The concept musical, a fourth category of American musical theatre, has been accepted as a legitimate category but never fully defined. This study examined the attributes making up the category (theme, structure, character, and song), identified the hallmarks of the category, and provided a concise definition. Two concept musicals, Company and A Chorus Line were analyzed.

This study, in its exploration of the attached play scripts and their method of development, evaluates the forms, strategies, and methods of an organised model of formalised playwriting. Through the examination, reflection and reaction to a perceived crisis in playwriting in the Australian theatre sector, the notion of Industrial Playwriting is arrived at: a practice whereby plays are designed and constructed, and where the process of writing becomes central to the efficient creation of new work and the improvement of the writer’s skill and knowledge base. Using a practice-led methodology and action research the study examines a system of play construction appropriate to and addressing the challenges of the contemporary Australian theatre sector. Specifically, using the action research methodology known as design-based research a conceptual framework was constructed to form the basis of the notion of Industrial Playwriting. From this two plays were constructed using a case study method and the process recorded and used to create a practical, step-by-step system of Industrial Playwriting. In the creative practice of manufacturing a single authored play, and then a group-devised play, Industrial Playwriting was tested and found to also offer a valid alternative approach to playwriting in the training of new and even emerging playwrights. Finally, it offered insight into how Industrial Playwriting could be used to greatly facilitate theatre companies’ ongoing need to have access to new writers and new Australian works, and how it might form the basis of a cost effective writer development model. This study of the methods of formalised writing as a means to confront some of the challenges of the Australian theatre sector, the practice of playwriting and the history associated with it, makes an original and important contribution to contemporary playwriting practice.

Thesis (M.A.)--Florida State University, 2005. / Advisor: Dr. Laura Edmondson, Florida State University, School of Theatre. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed June 13, 2005). Document formatted into pages; contains v, 67 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

abstract: In May 2014, The Encyclopedia Show: Chicago performed its last volume. Like all others before, the Show was a collection of performances devised by artists, musicians, poets and playwrights all performing various subtopics surrounding a central theme, taken from “an actual Encyclopedia.” The final show was Volume 56 for Chicago; the founding city ended their six year run with an amassed body of work exploring topics ranging from Wyoming to Alan Turing, Serial Killers to Vice Presidents. Perhaps more impressive than the monthly performance event in Chicago is the fact that the show has been “franchised” to organizers and performers in at least seventeen cities. Franchise agreements mandated that for at least the first year of performance, topics were to follow Chicago’s schedule, thus creating an archive of Shows around the world, each that started with Bears, moved to The Moon, onto Visible Spectrum of Color, and so on. Now that the Chicago show has ended, I wonder what will happen to the innovative format for community performance that has reached thousands of audience members and inspired hundreds of individual performances across the globe in a six-year period. This project, like much of my own work, has two aims: first, to provide the first substantive history of The Encyclopedia Show for archival purposes; and second, to explore whether this format can be used to achieve the goals of “interdisciplinarity” in the classroom. In an effort to honor my own interests in multiple academic disciplines and in an attempt to capture the structural and performative “feel” of an Encyclopedia Show, this dissertation takes the shape of an actual Encyclopedia Show. The overarching topic of this “show” is: Michelle Hill: The Doctoral Process. In an actual Encyclopedia Show, subtopics would work to explore multiple perspectives and narratives encompassed by the central topic. As such, my “subtopics” are devoted to the roles I have played throughout my doctoral process: historian, academic, teacher. A fourth role, performer, works to transition between the sections and further create the feel of a “breakage” from a more traditional dissertation. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Theatre 2017

It has been said that the character of an institution is largely determined by its history and the personalities that shaped it. If this is so, the Frederic Wood Theatre has much to draw on, for it was founded in the spirit of cooperation and promise. This thesis traces the beginning of the university from the original petition for its formation, through its early struggle to be established. Concurrent with this expansion is the growth of theatre at the university, a development which helped to introduce the institution throughout the province. The current Frederic Wood Theatre is the outgrowth of a tradition of theatre at the University of British Columbia. The beginning of this historical retrospective is the original petition for the founding of the university. Subsequent to that initial and failed attempt, the University of British Columbia was created by legislation through the efforts of Henry Esson Young, the "Father of the university", and by organization through the works of Frank Fairchild Wesbrook, its first President. Professor Frederic Wood, a founding member of the faculty in 1915, formed the Players'Club which provided the university its theatrical foundation for the next thirty years. Dorothy Somerset, a Director of the Players'Club and the Vancouver Little Theatre (also co-founded by Prof. Frederic Wood) established accredited theatre courses at the university and founded the Summer School of the Theatre. In 1952, these achievements won her the university's first legitimate theatre: the Frederic Wood. With single-minded purpose, Dorothy Somerset further established the Department of Theatre in 1958, building the present 410 seat Frederic Wood Theatre five years later in 1963. More than a physical building, the Frederic Wood Theatre is a dynamic process responding to the energies and influences of its principals. Seven individuals (out of hundreds) who were fundamental in contributing to the accomplishments of the Frederic Wood Theatre are introduced: Henry Esson Young, ''Father of the University'; Frank Fairchild Wesbrook, first President of the University of British Columbia; Professor Frederic G.C. Wood, founder of the Players' Club; Dorothy Somerset, founder of the Department of Theatre; Jessie Richardson, in whose honour years later, the Jessie Awards were created; Norman Young, stage manager, publicizer and lobbyist, and John Brockington, Head of the Theatre Department for 23 years, the man who guided and developed its academic and degree granting programs. Few people realize how great a role the theatre has played in the establishment of the University of British Columbia. / Arts, Faculty of / Theatre and Film, Department of / Graduate

No description available.

This written portion of my thesis is aimed at documenting how I, the director, as both interpretive and generative artist, took William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night from the page to the stage through ongoing collaboration with a team of artists including designers, a composer, and actors. My documentation includes the generation of my theatrical production concept and staging of Shakespeare’s play. In order to place my production of Twelfth Night in cultural, historical, and artistic contexts, I open my discussion to theoretical considerations and artistic practices, address my specific artistic decisions in the creation of this production, examine the particular problems encountered in the making of this work, and reconstruct the creative process itself.

No Sleep '˜Til Minsky's is a one-man show paying tribute to early 20th century variety entertainment. The writing process began with research into the forms of vaudeville and burlesque, including films of period acts, study of autobiographies and biographies of burlesque performers, and study of historical scripts performed in the time period and stored at the Library of Congress. The format of the show consists of a one-hour core script in which Lou Drake speaks of his life and career in burlesque. In addition to the core script, the structure is designed to allow more actors to participate in staging sketches described by Drake, as well as allowing external acts to splice their material into a performance.

This thesis is the written portion of my experience as a director, staging an adaptation of the traditional Iranian theater form, Ta’zieh, for my thesis project. I start with a brief description of our adapted performance, followed by the inspirations that led to the creation of the piece. I then trace the evolution of the idea from the initial stage to the final performance. I describe the adaptation process in three sections, the story, form, and practice. In each section, in a comparative manner, I write about the ways in which Ta’zieh is traditionally done and elaborate on our decisions while adapting it for a new audience. I explain the challenges of adapting and directing the play outside of its original context and discuss how I worked on making this performance an intercultural experience. I conclude to write how I think these artistic cultural exchanges can connect us between countries and cultures, shed a light on our shared struggles and hopes, and lead us to connect on deeper levels of understanding.

Eliminating any consideration of setting, the story of the evolution of lighting is an absorbing commentary upon the history of the theatre and necessary to the full integration of its use as an instrument in the modern theatre. An understanding of the history of the development of stage lighting is as necessary a foundation to the creative and imaginative use of light in the theatre as the foundation of a building is necessary to the support of a tower. History probides the signpost showing the directions to be taken in experimentation and a standard for evaluation of such experimentation. The responsibility of the director and designer to understand and appreciate the uses to which the lighting instrument may be but has increased in rationte the progress made in the efficiency and flexibility of stage lighting from mid-sixteenth century up to the present. A director who regards lighting as mere illusination antedates De Somi in his philosophy. The stage manager who lacts an understanding of his basic units ofmodern lighting and their antecedents is seriously handicapped. With an understanding of the development of the lightng instrument and its effect upon the physical theatre, the imagination is liberated and the basis for new techniques is laid.