Dramatic Literature, Criticism and Theory Commons^™

The Nuance Of Character Acting, Heather Baker

Honors Theses

In the acting classes at Ouachita Baptist University, we primarily work under the Stanislavski thought; we briefly talk about some of the others, but not to a great extent. As a member of the Carl Goodson Honors Program, I participated in a directed study with Mary Handiboe, Associate Professor of Theatre Arts. In this study, I further explored numerous acting methods including those of: Konstantin Stanislavski, Sanford Meisner, Stella Adler, Lee Strasberg, and Viewpoints, along with lesser known methods. I anticipated finding that they all contradicted one another, but I fount that many of them stemmed from the ideas of …

The Depiction Of Good And Evil In Eight Modern Plays, Jason K. Anders

Honors Theses

Since the birth of the written word, and earlier with the inclusion of the history of oral tradition, literature has been greatly preoccupied with the theme of Good & Evil and the consequence of man's rejection of good, his guilt. The playwrights of ancient Greece, Elizabethan England, and Renaissance Europe have been just a few links in the long chain which has kept alive this thematic tradition. Do the modern playwrights continue this tradition, and if so, are the themes presented in a recognizable form? This study seeks to answer these questions in order to discover what has become of …

Eugene O'Neill, Robert W. Moore

Honors Theses

The American theatre owes the place it has in the world scene to many lives and their efforts, to people who helped bring it along in the slow development. Nevertheless, few would deny that if one person could be said to be most responsible for that development, that person would be Eugene O'Neill. It was O'Neill that first made the other parts of the world stand up and take notice of the American stage. And what they noticed were the plays of O'Neill. He remains to this day one of the two or three best know American authors in foreign …

Playwrights And Their Works Of Modern Drama, Sharon Hibbard

Honors Theses

Playwrights are unique people in that while they live, they are often thought of as odd and never truly understood. Maybe it is because they have a greater appreciation of the beauty of life and nature, and are more sensitive concerning emotions and even death. As Shaw once said: "Whether it be that I was born mad or a little too sane, my kingdom was not of this world; I was at home only in the realm of my imagination, and at my ease only with the mighty dead." Maybe the reason most playwrights do not see success in their …

Quatre Oeuvres De Jean-Paul Sartre, Judy Grider

Honors Theses

Four works of Jean-Paul Sartre are summarized and discussed in French.

Antigone: 441 B.C. To 1958 A.D., Sherry Gail Reynolds

Honors Theses

From 441 B.C. to 1958 A.D. is a long time, yet people have had basically the same problems for more years than that. In approximately 441 B.C., Sophocles wrote a story about a young girl who defied civil law in order to preserve the freedom of her convictions. In 1958 A.D., Mr. Dennis Holt restated this story in what he calls a "theatre poem." Antigone is considered to be perhaps the first important statement of "civil disobedience" in the western world.

Sophocles did not create the story. The content of the Oedipus trilogy, of which Antigone is a part, was …

Antigone Yesterday, Antigone Today, Patsy Hill

Honors Theses

Sophocles lives for us only in his works, as Shakespeare does; and very possibly it is for this very reason that both are the most faithful mirrors of all that was greatest and unique in their splendid epochs. Critics ancient and modern are agreed that the intermediate attitude of Sophocles--not only in his person, but in his art--attained that highest perfection, which lasts but a moment and is marred by the smallest change. To Sophocles belongs the Antigone of yesterday.