The Sopranos is often hailed as one of the greatest television series of all time. The groundbreaking HBO series had an immense impact as a cultural phenomenon, showcasing the entrenched problems of post-industrial America. The protagonist, Mafia boss, patriarch, son, and husband Tony Soprano, embodies the anxieties and struggles of our age. Through Tony Soprano’s internal turmoil and therapy visits we are able to see the character’s existential and nihilistic conflicts while he tries to search for self and meaning in his life. The success of the program demonstrated that amorality could succeed on television and led to programs such as Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Dexter, and other shows that had a commitment to realism and challenged the viewers by avoiding the formulaic programs of earlier years. Rather than being repulsed by Tony’s amoral criminal actions, viewers become seduced by his battles, charms, moral questions and difficulties, which results in them actually rooting for the violent gangster. In my paper I discussed the cultural implications of how viewers identify and excuse the violence and criminality of a brutal Mob boss, in terms of the knowledge of violence that is excused, accepted, rooted for, and tried to be forgotten in American society. Why would a program about anti-heroes become a huge hit with viewers rooting for an ethically confounding character? I will also argue that Tony’s dissolution, anxieties and unhappiness mirror the sentiments and realities of Americans in the twenty-first century.

This study presents a detailed history of the clarinet from its ancient origins to 1820. It is divided into three parts: 1) origins, 2) the baroque clarinet, and 3) the classical clarinet. In the first part the ancestor of the modern instrument is traces to the memet of Ancient Egypt (2700 B.C.), and evidence is reviewed for the existence of a wind instrument having a single reed during the sixteenth century. Three chapters are then devoted to the Mock Trumpet and the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century chalumeau. The baroque clarinet is discussed in the second part. This part consists of four chapters concerning design and construction, playing techniques, music, and use by amateurs and professionals. The last part is devoted to the classical clarinet. It consists of three chapters concerning design and construction, playing techniques, and music.

This paper asserts the existence of the African American middle class novel as a genre in the African American literary tradition that has heretofore been neglected by literary critics. The premise of this argument is that conventional African American literary studies privilege novels concerned with the African American folk to the exclusion of portrayals of African Americans of middle and upper socio-economic class and cultural groups. A study of the Modem Language Association's catalogue of African American criticism and a review of novels widely accepted as representative of African American literary tradition were used to indicate how class status is often neglected as a subject. A study of the literary standards of the Harlem Renaissance and the Black Arts Movement revealed the development of prescriptive literary conventions. Four exemplary twentieth century middle class novels were critiqued: Walls of Jericho by Rudolph Fisher, Plum Bun by Jessie Redmon Fauset, Meridian by Alice Walker, and Sarah Phillips by Andrea Lee. The novels were found to contribute to discourse on the intersection of race and class for African Americans by challenging stereotypes, advocating moral standards across class lines, and criticizing systems of oppression.

In 1907, Gustav Klimt finished Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I. The portrait offers a strong opposition between the three dimensionality of the sitter's face and hands and the flatness of her ornamented dress and surroundings. Despite this opposition the portrait has not been discussed within the theoretical framework of portraiture, but is most often discussed, and grouped, with Klimt's other portraits and images of women. This paper argues that the lack of scholarly consideration of this portrait, and Klimt's portraits as a whole, might be due to his seeming lack of artistic program. By relating Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I to identity theory and to the scholarship on modern portraiture, this discussion will reveal that there are elements of interest in Klimt's portraits which warrant scholarly consideration.

The slippery quality of emotional intelligence is ever shifting. As we approach understanding, new experiences add fresh layers of complexity. The narratives I construct address uncomfortable social interactions and the intensity of the feeling born out of them. I am referencing the pain and discomfort of emotional limbo through facial expressions, physical deformities and spatial relationships. In the pieces I create the figures are frozen in the moment of emotional intensity, caught in a problem born out of social conflict. There is no resolution, so they contemplating there lost states.

Among the finest books in the James Branch Cabell Library Special Collections is a recent acquisition (Fall 2005), the 1768 version of Palladia's Quattro Libri dell' architettura , published by Consul Joseph Smith in Venice. On the basis of present work, one can reconstruct Consul Smith's remarkable role in the history of international architecture. More than a century later, at least three major American Renaissance architectural firms owned no fewer than a total of four copies of the volume.This copy came from James Otis Post (1871-1951), son of the eminent George B. Post, who bought a copy of the Smith Palladio in Venice in 1896. Among other firms that owned the volume were Delano and Aldrich and Lawrence Hall Fowler, both important American Renaissance Firms in their own rights.

This study is an examination of the influence of Oriental (specifically Chinese and Japanese) art and ideas on Robert Motherwell's work. To a certain extent, it is also an effort to balance previous interpretations that have mainly focused on the influence of Surrealists, Mondrian, and Picasso and to shed new light on the understanding of Motherwell's art. Consideration is given to the historical background of Motherwell's interest in Oriental art and ideas as well as the relation between this interest and his major artistic concerns. Among other things, the thesis investigates the influence of Oriental concept of the void on Motherwell's spatial conception, especially in the sense of using empty space. It also gives an account of the influence of Oriental calligraphy and ink painting on Motherwell's work in terms of pictorial languages and physical action.

On September 24, 2009, Theatre VCU opened its production of Psycho Beach Party, written by Charles Busch and directed by Steve Perigard. In our production, two male actors, Tommy Callan and Kyle Cornell, were cross-sex cast to play female characters, Chicklet and Marvel Ann respectively. In addition to serving as vocal coach for the production, I was to help Callan and Cornell vocally transform into female characters. I have documented our exploration of gender, specifically the vocal transformation from male to female, in Theatre VCU’s production of Psycho Beach Party. Neither actor had played a female character onstage before, and Kyle Cornell had only just begun his vocal training at VCU. Both actors successfully embraced feminine vocal and physical characteristics to the point where many audience members believed them to be female actors.

In this thesis, I intend to present an original costume design for John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. This production is the first full collaboration of its kind between Virginia Commonwealth University’s Theatre Department and Barksdale Theatre. This thesis will be a complete account of my entire design process from the design concept to the finished, realized production. I will be examining my design choices and finished production photos, including color photographs of my original renderings, fabric swatches and research. Throughout my thesis, I will be researching ways to accurately represent the millions of exploited itinerant farm laborers who survived the severe drought and economic depression of the early 1930s.

The purpose of this study was to implement Character Memory Exploration (a specific pathway towards character justification) within a BFA Acting II course. Primarily using given circumstances and magic if, Character Memory Exploration creates a rich and developed character history through a combination of visualization exercises, improvisation, and writing. The following summary will show individualized exercises and how to implement them, as well as their original purpose, placements, and pairings. This work also delves into student responses and my own successes and failures throughout the experience. The primary conclusion of this writing is that Character Memory Exploration leads to an actor having stronger relationships with props, set and scene partners, a better handle on a characters physical life, and a thinking actor who reacts in an honest and grounded manner on the stage.