Performance Studies Commons^™

Volume 37 - Front Matter, Nfa Journal

National Forensic Journal

No abstract provided.

Volume 37 - Full Volume, Nfa Journal

National Forensic Journal

No abstract provided.

"A Performing Artist's Journey...Begins" (Senior Showcase), Jennifer Boswell

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

As a Theatre major, my sponsor and I decided that my Honors Research Project would be a one-person, twenty-minute performance. Originally, this showcase was going to be a live theatre event. Due to coronavirus and social distancing, I had to adjust and adapt as I transformed my piece into a virtual performance.

In choosing the content that would be performed, I carefully selected pieces that represented my journey as a performing artist the past four years. I wanted to showcase my growth and range as a performer. I chose one monologue from each of the six MainStage Theatre productions I …

The Delicacy Of Breath: Tribute To Cystic Fibrosis, Natalie Minns

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

A simple breath is something that we do not completely focus on enough in the art of dance, and it can be something that we often take for granted. For my project, my goal is to not only shed light on the simple breath, but to delve deeper into its importance in someone living with a breathing condition. My ultimate goal is to allow these separate entities to coexist through a piece of choreographic work. Through the art of dance, I want to be able to bring awareness to cystic fibrosis (CF) in a more expansive and exploratory approach. This …

Sarah Kane's Post-Christian Spirituality In Cleansed, Elba Sanchez

All Master's Theses

The existing scholarship on the work of British playwright Sarah Kane mostly focuses on exploring the use of extreme acts of violence in her plays. However, few scholars like Dr. Graham Saunders and Anabelle Singer can trace it back to the rejection of her Christian beliefs during her adolescence. This thesis explores how Kane used violence and images of impalement, dismemberment, and cross-dressing in her third play, Cleansed as a vehicle to examine and validate her notions of gender and sexuality as well as her developing post-Christian spirituality. Through the critical textual analysis of Cleansed in conjunction with scholarly literature …

Memory Bread, Nisiqi

Art + Design Masters Theses

Memory Bread, constituting a daily performance ritual and the post-action objects, seeks to address the generational decline of mother language use in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, a post-colonized province of China. I chose to eat sliced white bread in the performance and later casted concrete sculptures as the extension of the action for both substances’ capitalistic nature. Being an invasive material that took over the traditional architectural lifestyle, the use of concrete mirrors the pervasive cultural and ethnic assimilation in China. Meanwhile, the materiality of concrete being a mixture of various substances also metaphors the mixed culture that Chinese-Mongolians …

Transforming Trauma: Performing The Works Of William Shakespeare As Rehabilitation For Incarcerated Individuals, Elyssa Mersdorf

Theses and Dissertations

This paper is the summation of my research and exploration into the history, social ramifications, and individual psychological impact of incarceration and the use of theatre as a vehicle of rehabilitation. Throughout my studies, I encountered evidence in the forms of personal accounts from theatre practitioners, scholarly articles, inmate testimonials, and historical journals regarding the success of such carceral theatre programs in the reformation of the prisoners they serve. How have past prison procedures and strategies hindered or helped inmates in their preparation for their transition from life in a penitentiary to reintroduction into larger society? What are the financial …

A Meisner Warm-Up: Advancing The Technique, Andrew Bryce

Theses and Dissertations

Why is there no warm-up for the Meisner technique? Why do standard vocal warm-ups not actually prepare the actor for performance? This thesis seeks to remedy both of these issues in 21st century actor training. It does so by creating a warm-up for the Meisner technique that will also prepare actors’ voice, body, and presence. This warm-up was formed by combining Meisner repetition exercises and the Miller Voice Method. The final warm-up was presented as a workshop for actors at the 2020 Southeastern Theatre Conference.

Volume 37 - Editor's Note, Richard E. Paine, Emily M. Cramer

National Forensic Journal

No abstract provided.

The Inter-State Oratorical Contest In The 1800s: The Beginning Of Organized Collegiate Competitive Speaking, Lisa Roth

National Forensic Journal

The purpose of this article is to explore the beginnings of the Inter-State Oratorical Contest (IOC) and the Inter-State Oratorical Association (IOA) and to examine the characteristics of the Inter-State Oratorical speeches from 1874 to 1899. Through an analysis of the top two speeches from each of these years in regard to topic, evidence, organization, style, and delivery, I identify trends and strategies which appeared in competitive collegiate persuasive speaking in the late 1800s.

Digitizing The Corporeal: The Affect Of Mediatized Elements In Theatrical Performance, Kurtis Layne Hassinger

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This paper explores the affect of digital media in live performance. The research is generated from work with integrated digital media in Carol Ann Duffy's 2015 adaptation of Everyman as well as Samuel Beckett's radio play Cascando. Through experimentation and implementation of motion tracking digital elements and actor-manipulated sonic and visual digital media achieved with MIDI and OSC mapping, I explore the embodiment of performances by actors when their various characters are represented on the physical as well as the digital stage simultaneously.

The research interrogates digital media in storytelling when actors can manipulate imagery and language in real time …

The Jekyll’S Hide Project. Devising Jekyll’S Hide: A Critical Analysis Of The Performative Elements And Working Methods Of Jerry Lewis And The Butoh Dancers Tatsumi Hijikata And Kazuo Ohno, Hugo Belviso

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This practice-led research project explored the process of devising for performance for the stage via physical theatre workshops. The research was informed by Japanese butoh dance-theatre and its two creators, Tatsumi Hijikata and Kazuo Ohno, and by the work of American comic Jerry Lewis. I began with exercises in group workshops derived from butoh movement practice, followed by inspiration drawn from Jerry Lewis’s performance and directorial work in his films, and from Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. I developed a workshop exercise and devising process where ideas and methodologies from butoh and Jerry …

A Study On Performing The Hungarian Rhapsodies In The Liszt Tradition, Nicholas Mark Williams

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Franz Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsodies (1851, 1853) have long been among the most popular collections of piano music. They have also long garnered a reputation for “superficial brilliance and effect” which seems to have influenced the way that famous pianists play the works in public. But would a performer immersed in the Liszt tradition have approached them differently? This dissertation aims to promote a re-evaluation of the Hungarian Rhapsodies from this perspective: considering Liszt’s own ideas on music and performance, the writings and recordings of his pupils, and Liszt’s book Des Bohémiens et de leur musique en Hongrie (1859).

Scenarios Of Intractability: Reframing Intractable Conflict And Its Transformation, Kerry Whigham

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

For those working toward long-term conflict transformation and atrocity prevention, cases of so-called “intractable conflict” are an enduring source of frustration, continually resisting what seems to be an otherwise useful toolbox of "lessons learnt" and "best practices." Referring to these cases as intractable, however, only serves to naturalize their intractability, rendering it an essential and immutable quality of the conflicts, and thus foreclosing options for engagement and prevention. Moreover, it obscures interventions that may have already emerged from within these conflicts that are transforming the way they play out. This article suggests, instead, to perceive these cases as scenarios of …

Someday We'll Look Back On This And Laugh, Ben Masten

Capstones

The People's Improv Theater was an oasis for young New York comedians. Its own success-- and a volatile owner-- changed that. Project contains a narrative journalism piece and an an audio documentary.

Full Project here: https://medium.com/@benmasten/someday-well-look-back-on-this-and-laugh-e6b1dc8468db

Measure For Measure

Theatre Programs

No abstract provided.

Bewitching Power: The Virtuosity Of Gender In Dekker And Massinger's The Virgin Martyr, Thomas Fish

Faculty Articles

This paper considers Thomas Dekker and Philip Massinger’s play The Virgin Martyr (1622) in light of scientific notions of the female body circulating during the period to illustrate how the performance of martyrdom manifested a performance of gender virtuosity, elevating it to the status of the supernatural or divine. Like well-known female martyrs from the period, such as Anne Askew, the protagonist, Dorothea, takes on characteristically male attributes: she assumes the role of the soldier and defies scientific understanding of the female gender by sealing her phlegmatic “leaky” body and exuding divine heat that defies her cold, wet “nature." The …

Dancing At The Canadian American Club, Jen Schoonover

Bridgewater Review

No abstract provided.

The Strategies And Risks Of Performing Citizenship And Rights Through Music, Carolin Mueller

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

My work explores the capacity of cultural producers to perform “insurgent citizenship,” a term theorized by James Holsten (2008) to describe how the peripheries of social organization can propel alternative modes of civic participation, through music. I utilize Engin Isin’s performative dimension of citizenship (2017) to investigate such forms of insurgent citizenship as they evolve in social and cultural peripheries of the contemporary arts and culture industry in the city of Dresden, Germany to identify the pathways they open to socio-political participation and autonomy for refugees.

While Germany understands itself as a nation of culture, cultural policy unevenly addresses the …

Wounds, Remembrance, Sutures: Performing Existence In Times Of Gore Capitalism, Christina Baker

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Since 2006, the initiation of Mexico’s “War on Drugs,” the nation has experienced horrific violence despite increased militarization of its streets. As cartels have deepened their networks, controlling the northern border states and beyond, (random) acts of violence have become an endemic crisis. In this Mexico, one where a new daily vernacular constantly evolves to articulate brutal acts and the state has routinely espoused a rhetoric of ignorance, performer-activists have turned to creative initiatives to combat efforts that invisibilize and derealize victims. From her work, Gore Capitalism, in which she explores the human body as commodity and casualty in …

Lysistrata

Theatre Programs

No abstract provided.

Memoria Y Resistencia: Sharing Ud Experiences At The Encuentro To Close The School Of The Americas, Mary Niebler, Christina Baker

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

At UD, our Catholic and Marianist values inform us to uphold the human rights of all people, especially those whose agency has been diminished by unjust laws and corporate government policies. Guided by the principles of Catholic Social Teaching, including solidarity with the poor, we seek ways to join together to bring about a more peaceful and just world. The annual SOA Watch Encuentro, a peaceful protest to close the School of the Americas (SOA), is such a movement.

Established in 1946, the SOA has operated at Fort Benning, Georgia since the 1980s. Technically closed in 2000, it immediately reopened …

Vocal Hygiene For Musical Theatre Performers, Anne M. Koziara, Dr. Ron Scherer

Honors Projects

There have been numerous “do’s - and - don’t’s” vocal hygiene pamphlets made for voice users, however, a guide for vocal hygiene for musical theatre performers is not typically included in these pamphlets. Musical theatre performers differ from other professional voice users, because in addition to singing, they also have the taxing responsibilities of acting and dancing. As a result, many musical theatre performers have questions and often seem confused about what proper vocal hygiene should be for them. The goal of this honors project was to create an advisory brochure on vocal hygiene specifically for musical theatre performers. This …

Queen Titania With Bottom And The Fairies, University Of North Florida

UNF Shakespeare - A Midsummer Night's Dream

A still from UNF's production of a Midsummer Night's Dream in Fall, 2019

A Midsummer Night's Dream Rehearsal, University Of North Florida

UNF Shakespeare - A Midsummer Night's Dream

A Midsummer Night's Dream rehearsal photo for production in Ponte Vedra, Florida

A Midsummer Night's Dream In Ponte Vedra, University Of North Florida

UNF Shakespeare - A Midsummer Night's Dream

A still from UNF's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream in Ponte Vedra showing the prologue with Puck.

Full Cast And Crew Of A Midsummer Night's Dream, University Of North Florida

UNF Shakespeare - A Midsummer Night's Dream

The full cast and crew of UNF's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream

Hermia And Lysander In A Midsummer Night's Dream, University Of North Florida

UNF Shakespeare - A Midsummer Night's Dream

A still from UNF's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Thomas G. Carpenter Library

Queen Titania With Her Fairy Court, University Of North Florida

UNF Shakespeare - A Midsummer Night's Dream

A still from UNF's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Thomas G. Carpenter Library of the fairies dancing

Whiteboard Poster Of A Midsummer Night's Dream In The Library, University Of North Florida

UNF Shakespeare - A Midsummer Night's Dream

A whiteboard poster of UNF's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream in the library with Puck.