This dissertation examines the role of speech inflection in the composition of melodies of American musical theatre and investigates how composers approached speech inflection in their work throughout this genre's history. Through analysis of songs and interviews with composers, this dissertation investigates the relevance of speech inflection in the various styles of composition existing on Broadway. The main focus of musical theatre compositions, especially post Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical Oklahoma, is to move the plot along through songs. Therefore, the delivery of the text must be of ultimate consideration in the writing of modern musicals. A well-written speech-melody facilitates the process of a speech-melody-interpretation, which will result in the delivery of lyrics with an understandable, natural sounding quality. This investigation happens through a chronologic evaluation of the relevance of speech inflection during each of the distinct phases on Broadway, as well as an examination of the approach to writing with a speech-melody focus of each individual composer throughout history. This study explores the importance of speech inflection in American musical theatre songwriting focusing on a speech-melody approach to composition. / by Ana Flavia Zuim. / Vita. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2012. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2012. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

The English semi-opera, Psyche (1675), written by Thomas Shadwell, with music by Matthew Locke, was thought at the time of its performance to be a mere copy of Psyche (1671), a French tragedie-ballet by Moliere, Pierre Corneille, and Philippe Quinault, with music by Jean- Baptiste Lully. This view, accompanied by a certain attitude that the French version was far superior to the English, continued well into the twentieth century. This view is misleading; although the English play was adapted from the French, both were representative of two well-developed native theatrical traditions. Therefore, though there are certain parallels, both in plot and in the subject matter of some musical numbers, the differences in structure, both of the drama and of the music, are more significant. This thesis is a comparative study of the two plays, analyzing both their dramatic and musical structures, and examining them both from the context of the two theatrical traditions. It is concluded that the literary approach to tragedy of French theater resulted in the separation of drama and music, the latter relegated to the prologue, or to end-of-act diversions called intercedes. This allowed Lully to have great control over his music, and in Psyche (1671), he was concerned with the form of each intermede as a whole instead of striving for a variety of forms and ensembles within individual songs. Most of his songs and dances are solo airs in binary form; he makes little use of chorus and ensembles. On the contrary, the music in Psyche (1675) on many occasions was integrated with the plot, and was scattered randomly throughout the play. This prevented Locke from having artistic control over his compositions; Shadwell, the lyricist, determined where the music would occur, the ensembles to be used, and the moods of songs. Shadwell and Locke were concerned with the variety in each individual piece, rather than with unifying the overall form of musical scenes, and the overwhelming majority of songs have a combination of solo voice, ensembles, and chorus. Therefore, Psyche is not an unoriginal copy, but is a reinterpretation of the myth using the aesthetic of the Restoration tragic theater. / Arts, Faculty of / Music, School of / Graduate

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MUSICAL THEATRE HANDBOOK FOR THE ACTOR By Maggie Elizabeth Marlin, MFA A Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts at Virginia Commonwealth University. Virginia Commonwealth University, 2009 Major Director: David S. Leong Chairman, Department of Theatre Musical Theatre is a performance style deeply woven into the fabric of the American theatre. We live in time and social climate where over half of the productions open on Broadway right now are musicals. If actor training institutions profess a mission to prepare their students for a career in the entertainment industry, why are so many components of an actor’s skill set left to the side and considered peripheral? One can make the argument that their actor training program is exclusively for the theatre, and even more specifically for straight plays for the theatre. Of course, what your career preparation institution chooses to target is your prerogative and as long as that is clear to the incoming students who wish to specialize only in that one faction of the artist’s opportunities for work then my argument is moot. However, if you believe that actor training has a duty to prepare actors to work in an ever changing and transforming field and to be competitive in meeting the demands of various media, among many other areas of focus you should consider preparing your students to develop their craft for musical theatre as legitimately as you would for a classical or contemporary straight play. In this thesis I propose an approach to creating a role for musical theatre using as an example my character development technique for the role of Sally Bowles from a recent production of Cabaret. My desire is to illustrate a seamless continuation of the actor’s craft to meet the additional requirements of skills necessary to perform in a musical. Rather than signifying a separate style of acting for musical theatre which is identified as being altogether different and often dismissed as inferior to the craft of acting in a straight play, I hope to challenge the reader to consider a new perspective in which the foundation of musical theatre performance is built on the fundamentals of acting in a straight play.

Desde a virada do século, espetáculos da Broadway, em Nova York, passaram a ser largamente produzidos em São Paulo. No intervalo de pouco mais de uma década, um sistema organizado de produção de musicais instaurou-se na capital paulista. Esta tese tem como objetivo investigar alguns trânsitos teatrais entre essas cidades no início do novo milênio. A pesquisa analisa a maneira pela qual intérpretes atrizes e atores produziam, atualizavam e negociavam as diferenças nos bastidores. O trabalho adotou duas grandes estratégias. Primeiro, realizei uma investigação documental baseada em fontes primárias capaz de identificar os condicionantes sociais, econômicos e simbólicos que contribuíram para tornar os musicais teatralmente verossímeis, economicamente rentáveis e socialmente desejados em São Paulo. Concomitantemente, desenvolvi uma pesquisa de campo em escolas de teatro musical em São Paulo e Nova York, onde verifiquei que, no dia a dia do aprendizado, a interpretação era fundamental para expressar o mundo emotivo interno em cena. Além disso, professores ensinavam que artistas precisavam reconhecer os tipos que os seus corpos lhes permitem ser: quem teria o perfil para ser protagonista em certos espetáculos e quem não teria. Também realizei entrevistas com atrizes e atores brasileiros que viajaram para os Estados Unidos com a intenção de se especializarem como intérpretes. Aos poucos, ficou evidente como sujeitos adotavam uma gramática que qualificava os musicais ora como universais ora como particulares. Por um lado, as emoções entre as pessoas seriam universalmente compartilhadas nas duas cidades, permitindo o trânsito das peças. Por outro lado, os corpos de artistas eram particularmente diferenciados e nem todos tinham perfil para o trabalho. O itinerário dessas peças entre as cidades foi pavimentado por um conjunto intrincado de argumentos que incluía a potencialidade pedagógica das técnicas cênicas, as vantagens econômicas das produções, a comunhão global de emoções e a conquista de um sonho individual de artistas. Em paralelo, em São Paulo, os trajetos sofriam deslocamentos, adaptações, contestações e disputas. Dessa forma, investigo como discursos e práticas acerca da particularidade e da universalidade foram produzidos, reproduzidos, ressignificados, negociados, e, por vezes, recusados pelos sujeitos. As diferenças e semelhanças apareciam nas relações estabelecidas durante as diversas circunstâncias observadas. A pergunta analítica que atravessa toda a tese é: como as diferenças e as semelhanças apareciam nos trânsitos teatrais entre São Paulo e Nova York? / Since the turn of the century, Broadway shows in New York City have come to be largely produced in São Paulo. In less than a decade, an organized system of musical production was established in the capital of the Brazilian State of São Paulo. This thesis purpose is to investigate some theatrical traffic between these cities in the beginning of the new millennium. The research analyses actress and actors way of producing, updating and negotiating the concept of difference in the backstage. The work has adopted two major strategies. First, I pursued a documental investigation based on primary sources to identify the social, economic and symbolic environment that allowed this to become viable. Simultaneously, I have endeavored field research at musical theater schools in São Paulo and New York City. I concluded that, in the daily learning, acting was essential to express the inner emotional world portrayed in scene. Furthermore, teachers instructed artists to recognize the types their bodies allowed them to be: who could be the lead in certain shows and who could not. I have also conducted interviews with Brazilian actress and actors that had travelled to the United States pursuing a career. Slowly, it became evident how subjects adopted a certain grammar that sometimes qualified musicals as universal, while at other times understood them as particular. On one hand, emotions were universally shared between the two cities allowing the traffic of plays. On the other, the performers bodies displayed particular differences and not all embodied the necessary type for the job. An intricate ensemble of arguments that included pedagogic potential of theatrical techniques, economic advantages of productions, global communion of emotions and the artists conquer of their individual dream cemented the plays itinerary between the cities. In parallel, in São Paulo, this discourse suffered displacement, adaptation, defiance and dispute. Thus, I investigate how speech and practices regarding particularity and universality have been produced, reproduced, re-significated, negotiated and, at times, rejected by subjects. Differences and similarities have surfaced in relationships established during the many circumstances observed by this author. The analytical question for the entire thesis is: how differences and similarities emerge in theatrical traffic between São Paulo and New York City?

Entre o final do século XIX e início do XX, a cena musical paulistana teve como um de seus protagonistas gêneros teatrais voltados a um público mais amplo e que tinham a música como elemento central. A crítica musical e teatral expressava o anseio de regenerar o gosto do público geral através do drama lírico e da música de concerto, entrando em conflito com esse teatro ligeiro, cujo principal objetivo era divertir, acima de qualquer pretensão artísticoliterária. Apesar de cada um desses gêneros musicados ter convenções e dinâmica de funcionamento próprias, a designação teatro de revista tornou-se referência - até hoje recorrente e serviu para nomear um conjunto bem maior de modalidades que inclui Operetas, Burletas, Mágicas, Vaudevilles, Zarzuelas, Fantasias e comédias musicadas. Ambiente importante na produção e divulgação da música no espaço urbano antes do aparecimento e consolidação dos meios de comunicação eletrônicos, o estudo do circuito de produção e difusão do teatro musicado contribui para a compreensão do panorama da música e da cultura popular na cidade de São Paulo / Between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, São Paulo music scene had as one of its protagonists theatrical genres aimed at a wider audience and had music as a central element. The musical and theatrical criticism expressed the desire to regenerate the taste of the general public through the lyrical genre and concert music, conflicting with this other kind of drama, whose main objective was to provide fun, above all artistic and literary pretension. Although each of these genres have conventions and dynamic of its own functioning, the term \"teatro de revista\" became a benchmark that currently remains - and served to appoint a much larger set of modalities including operettas, burletas, mágicas, vaudeville , zarzuelas, fantasias and comedies with music. Important in the production and dissemination of music in urban space before the emergence and consolidation of electronic media, setting the study of the production and dissemination of theater accompanied by music circuit contributes to the understanding of music and popular culture scenary in São Paulo

This doctoral research comprises a practitioner-based reflective enquiry to bridge the gap between theory and practice and enhance my compositional output. In tandem with the composition of my chamber opera, The Exile, I have undertaken research into characterisation within the context of opera and musical theatre, with a focus on both the delineation of individual characters and the context in which they appear. Parameters of the work are discussed in comparison with canonic works of both opera and music theatre. Contemporary uses of leitmotif, representation of speech and folk music within operatic works are acknowledged and their influence on the composition is presented along with musical examples. The conventional composer-librettist partnership is discussed, along with suggestions for how respective roles for composer and librettist have evolved in recent times. An insight into the collaborative compositional process is presented in the final chapter, as my work with librettist Gillian Pencavel is discussed. The Exile is an original work informed by this research and is a contribution to the repertoire as well as an investigation into many compositional techniques presented in this thesis.

Entre o final do século XIX e início do XX, a cena musical paulistana teve como um de seus protagonistas gêneros teatrais voltados a um público mais amplo e que tinham a música como elemento central. A crítica musical e teatral expressava o anseio de regenerar o gosto do público geral através do drama lírico e da música de concerto, entrando em conflito com esse teatro ligeiro, cujo principal objetivo era divertir, acima de qualquer pretensão artísticoliterária. Apesar de cada um desses gêneros musicados ter convenções e dinâmica de funcionamento próprias, a designação teatro de revista tornou-se referência - até hoje recorrente e serviu para nomear um conjunto bem maior de modalidades que inclui Operetas, Burletas, Mágicas, Vaudevilles, Zarzuelas, Fantasias e comédias musicadas. Ambiente importante na produção e divulgação da música no espaço urbano antes do aparecimento e consolidação dos meios de comunicação eletrônicos, o estudo do circuito de produção e difusão do teatro musicado contribui para a compreensão do panorama da música e da cultura popular na cidade de São Paulo / Between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, São Paulo music scene had as one of its protagonists theatrical genres aimed at a wider audience and had music as a central element. The musical and theatrical criticism expressed the desire to regenerate the taste of the general public through the lyrical genre and concert music, conflicting with this other kind of drama, whose main objective was to provide fun, above all artistic and literary pretension. Although each of these genres have conventions and dynamic of its own functioning, the term \"teatro de revista\" became a benchmark that currently remains - and served to appoint a much larger set of modalities including operettas, burletas, mágicas, vaudeville , zarzuelas, fantasias and comedies with music. Important in the production and dissemination of music in urban space before the emergence and consolidation of electronic media, setting the study of the production and dissemination of theater accompanied by music circuit contributes to the understanding of music and popular culture scenary in São Paulo

Thesis (M.F.A.)--University of Central Florida, 2009. / Adviser: Steven Chicurel. Includes bibliographical references (p. 142-143).

Thesis (M.A.)--Florida State University, 2004. / Advisor: Dr. Anita Gonzalez, Florida State University, School of Theatre. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed 6/16/04). Includes bibliographical references.