My thesis explores the artistic effects of two different kinds of financial investment on Broadway. I define and then trace the rise of what I term the "corporate producer" over the past twenty years, then document the fall of the independent creative producer, which had been the traditional means of producing shows on Broadway prior to the 1980s. This rise and fall is documented through personal interviews with Broadway professionals, and through newspapers, magazines, and literature on current and past practices in theatre production both on Broadway and on tours. The rise of the corporate producer has resulted in an increasing pattern of revivals, musicals based on movies from the past, and expanded musical revues. Broadway has begun to resemble the mass produced product seen in any department store across the country, and Broadway's actors are turning into assembly line workers exercising in front of a constant stream of mediatized and mass marketed consumers. The demands of such a life are changing the concepts of theatre, performance, and acting. In addition to life on Broadway, the touring business of Broadway has been taken over by corporate producers as well, and tours have begun to take on characteristics of other industries based upon the principles of Henry Ford, suffering from downsizing of labor and materials, division of labor to its smallest units, and de-unionizing and control by and ever expanding middle management with an eye on the bottom line. The Broadway actor is becoming standardized, like a piece of machinery on an assembly-line. Liveness is being traded for frozen or "cinematized" events, and Broadway is becoming a movie. These theatrical movies are being taken across the country, changing what the United States views as theatre, and preparing the next generation for accepting these movies as Broadway. / A Thesis Submitted to the School of Theatre in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts. / Fall Semester, 2003. / October 30, 2003. / Corporate Theater / Includes bibliographical references. / Mary Karen Dahl, Professor Directing Thesis; Carrie Sandahl, Committee Member; Laura Edmondson, Committee Member.

I believe that acting theories are theatrical performances of societies, and a dominant acting theory is a performance of specific systems of power that control and regulate a culture. By observing the rules of a dominant acting theory, and by observing the actor's condition, as in how the actor's body and mind are constrained, encouraged to be creative, or forced to repeat a set of actions, it is possible to "read" the power systems that either constrain or liberate a people. Concerning the production of a play, if a director and an actor make a conscious choice to use a dominant acting theory, then the use of the theory, whether it is a historic representation of the time and place defined by the play or not, represents a conscious choice of collaboration or resistance with the specific cultural conversation of the playwright. If a collaboration takes place, then the director, actor, and audience watching represent a culture defined by resistance to systems of power. If a director and an actor use a dominant acting theory unconsciously, then the play is not defined by conscious choices of collaboration or resistance, but rather by an unconscious presentation of a specific set of rules and regulations. If the director, actor, and audience watching take part in an unconscious presentation of rules and regulations, then the actor, director, and audience watching participate in the erasure of an alternative cultural conversation, and the erasure exposes a culture that is defined by compliance to specific systems of power. My dissertation explores Method acting, which is the dominant acting methodology in the United States, through acts of complicity and/or resistance to systems of power from 1930 to the present. Method acting began in the 1930s as a resistant methodology, and then Method acting was altered in the 1950s in order to comply with the discourses that defined a specific culture. Because contemporary Method acting is defined by complicity, a contemporary actor must be viewed through acts of unconscious erasure. Concerning the production of a play, if Method is performed consciously, then the play is consciously "placed" within the United States in the 1950s. If Method is performed unconsciously, then the alternative cultural conversation of the play is altered in order to define discourses of the 1950s, thus the alternative conversation of the play disappears. Though beginning in resistance, Method acting now controls and regulates actors through a methodology that produces and reproduces images from the past. The images present systems of power from the 1950s, and the director, actor, and audience watching an unconscious presentation of these images represent not only an acting methodology that is constrained, but also a culture and a people defined by compliance with the past. In order to resist Method's production and reproduction of the past, I offer an alternative methodology for the contemporary actor. The Third Actor Training Program, or TAPT, is resistant by definition because the function of this actor is to seek out and engage with diverse cultural conversations within a text, and the function of the methodology is to expose a physical and creative avenue for the theatrical enactment of diversity. TAPT also offers a new "place" of performance for this new actor, a place that is defined by freedom from systems of power and freedom from controlled and regulated time. The Revolution of the Species continues, and the Revolution is being enacted even as I write this abstract. My dissertation proposes that the state of the actor is the state of the State, and my dissertation proposes that the state of the TAPT actor presents is a possible future for a contemporary culture. / A Dissertation Submitted to the School of Theatre in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2008. / October 23, 2007. / Moscow Art Theatre, Stanislavski, The System, Dominant Acting Theory Creative, Condition Resistance, Cultural Conversations, Third Actor, Method Acting, TAPT, Lee Strasberg, The Group Theatre / Includes bibliographical references. / Carrie Sandahl, Professor Directing Dissertation; Carline Joan (Kay) Picart, Outside Committee Member; Mary Karen Dahl, Committee Member.

The historical, national, and academic values of the Icelandic Eddic poems—or Elder Edda—have received much scholarly attention in the past. Yet, there is another aspect of these poems that deserves more exploration and consideration: that of their theatrical history. In this thesis, I argue that the Eddic poems were used in some type of dramatic performances in the early Middle Ages. My main criteria include the inherent dramatic dialogue of the poems as well as the suggested performer-audience relationships that lie within. While conducting an investigation of some basic medieval performance theories, including modes and places of performance, I will also examine the coexistence of the, relatively pagan, mythological Eddic poems and Christianity—which was introduced to the Icelanders at the turn of the eleventh century. Finally, I will utilize the abovementioned research and develop a contemporary production proposal of my own. In doing so, I will be drawing upon historical context, not in the interests of constructing a historically accurate production but to provide insight into the cultural context from which the poems emerged. Essentially, I argue that the Elder Edda holds a prominent place in theatre history, and this thesis will highlight the poems' past and present contributions to the field. / A Thesis submitted to the School of Theatre in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. / Spring Semester, 2005. / March 16, 2005. / Religion, Oral Tradition, Middle Ages, Theatre History, Eddic Poems, Iceland, Scandinavian Drama, Elder Edda, Norse mythology, Music / Includes bibliographical references. / Laura Edmondson, Professor Directing Thesis; Mary Karen Dahl, Committee Member; Carrie Sandahl, Committee Member.

In the United States, performances of female nudity have a long history of transgressing and challenging socially constructed understandings of gender roles. This history stretches from burlesque performances just before and after the turn of the 20th century to the more contemporary work of performance artists like Karen Finley and Annie Sprinkle. Instead of focusing on these solo performance artists, who use their nude bodies to raise troubling questions about gender and sexuality, this thesis breaks new ground. I investigate uses of female nudity in three contemporary examples of popular performance: the Fluffgirl Burlesque Society, Girls Gone Wild, and the SuicideGirls. By looking at these three examples and the ways they each use different mediums of representation, I explore possible answers to the following questions: Can the representation of female nudity take place from a subject rather than an objectified position? Can performing "femaleness" based in the image of the nude female body signify an ownership and display of her own sexuality? Is female nudity always only a commodity for appropriation by the male or desiring spectator? Can women intervene in an economy of sexual desire by using the very images that are the stock and trade of such an economy? Who is in the power position if a woman chooses to have the desiring gaze directed at her? In addition to investigating the answers to these questions, this thesis also explores the possibility of an ethical heterosexual male desire in relationship to representations of performed female nudity. / A Thesis submitted to the School of Theatre in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. / Spring Semester, 2006. / March 28, 2006. / Joe Francis, Cecilia Bravo, Piercing, Tattoo, Wet T-Shirt Contest, Agency, Nudity, Strip Tease, Neo-Burlesque, Burlesque, Suicidegirls, Girls Gone Wild, Missy Suicide, Fluffgirl Burlesque Society, Pornography / Includes bibliographical references. / Mary Karen Dahl, Professor Directing Thesis; Laura Edmondson, Committee Member; Carrie Sandahl, Committee Member.

This thesis explores Weill and Green's Johnny Johnson, produced by the Group Theatre in 1936. The play is an example of gestic theatre, first seen in the works of Brecht and Weill and continued by Weill after his arrival in the United States. The purpose is to determine the gestic quality of the play by first exploring the many theories and identifying a clear definition of gestus, and then by highlighting moments in the texts that exhibit qualities of that definition. By using both published material and archival documents from the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a detailed reading was performed to determine moments within the play that meet the criteria established in the paper. The material reviewed included the text of the play as well as Weill's musical score. The research determined four variations of gestus either created by Brecht and Weill or adapted by Weill and Green: musical, lyrical, visual and social. Johnny Johnson contains several examples of these variations. Johnny Johnson is a clear example of Brecht and Weill's legacy, the next step in their theories, which has its influence in current musical theatre. / A Thesis submitted to the School of Theatre in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. / Spring Semester, 2004. / March 29, 2004. / Weill, Johnny Johnson, Green / Includes bibliographical references. / Anita Gonzalez, Professor Directing Thesis; Carrie Sandahl, Committee Member; Gayle Seaton, Committee Member.

This thesis explores the links between early twentieth-century haute couture and the Italian avant-garde movement, Futurism. Although a definite cause-to-effect relationship cannot necessarily be assigned, the artistic and aesthetic elements of Futurist fashion and costume design, coupled with the mode of theatrical presentation used in the Futurist Serata (Evening), are similar to the ideas inherent in haute couture at the beginning of the last century. This parallelism calls for a closer examination, as Futurist theories of performance, costume design, and fashion resonated outside the movement long after its own demise. My exploration considers the externally influential contributions and lasting impact Futurism has made beyond the movement's own walls. I assess both Futurism's direct and indirect interplay with haute couture through the comparison of theatrical elements inherent in both areas, analyze Futurist and haute couture interaction with theatrical costume design, and provide a thorough examination of Futurist fashion and its striking similarities to haute couture designs a mere ten years later. In the first chapter I analyze the similarities of performance characteristics and strategies in the Futurist Serata and early twentieth-century fashion show. In the second chapter I continue to explore the dramatic and performative nature inherent in both Futurism and haute couture by examining their intersections with theatrical costume design; the analysis culminates with the specific example of the Ballets Russes. Finally, in the third chapter I examine the work of one haute couture fashion designer that embodies many of the chief elements prescribed in several futurist manifestoes. Italian-born Elsa Schiaparelli, an innovative and provocative designer of the 1930s, provides an excellent example of the limit-testing and boundary-pushing the Futurists championed within the realm of performance-wear. / A Thesis Submitted to the School of Theatre in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts. / Spring Semester, 2004. / April 6, 2004. / Twentieth-Century Fashion, Avant-Garde, Futurism / Includes bibliographical references. / Laura Edmondson, Professor Directing Thesis; Mary Karen Dahl, Committee Member; Colleen Muscha, Committee Member.

This multidisciplinary dissertation progresses on several levels. The first cause is to examine the brief history of the Chautauqua Lake Camp Meeting (1871-1875), a religious organization preceding the Chautauqua Institution at its site on Chautauqua Lake in western New York, and trace its organizational and social transition from a Methodist Episcopal camp meeting into the world famous "American Institution." To accomplish this the Chautauqua Lake Camp Meeting is situated in its historical, regional, and national context in the 1870s, before narrowing the survey to the more immediate social milieu of Chautauqua County, New York, in that era. The contextualization will specifically consider the Chautauqua region's relationship with the nearby oil-producing district of Pennsylvania, which is revealed to be both a social foil and an economic resource that enabled the development of religious and social tourism on Chautauqua Lake. A second level of contextualization will consider the evolution of the individual and group performance of evangelical Protestant religiosity across the nineteenth century, from the spectacular behaviors seen at early camp meetings in the trans-Appalachian American Southeast to the more refined behaviors at great holiness meetings in the North to the discrete performances that characterized behaviors within the Chautauqua Movement. / A Dissertation submitted to the School of Theatre in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2007. / April 17, 2007. / Chautauqua, Petrolia, Evangelism, Camp Meeting / Includes bibliographical references. / Carrie Sandahl, Professor Directing Dissertation; Donna Marie Nudd, Outside Committee Member; Mary Karen Dahl, Committee Member.

Space has long been a subject of theatrical theory, but rarely do scholars examine time. More specifically, what happens when playwrights break the conventional rules of time and space to present impossibilities on the stage, such as severe anachronism and non-linear story-telling? This thesis examines six plays by three contemporary British playwrights who play with time: The Castle and The Bite of the Night by Howard Barker, Arcadia and The Invention of Love by Tom Stoppard, and Traps and Top Girls by Caryl Churchill. The rifts in time and space presented by these authors create meanings that no other method could accomplish. Generally speaking, disturbances in time have the potential to disrupt the audience, taking them out of the play and encouraging them to create their own meanings. Specifically, the timeplay of each play reinforces the themes of each piece and raises certain ideological questions. Barker questions the accuracy of memory and the cultural construction of history. Stoppard discusses the impossibility of knowing the past and explores the connections between science and human action. Churchill questions the notion of progress in relation to social issues. Furthermore, each playwright plays with time in a slightly different way, using anachronism or non-linear storytelling, presenting the disruptions as real or as theatrical artifice. Combining these three playwrights and these six plays creates a puzzle that can be split in a multitude of ways, where each new point of view creates a new meaning. / A Thesis submitted to the School of Theatre in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. / Spring Semester, 2004. / April 1, 2004. / Churchill, Stoppard, Barker, Theatre of Catastrophe, Top Girls, Traps, Invention of Love, Arcadia, Bite of the Night, Castle, Cognitive Science, Contemporary British Drama, Anachronism, Spacetime, Space, Time / Includes bibliographical references. / Carrie Sandahl, Professor Directing Thesis; Mary Karen Dahl, Committee Member; Laura Edmondson, Committee Member.

Nigeria's pre-colonial, British colonial and postcolonial history colors every aspect of its art and literature. The values and practices of the cultural groups that inhabit this country have been in flux since the beginning of the colonial wars in the mid-nineteenth century and continue to change in the light of the new theories and ideas that flood the country from both outside forces and its own people. In particular, colonization affected the customs and ideals of the Igbo people of Nigeria's profitable Delta region. Tess Onwueme, a dramatist of Igbo extraction now based in the United States at Wayne State University, writes explicitly of the changes forced upon the Igbo people and their subsequent reaction to new ideas in their communities. Onwueme's fictionalized accounts of the struggles of Igbo women in her dramatic work shed light on the changing perceptions of western feminisms, African womanisms, and female agency in "traditional" communities. Her stories problematize the idea of a united sisterhood for the promotion of world-wide feminism, and inspire us to reflect on our own agency in our communities. Through a close reading of Onwueme's trio of plays, The Broken Calabash, Parables for A Season, and The Reign of Wazobia, I explore the effects of western education on Igbo communities and their inhabitants. How does education change how these women view their communities and their communities' view of them? How has a shared colonial past become the catalyst for both sweeping change and stagnation? How is female agency employed and received in these communities? In my exploration of these questions, I hope to understand the impetus behind Onwueme's heroines' actions and explore female power in places of great cultural change. / A Thesis submitted to the School of Theatre in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. / Spring Semester, 2008. / February 5, 2008. / Parables For A Season, The Broken Calabash, Post-Colonial, Onwueme, Igbo, Idgebe, Feminism, Womanism, Nigeria, The Reign Of Wazobia, Delta Region, Women's Education / Includes bibliographical references. / Mary Karen Dahl, Professor Directing Thesis; Carrie Sandahl, Committee Member; Natalya Baldyga, Committee Member.

This thesis addresses two plays and their entanglement with ecological crises in the United States and abroad, specifically Mexico and Canada: Chantal Bilodeau’s Sila and Victor Cazares’ Ramses Contra Los Monstruos: Salmas para el fin del Mundo (Ramses Against the Monsters: Psalms for the end of the World). Because each play under analysis does not directly deal with environmental degradation and responsibility for a specific ecology, they may not appear to fit the scholarly requirements for “ecology plays.” I argue that each play instead performs an intervention into current, static modes of thinking in terms of space and time that hinder more encompassing ecological thought focused specifically on the human. The age of the Anthropocene, the era in which human influence is seen and felt in every aspect of the Earth, produces a crisis of space, where the human can no longer be thought of as hierarchically separate from its environment, occupying a social geography that is separate from nature in any meaningful way. The dawn of the Anthropocene also produces a crisis of time, in that timescales based in linear human progression and progress writ broad must be placed into context with timescales of forces both under effect of human intervention and out of human control: i.e. climate change. This thesis attempts to place the aforementioned plays in these crises of space and time. By experimenting with and presenting multiple, alternative notions of space and time in performance, this thesis attempts to frame these plays as interventions into the continued propagation of the nature/culture binary, a ubiquitous separation of the human and the nonhuman, which keeps the human separate from considerations of nature and hinders more inclusive ecological thought and considerations of the environment. Specifically, it interrogates how Chantal Bilodeau’s Sila problematizes the separation of nature and culture by remapping the human and the animal onto a shared ontological geography, then moves on to investigate how Cazares’ Ramses Contra Los Monstruos: Salmas Para El Fin del Mundo presents multiple alternate, contrasting, queer temporalities, of which heteronormative time is simply one among many. Grounded in close reading, this thesis will address dramaturgical and aesthetic strategies used in each play, and make the case that these strategies propose new ways of conceptualizing the human as a species among species sharing space and futurity with the planet. These two plays represent limited case studies in an expansive body of work addressing climate change, the human place in the environment, and the foundations of ecology in performance. It is my hope that through this investigation, I can begin to open up new, experimental possibilities in how we as a human species can situate ourselves among the nonhuman in our shared environment. / A Thesis submitted to the School of Theatre in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. / Spring Semester 2018. / April 25, 2018. / Includes bibliographical references. / Patrick McKelvey, Professor Directing Thesis; Elizabeth Osborne, Committee Member; Krzysztof Salata, Committee Member.