AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OFRyann Willard, for the Master of Fine Arts degree in Theater, presented on May 1, 2022, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE: HOW LUCKY CAN YOU GET? A COSTUME DESIGN THESIS ON LUCKY STIFF MAJOR PROFESSOR: Wendi R. Zea This thesis is a collection of ideas and information exploring the analysis, design, and production process for the costume of Lucky Stiff (book and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens and music by Stephen Flaherty). This musical took place in the McLeod Theatre at Southern Illinois University Carbondale on April 21st-24th, 2022. This musical farce examines what it truly means to be lucky and the many ways our lives can be transformed in one moment. This show takes the audience on a murder mystery chase through Monte Carlo and reminds people that real luck often comes in the form of true love. The components of Chapter 1 in this document are the script analysis and selected research that brought to light the different elements that informed the costume design, especially regarding the characters in the show. Also in this chapter are the goals I set for myself regarding the design itself and my development as a designer. Chapter 2 of the thesis details the design process through all the meetings concerning the design and the inception of the costume ideas coming to fruition in the final renderings. In Chapter 3, the production process is discussed through the beginning stages of the costume builds and pulls in the shop through the realization of the show including tech week going into it. The final chapter, Chapter 4, is an evaluation of the design in terms of the goals set in Chapter 1. This evaluation includes both personal reflection as well as critiques from my peers and mentors about the entire process from the early stages of inspiration and research through the final product of the costumes on stage.

Gasellföretag utnämns i Sverige av Dagens Industri (2010) och enligt Glenberg (2008) som lyfter statistik från Bolagsverket har 25 procent utav gasellerna lagts ner inom sex år. Gjerlov och Guenther (2012) menar att snabb tillväxt kan leda till interna hinder och kompetensbrist vilket kan få katastrofala konsekvenser. Ceylan (2013) och Wickham (2006) menar att innovation kan ses som en strategi för ökad tillväxt hos företag. Författaren menar även att innovation är en avgörande faktor om företag ska erhålla en fortsatt tillväxt i dagens hårt konkurrensutsatta företagsklimat. Det finns mycket forskning kring begreppet innovation och dess påverkan på tillväxt. Det saknas dock forskning om hur svenska företag som haft en hög och kontinuerlig tillväxt arbetat med innovation. Vi vill med denna studie därmed bidra med att visa hur svenska tillväxtföretag arbetar med innovation. Innovationsbegreppet har brutits ner till flertalet underkategorier så som; marknadsföringsinnovation, produkt- och serviceinnovation, processinnovation, teknologisk innovation, inkrementell innovation, radikal innovation, nätverksinnovation och organisationinnovation. Vi har gjort en kvalitativ flerfallsstudie på tre företag från Ahrens lista. Genom semi- strukturerade telefonintervjuer där respondenterna varit anonyma har vi samlat in empirisk data hur svenska tillväxtföretag arbetat med innovation. Vi har en abduktiv ansats då vi fyllt på med ny teori efter intervjuerna för att bidra till vår studie. Vi använder oss utav en beskrivande undersökningsdesign då vi vill ge läsaren respondenternas berättelse om företagets tillväxt. För att göra materialet hanterbart har det delats in i innovationsbegreppet underrubriker. Tre svenska tillväxtföretag har blivit intervjuade hur de klarat av en hög och långsiktig tillväxt. Sedan har vi analyserat fram hur de arbetat med innovation. Svenska tillväxtföretag har arbetat med marknadsföringsinnovation, produkt- och serviceinnovation, processinnovation, inkrementell innovation, organisationsorganisation och nätverksinnovation. Hur företagen arbetat med dessa innovationstyper kan läsas i vår slutsats i denna rapport. / In Sweden Dagens Industri nominates gazelle companies. According to Glenberg (2008) who highlights statistics from Bolagsverket 25 percentage out of all gazelle companies are closed within six years. Gjerlov and Guenther (2012) argue that rapid growth can lead to internal obstacles and skill shortages with potentially disastrous consequences. Ceylan (2013) and Wickham (2006) argue that innovation can be seen as a strategy for increased growth in business. The author also argues that innovation is a key factor if the company want to obtain a continuous growth in today ́s highly competitive business environment. There are a lot of research about the term innovation and its affects on growth. However, there is no research on how Swedish companies that have had a high and continuous growth and how they have worked with innovation. With this study we want to contribute by showing how Swedish growth companies work with innovation. The concept of innovation has been broken down to several sub-categories such as; marketing innovation, product- and service innovation, process innovation, technological innovation, incremental innovation, radical innovation, network innovation and organizational innovation. We have made a qualitative multi-case study of three companies from Ahrens list. Through semi-structured telephone interviews in which respondents were anonymous, we gathered empirical data on how Swedish growth companies are working with innovation. We have an abductive approach, were we filled in with new theory after the interviews were made. We use a descriptive research design because we want to give the reader the respondents’ report on the company growth. In order to make the material manageable, we divided the innovation concept into subheadings. Three Swedish growth companies have been interviewed about how they have managed a high and long-term growth. Furthermore we have analysed up how they are working with innovation. Swedish growth companies have worked on; Marketing innovation, product- and service innovation, process innovation, incremental innovation, organization innovation, and network innovation. How the companies have worked with these innovation types can be read in our conclusion of this report.

I designed the costumes for Ragtime by Terrance McNally in the McLeod Theatre, Fall Semester 2013 for my thesis production. The musical Ragtime documents the beginning of a century in America where life is full of new possibilities- a time when immigrants are pouring into "the promised land" and the culture and face of American society is changing daily. This musical grips at the heart and soul of the audience because of the messages it instills about hope, possibility, and change at a time when almost anything seems possible. It centers on the lives of one White Anglo Saxon family, the courtship of a high class African American man and his fiancée who dies in the pursuit of justice, and the struggle of a socialist immigrant who wants to make a life suitable for his daughter and himself. I chose to reflect the differences among or across these three groups of people to heighten the message presented in the script. Chapter 1 describes my research and analysis of the musical including initial design ideas and character analysis. Chapters 2 through 4 focus on the process from design, to build, to production. Chapter 5 culminates in my evaluation with self reflection and comments from my committee on the production and process. The Appendices includes character plot, construction and execution paperwork, renderings and production photos.

The "Ahrens method" is a very simple method for sampling from univariate distributions. It is based on rejection from piecewise constant hat functions. It can be applied analogously to the multivariate case where hat functions are used that are constant on rectangular domains. In this paper we investigate the case of distributions with so called orthounimodal densities. Technical implementation details as well as their practical limitations are discussed. The application to more general distributions is considered. (author's abstract) / Series: Research Report Series / Department of Statistics and Mathematics

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