Tiny Alice is identified as a problematic script on the basis of widely divergent critical response. The text is examined on four Transactional levels to determine the feasibility of Transactional Analysis as an alternative tool in the study of problematic playscripts. Advantages, disadvantages, results, and limitations of the procedures utilized on each stratum are delineated. Implications for future research are discussed. / The structural and the transactional analyses are conducted according to Berne's criteria. Structurally, the five chapters maintain ego state congruence throughout the playscript. Transactionally, the total incidence in Tiny Alice for each transactional type is consistent with both the dramatic action and the structural analyses. However, study of the unit-by-unit transactional occurrence reveals unmotivated shifts in transactional type that may be a significant weakness and may hinder line-by-line comprehension of the character interaction. / Game analysis is presented through Berne's Game Formula and Karpman's Drama Triangle. In Tiny Alice, 125 game incidents occur within seventeen game-specific formats. Additionally, Drama Triangle game role preferences are examined by character and by character pair. The results of both procedures validate the subtextual patterns of the playscript and are compatible with prior structural and transactional analyses. / Life script analysis is explicated according to Kahler's not-Okay Miniscript Drivers. Hypothetical Miniscript sequences and life script charts illustrate each character's motivational patterns and life movements. Although the overall results are congruent to the characters' behaviors, detailed analyses reveal crucial inconsistencies between the dialogue and the dramatic action. / This study draws three conclusions. First, Tiny Alice is effective on at least three Transactional levels. Second, Transactional Analysis is a viable analytic alternative in the study of problematic playscripts. Third, its reliability is directly dependent upon the dissemination of clear, consistent, concrete descriptors for each Transactional stratum. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 46-12, Section: A, page: 3537. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1985.

The conceptual musical and the all-powerful conceiver/director/choreographer are two significant recent advances in musical theatre. These phenomena are the focus of this study. While different interpretations of what constitutes the conceptual musical are addressed within this dissertation, for the purposes of this study, the conceptual musical is defined as a musical with an overriding theatrical idea, developed by a director/choreographer, which seems to permeate all aspects of the musical's creation and production. / The study is divided into six chapters. The three major chapters cover Jerome Robbins, Bob Fosse, and Michael Bennett, focusing on their conceptual musicals. These chapters also include a less detailed examination of their background and artistic efforts in other areas. Special emphasis is placed on productions in which the meaning of the word "choreography" is expanded to envelop the totality of the production, thus giving it an overall choreographed "look". Other chapters discuss the conceptual musical and the integration of dance in musical theatre, advances without which such artists as Robbins, Fosse, and Bennett would not have been able to make their own subsequent contributions. The final chapter forms a conclusion and suggests topics for further research. The sources for this study include personal observations, interviews and seminars, archival collections, and published materials. / Throughout the advent and tenure of the conceptual musical, collaborative book musicals have remained successful. This type of musical also benefits from the work of innovators like Robbins, Fosse, and Bennett, who have made musical theatre aware of the individual artist's voice, specifically the choreographer's. Other directors and choreographers are recognized in this study to illustrate their influence on Robbins, Fosse, and Bennett, to emphasize the relative placement of Robbins, Fosse, and Bennett among their peers, and to depict how these three have inspired new artists to bring novel visual conceptions and approaches to musical theatre. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-08, Section: A, page: 2803. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1986.

John Donahue manifestly and specifically guided the destiny of The Children's Theatre Company and School. As Artistic Director of the theatre for twenty years, it was his philosophy and energy that gave direction to the struggling young Company as it moved from a condemned police station to a made-over gallery of the Museum of Fine Arts to a multi-million dollar physical plant designed for the Company. Each move was indicative of the growth and artistic maturity of the group. More importantly, it was Donahue's creative prowess, exemplified by his productions, which mirror his philosophy and gave the Company its reputation as one of the finest theatres in this country. A description of the process and an analysis of the product of one of Donahue's "originals", A Circle Is The Sun, affords an accurate assessment of his artistic control of the Company. / Personal observations and interviews with long standing participants, supplemented with newspaper articles and archival documents, testify to Donahue's managerial and artistic control of all the theatre's endeavors including the educational programs, the organizational structure, and the productions. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-01, Section: A, page: 0021. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1985.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 31-09, Section: A, page: 4941. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1970.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 31-09, Section: A, page: 4942. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1970.

The purpose of this study is to develop and test a technique for analyzing theatre audiences based on George C. Homans' formulation of the Exchange Theory of Social Behavior. Exchange theory postulates that in every interaction there occurs a series of activities, some of which are rewards and others costs to the parties involved. The value of the costs subtracted from the value of the rewards yields the perceived profit gained by the interaction. Homans theorizes that the greater the profit perceived by the parties the more frequently they will engage in the interaction. / As applied to this study, rewards are those factors that motivate attendance at a theatre. Costs demotivate attendance. When deciding whether or not to attend a theatre the potential theatre goer considers the rewards and costs and will decide to attend only if the perceived profit of attendance is sufficiently high. / To test the application of exchange theory to audience analysis a survey was taken of the audiences for Ithaca College Theatre and Theatre Cornell. Various cost and reward question items were included in the surveys. The perceived profit of attendance was calculated and correlated with the number of times the respondents attended those theatres during the 1979-80 season. The hypothesis tested was: The frequency of attendance varies positively and significantly with the perceived profit of attendance. / The results showed significant correlations of profit and frequency ranging from .1990 to .3525, indicating that exchange theory can provide a useful structure for audience analysis surveys. These findings suggest that an exchange model audience analysis can identify those factors that motivate and demotivate attendance behavior for a particular theatre. Other statistical tests--multiple regression analyses and crosstabulations--were also used and shown to provide additional data needed to prepare effective communications with the audience market. With the information obtained through an exchange model audience analysis theatre managers can create policies, procedures, and promotional materials with added insight into their impact on attendance. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 43-12, Section: A, page: 3756. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1983.

Peoples' Theatre is live theatre designed and performed for economically-disadvantaged audiences by groups which attempt to address the problems of poor people. This study describes working principles and procedures of four Peoples' Theatre groups operating in the United States during the summer of 1977: El Teatro de la Esperanza (The Theatre of Hope), Provisional Theatre, El Teatro Campesino (The Theatre of the Farmworkers), and the Bread and Puppet Theater. Criteria for selection of these groups were: (1) a stated goal of creating Peoples' Theatre, (2) actual activities, projects, or performances for working-class audiences, (3) at least five years experience as a Peoples' theatre, and (4) nomination by an acknowledged board of experts. / The topics investigated for each group included: historical perspective, philosophy, rehearsal techniques, design and technical operations, style and content of productions, organization, personnel, economics, publicity, touring, and audiences. The compilation of this procedural information is designed to assist novice groups which intend to perform for working-class audiences. / The study documents the histories of important companies and their works and provides a systematic discussion of the political, religious, and aesthetic philosophies of the Peoples' Theatre in the United States. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 41-02, Section: A, page: 0462. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1980.

The three women who became the celebrated design team of Motley were unique in several ways. First, they were a design team. They always worked together on productions during the first eight years of their careers, from 1932 to 1940. Second, they had a very long working life as Motley, from that first combined production in 1932 to Sophie Devine's death in 1966. Margaret Harris and Elizabeth Montgomery continue working to this day, but under their own names. Third, the three women were at the center of what can be termed another Renaissance of English theatre. Their friends, all young, not-too-experienced theatre practitioners, included John Gielgud, Laurence Olivier, Ralph Richardson, Alec Guinness, Glen Byam-Shaw, George Devine, Michel St.-Denis and Peggy Ashcroft. The meeting place for friendship and exchange of ideas on theatre was the Motley studio. These women acted as a catalyst; they brought people together who later achieved greatness in the theatre. / The Motleys designed both sets and costumes, and had a hand in building both when they began their careers. When they split up, Montgomery to work in the United States, Harris to work mainly at Stratford-upon-Avon and Devine to do films, West End productions and shows for the Royal Court, they divided labors too. Montgomery did only costumes for Broadway, where the division of labors in theatre design is encouraged. Devine did only costumes, too, in London. Harris was the only one of the trio who continued to design both sets and costumes on her own. This emphasis on costumes rather than sets left many more costume renderings that could be incorporated into an in-depth study like this one. / In their early days of working together, Harris became the technician of the group, Montgomery the one who provided the artistic impetus and the costume designs, and Devine the builder and worker. Harris maintained a constant quest for answers as to how something worked on stage, and seldom took another person's word on the subject, especially if that word was "it can't be done." She made many new things happen on the stage by not being tied in to the standard, accepted format of stage design. / Montgomery had been a painter for years when she met Harris and Devine at art school. Her's was the sense of color and the excitement of using fabrics and textures in a new way: to paint with materials on a three-dimensional figure. Harris said, many years later, that if it hadn't been for Montgomery, they would not have pursued their careers with anything near the vigor she possessed. / Devine was the detailer of the trio. She added the individual touches, the costume accents and set props that made the designs of the other two real and complete. Her costume designs, especially those for film, were minutely detailed and rendered. She was also the best at character rendering. She brought her figures to life with a more careful, surer hand. / The costume designs of Harris, Montgomery and Devine are analyzed and studied through the use of many black and white photographs and color slides. A total of 223 renderings and production photographs are duplicated in the body and appendix of the dissertation. The Appendices also include a total production list with director, theatre and opening date of every known Motley production, and a list of students of the Motleys who went on to have careers in the theatre. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 41-07, Section: A, page: 2832. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1980.

The document deals with the published and unpublished works of playwright Tom Stoppard. Three plays, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Jumpers and Travesties, are given extensive critical analysis; the plays' production histories are then detailed, with specific reference to in-person interviews conducted with actors, directors, and designers who participated in the original productions of the plays, both in Great Britain and the United States. The concluding chapters of the document deal with the author's "nuts and bolts" plays, those works which by virtue of their length or choice of thematic material are slighter, more diversionary, or otherwise not as central to Stoppard's work. The final chapter explores the radio and television works, with specific reference to the position of these works as early explorations for themes and plots later reworked and extended by the author. The chapter includes analysis of much unpublished material obtained through research at the BBC files in London. / Conclusions drawn about Stoppard's work center around his collaborative nature--the input welcomed from other creative contributors, particularly actors, and the author's strong participation in the rehearsal process. Thematic threads are also explored, as well as the specific interrelationship of form and function. Stoppard's position as an author who dislikes "closet" analysis of his work (that is, outside the confines of a theatre) is also elucidated. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 41-07, Section: A, page: 2832. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1980.

This thesis studies the nostalgic years of Burlesque through the career of Kitty Madison. Burlesque theatres, which were once numerous and plentiful during the early part of the twentieth century, began to decline and close during the 1930's. Various reasons are given for the death of Burlesque; advancing technology in other media, the birth of radio and talking films for example; the Great Depression and the resulting lack of money necessary for mounting productions which would be competitive with vaudeville and legitimate theatre in terms of scenic spectacle; and most significantly, the changing moral views of the American society. / Burlesque mirrored the hedonism of the 1920's with comic skits featuring scantily clad ladies who, with a wink or suggestive gesture, implied that their sexual favors could be obtained. As the decade progressed, the sexual suggestions became broader and broader, the tease evolved into the strip and audiences of the twenties flocked to the Burlesque theatres. This calibre of entertainment, while socially acceptable to a large segment of the general public of the morally relaxed Jazz Age, proved to be inappropriate and unacceptable the following decade. Burlesque was unable to adapt and incorporate the more sober social and moral attitudes of the thirties emphasizing the work ethic and a return to the more traditional American values. Faced with failing attendance and loss of profits, most Burlesque theatres ceased operations or converted to cinemas. Burlesque did not die completely; it had created, or at least identified, a market for live pornography, and continued to cater to that need and became the dregs of the entertainment industry. / It was important that a study of Burlesque be completed because Burlesque mirrors and illumines a period of American history and the social and cultural values of a segment of the public in that time. This study cannot pretend to meet completely such an objective, but it makes a beginning by examining the experiences of one of Burlesque's important stars, Kitty Madison. / The reminiscences and scrap books of Kitty Madison suggest insights about an important transition of recent American social history. The 1920's represents to social historians Loren Baritz, William Leuchtenberg, Henry May, Henry Steele Commager, Lewis Allan and others, a period in which the disintegration of American values was recorded and "shook American society to its depths." Kitty Madison's career in Burlesque and decisions she made in her personal life are representative of the confusion of moral values and standards which occurred in American society and provide important insights into the social history of the period. / In addition to what can be learned about American social history from the papers of Kitty Madison, important things can be learned about practices in the American theatre during the first third of the twentieth century. I have edited the transcription of a taped interview with Kitty Madison. The entire unedited transcription of the interview is set forth in the Appendix. In addition, Miss Madison's own words in her own style provide a feeling of the person she is and the times she lived in. She is a colorful person and the oral history approach allows her personality to surface whereas paraphrasing or reporting her comments diminishes her personality. / The 1920's, the decade in which Kitty Madison was most active in show business, in vaudeville as well as Burlesque, represents that time in American social history during which a transition occurred in moral values. This transition is reflected in the history of Burlesque and in the career of Kitty Madison. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 41-07, Section: A, page: 2833. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1980.