Performance Studies Commons^™

Experimental Music And Collaboration: Developing Artistry Through Performance Practice, John Lambert

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This project locates collaboration and collaborative performance as a potential site for artistic growth. This study analyzes six collaborative projects: composed pieces for electric guitar accompanying a staged performance of collaged texts, an audio-visual installation, the preparation of several short pieces to accompany choreographed dances, a 90-minute soundtrack to a performance mixed live, an ongoing improvisational duo, and a live visuals performance to accompany Sunburned Hand of the Man at Duke University. It traces the growth of my artistry while also providing a method for both doing and writing about collaboration. In addition, it offers a model for understanding collaborative …

Our Town

Theatre Programs

No abstract provided.

From Franco's Nightmare To A Globalized Spain: A Cinematic Analysis, Claire Maurer

Claremont-UC Undergraduate Research Conference on the European Union

Spain has had a long history of determining its own identity through successive regime changes, national crises and shifting international alliances. With Las Chicas de la Sexta Planta (Le Guay, 2011), Torremolinos 73 (Berger, 2003), Miente (De Ocampo, 2008) and The Way (Estévez, 2010) as a guide, I examine the distinctive characteristics of Spansh identity across three notable sections of its history: Francoist Spain (1939-1975), “free” Spain (1975-1986), and Spain as a member of the supranational European Union (EU) (1986-), or the European Economic Community (EEC) at that time. These films and time periods help to shed light on important …

Metamorphoses

Theatre Programs

No abstract provided.

Ua68/17/1 Wku Dance: Creating | Thinking | Artists, Wku Theatre & Dance

WKU Administration Documents

Newsletter by and about the WKU Dance Program. Articles:

• Dance on the Hill
• Potter College of Arts & Letters Collaborations
• Guest Speakers: Naila Ansari, Shyama Iyer, Jill Flanders
• Guest Artists: Tyler Gilstrap
• WinterDance
• Last Chance to Dance
• National Dance Education Organization

A Little Night Music, Otterbein Theatre And Dance Department

2022-2023 Season Productions

Sondheim creates a stunning tour de force when he takes Ingmar Bergman's comedy of manners, Smiles of a Summer Night, and turns it into a musical of masterful execution and elegance. Winner of four Tony Awards, this is a musical work that has forever entranced the world of theatre.

Set in 1900 Sweden, A Little Night Music explores the tangled web of affairs centered around actress, Desirée Armfeldt, and the men who love her: a lawyer by the name of Fredrik Egerman and the Count Carl-Magnus Malcom. When the traveling actress performs in Fredrik's town, the estranged lovers' passion …

Primitivism, Performance Studies, And Modernist Time: Tracing An Alternative Genealogy Of Performance Studies Through Case Studies In Modernist Cultural Appropriation, Stephanie Vella

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation traces a genealogy of research methodologies for documenting, transmitting, and analyzing embodied, non-textual performance practices from the late-nineteenth through early-twentieth centuries. I uncover intersections between these methods and the conflations of race and temporality that are ubiquitously threaded through modernist cultural practices during this time in the form of primitivism. The researchers whose work I analyze all saw European modernity as fundamentally detached from physical culture, while viewing other cultures—especially those of the people most directly threatened by colonial and capitalist expansion during this time—as having access to a “lost” corporeal knowledge. I argue that primitivism is not …

Examining The Linguistic Ideology "Throaty Sounds Are Bad For Performers": The History Of Negative Attitudes Towards Glottal Stops And Laryngealization In English, Dayle M. Towarnicky

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis analyzes explicit metadiscourse (Johnstone et al 2006) on throaty sounds, primarily focused on glottal segments and non-modal constricted voice quality in English. Authors contributing to this metadiscourse are argued to be an offshoot of the speech chain network which valorized and circulated the English accent known as RP or Received Pronunciation, studied by Agha (2003). The evaluated texts center on English-speaking elocution, singing training, voice, speech, and voice care. The analysis shows glottal and guttural articulations are framed negatively and often discouraged by appeals to both health and aesthetics. Many authors in this performance speech chain network …

Banarasipan As Revelation: Immanent Utopias In The Performance Of Everyday Life, Bhargav Rani

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation locates itself at the intersection of performance theory, South Asian studies and philosophy of history to examine the history of an urban consciousness known as banarasipan (literally, "Banarasi-ness") as performed by the people of Banaras in northern India. Over the course of the twentieth century, banarasipan, as a distinct way of being in everyday life, has been characterized by its valorization of heroic laziness, seditious laughter, subversive obscenities, and by its egalitarian subjectivity that overrides sectarian and class differences. In the context of South Asian history, this dissertation interrogates the theoretical premises of both Marxist and postcolonial modes …

Operation Lone Star: The Spectacle Of Immigration Federalism, Danielle Puretz

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Texas Governor Greg Abbott launched Operation Lone Star in March 2021 to respond to the “crisis” at the United States/Mexico border. While in the US immigration is usually thought of as a federal responsibility, different states have worked to expand their capacity to welcome or exclude immigrants. Operation Lone Star is an example of how one state is working to restrict immigration to the US and build notoriety for its republican governor. Drawing on press releases, executive orders, news articles, opinion pieces, and other sources I highlight the performative politics within this initiative. Operation Lone Star is an example of …

Forbidden Temporalities: The Wayward Aesthetics Of Punchdrunk’S Sleep No More, Thomas Fish

Faculty Articles

Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More is an immersive theatrical adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Hitchcock’s Rebecca that has been staged in New York since 2011 with over 2000 performances. Sprawled over a hundred rooms within three intricately designed warehouses, the event offers a visceral exploration of a labyrinthine space and the potential for anonymous—even erotic—one-on-one encounters with a performer in the dark. This paper offers a new angle on Punchdrunk’s immersive style by considering the embodiment of temporality in performance and its concurrent aesthetic politics. Borrowing from queer theory’s temporal turn, it details how the company manipulates time in the space …

A Script And Acting Analysis Of David Mamet’S Glengarry Glen Ross, Abdelrahman Metwally

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Glengarry Glen Ross is a Pulitzer Prize-winning play by David Mamet. This paper is a practical guide for the actor to understanding the events of the play and, specifically, to approaching the role of Richard Roma, with a particular emphasis on Michael Chekhov’s psycho-physical work. First, I will discuss the circumstances, values and themes of the world of the play in relation to the character Shelley Levene as the main agent of the events. Then my focus in character analysis will shift to Richard Roma as the lead character of the ensemble. Together, the two characters create a contrasting duo …

Relationship Between Theatre Involvement And Student’S Educational Outcomes, Gabi Gonzalez

McNair Scholars Research

In this study, participants (N = 76 students) were surveyed to see if theatre involvement had any effect on their role-playing creativity, time management, and academic achievement. The survey also gathered data to see if there was any association between the amount of theatre involvement and students’ majors. The survey was made up of questions involving students’ demographics, grade point average, and theatre involvement, a Role Playing Scale (Fletcher et al. 1984), and an Academic Time Management and Procrastination Scale (Won et al. 2018). The hypothesis is that theatre involvement has a positive effect on students through their role-play creativity, …

An Investigation Of The Rhetorical And Representational Aspects Of Bleed Green, Jacob A. Segura

The Kennesaw Journal of Undergraduate Research

This essay is a retroactive examination of a personal narrative titled Bleed Green, a story that characterizes my experience working for the supermarket Publix. I performed Bleed Green in front of an audience at the KSU Tellers' Spring 2021 Showcase. This essay serves both to analyze the rhetorical methods of my story and to precede the script of the performance, which accompanies this essay. In the essay, I contextualize the story through the lens of three widely underutilized concepts from various disciplines: framing, foregrounding and backgrounding, and representation and agency. Storytellers often critically analyze their works, particularly with the …

Limp Wrists, Clenched Fists: An Analysis Of Queer Performance Art As A Tool For Political Resistance, Neha Verma

Bridges: An Undergraduate Journal of Contemporary Connections

This paper explores the use of queer performance art as a tool for community mobilization and resistance to socio-legal oppressions. This essay is grounded in movements for queer liberation in the Global South, racialized working-class queer communities, and queer disability justice. As queer culture and aesthetics are often misappropriated for wider cisheteronormative audiences, this work reminds the revolutionary nature of queer performance art.

Staging Retro-Perspectives: Performing Age, Memory/Loss, And Queer Desire In The Later Works Of Split Britches (2009–2020), Benjamin Gillespie

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This project investigates the later works of the celebrated New York–based lesbian-feminist performance troupe Split Britches made up of founding members Peggy Shaw (b. 1944) and Lois Weaver (b. 1949). Revealing how the duo consciously interlaces aspects of aging and age-based identity into the very fabric of their later performances in both form and content, this project analyzes how Shaw and Weaver integrate an explicitly anti-ageist and overtly queer representation of aging on the experimental stage. Their later performances serve to challenge narratives of decline and debilitation that come with (hetero)normative representations of old age and the life course in …

Drift Net: The Social And Political Agency Of The Migratory Text, Chris Campanioni

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Through a discursive model I call a “migratory text”—migrant-produced media that includes notebooks, correspondences, self-portraiture, diaristic video, auto-archival installation, and immersive performance—Drift Net gleans connections between world literature, literary translation, academic scholarship, and public policy. Alongside close readings of texts from the interwar period through today and intimate archival fieldwork with refugees and shelter staff across Europe, this study mobilizes queer theory and gender and sexuality studies as well as performance studies and media theory to critique migrant-assimilation techniques by state actors and NGOs. In centering the Cold War throughout its five chapters, Drift Net broaches the different political …

Homage To Eleanora: A Musical Journey Through The Billie Holiday Songbook, Keith A. Dames

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Billie Holiday was a singer, songwriter, vocalist, bandleader and composer in the fields of music, black culture and more specifically the genre of jazz. The primary focus of this study is Billie Holiday’s discography, music, and compositions as treated in relation to the black culture of production. This study will explore a secondary content analysis of Billie Holiday’s music, musicianship, musicality and compositional skills within the American jazz mainstream, broader jazz audience and world at large. This project will take an analytical look at the structure and form of the compositions of Billie Holiday. Billie Holiday is credited with composing …

'My Name Is Peaches': Black Women's Affect In The Blues Biomyth, Taylor C. Scott

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

For this project, I am interested in the study of nuanced self-representations of Black rage that appear within African American literary traditions, specifically the blues aesthetic, wherein artists narrativize a wide spectrum of intelligent and specific emotion--not just melancholy. Blues narratives in which Black people self-represent are in direct opposition to flattened narratives of certain affective modes such as anger as a useless, backwards, pathologized, and flat feeling that appear within dominant U.S. and global iconographies. What I see in the blues aesthetic is the capacity for a multichromatic approach to studying rage and Black authorship in America. By using …

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 …

Meet Me In The Middle Ages: Engaging With Fantasy, Reality, And Collaborative World-Building, Amanda Greene

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

This critical essay accompanies and describes my thesis project, Medievalia Miscellany, a magazine for middle-grade readers which explores the world of medieval fantasy through art, comics, stories, and activities. Throughout the essay, I use my own term “archaeological upcycling” to discuss and explore a variety of relationships between ideas of parts and a whole. I then use it to characterize the way stories are created out of many different parts and how these parts help a reader to relate to both the world of the story and the world in which they live. I describe the genre of medieval fantasy …

People With Diverse Talents: Arts-Based Research Involving Persons With Disabilities Using Ricky Curry’S Workshop Approach, Janna Raquel D. Talampas, Matthew Ericsson L. Sy.

DLSU Senior High School Research Congress

Since Persons with Disabilities (PWD) encounters countless challenges such as distinct protection risks which include high risk of violence, exploitation, abuse, and high levels of stigma, the researchers made a documentation of the whole process of their study which consists of workshops, rehearsals, and interviews that were intended for people with disabilities. It aims to give an overview of the experiences of the participants throughout the study. This is to empower disabled people to boost their self-confidence and self-esteem, and to be involved in the community. The researchers gathered four participants to undergo workshops using Ricky Curry’s workshop approach which …

What’S The Word On The Street?: Witnessing/Performing Theory, Desirée D. Rowe

Feminist Pedagogy

No abstract provided.

Sanctuary: The-Construction Of Communion, Carlos Salazar-Lermont

MFA in Visual Art

This thesis narrates the development of the multimedia art installation called Sanctuary. I unwrap the theoretical background of my practice, which is rooted in the theories of deconstruction by Jacques Derrida, and the rhizome theory by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. I approach my creative process as a grammatic of matter, space, and time, constructing meaning through an interplay of significants that connect to political, social, economic, and cultural implications. In the case of Sanctuary, I sought to create a path of empathy towards Venezuelan refugees in St. Louis, Missouri through the exploration of the concept of communion. …

Decolonizing And Enriching Opera: A Nigerian Folktale One Act Opera, Miracle O. Amah

Dissertations, 2020-current

Aligned with the decolonial aims of this project, this English and Yoruba language opera promotes an international understanding of African operatic styles which reflect literary, musical, instrumental and dance cultural traditions. This paper addresses some of the issues faced by people of color in the opera world, ways that people of color have been resilient in this genre and ways to enrich the opera world with the aim of decolonizing and deframing the white racial structure. This opera was first performed on March 29th, 2022 and was created as a workshop for performances in high schools, colleges, music institutions, and …

“But For Those Of Us Who Live Here”: Performance Of Work And Community By Women Employed In Rural, Predominantly White, Small-Town Schools, Telena M. Turner

Masters Theses, 2020-current

Rural, small towns are incredibly complex cultural centers. Although rural places are consistently portrayed as unchanging, the operation of cultural and identity within these locations is consistently on the move. Using reflexive interviewing, poetic transcription, autoethnographic writing, this project (re)presents poems on community and identity from five women employed in schools in rural, mostly White, small towns in the Central Appalachian region. Analyzing the poems through concepts in performance studies and work on space and place, this project positions movement and change at the center of small towns and examines how notions of rural place and community are performed through …

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 …

Metal-Ish: An Analysis Of Heavy Metal And Jazz Fusion By Guitarist Adam Rogers, Malachi A. Million

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

Adam Rogers is a critically recognized guitarist known for his exceptional performances in jazz and other musical styles. Rogers has enjoyed a substantial career as a jazz ensemble leader, a sideman for other jazz ensembles, and a studio musician for jazz and non-jazz albums. Rogers’s discography includes five albums as a leader, four as co-leader, and over two hundred as a sideman. Rogers’s most recent album as leader, DICE (2017), is focused on music written for an ensemble of electric guitar, bass guitar, and drums that blends jazz with other styles such as funk, rock, R&B, blues, country, and heavy …

The Shape Of Things: A Theatrical Examination Of The Progression Of Emotional Manipulation, Kylee Lorio

Honors Projects

In Neil LaBute's work, The Shape of Things, graduate art student Evelyn Thompson meets security guard and future muse, Adam Sorenson, in an art museum during his late-night shift. Their meeting poses the question of just how far humans are willing to go for love. In less than two hours, LaBute’s insight regarding manipulation between intimate partners calls the integrity of our own interpersonal relationships into question. This project encapsulates the materials of Bridgewater College student Kylee Lorio while directing this production during the Covid-19 pandemic.