Thesis (M.F.A.)--Boston University

Thesis (M.F.A.)--Boston University. A graduate thesis production directed by Patrick Tucker. / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / 2031-01-01

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University, 1955. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [374]-390).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 223-242). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

As modern technologies increase the capabilities of today’s stage, performances have grown to incorporate the use of video as a means to transform the stage in a way never seen before. Digital tools have unlocked designer’s ability to modify space and time in at the actual speed of light. While analogue film projections have been used on the stage for a number of years, it is the advent of digital video that has allowed performance art to develop a new interaction with a virtual world. I intend to explore and document the process behind a video centric performance. In this instance, I define video centric performance as an event in which the action on stage relies on the video content in some way to create a complete performance. Through this thesis I will focus on how the evolving definition of video has created particular workflows and methodologies to help adapt digital video techniques for the stage. Using several case studies, my workflows and methodologies will be developed and formed into a single written document. My written document is meant to be an all-encompassing guide. The goal in writing such a text is to provide single source education for artists looking to grow their understanding of video centric performances. Video production as well as stage production is a nuanced art, which can require years of practice to fully understand. Young artist may use higher education to grow their skills, or experienced professionals may use reading as a means of professional development. In both of these instances, members of the entertainment community are limited by the availability of a single source to bridge the gap between existing educational resources. Throughout the document, I avoid expanding on detailed topics that are covered by other professions, instead opting for an approach that weaves together the skills of performance artists, designers, technicians, cinematographers and animators in a way that focuses these talents towards the stage. / text

This is a compilation of selected set and costume designs from my past three years as a MFA candidate in theatrical design at the University of Texas at Austin. I hope this portfolio will help launch my career as a theatrical designer. My primary focus is set design and my secondary interest is costume design. This portfolio represents my best work as a costume and set designer. Each design will include a number of images that range from production photographs to preliminary sketches. / text

In 1959, George Luscombe, a Canadian-born actor and director, founded Toronto Workshop Productions, Toronto's first alternate theatre. For over a quarter-of-a-century, Luscombe pioneered the creation of a Canadian theatre of political and social concern and the development of plays through a collective process. / This study attempts to reconstruct the major events of Luscombe's personal and artistic life, and to assess his contribution to Canadian theatre through his work at Toronto Workshop Productions as revealed in company reports, contemporary records and the recollections of his friends and associates.

This is an extensive study of the non-verbal in Genet's dramaturgy. Non-verbal forms constitute the plural, fragmented sum of theatrical possibility. Rhythms, movements, colours and shapes highlight the ritualised form of words and actions on and off stage. In Part One I define my understanding of Genet's theory of representation, and show how this theory informs his use of the non-verbal. On the one hand the discursive limits of Genet's reality forefront closure. On the other, within this closure an absence of transcendental meaning enables signs to be reconfigured and accorded a plurality of signification. A wealth of non-verbal scenic elements is codified and made to signify. But an antagonism between the triumphant liberation from inherent meaning and the inevitable falsity of representation underlies all Genet's theatre. Genet's reconfiguration involves transubstantiation, not substitution. It adds a supplementary layer of falsity to the sign. The co-presence of multiple layers of artifice effects a duality of belief and disbelief in the spectator, redefining the notion of theatricality. Non-verbal forms are of existential as well as theatrical import. Falsity is omnipresent. Genet thus destabilises and redramatises security, possession and identity. Part Two develops and illustrates the notion of the non-verbal elaborated in Part One through a predominantly stylistic study. I illustrate how performance on Genet's stage is a surface made of ritualised gestures and words, devoid of substance. Through constant polyphonic shifting characterisation is fragmented and unity of voice is denied. Central acoustic matrices are expanded forming homogenous blocks of repeated words, phonemes, stresses and prosodies. These blocks are juxtaposed with other rhythms creating chains of antagonistic structures that fracture traditional diegesis. Actors' gestures, tone, pitch, tempo and costume display a hybrid heterogeneity of styles which abolishes the monolithism of identity. The horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines constituting the set create a lattice network that fills a hypothetical vide with Genet's panoramic definition of reality. All these material signifiers resist metaphorical globalisation into themes or characters. They subsequently afford an opacity that fractures action into immediate acoustic and visual effects, and underscores form as surface detached from the oppressiveness of substance. And yet the absence of substance merely underscores the falsity of Genet's success. My concluding comments state that material, non-verbal artifice is freed from essentialist signification. It is therefore mobile, not static. The plural and liberated nature of the non-verbal enables Genet's singularity to be expressed, and in turn allows for the singularity of the spectator.

No description available.

From opera theatre to home theatre (the making of) theatrical spaces and devices in the landscape -- No abstract provided.