Playwriting Commons^™

Have A Good One: A Writer’S Search For Place, Rafael Gallegos

Theatre & Dance ETDs

In this personal essay I will summarize my creative journey as a writer throughout my time in the Dramatic Writing program at the University of New Mexico. I will explore how the notion of home has shaped me and my work, focusing on my childhood in Lubbock, Texas, my theatrical coming of age in New York City, and my return to Albuquerque in search of my personal voice. I will present two works that illustrate my maturation as a dramatist and my focus on community and place as thematic throughlines. Have a Good One is a play set in a …

Adaptations: Blood And All You Zombies, Nolan Atterbury

Honors College Theses

The author describes the experience of adapting two different short stories for the stage, one as a solo playwright and one as part of an ensemble performance workshop.

Much Ado About Nothing

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University's performance of William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing.

Performed November 15-17 & 22-24, 2019 at the Mitchell Theatre.

Much Ado About Nothing is a comedic play that revolves around the romantic entanglements and misunderstandings of two couples. The witty and sharp-tongued Beatrice and Benedick engage in a "merry war" of words, while the young lovers Hero and Claudio face obstacles due to deceit and false accusations. The play is set in Messina and features themes of love, honor, and the consequences of deception. Through clever dialogue and humorous situations, William Shakespeare explores the complexities …

Un Musical Sobre Las Campesinas De Valle De Tambo Y Su Resistencia Socioambiental En El Conflicto De Tia Maria, Gretta Lucia Marston-Lari

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

El cambio climático intensifica las dificultades que ya enfrentan las comunidades indígenas, incluida la marginación política y económica, la pérdida de tierras y recursos, las violaciones de los derechos humanos, la discriminación y el desempleo. Dentro de conflictos eco-territoriales, la mujeres indígenas son los actores sociales más vulnerables. En el Perú, los proyectos extractivos presentan grandes amenazas al medio ambiente, y consecuentemente a los derechos de la mujer campesina. Un caso emblemático del abuso extractivo es el conflicto en Valle de Tambo, donde el gobierno aprobó el proyecto minero Tia Maria que afectaría a la comunidad campesina de la provincia …

Falling

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University's performance of Falling by Deanna Jent.

Performed September 20-22 2019 at the Mitchell Theatre.

Falling is a poignant and deeply moving play that explores the challenges faced by a family raising a teenage son with severe autism. The story centers on the daily struggles and emotional complexities of the family, particularly the parents, as they navigate the demands of caring for their son, Josh. When a relative visits, the family's delicate balance is disrupted, revealing the intense pressures and sacrifices involved. The play highlights themes of unconditional love, resilience, and the impact of autism on …

Mimicry: A Short Play, Diana M. Pho

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

This short play is inspired by the author’s lived experience as a queer Vietnamese-American woman in academia and in US society. This theatrical piece, centered around two young women meeting for the first time after several years, reflects upon the mutable divergence of shared memory, while also exploring intersectional feminist theory and the Vietnamese-American community. This is also a critique of US-based stereotypes about young Asian-American women, and how social prejudices and microaggressions can result in internalized anti-Asian misogyny. Like the range of identities and life experiences that characters Laurel and Mattie have, the Asian diasporic experience in the United …

Blackting: The Inseparable Act Of Being Black And Acting: For The Magical Negro, Austin Dean Ashford

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

I am honored to present my Thesis for my M.F.A. in Theatre, in the form of a multidimensional project, drawing inspiration from the structure of Moby Dick by Herman Melville. As an undergraduate, the structure of Moby Dick intrigued me as it defies the form we call “a novel.” The book includes traditional prose, an entire play, verses of poetry, and even an essay. The structure of Moby Dick further influenced my love for Speech and Debate, especially around the event of Program Oral Interpretation (POI). POI places multiple genres of literature in conversation with each other and centers them …

Pantomime: The History And Metamorphosis Of A Theatrical Ideology, Karl E. Toepfer

Open Educational Resources

This book offers perhaps the most comprehensive history of pantomime ever written. No other book so thoroughly examines the varieties of pantomimic performance from the early Roman Empire, when the term “pantomime” came into use, until the present. After thoroughly examining the complexities and startlingly imaginative performance strategies of Roman pantomime, the author identifies the peculiar political circumstances that revived and shaped pantomime in France and Austria in the eighteenth century, leading to the Pierrot obsession in the nineteenth century. Modernist aesthetics awakened a huge, highly diverse fascination with pantomime. The book explores an extraordinary variety of modernist and postmodern …

Rewriting Greek Tragedies As Immigrant Stories, Daniel Pollack-Pelzner

Faculty Publications

In this piece originally published in the New York Times, Daniel Pollack-Pelzner writes about Mojada, Luis Alfaro's adaptation of the Greek tragedy, Medea. Mojada is part of a trilogy from Alfaro that attempts to bring his Latino community into modern theater by writing them into classical plays.

Wake With Me, Sarah Nansubuga

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis outlines my research, writing, and performance process, leading up to and reflecting on the final product of my MFA Solo Thesis project. The project is entitled Wake With Me, and its performance is a shamanistic portrayal of a folklore story from my native place of origin; Kampala, Uganda. It is an exploration of the metaphorical loss of cultural identity through the literal loss of a family member, and the journey through story telling as a method to reclaim or preserve what was lost. Throughout the piece, the performer plays the role of narrator, using voice, body and mind …

Do We Make A Sound? An American Morality Play, Bennett A. Kirschner

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Dmt And “The Man Box:” Provoking Change And Encouraging Authentic Living, An Arts-Based Project, Steven Reynolds

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

This thesis explores the mind-body experience through an arts-based research approach to examine, and redefine the emotional capacity and usefulness of males through societal determinants that limits and hinders men from living their authentic selves. Through the lens of a metaphoric “Man Box” 112 men participated in a workshop recreating their personal narratives of socialization through, style of dress, coping mechanisms, belief systems and who they should be as men through society's standards. In the “Man Box,” male bonding, and emotional feelings are discouraged, while the objectification of women, material property and physical/emotional strength are encouraged. This research investigates the …

Decolonizing Playwriting Through Indigenous Ceremonial Performances, Jay B. Muskett

Theatre & Dance ETDs

This dissertation attempts to express the importance of storytelling within the Indigenous Theater framework. It does so by first analyzing the progression of the writer’s unique upbringing and analyzing the influences of story upon an indigenous identity. I will also attempt to describe the aesthetics of Native Theater along two lines of methodology which includes praxis described and developed by Hanay Geiogamah and Rolland Meinholtz. I will also explain how the script 1n2ian tries to follow those concepts of Native Theater to create a ceremonial performance that uses a blending of both methodologies.

Eng 302 Playwriting Workshop, Hillary Miller

Open Educational Resources

Pedagogical materials created during Spring 2019 OER/Digital Literacy fellowship at Queens College, revising English 302: Playwriting Workshop.

An Intimate Portrayal Of Madame Armfeldt In A Little Night Music, Mollie Armour

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis contains documents supporting my thesis role, my personal statement of artistry, a script for my one person show, and materials used in my professional career.

The Mousetrap

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University's performance of Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap.

Performed April 26-28 & May 3-5, 2019 at the Mitchell Theatre.

The Mousetrap is a classic murder mystery play by Agatha Christie. Set in the remote Monkswell Manor, the story begins as a group of strangers is stranded by a snowstorm. The guests include a newlywed couple, a retired army major, an architect, a mysterious foreigner, and a stern magistrate. Tensions rise when they learn that a murderer is among them, and a police sergeant arrives to investigate. As secrets are revealed and suspicions grow, the play builds …

The Modern Synthesis Of Josephine Baker And Carmen Amaya, Justice Moriah Miles

Theatre & Dance ETDs

The Modern Synthesis of Josephine Baker and Carmen Amaya explores how flamenco dancer Carmen Amaya and African American performer Josephine Baker utilized modern synthesis in their careers. I define modern synthesis as a synthesis of various ideas and identities that supports a modern fluid identity that points to the idea of an alternative space that is beyond definition and human categorization. Expanding upon the ideas of Brenda Dixon Gottschild and William Washabaugh, I propose that there exists a thread of a tragic/comic dichotomy in African American performance and simultaneous opposition in flamenco and that Baker and Amaya came out of …

Comic Characters: Campbellian* Or Not?, Samantha Matos

Classical Conversations

There exists a peculiar pattern throughout numerous stories worldwide, which Joseph Campbell christened the ‘monomyth’ in his 1949 work, The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Campbell researched stories from across cultures and used their similarities to determine a pattern that great tales seemed to follow. In this hero’s journey, the protagonist enters a new kind of realm, conquers his enemies, and ventures home with power, knowledge, and probably treasure of some kind. This monomythic pattern consists of seventeen steps, though not all of these steps are necessary, and many of them serve as alternatives to each other.

I propose that …

Identi-Tea Podcast: An Original Play, Karsyn Wilson

Calvert Undergraduate Research Awards

Creative Works Winner for 2019:

Identi-Tea Podcast is an original play based on the word-for-word interviews of three LGBTQ+ students of color from UNLV who explore all the various facets of their identities formatted in the style of a podcast. In various moments during the play, audience members are prompted by the actors to critically engage with the ideas presented.

The Caregiver: A Play Script To Raise Awareness Of The Caregivers Of Alzheimer's Patients, Sarah Stiner

Honors Theses

Inspired by true events that are happening every day, The Caregiver shows glimpses into the life a woman who is caring for her husband, who has been diagnosed with Early-Onset Alzheimer’s. Follow the woman, her husband, and her daughter as they search for answers and experience the emotional rollercoaster of living with this disease. There is sadness, confusion, frustration, but also joy, hope, and love in a story which explores how much care we all truly need, wherever we are in life.

Metamorphoses

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s performance of Metamorphoses by Mary Zimmerman.

Performed February 22-24 and March 1-3, 2018 at the Mitchell Theatre.

Called by Time the “theater event of the year,” Mary Zimmerman’s Metamorphoses brings Ovid’s tales to stunning visual life. Set in and around a large pool of water, Metamorphoses juxtaposes the ancient and the contemporary in both language and image to reflect the variety and persistence of narrative in the face of inevitable change. Nominated for three 2002 Tony Awards, including “Best Play,” Metamorphoses earned Zimmerman a Tony for “Best Direction of a Play.”

Giau Minh Truong Interview, Gin To

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Bio: Giau Minh Truong is a company member of A-Squared Theatre Workshop and an at- large artist for various performing arts companies in the Chicago area. For A-Squared, he directed Ching Chong Chinaman, The Other Shore, and short plays for My Asian Mom, acted in Trial By Water, and designed lights for The Wind Cries Mary. Giau’s other directorial credits include Downward Facing, Lights Out, Everybody, and Theatre of Women for Dream Theatre Company. He directed Sister Outlaw, Mr. and Mrs. LaQuesta Go Dancing, My Name is Flor Contemplacion, and I Dream Electric for CIRCA-Pintig, Chicago’s …

The Mixed Reception Of The Hamilton Premiere In Puerto Rico, Daniel Pollack-Pelzner

Faculty Publications

In this article originally published in The Atlantic, Daniel Pollack-Pelzner wonders about the challenges of premiering the famed Broadway musical, Hamilton, during a time of political discord in the aftermath of 2017's Hurricane Maria, in Puerto Rico.

Direction Of The Imaginary Invalid By Molière Translated By Charles Heron Wall Adapted By Kimberly Dorman, Kimberly S. Dorman

All Graduate Projects

This project comprises of the selection, research, casting, adaptation, production and post-production process of The Imaginary Invalid. Documentation and research include adaptation, analysis of the play as a production vehicle for our program, research, script analysis, outcome goals, a record of the production period, and a postproduction evaluation.

El Paseo De José Moreno Arenas: Fotografiando Los Rincones Lorquianos Con Una Lente Miope En Federico, En Carne Viva, Polly J. Hodge

World Languages and Cultures Faculty Books and Book Chapters

"Un gallo con su canto de quiquiriquí es la primera imagen que pinta Federico García Lorca en su obra breve escrita en 1925, El paseo de Buster Keaton. Un estudioso de esta obra de Lorca ha interpretado esta imagen simbólicamente en términos históricos: el anuncio de un nuevo amanecer para la industria cinematográfica, ya que en 1927 el cine mudo experimentó su transición al cine sonoro (Allen 23) .1 De una manera semejante, aunque se abre sin quiquiriquí, la obra Federico, en carne viva (2019)2 anuncia una nueva etapa en la producción teatral de José Moreno Arenas. Este experto en …

The Wow Factor: Lesbian Representation And Impact In Late-20th Century Theatre, Brenna L. Maginness

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The intent of this thesis is to investigate the influence of 1980's and 1990's lesbian playwrights on modern queer representation in theatre. By analyzing the successful works of troupes and artists born out of the Women's One World (WOW) Café, it became apparent that the greatest changes in lesbian portrayal on stage came from queer and feminist authorship. Additionally, WOW Café became the common denominator in the success of many lesbian playwrights due to the freedom it gave its writers and performers. As an independent theatre, WOW allowed its members to experiment with few rules, and offered a stage to …

The Mental And Emotional Impact Of Loneliness Through Advanced Age And "The Reach", Noah Virgile

Honors College Theses

No abstract provided.

Child Of Divorce: A Play, Nate Myers

Honors College Theses

No abstract provided.

American Fruitcake, Jacob Roberts-Miller

Honors College Theses

No abstract provided.

Ua68/6/2/5 Potter College Of Arts & Letters English Student Organizations Dramatics Club, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Records of the Dramatics Club.