There is no significant scholarly work on the history of the Russian vaudeville. The author of the dissertation makes an attempt to explore the history of vaudeville in Russia from 1812, when the first original vaudeville was written by A. Shakhovskoi, to the 1850s, when vaudeville as a genre was finalized as a form and brought to its classic completion. Two phases of the history of vaudeville in Russia, aristocratic and democratic-raznochinnyi, are considered in close connection with the political, social, and cultural events of Russian society of the time. The first phase embraces the period from 1812, when the first original Russian vaudeville was produced in St-Petersburg, to 1825, when tsar Aleksandr I died and Nicholas I inherited the crown of the Russian empire. The second phase, democratic-raznochinnyi, includes the years from 1826 until 1855, the years in which Nicholas I ruled. The division of the history of Russian vaudeville is made on the assumption that political events in Russian society always have been closely connected with and often caused changes in its cultural, art, and literary life. Vaudevillists such as A. Shakhovskoi, N. Khmelnitskii, A. Griboedov, and A. Pisarev present the first phase. F. Koni, P. Karatygin, and N. Nekrasov familiarize the reader with the second phase. The author of this dissertation analyzes the most exemplary works of each of the aforementioned authors. For better understanding the peculiarities of the development of vaudeville in Russia, the dissertation also presents a broad socio-cultural background of the first half of the nineteenth century and shows how theatre in general, and vaudeville in particular, mirrored the changes of the socio-cultural life of the nation in their own way.

This thesis covers the experience of Christopher C. Cariker in his portrayal of the character Killer Joe Cooper in the play Killer Joe. It contains a character analysis, a daily record of the rehearsal process, an interview with the actor who played the original Killer Joe, Paul Dillon, a breakdown of the fight at the end of the show, acknowledgments, and thoughts/conclusions on the lessons learned throughout the experience of doing the play.

This thesis will explore my development of the character Ansel Smith in Tracy Letts Killer Joe. The thesis is in a journal format and it will chronicle the rehearsal process from preproduction, through the run, and postproduction. It will explore the progression of finding this character and the overall process of developing the show with two casts.

The role of Proteus in The Two Gentlemen of Verona written by William Shakespeare was selected as a thesis project in the fall semester of 2002. This thesis is a written record of the actors work on the character throughout the rehearsal process and performance of the production in the form of an Actors Score. It also includes an Introduction, Character Analysis, Research, Photos and a Conclusion.

This study was undertaken to analyze the influence of hegemony on the creation of cultural identity-specifically the cultural identity of Morgan City, Louisiana-through the annual performance of the Louisiana Shrimp and Petroleum Festival of that city. The information utilized in this study was assembled from a variety of sources: newspaper reporting from 1935 to 1999, chronicling the Festival and related subjects; works of several theorists in the area of ritual and performance studies; works that examine the concept of hegemony, principally from a Marxian perspective; anthropological studies of Gulf Coast commercial fishing cultures; reports by official State of Louisiana agencies, particularly in the area of petroleum production; histories of Morgan City and St. Mary Parish, Louisiana; numerous and varied works related to the area of Black history in Louisiana; and studies on ecotourism and the heritage industry. The principal conclusion derived from this study is that Morgan City has experienced several shifts in economic hegemony, all of which have been reflected through changes within the form and practice of the annual Festival. Firstly, the seafood production industry under the guidance of ownership interests, was able to establish a powerful economic hegemony that manipulated the Festival into a representation of local cultural identity that had the ability to attract outside celebratory interest as well as national advertising-both of which were used in the promotion of Morgan City products. When the seafood industry suffered a severe economic downturn, the petrochemical industry entered the area and set up an immeasurably more powerful economic force. Over time the Festival became dominated by destructive participation of transient oil workers; thus severely altering the perception of civic identity to both established local residents and outsiders as well. Local established residents contested for, and won back, control of the Festival and its symbols in an attempt to restore traditional values of civility to the community. To sum, economic hegemony is not necessarily cultural hegemony. In the absence of economic hegemonic leadership, civic resistance may appropriate the traditions, symbols, and prestige of ritual, thus forging a communally desired cultural identity.

The role of Silvia in The Two Gentlemen of Verona by William Shakespeare was selected as a thesis project in the fall of 2002. This thesis is a written record of the actor's work in and out of rehearsal in the form of a score. It also includes an introduction, character analysis and a conclusion.

The role of Dottie in Killer Joe by Tracy Letts was selected as a thesis project spring semester of 2003. This thesis is a written record of the actors work on the character of Dottie throughout the rehearsal process in the form of a rehearsal journal and a character analysis.

The author chose Speed from Shakespeare's The Two Gentlemen of Verona directed by John Dennis, as her thesis project in Fall 2002. This thesis includes an introduction, a character analysis, a journal of the rehearsal process and a conclusion.

Nicholas Rowe was a playwright of some success during the first quarter of the eighteenth century in London. Rowe's importance to the theatre can be seen in his contribution to the development of strong female roles. He was part of that group of Whig writers who championed individual freedom, some rights for women, and a stronger parliament. It is my contention that Rowe was an "incipient" feminist and an innovator of theatrical practice through his use of the female protagonist. By "feminist" I mean that Rowe wrote about the plight of women in a society that afforded very few rights to women. Within the context of his milieu, Rowe had "incipient" beliefs in favor of equal rights of women on a limited scale. This study analyses Rowe's life and works in order to discover how Rowe made his decision to write strong female roles in his plays. Although he was not the first to write plays strong female roles, he appears to have been the first to have attempted to develop a genre based on the female as hero as evidenced by the unique title he used for the plays: "she-tragedy." And with the unique purpose of writing female protagonist roles, Rowe was a proto-feminist, or as I call him, an incipient feminist.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Minnesota. / Authorities: p. 3-5. Errata inserted. Authorities: p. 3-5.