The specific problems investigated involved identifying and describing the characteristics of fundamental frequency, overall intensity, and spectral content in unaccompanied and ensemble performance settings. Additionally, comparisons and descriptions of the relationships among these acoustical parameters were made. Fifteen trombonists were used as research subjects. Each subject recorded a selected musical excerpt in the following performance modes: high register unaccompanied, harmonic, and unison ensemble; and low register unaccompanied and unison ensemble. Tape recordings of these subjects were used in conjunction with certain electronic apparatus to obtain data on frequency, intensity, and spectral content. Based on these data, descriptions of these acoustical parameters and comparisons of unaccompanied and ensemble performance settings were made.

Comedy exists as a stronghold in American culture as a coping mechanism throughout history, but is often limited to the male headliner. From Charlie Chaplin to Jackie Gleason and Bill Cosby to Will Ferrell, men have kept us laughing from stages to screen throughout the last century. Thus, I inquire: who are the prominent women who rose to the top of this male-dominated industry and how did they create a brand for themselves that was distinguishable and celebrated? What is it about being a woman in the last century that made making a name in comedic entertainment more cumbersome, and has this feat of female branding changed at all with the evolution of entertainment and social trends? With this graduate thesis, I wish to explore the comparative timeline between socio-economic history, feminism, and the growth of entertainment trends. Considering this history, I will examine five major comediennes: Carol Burnett, Lily Tomlin, Whoopi Goldberg, Chelsea Handler, and Colleen Ballinger and their journeys to create prominent female entertainment brands. From this contributing research I will create and perform a one-woman show entitled An Evening with Aunt Nona. Through the exploration of personal branding and marketing of my solo voice, I seek to provide an inspirational framework for the creation and branding of future solo comediennes.

Almost Mirror Image: Exploring the Similarities and Dissimilarities of Identical Twins in Theatrical Solo Performance Is an exploration of the psyche of identical twins within the context of devised solo performance. The author, an identical twin herself, has long been interested in twins' ability to cultivate both highly independent personalities as well as intensely co-dependent tendencies during development. What can twins tell us about the way we create close relationships and how is their upbringing radically different from the majority of the world that is born alone? Equally intrigued by society's growing technological dependence, the author would like to delve into how the science and development of twins appears counterintuitive to the intra-personal technological world they grow up in by using personal, autobiographic solo performance as her research platform. The data collected from research sources such as Jo Bonney's Extreme Exposure and Michael Kearns' The Solo Performer's Journey, will provide fodder for the thesis document and the author's devised solo piece, entitled Teach me how to be Lonely. While devising her own solo performance, the author will compare and contrast her process with that of a few select solo performers such as Anna Deavere Smith and Rachel Rosenthal. The author will delve into various styles of solo work creation, including the testimony plays of Smith and the autobiographical style of Rosenthal, in order to view her own work with a self-reflective and identity-driven lens. Overall, the author hopes to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of her own experience as an identical twin through the facilitation of her solo work as well as explore how the creation of solo performance can offer artists in the 21st century more freedom of expression and identity than the performance of a standard play.

This project allowed me to utilize the knowledge I have acquired over the past four years at the University of Central Florida as a BFA Musical Theatre major, as well as challenged me to explore and research other areas of theatre that are foreign to me. All this work culminated with a performance of my play, Rest In Peace: A Musical Showcase, and this written thesis. I look forward to leaving the University of Central Florida with deeper insight into playwriting, theatre production, and performance. This project provided me with a performance opportunity where there was none before and provided the students on my production team an opportunity to be part of the development of a new piece of theatre. It also had an effect on the audiences that saw the production, as it reminded people of the important things in life that are easily forgotten by our current generation. It is easy to complain about not ·having performance opportunities, but why waste the time and energy on something that will not accomplish anything? My mother has always said "When life hands you lemons, make lemonade” and that is what I intended to do with this project.

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This thesis will document the process of rehearsing and performing a one-woman show based on the life of the poet Emily Dickinson. The script is a cutting of the full-length play, The Belle of Amherst, written in 1976 by William Luce. This self-directed project will document the process that all actors use when developing a role. The first part of developing a role includes historical research, character analysis, and script analysis. The second phase is the rehearsal process. This includes developing the physical and vocal qualities of the character and staging the action of the play. Because this performance is self-directed and self-produced, this thesis will also discuss production aspects that a director or producer usually addresses: set design, lighting, sound design, costuming, publicity, and dramaturgy. A portion of the thesis is also devoted to analyzing the cuts made to the script, a task normally reserved for a playwright. A one-person show has some unique challenges for a performer. These challenges involve making choices about how to interact with the audience, how to transition from scene to scene, and how to incorporate imaginary characters into a one-sided conversation. The question of how to portray an historical figure in an accurate and entertaining way will also be discussed.

Avec l’avènement du numérique, nous étions à même de penser que ces avancées technologiques sans précédent assureraient la pérennité archivistique et concrétiseraient le triomphe de la connaissance. Or, force est de constater que rien n’a jamais été autant perdu, oublié. La migration des archives – d’un support vers un autre toujours plus performant – entraine leur effacement, leur perte. L’obsession pour la conservation à outrance fait partie de ces phénomènes d’hypermnésie amnésiante actuels qui conduisent inéluctablement les sociétés vers la disparition de leur historicité. Le spectacle solo 887 (créé à Québec, en 2015) de Robert Lepage repose sur les traces du passé – mémoire à la fois intime et collective ancrée dans les années 1960 et 1970. Le titre fait référence à l’adresse où l’artiste a vécu son enfance : au 887 de l’avenue Murray, dans le quartier Montcalm, à Québec. La pièce met en lumière un aspect paradoxal de l’oubli soit qu’on doit, par les différentes modalités mémorielles, faire l’effort de ne pas oublier et en même temps qu’on doit oublier pour se souvenir. En effet, de récentes études, au sein des neurosciences, démontrent que l’oubli est non seulement indissociable de la mémoire – étant son corollaire et non un adversaire – mais qu’il est vital. Le solo 887 lutte inlassablement contre les surgissements amnésiques et en ce sens, nous avançons qu’il est une œuvre de résistance contre l’oubli trouvant sa régulation en se remémorant autant qu’il oublie. C’est sur ce paradoxe que cette recherche portera. Elle interroge l’autobiographie lepagienne révélant que l’authenticité du discours mémoriel nécessite l’adhésion du public et exige sa coprésence pour reconstruire les fragments du passé. Les traces mnésiques jaillissent, dans 887, à travers l’architecture de la scène par les images, les écrans – des surfaces d’inscription s’il en est – les objets et les personnages. Les personnages façonnés par l’artiste s’imposent tels des lieux de mémoire et les interactions qui s’opèrent entre les différentes composantes du plateau scénique – incluant l’acteur – sont des médiations du passé. Ce mémoire s’appuie sur des considérations diamétralement opposées. D’une part, sur les travaux d’Henri Bergson et de Paul Ricœur pour qui l’oubli est l’anéantissement de toute vie et d’autre part, sur ceux de Friedrich Nietzsche qui le perçoit comme l’une des conditions essentielles de toute action. Au terme de cette étude, c’est une vision renouvelée de l’oubli que nous tentons d’apporter. / With the advent of digital technology, we were in a position to think that these unprecedented technological advances would ensure archival sustainability and make the triumph of knowledge a reality. However, it is clear that nothing has ever been so lost and forgotten. The migration of archives - from one medium to another ever more powerful - leads to their deletion, their loss. The obsession for excessive preservation is part of the current phenomena of “amnesing hypermagnesia,” which inexorably leads societies towards the disappearance of their historicity. Robert Lepage’s solo show 887 (premiered in Quebec City in 2015) is based on the traces of the past - a memory that is both intimate and collective, rooted in the 1960s and 1970s. The title refers to the address where the artist spent his childhood : 887 Murray Avenue, in the Montcalm district of Quebec City. The piece brings to light a paradoxical aspect of forgetting, namely that one must, through the various modalities of memory, make the effort not to forget and at the same time, one must forget in order to remember. Indeed, recent studies in neuroscience show that forgetting is not only inseparable from memory - being its corollary and not an adversary - but that it is vital. Solo 887 fights tirelessly against amnesic surges. In this sense we argue that it is a work of resistance against forgetting, finding its regulation by remembering as much as it forgets. It is on this paradox that this research will focus. It questions the Lepagian autobiography revealing that the authenticity of the memorial discourse requires the adhesion of the audience and demands its copresence to reconstruct the fragments of the past. In 887, the mnemonic traces spring up, through the architecture of the scene by the images, the screens - surfaces of inscription if any - the objects and the characters. The characters shaped by the artist stand as places of memory, and the interactions that take place between the different components of the stage - including the actor - are mediations of the past. This memory is based on opposed considerations. On the one hand, on Henri Bergson and Paul Ricœur’s, for whom forgetting is the destruction of all life, and on the other hand, on the work of Friedrich Nietzsche, who sees it as one of the essential conditions of all action. At the end of this study, it is a renewed vision of oblivion that we are trying to bring about.

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