The world around us has changed so much, socio-economically, that musical theatre departments around the country are facing budget shortfalls, staff attrition and even vertical cuts leading to full departmental closings. This paper attempts to divert these measures, as well as address the new role of student as consumer, by way of proposing a new musical theatre curricular model to satisfy the needs of both student and university alike. Topics such as fiscal responsibility in academe, departmental expectations, current employment statistics in the musical theatre field and current student learning outcomes are covered. The current student learning outcomes are then joined by two newly proposed outcomes and serve as a lens through which the curricular redesign is possible.

One of the top television reality shows today is So You Think You Can Dance? This show showcases many talents of top choreographers, including Ms. Mia Michaels. But what makes her stand out from the other choreographers in her field? With this thesis I explore why I believe Mia Michaels to be the best emotional storytelling choreographer of the twenty-first century. Analyzing examples from the show, four from Michaels and four from other choreographers and using a movement scoring method, I find why her work stands out. I will also explain how Michaels got her start in choreography, her philosophy and creative process along with why story is even important in dance. By learning more about how her uses personal vulnerability and emotional struggles in storylines that connect to a larger community in her choreographed movement, other choreographers can use her tools to further their own individual work.

This thesis presents the unique designs for four productions: Ain’t Misbehavin’, Is He Dead?, Dead Man’s Cell Phone, and Legacy of Light. Presented here are the research images, conversations, situations and their resulting designs represented in my renderings and photographs of the fully realized production. Throughout, I will state my objectives in bettering the quality of interaction with each director and my reflections on the ongoing process of creating a trusting and balanced collaborative process, one that expertly serves the production.

An actor’s duty to the play is to present the most fully formed and vivid interpretation of the character. To do so, the actor must have an understanding of how that particular character developed their own sense of identity. This should be constructed not from the actor’s personal experience but from an informed imaginative experience founded on research and analysis. As pedagogues we are challenged with attempting to give young actors the skills for such an analysis. I have developed a formula to aid the actor in creating the foundations for such an interpretation founded upon the sociological understanding of identity and symbolic interactivity. I also lay out a plan for a college course designed to teach preprofessional actors this method for character analysis.

This thesis aims to analyze the ways many Jewish victims of the Holocaust used comedic theatre to help them overcome their dire circumstances by exploring the high demand for comedic performance in both the ghettoes and concentration camps and analyzing the numerous comedic works that were penned amidst the terror and catastrophic loss surrounding the Jews at this time. The second portion delves into the therapeutic values of comedy and explores the ways laughing may have benefitted those who partook in comedic theatre events. The final chapter investigate whether or not laughter should still be used to help cope with the calamitous events of the Holocaust. Many Jewish victims chose to laugh about their circumstances, but should we, those far removed from the actual events, be able to use comedy without facing a dilemma of morals?

My concept is rooted in the fairy tail land of the dark woods like so many other terrifying fairy tails from my youth. Shockheaded Peter, our boogie man, is of the trees. The blood of the rotten children feeds the trees in this concept for the marbles that fall from our children literally representing blood will flow down the rake, across tin gutters, and into a huge tin washbasin out of which grows our gnarly set tree, a gnarly knobby willow. Peter comes from this tree that is fed by the blood of children. I set my costumes in the Regency period and located it in Germany, which gives my costumes the feeling of old fairy tails and their origins. The silhouettes lend themselves well to the progression of the story of each character. My inspiration for this design was the artwork of Elizabeth McGrath, contemporary west-coast studio artist and sculptor. The nature of Elizabeth McGrath’s seriously macabre sculptural installations drew me immediately to her as a source of inspiration for this design.

This paper compares seemingly similar words from a variety of acting teachers, and shows how it is impossible to draw clear comparisons between words that are often used as synonyms. The paper is a reflection of the journey from believing in translation to recognizing its impossibility. In Chapter 1 we focus on one of the most common elements in actor training, Attention/focus/concentration, and analyze the shades of meaning in those words and the difficulty of talking about them in isolation. In Chapter 2 we look at the way in which semiotic analysis can explain the words resistance to equivalence. In Chapter 3 we look at one of the central terms in most collegiate actor training objective, and see how it reveals both the problems inherent in translation. In Chapter 4 we look at how this knowledge can influence the classroom in a positive way.

For children to enjoy theatre they must see a story played out physically. The same is true when children act. Young performers must be taught to act using a simplified version of the Stanislavski System that puts emphasis on playable action. This thesis evaluates current acting texts for youth based on whether or not the author is able to outline a method that is accessible for children, and highlights the importance of playable action in scene work. It also provides a guide to teaching theatre for youth based on a class of the author’s design where students developed curriculum, managed classes of students, and executed lessons that emphasized the importance of physicality in acting. It includes the process and script of a devised play based on Lewis Carroll’s poem Jabberwocky where the story was told through movement. The final section is results of these experiments and feedback from children.

The aim of this paper is to examine the Estill Voice Training System to explain how it may be used in tandem with widely accepted voice and speech methodologies such as those developed by Kristin Linklater, Patsy Rodenburg and Dudley Knight/Phil Thompson in order produce versatile performers able to meet the vocal gauntlet flung at the feet of the contemporary actor. Students must be able to effectively function as voice-over talent, sing musical theatre, rattle off classical text with aplomb and work in film, all with superior vocal health. Synthesizing proven techniques with the skills presented in the inter-disciplinary Estill Voice Training System, I hope to develop a new, anatomically specific, voice and speech training progression to efficiently assist the student actor discover the physical and emotional vocal ranges demanded of the contemporary actor.

Most scholarship regarding Shakespeare’s King Lear rests on the analysis of Lear and Cordelia, with the odd reference to the eldest daughter, Goneril, and brief homages to the Gloucester subplot. Lear’s middle daughter, Regan, is rarely mentioned at all, unless it is in conjunction with one of her more scholastically popular sisters. Within these marginalized moments of notice, Regan is routinely simplified as being just another sinful sister, fitting nicely into the accepted binaries of good and evil outlined within the play. Despite the fact that most binaries, like characters, are flawed, Regan has been given little to no chance to be absolved of her supposed offenses. By looking at Regan through the lenses of a theatrical character study and also as a subject of iconography within the realms of classical art, film, graphic novels, and the stage, I aim to prove that Regan, despite her consistent relegation to the shadows, is a three-dimensional character who has simply been dealt a difficult hand by her creator.