Abstract It is my intention through this thesis to demonstrate the journey taken for the costume design process of The Royal Family written by George S. Kauffman, A Swine Palace Production, presented in celebration of the reopening of the Claude L. Shaver Theatre located in the Music and Dramatic Arts building on the campus of Louisiana State University. In turn, establishing that the abundance of practical experience as well as the technical and design courses undergone throughout my graduate career here at Louisiana State University, have supplied me with the knowledge and skills required in the professional field of Costume Design.

The assigned task was to create a one-person play of approximately 20 45 minutes in length. There were no other guidelines to follow. Having never performed a solo play, I found the assignment somewhat daunting. My first challenge was to overcome my basic dislike of solo performances. However, during the process I found new appreciation for such works. I was rather overwhelmed when trying to find a suitable topic for my piece until I came across an on-line article entitled Vaginas with teeth and other sexual myths. This spurred me to create the one-person play Myth, Method and Masturbation: The Hysteria of Womans Sexuality. My research led me through the history of womens sexuality, and I was astounded by some of the things I read. I amassed a plethora of material and had to find a way to tie it all together. Our initial presentation of this material was a 10-minute performance. This time limit helped me to contain the information presented into a specific time period, taking the form of a Victorian woman telling her story to the audience. The initial performance was well received, so I pursued this subject matter to create my thesis performance. I had to find a way to make it less narrative and turn it into a more active play. I needed to discover why this woman was talking to the audience and what she needed from them. I also had to figure out what I wanted to achieve as an actor. The final script presented an amusing, moving, and thought provoking story of one womans sexual journey. Using only physical and vocal choices to distinguish different characters, I incorporated several people of her acquaintance and presented them on stage to emphasize certain moments in her life. The audience was responsive to the material, and many people expressed a desire for me to expand the project further, which I plan to do in the future.

In this dissertation, I create a Wiccan dramaturgical lens to analyze three key fantasy sites: The Wizard of Oz film and stage adaptations (especially the Broadway musical Wicked), The Chronicles of Narnia film and theatrical adaptations, and the Harry Potter films and paratheatrical adaptations. These three fantasy stories have significant cultural impact and strong images of folkloric witches. My alternative reading shows how a subgroup can appropriate popular images for their own identity formation. I will analyze how signs, themes, and narrative tropes that otherwise seem ancillary or even anti-witch become highlighted and privileged, creating a different but equally legitimate counter-text for the Wiccan spectator (or for any spectator looking through a Wiccan dramaturgical lens). I model my primary methodology on Stacy Wolfs A Problem Like Maria, where she gives a queer reading of popular musicals. Following Wolfs lead, a Wiccan reading of these texts highlights how the witch images offer opportunities for Witchcraft practitioners to perform their own faith identity. Using the theories of Neo-Pagan identity as developed by academics well-grounded in the field of Witchcraft studies, I distill nine specific identity markers in three categories to locate and describe Wiccan spectatorship. After grounding my methodology in performance studies in my introduction, I explain the relevant Wiccan history, beliefs and practices in my first chapter. In my second chapter, I analyze Wiccan culture (relationship to other faith groups and society) in the film The Wizard of Oz (1939) and the musical Wicked. In my second chapter, I discuss Wiccan beliefs (theology) through a close reading of the film The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (2005) and the stage musical Narnia. In my fourth chapter, I identify Wiccan practices (the use of costumes, tools, and space in rituals) as found in the Harry Potter films and paratheatrical activities. In my final chapter, I make conclusions about this type of subcultural performance of identity and introduce the concept of ritual innovation based on modern myth. I argue that performance of fantasy witch images can be a tactical syncretism that alters/assimilates a new authenticity, bridging ancient folklore to modern religious identity.

We celebrate the arrival of spring with revelry in search of catharsis. Carnivals roots trace from the ancient Greek and Roman pagan celebrations, to the pageant wagons of the Medieval theatre and the French masquerades, and on through the Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans. Mardi Gras is part of Louisianas rich cultural history of parading and spectacle, as well as public art and performance, as a civic responsibility, and as an economic booster. Blaine Kerns Mardi Gras World builds parade floats, large-scale sculptures, and props for Mardi Gras, theme parks, and casinos around the world. I interned with Kern Studios and detail my experiences in prop building, including the armature, foam carving, paper-mâché, and installation. I combined the knowledge I gained from Kern Studios and my own work studying Properties Technology in the theatre department at Louisiana State University in construction, painting, textiles, and carving to create my own parade float. I marched in the Box of Wine parade 2011 with my float based on the poppy field from the Wizard of Oz. I narrate the float building process from initial design, budgeting, trial-and-error, completion of the elements, final installation, and the parade event. By building my own project from inception to completion, I gained a broad experience in parading and spectacle.

The project was to create a 20-45 minute one-man show and stage it. This thesis describes the process of creation and documents the projects multiple permutations from the search for a topic and setting parameters, to research, initial improvisation experiments, to a growing and reorganizing text, to the conversion into verse to the final script, the performance, and planned future development. The resulting show is about a man whose irrational fear of germs has ballooned out into an irrational fear of the outside world, fear of being infected, and affected by foreign things and ideas. This fear drives him to maintain strict control over his imagined world populated by household items whom he interacts with as if they were living, breathing, speaking human beings. He resorts to torture in order to extract information from unruly subjects, but this time he makes a mistake (in torturing a tin can), and tortures the wrong subject to death. This begins a rift, between him and his trusted advisor (a bottle of hand sanitizer called Phil) that threatens to destroy his entire fantasy world. The full title is The Germophobe Or The fantastical journey of Edward G. Braithwaight III As leader of human kinds last hope for victory over The subversive tactics of botulism (and their microscopic allies) to overturn the world order and deny us all the rights of Life, liberty and the pursuit of cheese

This thesis, submitted to the Graduate School of Louisiana State University as partial requirement for graduation with the Master of Fine Arts degree in Theatre, follows the creation of a solo performance piece by Michele Guidry, called Echolalia: A Conversation. This solo project is an exploration of communication through the experience of autism from the perspective of parents, siblings, and therapists of children with autism, and the children themselves. The thesis includes topics of inspiration for creating this solo performance piece, interviews with experts and theatre artists who have personal experience with autism, a copy of the script with explanation of its development, a chapter discussing the technical development of the piece, including sound and visual cues, personal reflection on rehearsal and performance, feedback from professors and audience members, photos from the production and a conclusion revealing the knowledge gained from the experience of creating this show and what the artist hopes to do next with this knowledge.

This paper discusses an artistic journey of creating a one-woman show. It is the purpose of Sarah E. Smith, creator and performer, to marry private human experience to public theatrical expression. In this project, Smith is experimenting with character development generated by abstract, physical, absurd, and unconventional explorations. This exploration will create a distance from the literal translation of the story and will allow the audience to gain a better perspective of the character and her dilemma. It is the intention of the creator to make the action and need of the character more visceral, immediate and striking by expanding expression from spoken word to gestural language (psychological and behavioral).

Writing and performing a one-person play was selected as the basis for a thesis project in the spring semester of 2010 to be presented to to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts in the Department of Theatre. The thesis will include an introduction, a review of the literature that inspired the original production, the full text of both scripts that were used, a chapter on the process of discovering a new play, a section about future plans for the play, and a conclusion. The purpose of this thesis is to explore the way that an actor may go about creating, performing, and revising a one-person play.

Simply stated, my research and my experiences as a playwright have led me to believe that the present condition of the playwright is that of a relic: that is, because of the notion that all plays need a developmental workshop, playwrights have not only lost authority over their art, but have also been driven to write plays meant for staged-readings rather than production. I argue that playwrights who create self-producing companies not only reclaim confidence in their craft, but also learn how to engage with the larger community via the collaborative process theatre. In this dissertation, I employ a theoretical lens that relies on Ric Knowless &quot material semiotics,&quot while suggesting that the &quot do-it-yourself&quot playwright is incorporating just a &quot touch of anarchy &quot by reclaiming his or her authorial voice (that is, the playwright is not looking to destroy the American theatre production apparatus; rather, he or she is seeking out his or her own definition of success, which may include acceptance from the status quo). I highlight the causes of the playwrights diminished role in American theatre via a genealogy of the workshop model, and then offer four case studies in which a playwright (or playwrights) have taken control of his (her, or their) art (the New York Writers Bloc, 13P, Sanctuary: Playwrights Theatre, and Axial Theatre). I suggest that playwrights who build their own writer-driven workshops and their own production companies have given new life to the craft, by bringing theatricality to the fore. I also look at the economics behind new play development and production in America, and suggest that the &quotdo-it-yourself&quot model frees the writer/producer from the economic (and therefore, ideological) stresses of regional theatre, while fulfilling regional theatres forgotten mission of incorporating the community into the world of theatre (i.e., development and production). I close with some considerations of the limitations of the &quotdo-it-yourself&quot model (such as the notion of vanity/web publications). I then reassert the argument that a playwright not only has the responsibility to create work for the stage, but also must be a central figure in local community building.

In October of 1967, producer David Merrick closed his successful production of Hello, Dolly! Merrick reopened the show one month later with an all-black cast that featured the talents of performers Pearl Bailey and Cab Calloway. While this Bailey Dolly! was a mammoth commercial success, this production brought attention to various problems concerning the interaction of black and white creative and performing talent in the venue of commercial American musical theatre. One such problem involved the risk of possible loss of genuine black culture and ignorance of recalcitrant intra-black-community difficulties and the extent to which African Americans should have desired entrée into bourgeois society, as the play Hello, Dolly! itself portrayed onstage. Another such problem involved the possibility of the production avoiding dealing with racism head-on in order to avoid alienating white audiences. A corollary of such problems begged the question of what vision of American integration and civil rights the show represented. On a more practical level, the Bailey Dolly! raised questions of the extent to which the Broadway stage needed reform with respect to its treatment of non-white participants. In this regard, questions arose as to whether there was any middle ground between calls for black separatist theatre and African-American participation in white commercial theatre, as well as to what extent white-dominated commercial American musical theatre would allow for black control of the creative and economic process. In exploring these broad areas of concern, the study finds a fundamental conundrum. The production, to a great extent, glossed over everyday problems that the African American faced in 1960s America. At the same time, the Bailey Dolly! celebrated the victories of the civil rights era, providing a blueprint for African-American bourgeois entrée. Thus, despite acknowledged detriments with respect to portraying a genuine African-American experience, the Bailey Dolly! served as a flashpoint of change in the treatment of African Americans in commercial American musical theatre, and as a harbinger for improvement in such treatment.