Professional Wrestling: Local Performance History, Global Performance Praxis, is a work of interdisciplinary scholarship (combining elements of theatre history, performance studies, and philosophy) that addresses an area of performance currently under-researched within the liberal arts and humanities: professional wrestling. My dissertation directs much-needed attention to the fact that professional wrestling is the only kind of live drama many Americans ever see (or even want to see). Although it is no doubt easy for theatre historians and performance theorists to dismiss this performance practice because of its location somewhere between illegitimate sport and lowbrow popular entertainment, I contend that United States professional wrestling is a sophisticated performance form that boasts a rich history whose study yields vital insights about how movement-centric performances are staged in commercialized spectacles. My dissertation archives the history of Louisiana professional wrestling and sheds light upon the repertoire of performance practices passed down from one generation to the next. In this dissertation I argue that the death of Louisiana professional wrestling provides an archetype for how the performance of professional wrestling transitioned from a local performance practice viewed live in a community to a televised, globalized product watched around the world. I argue that this transition can best be understood through the lenses of analytic philosophy of dance and the establishment of mass art forms in tandem with the development of mass technologies, rather than through primarily semiotic analyses popularized during the 1960s by Roland Barthes

In theatre scholarship, the event of the on-stage accident is a fairly neglected area of research. Aside from brief archival detailing of some of the more tragic events, scholars have not approached the accidents from a theoretical or historiographical position. Many, I surmise, find little of interest in an on-stage accident due to its lack of aesthetic purpose or intentionality. In this project, I focus on those neglected accidents and, more specifically, accidents that take place due to a violent failure of theatrical convention. I discuss three specific moments where a theatre convention established to concretize the world of the play for the audience turns violent before a live audience. I detail the apparatus of the convention and how it worked, as well as how it violently failed. Additionally, I discuss the cultural and material make-up of the event. My study begins with the recent on stage death of KÀ performer Sarah Guillot-Guyard in Las Vegas and a review of the terminology and scholarship pertinent to this study. I then focus on three discrete events/theatre conventions: nineteenth century gas light and the fatal accidents caused by its use, the recent Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark and accidental injuries caused by prop weapons used during stage combat. What separates these conventions from an average theatre accident is their reliance on a technology in establishing the illusion of violence or danger. In my analysis I examine the phenomenology at play when a violent convention actually causes injury to the performer in front of an audience.

This work explores themes of womanhood through the creation of an installation that is a blend of visual art and costume design. Often the initial creative impulse of a costume design can be compromised by the needs or necessity of a production. Using this instinct as a guide to the exploration of themes of womanhood, this journey will yield the design and production of highly theatrical and emotional pieces of art. The purpose of this work is to tell stories and share experiences of being a woman. The pieces will be displayed as an environmental installation that will invite the viewer to experience costume design in a non-traditional manner.

My dissertation interrogates how the movement of artists between Havana, New York, and Miami shaped experimental theatre aesthetics, formed a shared discourse of theatrical thought, and introduced a particular vein of experimental practices into U.S. American avant-garde theatre, especially as it intersects with U.S. Latina/o theatre and LGBTQ theatre. I interrogate the theatre history of these three cities as horizontal and contiguous, challenging historical narratives of U.S. American neocolonial dominance and superiority, as well as narratives of diaspora that position Havana as an authentic origin. The central contribution of my dissertation is to synthesize the archival evidence that documents connections between the theatre scenes of these three cities, while repositioning well-known artists like Obie Award-winning author and director, María Irene Fornés and Pulitzer Prize-winning author and director Nilo Cruz within the avant-garde traditions touching Greater Cuba (Cuba and its diasporas). By doing so, this study addresses the absence of scholarship in English-language U.S. American Theatre Studies that discusses Latin American and U.S. Latina/o theatre as cutting-edge and artistically innovative vis-à-vis global and Western theatre movements. Each chapter in my dissertation follows a distinct aesthetic movement or theatrical phenomenon, arguing that each approach experimented with feeling "Cuban" in a unique way. Artists thrust Cuban being upon a stage where it was affectively transferred across difference to also become something beyond the reaches of the island and the diaspora. Avant-garde theatre gave these artists a potent set of tools to deterritorialize the stories, tropes, motifs, symbols, aesthetics, and performance practices associated with an extremely nationalistic theatrical tradition. Through avant-garde theatre, these theatre artists moved experiences particular to Greater Cuba into the realm of the "universal" human experience. Cuban avant-garde practice Cubanizes the "universal" through its ways of reinterpreting modernisms and universalizes the Cuban by moving its perspectiveits way of looking at the worldto the center. The act of positioning a Havana-Cuban, Miami-Cuban, or New York-Cuban expression as the voice of the "universal human experience is a political act to assert citizenship in and belonging to the Western (U.S. American and European) dominated discourse of the humanities.

This paper is intended to document the process of developing and performing The Treasure of Welks-Kreer, a one-man show written by Lance Rasmussen in fulfillment of the requirement for his Master of Fine Arts in Acting degree at Louisiana State University. Harkening back to the memories of his childhood and his current passions and interests, Lance wrote The Treasure of Welks-Kreer as a story of hope and exploration. The story follows The Metaphor, a superhero who finds himself transported back to the basement where he used to play table-top roleplaying games with the group of friends who eventually formed his team of superheroes. Through replaying the roleplaying game he loved as a teen, he is forced to confront truths and what it means to take on the mantle of a hero.

Main Line was developed as a 20-minute solo performance piece by the influence of my graduate training at Louisiana State Universitys M.F.A. acting program. The writing and the performance of this project served as a graduation requirement as well professional experience and exploration of my personal aesthetics of storytelling, actors craft, production design, and independent theatre making. This thesis acts like a guide to my process of devising theatre. I was inspired and determined to produce work that was meaningful, political, and entertaining. Main Line explores the narrative of black experiences within a New Orleans culture that centers the movement of Social Aid and Pleasure Clubs, The Jazz Funeral, Mardi Gras Indians, and Benevolent Societies. Chapter One explores narratives and key historical references that influenced my research and development process, and documents my rehearsal period. Chapter Two includes my working drafts and performance script; I will also analyze the shortcomings of the working draft and the constructive changes I made in the performance script. In Chapter Three, I will outline the performance process and include post-performance feedback from my peers, faculty, and the wider community. Finally, I will conclude with my reflections on solo performance, community theatre, and possibilities for my future development of the piece.

Diaspora Crossroads is a solo performance I devised for my M.F.A. Acting thesis project at Louisiana State University. I was interested in investigating my family history through the lens of an actor. I researched various maternal and paternal family members and narrowed my performance exploration down to two ancestors. As an actor, I wanted to investigate how I could use my training to embody multiple characters in solo performance. Furthermore, it was my goal to test my abilities as an actor by writing and creating a twenty-minute solo performance workshop as three characters that varied on my identity spectrum. My thesis analyzes the research, rehearsal, and performance process of Diaspora Crossroads and the implementation of my acting training in the context of devised theater. My findings post performance resulted in my solo performance workshop serving as a potential tool for more extensive characterization. Although the specificity of each character was not sharpened in the brevity of twenty minutes, the workshop lead to creating a foundation for a stronger embodiment of my ancestors through acting in future performances. The performance of Diaspora Crossroads also led to sparking conversations amongst audiences about the performance of identity and culture.

The coming pages will document my journey from the initial creative spark, to the final performance of a one-man show. The first chapter will chronicle the creative process and how I came about the idea. The second chapter will show you the performance text along with analysis to give a side-by-side example. The third and final chapter will detail what this thesis project means to me personally, my graduate degree and how my views on art have evolved. What was my one-man show about? Its a story about the moment our moral compass is turned upside down, and finding our way back to true north. I call it, Me Paenitet. This is its journey.

In compliance to the curriculum at Louisiana State University and Swine Palaces Actor Training Program, M.F.A. Acting candidates are required to create and develop a one-person show. The objective is to foster the actors creative virtuosity and to give them the confidence, capability, and skill set to continue to create their own work after graduation. My play is about Lucy James, a recent college graduate, who moves to New York to follow her dreams of becoming an actress. Lucy's love for the craft is challenged when she takes a demoralizing job and her life begins to spiral out of control. Lucy's journey is to discover the importance of one's own humanity in the industry and the city. This thesis paper will analyze the process of research, evolution, production, and assessment of my solo play: Terrible Telegrams.

This thesis documents the process of devising, writing, rehearsing, and performing a solo show named A Man Without. The play depicts the posthumous trial of a multi-religious man named Neelkanth Khan. To be freed from limbo, Neelkanth must defend his life before Jesus, Krishna and Allah. Unfortunately, Neelkanth loses his case; yet another failure for a man whose life was a series of failures due to his circumstances and his character flaws. On the thematic level, this story implies that mankinds failure to understand religion and the Gods leads to religious fanaticism. The backbone of this project is the training I received during the M.F.A. Acting Program at Louisiana State University. This paper details the important hurdles and breakthroughs in the process of writing, rehearsing, and performing this play. It also includes a rehearsal draft and the full performance script for A Man Without.