Other Theatre and Performance Studies Commons^™

Play From The Heart: On Crafting A Community Of Empathy In The Theatre, Kevin Kingston

The Theatre School MFA in Directing Theses

The power of story goes beyond mere escapist entertainment. Yes it should entertain, but that is not the ultimate goal. It may even offer a bit of escape, but again this is not the holy grail. When we experience a well-crafted narrative, we are called to cross a threshold. We pass through the door of our own life and enter into the experience of another. This is what we mean when we say we "got lost" in the story. We take on the experience of another as our own. When a group of people experience a narrative they cross this …

A Method To The Madness: My Quest For A New System Of Acting, Michael Osinski

The Theatre School MFA in Directing Theses

How does one get actors to embrace work and imbue it with the same truth they bring to realistic theatre and how does one prevent them from turning into robots performing meaningless gestures? How does one work in experimental ways while still giving actors something human to hang onto? This thesis will examine a new system of acting to embrace the demands of the work and explore how to articulate and collaborate with actors to create the work.

Multi-Timescale Dynamics Of Land Surface Temperature, Peng Fu

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Spatial and temporal patterns of land surface temperature (LST) have been used in studies of surface energy balance, landscape thermal patterns and water management. An effective way to investigate the landscape thermal dynamics is to utilize the Landsat legacy and consistent records of the thermal state of earth’s surface since 1982. However, only a small proportion of studies emphasize the importance of historical Landsat TIR data for investigating the relationship between the urbanization process and surface thermal properties. This occurred due to the lack of standardized LST product from Landsat and the unevenly distributed remote sensing datasets caused by poor …

Re-Enchanting The Spectacle, Shayna Cohn

Graduate School of Art Theses

“Re-Enchanting the Spectacle” explores guiding notions and central themes within the art practice of Shayna Cohn. Cohn’s installation spaces and sculptures within them, evoke a type of fabricated aura and melodramatic attitude of entertainment sites. By isolating the affect outside of the original environment, Cohn references the perceptual duality of entertainment sites within this “post-sacred” era. Entertainment venues become sites of potential transcendence, yet are also inextricably tied to their automated mechanization. Drawing on the Peter Brooks’ analysis of the historical and poetic relationship between melodrama and the sacred, Cohn argues that contemporary notions of melodrama can be found within …

On And Off The Stage: An Analysis Of Dance In Theater And Performance, Michael Chiaverini

Dance Undergraduate Theses

No abstract provided.

A Qualitative Study Of Nursing Living-Learning Communities, Renee Noel Bauer

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Living-learning communities, although not a novel concept, have been known to promote student performance and a sense of collegiality. Because nursing is essential to the medical profession, nursing student retention and pass rates are of paramount importance. Attrition tends to happen to nursing students in their first formative years (Newton & Moore, 2009). Therefore, this study was conducted to explore findings associated with living arrangements and residential factors promoting and deterring retention. Although most studies on this topic have utilized quantitative methods, this qualitative comparative case study, involving two universities in Indiana during the winter of 2014, examined the personal …

Student Directing Thesis: Directing A Main Stage Show, Brock J. Cooley Mr.

Undergraduate Honors Theses

My thesis gives insight on directing a main stage production at the collegiate level as a student. Specifically directing Tradin’ Paint, an original piece from playwright Catherine Bush a native of Abingdon Virginia, and a company playwright for the Barter Theatre. In the thesis I discuss how I arrived at different conclusions for my show through different research. I discuss the experience of being a director over professors, and my own peers, and how all of these challenges and discoveries eventually gave me a finished product to be proud of. If a director were to look at this work, they …

No Day But Today--Choreographing Rent, Grace Goodwin

Dance Undergraduate Theses

No abstract provided.

Silence: A Technical Direction Project, Matthew Rightmire

Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film: Theses, Student Research, and Creative Work

The Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film opened its 2013-14 mainstage season with the play Silence in the Studio Theatre on October 10, 2013. This thesis project encompasses the Technical Direction of Silence. As the Technical Director, I was responsible for the budgeting of time, people, and money necessary to plan, organize, construct, and load into the theatre all the scenic elements required for the performance. Duties included purchasing materials, drafting construction drawings, and leading shop crews in the individual processes to create each scenic element as well as modifying the house seating equipment to accommodate the scenic …

Gender Confusion, Genocide And The Apocalypse: Directing Moira Buffini's Silence, Dennis N. Henry

Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film: Theses, Student Research, and Creative Work

This thesis contains the written documentation of the process of directing a theatrical production of Silence by Moira Buffini, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for Master of Fine Arts in Directing for Stage and Screen at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

This documentation and analysis of the processes herein include: play selection, background research, concept development, casting, rehearsal process, development of design elements and evaluation based on critical response, audience reception and self-reflection.

Advisor: Virginia Smith

The Fight Master, Spring 2014, Vol. 36 Issue 1, The Society Of American Fight Directors

Fight Master Magazine

No abstract provided.

The Mystical And Metaphysical In The Mundane: Directing Middletown, Joshua S. Waterstone

Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film: Theses, Student Research, and Creative Work

This thesis contains written documentation regarding the process of directing a theatrical production in fulfillment of the partial requirements for Master of Fine Arts in Directing for Stage and Screen at the University of Nebraska Lincoln.

Topics addressed include play selection, script analysis, director/designer collaboration, coaching of actors and evaluation of final product.

Advisor: Virginia Smith

Mrs. Mannerly: An Illuminating Look At Lighting Melodrama, Clayton Van Winkle

Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film: Theses, Student Research, and Creative Work

This thesis describes the research and production processes of the lighting design for the play, Mrs. Mannerly by Jeffrey Hatcher, performed in the Studio Theatre, repertory style, from July 19^th through August 10^th at the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film at the University of Nebraska. Mrs. Mannerly was directed by Rob Urbinati. Clayton Van Winkle acted as the production's lighting designer, Laurel C. Shoemaker designed the set, Sharon Sobel designed the costumes, Mike Smith designed the sound, Erica King acted as the props mistress, and Chris Stepanek was the acting technical director.

This thesis contains the …

Interview With Margaret Toomey, Mary Moynihan

Books/Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

Loving The Art In Yourself, Mary Moynihan

Books/Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

The Tallest Tree In The Forest, Jocelyn Buckner

Theatre Faculty Articles and Research

"Playwright and actor Daniel Beaty’s solo performance as Paul Robeson in The Tallest Tree in the Forest, commissioned by Tectonic Theater Project and coproduced by La Jolla Playhouse and Kansas City Repertory Theatre, was a tour-de-force biographical tribute."

Spectacles Of Reform: Theater And Activism In Nineteenth-Century America By Amy E. Hughes (Review), Jocelyn Buckner

Theatre Faculty Articles and Research

In Spectacles of Reform Amy Hughes advocates for “spectacle as methodology” (4), a means of interpreting spectacle in nineteenth-century melodrama, as well as a wide variety of other media, that rehearses and reforms concepts of citizenship and identity related to race, class, gender, and morality. Through this lens, Hughes seeks to answer the questions “where and how do activist spectacles appear before and beyond the theatrical encounter?” and “why is spectacle kept alive through reinvention, revision, and repetition long after the drama is over?” (5). Hughes traces her theory of the spectacular instant through three popular sensation themes of the …

A Survey Of Dramaturgical Practices In Contemporary American Theater: The Dramaturg In Process, Maggie Bell

All Master's Theses

A review of the literature on dramaturgical practices in the American theater from the past thirty years revealed a significant paucity of first-hand accounts by dramaturgs about their work and especially about the contributions dramaturgs make to the production process. In general, the literature addresses dramaturgical practices in abstract or theoretical terms, without documenting the specific contributions that dramaturgs make to the creation of productions and events as performances. This thesis documents and defines the dramaturgical process through interviews with a select sample of early career and established dramaturgs. The interviews conducted follow the narrative method of open-ended questions and …

Confronting Terezin: A Production History Of Maurice Sendak And Tony Kushner's Brundibar, Justin Almquist

All Master's Theses

Maurice Sendak and Tony Kushner adapted Hans Krasa and Adolf Hoffmeister's opera Brundibar for the English speaking stage as well as a children's book, but they struggled with the message the work should pose to audiences. During World War II, fifty-five performances of the opera were staged within Terezin, a concentration camp in Czechoslovakia. Kushner and Sendak questioned the extent to which the adaptation should memorialize its Holocaust past, or offer new political aspirations. I used archive-based research to reconstruct the development and first productions of the script, which fixated on Sendak and Kushner's competing aesthetic and political perspectives. By …

Sighting Circus: Perceptions Of Circus Phenomena Investigated Through Diverse Bodies, Katrina Lavers

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This thesis is an investigation into modern circus from its beginnings in 1768 through to present day contemporary circus arts. Eight diverse bodies in modern and contemporary circus are explored. These eight bodies act as different lenses to focus enquiry into gaps or ruptures in the grand narratives of circus, to reveal previously missing voices and histories and to set in place new approaches to perceiving circus phenomena.

In The Political Body, the phenomenon of embodied protest is identified and explored in relation to contemporary circus works. The importance of the engaged spectator is identified in determining political, poetic …

Video Games: Their Effect On Society And How We Must Modernize Our Pedagogy For Students Of The Digital Age, Christopher J. Baker

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis aims to explore how video games have become an extremely beneficial tool in regards to education, art, medicine, psychology, economics, and beyond. Chapter 1 focuses on how ubiquitous video games have become in America, and what makes video games such a uniquely enjoyable experience to warrant such popularity. Chapter 2 explores how video games have become instrumental in various fields. Chapter 3 discusses the role that video games now play in the world of education; specifically how we, as educators, must adapt a modern pedagogy best suited to students who have grown up with video games, which have …

Confused Spaces: Theatricality As A Device For Defining Different Types Of Public Space, Danton Christopher Spina

Master's Theses

Confused Spaces has come to the conclusion that theatricality can be a device for defining different types of public space. This book aims to define theatricality in architectural terms by taking principles from the disciplines of theater and urban design. It limits the scope of the definition to a specific set of elements of theatricality that include spectacle, transition, flexibility, and compactability. After attempting to define why these elements of theatricality are valid architectural concepts, the text then pushes to understand the experience that these elements can create. Through the use of historical and contemporary references, an argument for theatricality …

The Birth Of A Playwright Through The Evolution Of The One-Act Play Stripped, Bear; The Film Stripped, Bear; And The Full-Length Play American Bear, Larry Michael Mitchell

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Birth of a Playwright through the Evolution of the One-act Play Stripped, Bear; the film Stripped, Bear; and the Full-Length Play American Bear follows the inception, birth, and evolution of a ten-minute, one-act, film, and full-length play: three major iterations of the same source material. Through this exploration, the reader will not only see how the work was changed through outside forces such as form and function but internal struggles within a young playwright as he struggles to find a final form for his first major work while attempting to establish himself as a playwright both within the field …

The Fight Master, Fall 2013, Vol. 35 Issue 2, The Society Of American Fight Directors

Fight Master Magazine

No abstract provided.

Learning To Play - Playing To Learn, Lauren Barton

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.

Review: 'The Philosophical Aesthetics Of Dance: Identity, Performance, And Understanding', Aili W. Bresnahan

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Graham McFee is one of the few philosophers who can be credited with helping to pioneer and forge a path for dance as a fine art in the field of analytic aesthetics. His 1992 book, Understanding Dance, following Francis Sparshott’s 1988 book Off the Ground: First Steps to a Philosophical Consideration of the Dance, was a significant introductory step toward situating dance in a field that has traditionally focused primarily and nearly exclusively on painting, sculpture, literature, and (more recently) music.

In general dance has not been taken seriously as a legitimate art form by the philosophic academy; indeed, it …

Diurnal And Nocturnal Avian Antipredator Behavior In Thermally Challenging Conditions, Jennie M. Carr

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Diurnal avian antipredator behavior has been the focus of much past research, yet the influence of the thermal environment on such behaviors is often overlooked. Far less is known about nocturnal avian antipredator behavior, including how these behaviors are influenced by challenging thermal environments. The first portion of my research focused on how the thermal environment influences the diurnal antipredator behavior of wintering birds while (i) exposed to high wind speeds, (ii) foraging in sunlit and shaded microhabitats, and (iii) when using thermoregulatory postures to conserve body heat. In addition to increasing convective heat loss, high wind speeds increase the …

Side Show: The Musical Direction, Morgan D. Hurd

Music

No abstract provided.

The Process Of Bringing An Original Playscript To Production--Flamingo & Decatur, Todd Taylor

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The aim of this dissertation is to present my play, Flamingo & Decatur, to the thesis committee, to illuminate the process of writing it, and to place it within the context of the entire body of dramatic writing I've done here at the University of Arkansas.

The dissertation opens with a narrative essay that details the process of bringing Flamingo & Decatur to production. It describes the germination of the idea for the play and follows the process through the initial drafts--detailing the ways in which the script was reshaped through its various iterations. Special attention is given to the …

Mary Zimmerman’S Candide: A Journey Of Realization, Costume Design And Production For The 2013 Regional Non-Professional Premiere At The University Of Nebraska–Lincoln, Mallory Maria Prucha

Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film: Theses, Student Research, and Creative Work

This thesis describes the research, Costume Design and implementation for the non-professional Regional Premiere of the musical Candide, newly adapted from Voltaire by Mary Zimmerman with music by Leonard Bernstein and additional lyrics by Richard Wilbur, Stephen Sondheim, John Latouche, Lillian Hellman, and Dorothy Parker., presented at Kimball Hall on February 21-24, 2013. Directed by Alisa Belflower, the production was a collaborative effort between the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film and School of Music with Mallory Maria Prucha serving as Costume/Make-Up Designer, Michaela Lynne Stein as Scenic Designer, Clay VanWinkle as Lighting Designer and David …