Acting Commons^™

Savoring The Moon: Japanese Prints Of The Floating World, Madison B. Dalton

Senior Honors Projects, 2020-current

Guided by the Director of the Madison Art Collection and Lisanby Museum, Virginia Soenksen,I served as the Curatorial Assistant for the Lisanby Museum’s forthcoming exhibition Savoring the Moon: Japanese Prints of the Floating World. The exhibition will highlight the Madison ArtCollection’s impressive Japanese woodblock prints in the ukiyo-e style. Ukiyo-e translates to“pictures of the floating world.” This style proliferated in Japan during the Edo period (1603 - 1868) and Meiji period (1868 - 1912), with visual themes that ranged from flora and fauna, Japanese ceremonies, kabuki actors, mythology, courtesans, and cultural pastimes. The estate of Charles Alvin Lisanby gifted over …

Touch As Bond: Exploring The Use Of Contact Improvisation In An Ensemble Process, J Travis Cooper

Senior Honors Projects, 2020-current

This document serves as a contextual and reflective essay detailing the work done on J Travis Cooper’s Honors Capstone Project, Touch as Bond: Exploring the use of Contact Improvisation in an ensemble process. It is a process focused creative project exploring the potential of Contact Improvisation [CI] as a tool for ensemble development and content creation in a theatrical production. Contact Improvisation is a dance practice created by Steve Paxton and other collaborators in the 1970s. The form demands dancers improvise movements while in contact with each other, creating spontaneous lifts and requiring the ability to adapt to a …

Masks: A New Face For The Theatre, Alexi Michael Siegel

James Madison Undergraduate Research Journal (JMURJ)

This study seeks to reimagine and reinvigorate modern theatre’s relationship with mask work through text-based historical research and practice-based artistic research. It focuses on three ancient mask traditions: pre- and early Hellenistic Greek theatre, Japanese Noh theatre, and Nigerian Egungun masquerades. Research on these mask traditions and recent masked productions informed the development and staging of a masked performance of Charles Mee’s Life is a Dream. The production featured sections for each of the ancient masking styles and a final section that explored masks in a contemporary theatrical style. As a whole, this creative project pulls masks out of …

Bonding Theatre And Chemistry: An Educational Exploration, Matthew Gurniak

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

This paper analyzes the educational aspects of theatre and music and the impact that they have on an audience. The goal was to begin a new conversation about science and theatre and how the two can learn and gain unique insight from each other. To examine how these two antithetical fields can interact, I composed a new, innovative musical that tells the love story between two professors through the use of concepts from general chemistry. The results and responses from the performance of the play were overwhelmingly positive from members of both disciplines. They have inspired continued interest in this …

"The Sound Of A Voice: An Evening Of Intercultural Theatre", Amy C. Slothower

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

This undergraduate thesis examines the impact of the process of creating a piece of intercultural theatre on student artists. In the research of intercultural theatre, there is a lack of information on opportunities for intercultural performance experience for students, and much of the major research that has been done has all been by established theatre artists. The biggest concern in the theatrical community with creating works of intercultural theatre is the threat of cultural appropriation and imperialism. Much of this concern is stimulated by belief that the western dominant culture maintains a sense of imperialism towards what is perceived as …

The Real F-Word: Feminism An Exploration Of Feminism And The Female Experience On College Campuses, Beatrice R. Owens

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Using third-wave feminism and playwriting as the foundation, this project intends to examine the history of feminism as it influences the current third-wave in the United States of American with a specific focus on the impact it has on college students. This project examines the development of feminism throughout history and asks whether that historical development has contributed significantly to the way in which millennial men and women understand and relate to feminism presently. Through the compilation of research and the creation of a performance piece, performed on April 1, 2016 in the Wayland Performance Studio, this project examines what …

Establishing Human Identity Through Randomly-Generated Lyrics: A Comprehensive Performer's Analysis Of Robert Paterson's Captcha And Its Performance, Kyle Yampiro

Dissertations, 2014-2019

Robert Paterson’s CAPTCHA is a five-song cycle for baritone and piano that comes with some unique challenges from an interpretive standpoint. The text is comprised of CAPTCHAs: two-word phrases originally designed to test human identity versus that of a computer. Nearly every phrase contains a gibberish word and a real word and there is no proper syntax. The composer leaves interpretation open to the performer, which prompts the primary question explored in this document: how can a singer create an effective performance of this piece, given its unique challenges?

This document takes a multidisciplinary approach to discover the range of …

Back To Black: An Exploration Of Amy Winehouse’S Music And Addiction, Courtney Ad Jamison

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Amy Winehouse tragically died on July 23, 2011 as a result of years of alcoholism and drug abuse. Her beautiful jazz infused poetic music and her struggle with addiction created a juxtaposition of extremes that led to the foundational question of this creative project: “How can Winehouse’s music serve as the catalyst for a musical theatre piece that explores the impact of addiction on the human experience?” Extensive research was conducted on the themes of drug abuse, alcoholism, attachment in adult life, and domestic violence. The project culminated with a staged reading of a jukebox musical consisting of Winehouse’s music …

"Debate: Millennials Don't Stand A Chance" Devised, Documentary And Immersive Theatre: The Story Of Everymillennial, Sean R. Byrne

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

This thesis aims to discover how communitas can be created through theatrical performances by blurring the line between audience and performer as well as performer and character. The topic of the Millennial generation is used as a thematic element in performance to emphasize the creation of community. A theatrical form will be introduced, called the “Living Biography:” a method of devising based on devising, documentary, and immersive theatre. This form will be shown as one possible option in creating communitas in a performance. While other forms of audience inclusion are frequently used, it will be argued that the “Living Biography” …