Louisville. Although there have been instances of actors crossing lines of gender, nationality, race, and even sexuality, to perform roles in contemporary theatre, discussion about generational differences is almost non-existent. Through historical research, first-hand interviews, and conventional acting methods, I explore the world of my role, searching for spirituality, authenticity, and identity. Additionally, I explain my use of The WAY Method ®, a process I began creating in 2014 to help actors be clear with who they are before …

"A Performing Artist's Journey...Begins" (Senior Showcase), Jennifer Boswell

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

As a Theatre major, my sponsor and I decided that my Honors Research Project would be a one-person, twenty-minute performance. Originally, this showcase was going to be a live theatre event. Due to coronavirus and social distancing, I had to adjust and adapt as I transformed my piece into a virtual performance.

In choosing the content that would be performed, I carefully selected pieces that represented my journey as a performing artist the past four years. I wanted to showcase my growth and range as a performer. I chose one monologue from each of the six MainStage Theatre productions I …

L’Ètica De L’Estètica ¿Caldria Debatre L’Antijudaisme Del ‘Misteri D’Elx’?, Antoni Pizà

Publications and Research

Al final de la representació de la segona jornada del Misteri d’Elx hi ha un moment d’indescriptible intensitat emocional. La catarsi que experimenten els espectadors, actors i músics sol manifestar-se en aclamacions, víctors i fins i tot llàgrimes. Els ventalls de les dones aletegen agilíssims, pràcticament posseïts. Primer tímidament —per a no interrompre la màgia del moment— però gradualment amb gran intensitat, comencen, ja al final de la representació, els aplaudiments, sempre in crescendo, acompanyats, poc després, per la coneguda i emfàtica expressió: «Visca la Mare de Déu!».

This Is Me: Anxiety And Depression Awareness Event, Stephanie Cotrone

Honors Projects

College and life are stressful, but they don't have to be. We've all been in that place where it feels like life is caving in and there's nowhere else to turn, but it does get better. This event brings awareness to mental illnesses common on college campuses and in the community. There will be engaging and interactive activities to learn about anxiety & depression, and healthy ways to cope through music, art, theatre, amusement parks, learning, reading, and more. Performances by the Humanities Troupe and testimonies by current students who have had experience dealing with mental illness before or who …

Vocal Hygiene For Musical Theatre Performers, Anne M. Koziara, Dr. Ron Scherer

Honors Projects

There have been numerous “do’s - and - don’t’s” vocal hygiene pamphlets made for voice users, however, a guide for vocal hygiene for musical theatre performers is not typically included in these pamphlets. Musical theatre performers differ from other professional voice users, because in addition to singing, they also have the taxing responsibilities of acting and dancing. As a result, many musical theatre performers have questions and often seem confused about what proper vocal hygiene should be for them. The goal of this honors project was to create an advisory brochure on vocal hygiene specifically for musical theatre performers. This …

Chicago, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2019-2020 Season

Set in Jazz-age Chicago, the musical is based on a 1926 play of the same name by reporter Maurine Dallas Watkins about actual criminals and crimes she reported on. The story is a satire on corruption in the administration of criminal justice and the concept of the "celebrity criminal". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_(musical)

Pantomime: The History And Metamorphosis Of A Theatrical Ideology, Karl E. Toepfer

Open Educational Resources

This book offers perhaps the most comprehensive history of pantomime ever written. No other book so thoroughly examines the varieties of pantomimic performance from the early Roman Empire, when the term “pantomime” came into use, until the present. After thoroughly examining the complexities and startlingly imaginative performance strategies of Roman pantomime, the author identifies the peculiar political circumstances that revived and shaped pantomime in France and Austria in the eighteenth century, leading to the Pierrot obsession in the nineteenth century. Modernist aesthetics awakened a huge, highly diverse fascination with pantomime. The book explores an extraordinary variety of modernist and postmodern …