This study proposes and tests a model for play development analysis, which offers a framework and a vocabulary for cataloguing the working parts of play development initiatives. When scholars analyze a completed play text, there are several useful categories available with which to organize observations, including space and time, character, dialogue, plot and story, genre, and spectacle. Such basic categories have been lacking in the analysis of play development and dramaturgy practice. In order to create a framework for analysis, the hourglass model for play development analysis proposes the basic categories of source, perspective, leadership, company modelling, choice of form, conditions of creation (including assumed theatrical conventions), design, given and anticipated consequences, and reception. The three case studies included in this project demonstrate the uses and limitations of the analysis model for new play development and its categories. The Whispering Pines play development process at Nightswimming and the processes experienced by the participants in the 2011 Tarragon Playwright’s Unit both fit easily into the hourglass, largely because they employ traditional roles in the play development process without challenging established hierarchies and because both resulted in play texts; Nightswimming’s Rough House, as a devised piece, challenges the model and demonstrates its flexibility in dealing with non-traditional forms of theatre-making. By providing grounds for comparison between these three markedly different models, the hourglass teases out a number of productive contrasts between text-based and devised theatre. The model which I propose and test in this study has been designed to introduce a formal, pragmatic methodology to the heretofore anecdotal field of scholarship on English-Canadian dramaturgy and new play development. Its formation is indebted to and embedded within the scholarship which has come before. The pragmatic model is proposed as a methodological framework for analysis that has yet to be employed in scholarship on dramaturgy practice and new play development in particular. In my analysis of three play development initiatives, I identify the common elements inherent in each development setting and, by using the same methodology to understand each process I uncover the formative elements unique to each process. The uniquely structured analysis contributes to existing scholarship by illustrating how new play development serves or does not serve the playwright, how the relationship between dramaturg and writer affect the process, and to what extent the realities of each development model in question do or do not serve the needs of each project. The thorough analysis afforded by the model tests the three tenets of play development identified by scholarship on development dramaturgy and illuminates the inner workings of the development initiatives which are particular to each case study.

This thesis discusses the work of theatre director Krzysztof Warlikowski, which holds an important place within Polish and world theatre, although it remains little known in the UK. It argues that that existing approaches to Warlikowski’s theatre are inadequate as they focus too much on the perspective of an interpreter of productions who decodes the meaning of the performance. Instead Warlikowki’s work should be approached from the perspective of an observer of the complex creative processes that lead to performance and determine its relationship with the audience. The connection between actors and spectators takes the form of an ‘encounter’ that offers a particular experience of theatregoing. It aims to challenge the existing customs of spectatorship and is based on destabilising and violating the sense of safety of both actors and spectators while expanding their experience of performance beyond the ‘here and now’.This thesis asks questions about the distinctive conditions that make possible the type of encounter that lies at the heart of Warlikowski’s oeuvre and distinguishes it from Polish repertory theatre. The theoretical framework of ‘intertheatricality’ facilitates identification of the matrix of elements that inform this encounter. These elements are constituted by: 1.The strategies that have led Warlikowski to become a successful director and enabled him to create a new way of theatre-making and communication with audience; 2. The complex processes of the creation of his ensemble of actors; 3. The family-like setting and the collaborative nature of rehearsals; 4. The status of actors who become the co-authors of performance and their idiosyncratic involvement in the creation of shows that cross the borders between work and life; and finally, 5. The role of the audience that becomes an integral element of the performance making process. Seeing Warlikowski’s work from the perspective of performance as event shows it not as a static and completed artefact, but as a fleeting, transient process that is open to changes and resonates with the outside world. Through its focus on creative processes, this approach sheds new light on the theatre of Warlikowski. It shows how he integrates the actors and audience into his performance making process, and also helps to demonstrate his impact on the status of audience within Polish mainstream theatre post-1989.

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My name is Greg Delany Walker. I’m an MFA candidate in Theatre Arts with a specialization in Acting at the University of Iowa. The following is my thesis that addresses my artistic process as an actor. My main focus in this thesis is to unpack my beliefs about what makes good acting and how I personally achieve that. I detail many schools of thought that pair well together to seek out vulnerability in actors. Vulnerability is my chief struggle as an actor given that I have a tendency to overthink things and rely more on intellect than on passionate expression in my daily life and in my work. That tendency leads me to be polite as an actor, which has gotten in the way of my being able to reach my full potential. I discovered time and time again how important it is to understand and embody acting techniques so deeply that I can let them go. All the different techniques of analysis, physical and voice work are essential, but they need to transition to being second nature. The techniques outlined in this thesis, learned in my life and through the program at the University of Iowa, have to be so ingrained that I don’t need to think of them in the moment on stage. The key to being present on stage seems so simple in a way, but it has been a great challenge for me to fully let go of control to allow for my potential public failure and humiliation. The times that I’ve embraced failure have been the strongest moments for me as an actor because of the power of risk. My hope is that by detailing my own process and experiences, with that idea of building technique and releasing into the present moment, that others could be further empowered to do the same in acting or in life.

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This written portion of my thesis chronicles my experience as director and producer of Visionary Futures: Science Fiction Theatre for Social Justice Movements, in collaboration with playwrights, activists, actors, designers, and a dramaturg. In this thesis, I explore the process of creating a meaningful thesis project during the Covid-19 pandemic. I discuss the idea of visionary fiction as created by adrienne maree brown and Walidah Imarisha and how to create theatre within that genre. This thesis chronicles the development and production of three new plays of visionary fiction that wrestle with contemporary social issues, all designed for digital performance. I share my process pairing each writer with an activist to create work that envisioned more just worlds while also being responsive to the current moment. I explore the opportunities and challenges of reimagining the generative writing process, making theatre within a digital medium, and being creative during a global pandemic. This thesis also includes the full text of each play and links to the recordings of the digital productions.

The world of theatre focuses on presentation and showmanship, but what audience never sees is often the most vital parts of the show. Behind the curtains, in the backstage of the theatre is where the real magic happens. This paper focuses on shedding some light on one aspect of the backstage. Without light, nothing would be seen. Follow along as the process of being chosen, creating, research, and production are revealed and explained to make the backstage more appreciated.

Thesis (D.M.A.)--Boston University / Tonight we will recreate musical moments from the plays of Don Pedro Calderon De La Barca, who lived from 1600 until 1680. During his long span of life he dominated the brilliant Baroque playwrights and poets for several generations. He took the rich heritage of drama forms which Juan Del Encina, Tirso De Molina, Lope De Vega and many others had created, and under the magnificent patronage of the Hapsburgs--Philip III, Philip IV, and Carlos II--Calderon brought the one-act sacred plays, called autos sacramentales, to their definitive form. For us he is particularly interesting for the enormous amount of music he employed in his plays, and the creative ways in which he used the musical forms , and because he wrote the first librettos for Spanish opera and for the musical comedies, called zarzuelas. Calderon produced three types of plays: the one-act sacred plays, the three-act comedies and three-act dramas [TRUNCATED]

A DESIGN CONCEPT FOR THE LIGHTING OF HELL IN HIGH WATER BY MARCUS GARDLEY MAY 2012 JESSICA GREENBERG, B.A., HAMPSHIRE COLLEGE M.F.A., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor Penny Remsen I designed the lighting for this new play with music HELL IN HIGH WATER by Marcus Gardley, produced by the UMass Amherst Theater Department. In this thesis paper I discuss the creative process from start to finish. I include relevant lighting paperwork and images from the production.