This study is a breakdown of what auditioning is in the world of professional acting and how I (the subject) have developed my own technique through my undergraduate journey.

Research has revealed that underutilization of breast cancer screening by ethnic minorities often is related to language difficulties and cultural values and beliefs about cancer. The problem addressed in this secondary data analysis was the late diagnosis of breast cancer in the Chinese immigrant community. The purpose of the quasi-experimental study was to test the efficacy of a theatrical preschool performance, guided by the diffusion of innovation theory, in educating Chinese American women about breast cancer detection. The research questions sought to determine whether the performance increased the participants' knowledge of breast cancer screening guidelines and whether country of origin, length of stay in the United States, and self-reported attentiveness were associated with knowledge gain of breast cancer screening guidelines. The preschool performance was performed by Chinese children ages 3 to 5 who displayed breast health guidelines from the Susan G. Komen for the Cure. One hundred and seventy-seven pre- and postperformance surveys were collected from a sample of Chinese women (84% foreign born). The secondary data were analyzed using standard linear regression analyses and bivariate logistic regressions. The findings demonstrated that promoting breast health screening guidelines among Chinese American women through a preschool theatrical performance significantly increased the participants' knowledge of the guidelines. However, no major impact was detected between knowledge score and attentiveness to the theatrical performance and any of the demographic variables. Health care professionals can foster social change by adapting a preschool theatrical performance to educate ethnic communities on cancer control guidelines for early detection.

THESIS: An investigation into my handling of the production’s key challenges, and into what came of those efforts, will reveal a pattern: decisions made from trust – trust of myself as a leader and of my collaborators – yield a better, more satisfying harvest than do decisions made from fear. KEYWORDS & PHRASES: The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek, by Naomi Wallace; theater; theatre; stage; directing; director; process; challenge; time; ritual; live music; heightened language; movement; physicality; casting; actors; designers; lighting; deviant sexuality; audience; conscripting; growth; lessons learned; depression; railroad; train; trust; faith; artistic process; collaboration; leadership.

Within this thesis I aim to prove that working outside my personal artistic comfort zone has ultimately been beneficial to all my work as a theatre artist. Specifically, I explore the greater merit of choosing to wrestle with a project that, from the beginning, felt far beyond my capabilities and scope as a director. This thesis explores the many challenges I faced and skills I developed during the process of directing my first Shakespearean play. Throughout my analysis of the production process I explore many of the areas where my theatrical view was clearly expanded. I spend less time, discussing the strengths that I believe I do have as a theater director and how those tools helped to keep me grounded in those moments when I felt like I was the wrong director for the project. I have been told that one of my greatest strengths as a director is my ability and desire to collaborate. I hold my collaborators’ ideas and insights in the highest regard. I sincerely believe that for each project, the right people are in the right room at the right time and that it takes a good listener and a sense of clarity and direction to achieve something beautiful and meaningful, together. I am able to rally a group of artists around one common cause. Part of this skill is that I am committed to working in great detail with each individual within a group. Regardless of the size of the cast, one of my strengths as a director is that I am able to help actors find a level of integrity and depth in their work that often translates to actors who deliver proud and confident performances. In the end, even though Pericles is not contemporary edgy fare, it is quite a compelling and twisted tale. Although, I have certainly been attracted to the odd and macabre, Pericles is more than that. It is also spiritual and aims to heal the human soul. I found this cause a worthy one and one worth the time and efforts of our talented and dedicated artistic team.

No Sleep '˜Til Minsky's is a one-man show paying tribute to early 20th century variety entertainment. The writing process began with research into the forms of vaudeville and burlesque, including films of period acts, study of autobiographies and biographies of burlesque performers, and study of historical scripts performed in the time period and stored at the Library of Congress. The format of the show consists of a one-hour core script in which Lou Drake speaks of his life and career in burlesque. In addition to the core script, the structure is designed to allow more actors to participate in staging sketches described by Drake, as well as allowing external acts to splice their material into a performance.

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This thesis is the written portion of my experience as a director, staging an adaptation of the traditional Iranian theater form, Ta’zieh, for my thesis project. I start with a brief description of our adapted performance, followed by the inspirations that led to the creation of the piece. I then trace the evolution of the idea from the initial stage to the final performance. I describe the adaptation process in three sections, the story, form, and practice. In each section, in a comparative manner, I write about the ways in which Ta’zieh is traditionally done and elaborate on our decisions while adapting it for a new audience. I explain the challenges of adapting and directing the play outside of its original context and discuss how I worked on making this performance an intercultural experience. I conclude to write how I think these artistic cultural exchanges can connect us between countries and cultures, shed a light on our shared struggles and hopes, and lead us to connect on deeper levels of understanding.

Considered from the viewpoint of drama and stagecraft instructors, many of our school theater buildings are inadequate. Visits to numerous high school and college auditoriums in northern California and contact with faculty members using them have convinced the writer of the need for improvement to campus theater planning. The auditorium and little theater in the recently constructed Franklin school in Stockton, California, are good examples of poor planning. In the writer's opinion the auditorium is too large and the little theater too small for either of them to give practical service, especially in relation to their construction costs. That successful projects have been accomplished in some of these poorly planned auditoriums cannot be denied. In such cases ingenuity has succeeded in spite of the poor facilities. The writer contents that better planning will improve the quality of school theater productions as well as give to the school a more functional building.

This thesis is an account of my directorial process for the Spring 2023 production of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Into the Woods. I begin by illustrating how this show speaks to the contemporary political and social moment in the United States through a libretto and score that insists the only way to battle the giants brought on by the pursuit of individual goals is for a community to take responsibility for its errors and work together. I put Into the Woods in conversation with the cartoon series Over the Garden Wall to ground the show in an American context, discussing how our designers drew inspiration for the cartoon’s use of 19th Century American folk aesthetics and distorted images of monstrous figures to develop a unique approach to the world of the play. I then chronicle the audition and rehearsal process, including the incorporation of Michael Chekhov technique into character creation as well as the paths individual actors took to know and embody their characters. I offer an account of some of the unique problems we faced during tech week and how we, like the very characters in the story we were telling, came together to overcome the difficulties we faced. I conclude with an account of the performances and how I have taken the lessons from this process into the professional work I have undertaken since.

The role of the American theatrical lighting designer is to be a visual collaborator on the design team. While other designers can produce elements that the rest of the team can hold or listen to such as a model of the set by the set designer or a sound effect from the sound designer, the lighting designer must rely on his or her ability to communicate his or her ideas. Visual lighting elements are complex ideas and must be clearly stated and planned for if the production is to be cohesive. This thesis presents the goals to communicate verbally, collaborate, and implement lighting ideas effectively with the design team of Refugee, written by Milan Dragicevich, as well as to maintain an overall visually pleasing and immersive experience for the audience.