Performance Studies Commons^™

A Summer Experience As A Paid Actor: It’S Not All Broken Legs, Reagan James

Undergraduate Honors Theses

A Summer Experience as a Paid Actor: It’s Not All Broken Legs

Thesis Statement: Finding out that you are going to be paid to act sounds like a dream come true, but there is a lot more to it than just the glitz and glam of the final product.

I Directed Macbeth, And So Can You, Jason Flannery

Theses

Designed in the second year of my graduate studies, and rehearsed and performed in the autumn of my third, Macbeth served as my thesis production at Lindenwood University. In this paper, I will address the details of how the production came to light, my approach to developing the performance, what was learned throughout the nearly year-long endeavor, and how those lessons have shaped my relationship with the art of storytelling.

An Actor's Method To Building The Character Of Mother Superior In Agnes Of God, Venita J. Matthews

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Agnes of God is the story of a nun (Agnes) who gets pregnant while living in a convent. She almost dies after giving birth to a baby, who was later found dead in a garbage can. The cast consists of three members: Agnes; Mother Miriam Ruth (Mother Superior); and Dr. Martha Livingstone, the court appointed psychiatrist. Faith is tested as Dr. Livingstone draws closer to uncovering the truth surrounding the conception, birth, and death of Agnes’ baby.

I performed the role of Mother Superior in the UNO production of Agnes of God. This thesis documents my rehearsal and …

Fuddy Meers: Lighting On The Edge Of Consciousness, Sheric W. Hull

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

This thesis outlines the concept, research, and production process of the lighting design for the play Fuddy Meers by David Lindsay Abaire. This show took place October 6–8 and 12–16, 2016 in the Studio Theatre at the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The creative team was comprised of the director Dustin Mosko*, the scenic designer Lisa Haldeman*, costumes/prosthetics/ puppetry designed by Rebecca Armstrong*, sound designer Araceli Ramirez, projection content Zachary Trout, and I was the production’s lighting designer. The production team was comprised of stage manager Riley Redburn, assistant stage manager Shannon Humiston, …

Finding Exuberance For The Role Shelby In Baltimore., Danielle Smart

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis documents my discovery of exuberance as the key to a successful performance and reveals the challenges I faced in developing a character whose major actions in the play fall into the category of masking (i.e. hiding, avoiding, dodging). I define exuberance and discuss how I came to understand that sustaining exuberance requires a great deal of technical expertise specifically in acting, movement and voice in order to accommodate the demands of the character. I contend that exuberance also requires commitment and nurturing of the actor’s personal artistic vision. This thesis will discuss some of the difficulties I faced …

Fantastical Body Narratives : Cosplay, Performance, And Gender Diversity., Tiffany M. Hutabarat-Nelson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation aims to explore how the phenomenon of cosplay has been able to produce and sustain a diversity of gender expression due to its emergence from an activity-based community that emphasizes creative play. This creative energy is manifested through cosplay as an active, ritualized practice in which gender diversity is invited to be realized as a distinct possibility, resulting in a display of a full range of masculinities and femininities as well as crossplays and genderbend cosplays. I argue that cosplay can therefore be understood as a phenomenon that destabilizes the gender binary—its active practice promotes the production and …

Going Old School: Using Eighteenth Century Pedagogy Models To Foster Musical Skills And Creativity In Today's Students, Monique Arar

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Recent research has illuminated a pedagogical approach to keyboard improvisation of the Italian conservatories of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, namely that of partimenti: single-stave, multiple clef exercises in which students were trained to improvise (Gjerdingen 2007, Sanguinetti 2012, van Tour 2015). This approach was passed down through oral instruction until the mid-twentieth century, when pedagogical priorities shifted away from improvisation and compositional creativity towards virtuosity, technique and adherence to the printed page. Simultaneously, the tradition of decade-long musical apprenticeship was replaced with semester-long courses in music theory and harmony.

The existing research on partimenti presents a compelling historical narrative …

Expressions Of Madness In Coloratura Mad Scenes Of Bel Canto Operas, Rachel G. Christenson

Senior Honors Theses

This thesis will explore the musical innovations in the mad scenes of the bel canto composers in the 1800s. It will analyze Gaetano Donizetti’s mad scenes in Anna Bolena (1830) and Lucia di Lammermoor (1835), and Vincezzo Bellini’s mad scenes in I Puritani (1835) to discover how each composer expresses madness through the high and virtuosic voice of the coloratura soprano. The subject of madness is not a new idea in opera. However, the mad scenes of Donizetti and Bellini are the most successful and are often performed in opera houses around the world. Specific attention is given to the …

Lacuna: Transcendence Of The Human Body Through The Space Between, Anica Bottom

Scholarly and Creative Works Conference (2015 - 2021)

Examination of humans as dancers interaction with our surrounding environment. Performance and experimental movement improvisation clips shown.

Introduction To "A Case Study Of Directorial Courage: An Iranian Director's Subversive Production Of Lorca's The House Of Bernarda Alba" By Joie Miroux And Peter Zazzali, Anne Fliotsos, Ann M. Shanahan

Department of Fine & Performing Arts: Faculty Publications and Other Works

No abstract provided.

La Resistencia Cultural A Través Del Teatro De Las Oprimidas Para La Cultivación De La Subjetividad De La Mujer En Un Contexto De Violencia De Género: Un Estudio De Caso Del Colectivo De Mujeres Osadía / Cultural Resistance And The Cultivation Of The Subjective Through Theatre Of The Oppressed For The Woman In A Context Of Gender Violence: A Case Study With Colectivo De Mujeres Osadía In Jose Leon Suarez, Province Of Buenos Aires, Lela Biggus

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Hay en este momento en la historia una ola de movimientos feministas barriendo la vida política de Buenos Aires. Movimientos como Ni Una Menos busca, en una variedad de métodos, para interrumpir el discurso destructivo de la cultura machista que produce la violencia de género y hace que el acto de femicidio, el asesinato de una mujer por su género, sea común.

En mis investigaciones exploro cómo el Teatro del oprimido, una práctica teatral de Augusto Boal, puede transformarse en una experiencia de resistencia cultural y subjetivación de la mujer en un contexto de violencia de género. Yo pasé tiempo …

The Fight Master, Spring 2017, Vol. 39 Issue 1, The Society Of American Fight Directors

Fight Master Magazine

No abstract provided.

Sight And Song Augmented, Robert P. Fletcher

Sight and Song Augmented: Painting and Poetry in Mixed Reality

This file is an Android application built in the Unity 3D game engine with the Vuforia Augmented Reality extension. It remediates Sight and Song (1892) by Michael Field (Katherine Bradley and Edith Cooper), a collection of ekphrastic poetry about paintings by the Old Masters.

Performer And Writer Biographies, University Of Dayton

Season 1: The Crossroads

Names and descriptions of the performers and writers involved with this podcast series.

Fairies That Fouetté And Princesses That Promenade: Examining The Allure Of The Fairytale Ballet Through Petipa’S Sleeping Beauty, Caeli L. Koizumi

Dance Department Best Student Papers

No abstract provided.

The Nature Of Movement: Finding The Connection Between Dance And Climate Science, Paige Petersen

Dance Department Best Student Papers

No abstract provided.

Cross(Ing) The Line: Leadership In Devised Theatre, Monica Furman

Honors Papers and Posters

“Traditional" (Western) theatre focuses on the relationship between the playwright and the director. Devised theatre is a reaction to the dominant ideology; it is ensemble-created original work. A group of artists collaborate and create a play with no script and, sometimes, no initial theme or message. They use various different art forms as well as interviews and narratives to create a theatrical experience.

Letters To Mei Lanfang, Alexandra Dare Norman

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

As a male actor of female Dan characters, Mei Lanfang (1894-1961) is known throughout the world as the most representative performer of Chinese opera – particularly for his performance of Concubine Yu in the Peking opera Farewell My Concubine. A feminist analysis of his work in this opera reveals a series of assumptions about the definition of “Woman” in both theatre and life. This project is solo performance piece formatted in a series of open letters to Mei Lanfang, interspersed with personal stories investigating what it truly means to be a Woman – as an actor, a Christian, a feminist, …

The Shadow Puppets Of Elsinore: Edward Gordon Craig And The Cranach Press Hamlet, James P. Taylor

Mime Journal

Taylor considers the role that book arts may play in Craig’s theories of the new theatre, or the Art of the Future. He expands our understanding of Craig’s design work to include print culture, examining his engravings for the monumental editions of Hamlet published by Count Harry Kessler’s Cranach Press in 1929–30. Taylor explores the relationship of Craig’s designs for the 1912 Moscow Art Theatre production of Hamlet to his engravings for the German and English-language Cranach Press editions of the play. He suggests that it was only with this print publication that Craig finally achieved the absolute artistic control …

The Who's Tommy

Theatre Programs

The Who's Tommy
Book by Des McAnuff and Pete Townshend
Music and Lyrics by Pete Townshend
Additional Music and Lyrics by John Entwistle and Keith Moon
Directed by Oanh Nguyen

Rock musical; adult language and content as well as strobe lighting effects will be utilized

Based on the iconic 1969 rock concept album, The Who’s Tommy is an exhilarating story of hope, healing, and the human spirit. The story of the pinball-playing, deaf, dumb and blind boy who triumphs over his adversities has inspired, amazed, and puzzled audiences for more than 40 years. This five-time Tony Award-winning musical was translated …

Haunted Houses: A Directorial Exploration Of Expressionism, Jose Martinez-Chavarria

Honors Theses

The purpose of “Haunted Houses: A Directorial Exploration of Expressions” is to demonstrate the effectiveness of my directorial skills in staging a drama on stage with both an objective and subjective reality. The play Haunted Houses by Kathryn Schultz-Miller served as the chosen work whose staging would implement the common expressionist staging strategies of abstraction, simple and flexible blocking, nonrealistic lighting and a strong emphasis on visuals and stage images. The following thesis provides a detail directorial book containing the blocking, scenery, props and creative concepts used in this original production that allows it to be recreated if desired. A …

Volume 35 - Editor's Note, Richard E. Paine, Emily M. Cramer

National Forensic Journal

No abstract provided.

Why Forensics Matters: The Development Of Emotional Competence In Competitors, Kelly Michael Young, Avery Henry, John Koch

National Forensic Journal

To explicate our justification for the value of competitive speech activities, we contend that participation in forensics develops critical emotional competencies in students. The narratives used in this study were part of the NSDA’s efforts to create materials that would introduce various individual events to beginning competitors. In 2016, through its Instagram account, the NSDA asked high school competitors to comment on a post about why they chose to compete in their individual events. The NSDA identified the best 12 responses and then interviewed those students. ping and performing pieces in individual events. After examining how signs of emotional competence …

Where Are They Now(?): Two Decades Of Longitudinal Outcome Assessment Data Linking Positive Student, Graduate Student, Career And Life Trajectory Decisions To Participation In Intercollegiate Competitive Debate, Jack E. Rogers, Nicole P. M. Freeman, Arthur R. Rennels

National Forensic Journal

In 1997, Rogers (2002, 2007) launched an ambitious cohort-based study to specifically measure student outcomes from forensic participation with direct, empirical comparisons between a debate and non-debate group over an extended period through college, graduate school, professional careers, and life-trajectory decisions. This monograph offers a continuation of those earlier studies in order to provide almost two decades of empirical performance data and outcomes. In order for the reader to place the current study in context, it is helpful to review a brief update of the applicable literature and a brief explanation of the previous two studies before attempting to interpret …

National Forensic Association: An Update From The President, Karen Morris

National Forensic Journal

No abstract provided.

The Humanistic Value Of Individual Events Participation, Leah White

National Forensic Journal

Forensic educators have long struggled to communicate the value of forensic participation to those not familiar with the activity. Drawing from literature in the field of counseling and student personnel, this paper argues participation in individual events is beneficial because it allows students to engage in what Baxter Magolda (2001) refers to as self-authorship among good company. Using interviews and autoethnographic methods, I investigate how participation in competitive forensics helps students meet personal growth needs. I conclude with suggestions for how forensic educators can communicate the student development goals achieved through forensic participation.

Reflections On Forensic Practice And Civic Education: What Are We Teaching? What Are We Learning?, R. Randolph Richardson

National Forensic Journal

No abstract provided.

Volume 35 - Front Matter, Nfa Journal

National Forensic Journal

No abstract provided.

Volume 35 - Full Volume, Nfa Journal

National Forensic Journal

No abstract provided.

A Rainbow Of Iranian Masculinities: Raqqas, A Type Of Iranian Male Image, Anthony Shay

Pomona Faculty Publications and Research

In this essay, I will explore the male dancer in the Iranian world, and how he came to occupy this abject position (dance, according to Zainab Stellar, being regarded by many conservative elements in Iranian society today as "the worst possible behavior of an undisciplined body in public, and symbol of all vice" (2011, 235)). Lotfollah “Lotfi” Mansouri, the renowned opera director and producer, recounted at a dinner that I attended (January 27, 2002 Peyvand Organization, San Jose), how one day as a student at UCLA, he entered Schonberg Music Hall and heard opera for the first time. He was …