This study is based on the Vine Theater Company's production of "Steel Magnolias" performed in March of 2007 at the Garden Theater in Winter Park Florida, directed by Aradhana Tiwari. This document examines the directorial journey from vision to the stage. Specifically it will explore a.) The dynamics of the production process from a directorial lens. b.) Interpreting Harling's text for design and performance c.) The development of an artistic aesthetic through collaboration. In May of 2007, I mounted a production of "Steel Magnolias" for the Orlando International Fringe Festival. The show was performed in the Universal, a thrust space at the Orlando Repertory Theater. Soon after, Producers Stephanie Williams invited me to direct the same production again for her theater company, The Vine. This time the show will be mounted in a proscenium space called the Garden Theater, located in Winter Garden's Historical Preservation District. We will have three to four weeks of rehearsal. Two of those weeks will be in an alternate rehearsal space with one week on set prior to open. The show will run from March 7th through the 22nd with a few days in the dark. We will soon re-audition the show and open it up to professional actors. I am being paid a set sum for directorial responsibilities and an additional sum for sound design of the show. I'll be collaborating with Lighting Designer Erin Minor and Set Designer Tommy Mangieri, and costume designer Kelly VanDyke. We are all advised to stay within the parameters of a set budget. A tech crew will be provided by the Vine Theater Company. Everyone involved with the production is being compensated for their work, specific sums are at the producers discloser. My early vision for this production is romanticized realism. From the set, to lighting, costumes, sound and even blocking. My goal is to execute a "slice of life" in this salon located in a tiny Louisiana parish during the mid 1980's within a slightly romanticized portrait. One of the ways I'll go about doing this is to create a series of character building exercises tailored to the specific story. I aim to craft real characters with honest moments, but frame them inside a slightly romanticized set and proscenium blocking. Some of the challenges I'll be exploring in this study are how to adapt a thrust show to a proscenium, how to integrate old and new cast members into a unified process and progression, how to facilitate a collaborative process and lastly, how to achieve an artistic vision while sustaining the integrity of a small budget. The materials I'll be submitting is a collection of research, a log of technical needs and other printed information, reflections on every aspect of production such as set, sound, lighting, costumes, and a detailed rehearsal journal logging the production progression. These documents will track design ideas and archive any required changes that ensue. Finally, upon completion of the show I'll write a post -production summary. This will examine how close I got to my original goals, evaluate the process I implemented, highlight necessary modifications that were made along the way, and discus what I learned from the experience.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work / Chardie L. Baird / Despite the predictions that the influence of women into male-dominated fields would eventually eliminate women’s disadvantaged positions in paid work, most research finds that feminization results in the reconfiguration of gender inequality. These studies tended to investigate the material consequences and conditions of feminization and how the “gendering” of the occupation develops to justify the reconfiguration of inequality. Scholarship has begun to examine how individuals in occupations negotiate the existing occupational gender-type and how this shapes gender inequality in feminizing occupations. My dissertation takes up this call by looking at the relationship between gender-typing (i.e., how occupations or jobs come to be understood as appropriate for men or women) and feminization (i.e., women in a formerly male-dominated occupation) in the funeral industry. The funeral industry has traditionally been a male-dominated and gender-typed masculine occupation; however, since the 1970s funeral directing has been experiencing feminization. In recent history, women were not seen as appropriate for funeral directing. They were considered too physically and emotionally “unfit;” however, the movement of women into the occupation complicates how funeral directing was traditionally gender-typed. Using text excerpts about gender (n=101) from 35 funerary trade journal articles ranging from 1995-2013, my dissertation explores competing cultural beliefs about gender at the occupational-level (“old boy,” gender essential, gender blind, and gender-progressive) accompanying women’s movement into funeral directing. Through semi-structured interviews with twenty (11 women, 9 men) mortuary science students who are studying to become funeral directors and twenty-two (13 women, 9 men) licensed funeral directors, I explore how these occupational scripts about gender affect workplaces in terms of the workplace experiences (practices and hiring, the division of labor, relations between employees and supervisors) and educational experiences (occupational entry, structure and training); and how current and future funeral directors negotiate cultural gender beliefs about funeral directing to challenge existing explanations and create new explanations about women’s suitability for funeral directing. My findings indicate that occupational cultural beliefs about gender are both reproduced and challenged in workplace and educational settings and in how students and funeral directors negotiate cultural gender beliefs.

An in-depth look at my how my desire to make no assumptions with regards to creating art led me to invitation as a guiding principle when directing for the theatre. This thesis will cite examples from three productions I’ve directed as a Master of Fine Arts candidate in the Department of Theatre and Dance at The University of Texas at Austin. / text

There is consensus in academic circles that the directors Peter Brook and Ariane Mnouchkine have similar approaches to theatre practice and occupy the same position in the landscape of theatre production in France. Yet there have not been any in-depth studies that unpack the similarities and differences between the two practitioners. Considering their stature on the national French and international stages, such a gap of scholarship needed to be filled. By examining the specificities of their practices via the analysis of their two most emblematic productions, the Mahabharata and Les Atrides, this thesis hopes to provide an appraisal of their practices at a time when they are moving away from theatre. More specifically, this thesis looks at how the two directors transferred ancient archetypal and mythological narratives to the contemporary French stage. It considers how they used successful, parallel methodologies to adapt and render present an Ancient Sanskrit epic on the one hand (Brook), and Ancient Greek drama on the other (Mnouchkine). I uncover in their work the matrix for adaptation, located in the discourse of storytelling and in the post-Brechtian concept of estrangement, that I label ‘décalage’. Moreover, the thesis hopes to provide an appraisal of the supremacy of directors on the French stage in the nineteen eighties and advocates for the cultural necessity of theatre as an art form, at a time of crisis in France.

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The Production of Spring Awakening by Nathan Halvorson Master of Fine Arts (Directing) Thesis - May 2013

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From the sprouting of the idea for the series to the final stages of post-production for Returning to Ananda, a one-hour, made for cable-television pilot, directed by Déjà Cresencia Bernhardt; this report details the pre-production to post-production phases of its development. Included in this report are the final screenplay and various other production notes. / text

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