Disability in performance has a long history, starting with fictional characters such as Shakespeare's Gloucester/Richard, progressing through the freak shows of the early twentieth century, and finally with artists such as Neil Marcus, Mat Fraser and Deaf West Theatre in the past twenty years. Looking to the work of disabled artists, activists, and theorists such as Petra Kuppers and Carrie Sandahl, I will examine the history of both disability in performance and the performance of disability. I will discuss my performance of Garret, a man with muscular dystrophy, in my original play, The Sick Parents Club. Through analysis of what playing a disability means both emotionally and physically, I will seek to answer the questions: How can an actor play a disabled character without defining them by their disability? Is it possible for a normative-bodied actor to approach authenticity playing a character with a disability?

Casting might be the most exciting thing in theatre to happen off-stage. Actors, agents, directors, producers, and outside observers are keenly interested in who plays a given part. In a professional space, casting seeks to ask, "Which performer is the best fit for this part?" But what happens when an educational theatre director instead asks, "Which role will best enable the learning of this performer?" This thesis explores the process of casting in an educational theatre space as being distinctly different from casting in a professional theatre space. By examining theoretical underpinnings of casting through literature and reflexive practice, I question what factors should be considered when casting youth performers in educational theatre productions. This thesis considers concepts such as thin-slicing, cultural capital, and student-centered pedagogy as means of transforming casting from a production focused practiced to a performer focused one. This thesis examines existing literature about casting as a practice as a means of understanding the theoretical ideas behind casting. I then survey current theatre practitioners in educational theatre spaces to define current trends and practices when evaluating young people's auditions in educational theatre. Finally, I develop and test a tool for measuring young actors in auditions, which I apply and analyze through the casting in a youth production of 101 Dalmatians KIDS. The thesis reflects the practitioner's practice as research and considers both challenges to casting as a pedagogical practice and casting issues unique to educational theatre. The reflection also considers practices to help make casting a more student-centered process in educational theatre spaces.

High school theatre programs tend to select musicals that employ many students, both on and offstage, as well as titles which contain little to no objectionable content, making it safe for all family members to attend. The community standards imposed by school districts limit the choices for theatre teachers. Students also tend to be attracted to the newer and recently released musicals, ones that just finished a national tour or their Broadway run. Finding a title that adheres to the various criteria of a high school can be demanding and frustrating. For my thesis, I mounted and produced Hello, Dolly! at Dr. Phillips High School in February of 2020. This is a musical that hasn't been produced at all in the school's 33-year history, nor has it been produced locally in the greater Central Florida area for some time. Due to the popularity from the recent 2017 revival and subsequent tour, there is a renewed interest in the piece among the theatre savvy students. The annual Spring musical at Dr. Phillips High School is a massive undertaking that utilizes most of the department on and backstage, as well as having a live student orchestra featuring students from the music department. Hello, Dolly! does not require a reinvention or reinterpretation; there is a reason it has stayed a favorite for the past 55 years without a rewriting or revision. For this reason, I stuck as closely as possible to the original production design and staging within the budget and capabilities of a high school Theatre Department. It is important to have the students experience the demands and beauty of a classic musical. I served as director and musical director for this production, and I also staged some of the lesser choreographic songs. This allowed me to approach the production from various angles, all through the same conceptual lens.

The horror genre wears masks of various shapes, sizes, and textures in the creative outlets in which it exists. While often criticized and chastised by the craftiest of pop culture critics, the general agreement is that the genre successfully fulfills its purpose in satisfying a craving for screams while providing a sub-cultured home for a specific demographic of misfits. Although the reasoning behind the genre's ever-growing popularity and continued financial success can easily be accredited to surface-level identifiers such as these, for the purposes of horror-based theatre, I believe they can more accurately be attributed to reasons far more psychoanalytical. This thesis seeks to examine the evolution of horror-based theatre and analyze its relationship with psychoanalytical theory. I propose that in order to push the genre forward and execute it to its highest potential, the practitioner of horror-based theatre must approach their work with a well-crafted understanding of psychoanalytical theory while also executing the three essential elements of horror: escapism, immersion, and participation. Julia Kristeva's Theory of Abjection, detailed through the theoretical research in her 'Powers of Horror' text, will act as the foundation for my research, as I find its principles and values to align themselves strongly with the tools I believe a creator of horror-based theatre should possess. While many professionals and practitioners in our world still fail to recognize the haunt industry as a pure form of theatre, others understand its responsibility in ushering horror-based theatre into the next stage of its evolution, considering all three of the essential elements are at play within the confines of a haunted experience. I too propose that the sub-genre's next evolutionary phase will come as the result of the continued growth of the haunt industry. However, a better understanding of abject theory should work in tandem with the immersive technologies of the haunt world in ensuring that the practitioner executes the experience to its fullest capabilities. As a practical element of my thesis project, I will detail my experience working in the haunt industry from a directorial perspective in determining if a theoretical lens, in conjunction with emerging forms of immersive technologies, can not only help reassure the continued prominence of horror-based theatre, but promote its evolution and empower its growth.

In Karen Jürs-Munby's introduction to her English translation of Hans-Thies Lehmann's Postdramatic Theatre (2006), she positions a single African American theatre practitioner, Suzan-Lori Parks, within the canon of postdramatic writers in spite of Lehmann's blind spot for the contribution of Black artists to innovations in theatre practice and aesthetics. This thesis draws from critical jazz studies, particularly Parks's "Rep & Rev" and Fred Moten's analysis of jazz improvisation from his seminal work, In the Break: The Aesthetics of the Black Radical Tradition (2003), in order to visibilize Black contributions to theatre innovation through what has often been overlooked as merely popular music. Through a series of theoretical riffings, I deconstruct the terms (jazz aesthetics, performance, text, and the postdramatic) toward an architecture of performance and toward a queer epistemology that mixes diverse relationships of intensities found in both jazz and the postdramatic, namely queer time as jazz syncopation/swing, queer space as jazz improvisation, and queer body as jazz sonority/phrasing. Finally, in two theoretical jam sessions, I analyze Quiara Alegría Hudes's Water by the Spoonful (2017) and Christina Anderson's How to Catch Creation (2019) through these lenses. I propose that by locating jazz aesthetics and the postdramatic together in a critical topography, we can better recognize not only how POC and queer theatre makes statements by resisting certain hegemonic structures and deconstructing hierarchies of theatrical conventions, but also how Black and queer forms contribute to innovations in theatre and performance practice.

In 2016, I was cast as Officer Krupke in a production of West Side Story at Orlando Shakespeare Theater in Partnership with UCF. Even though Krupke can be thought of as a minor character in the play, bringing him to life required a great deal of research and imagination. In order to ground myself in the reality of the role, I researched the effects of implicit bias in modern policing, applied that research to Uta Hagen's Nine Questions, and brought that knowledge into the rehearsal hall and onto the stage. I examined how my character's interactions with Lieutenant Schrank influenced his actions and attitudes toward both street gangs in the play and reflected on how my research and these performances changed my point of view and helped me recognize my own biases. This thesis reflects that process and will serve as a tool available to any actor seeking to create his or her own interpretation of Officer Krupke.

The term "inclusion" has been increasing in its use with students of various abilities, specifically students with autism. Creating inclusion work is a growing need within the field of theatre, and a catalyst for this work can be seen through the creation of the Theatre Development Fund's sensory-friendly performances in 2011. These sensory-friendly performances are primarily marketed to families and students who have been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, as ASD often creates a sensory sensitivity to bright lights, sudden movements, or loud sounds. As a theatre practitioner, the guiding question of my research is exploring whether inclusion practices can be enforced beyond the stage and into educational programming for students with ASD? Can inclusion practices strengthen the intuitive skill sets of teaching artists? How can theatre artists seek inclusion training? Can the use of inclusion practices within classroom settings perpetuate consistent work for teaching artists? The goal for my research is to use the fields of education, psychology and theatre to acknowledge and inform the difficulty in defining inclusion and create a supplemental resource for theatre teaching artists to use in practice. My methodology is reflecting on my experiences as a graduate student pursuing the Autism Spectrum Disorders certificate in addition to my MFA in Theatre at the University of Central Florida.

Using real-life stories written by female offenders, Planting seeds - Life Stories of Awakening Self-Awareness seeks to identify the systematic challenges these females may have faced, that in most cases, are the root-causes of their derailment from the societal norms of conduct. Applying the concepts of community and social justice and equality as a lens, this work will attempt to corroborate, as a universal postulate, that the process of sharing life stories can have transformative effects on the individuals and that theatre techniques, such as theatre games and scripting can help identify those impediments to restoring lives. Key to the transformative component of this work is the exploration of theatre as a mechanism of support and restoration and that the contributions that theatre may offer are the pillars that sustain the well-being of communities, and henceforth society. Using techniques of storytelling and story writing in the process of re-enacting life stories, the participants will be able to possibly recognize issues that may be impeding their growth. In addition, engagement in storytelling, and moreover, story writing can help the participants increase their cognitive skills and the ability to live a communal life. This evidence-based practice can transform lives and society. It has the potential of continuing to other facilities and with other populations, such as incarcerated males, juvenile delinquents, and orphans. It can reach out beyond these institutionalized populations to any community in need of finding itself, and, further its maximum potential. This work seeks to help these females identify impediments for further growth by using theatre techniques such as sharing and scripting their life stories.

As a teaching artist and theatre educator, I believe an important part of the theatre-going experience is when an audience engages with the play before and after the performance: learning about context, analyzing the production, and identifying themes relevant to the play. Theatre is a powerful teaching tool with regards to empathy and political and social awareness, but also, for young audiences, theatre can help students understand content in other subject areas like language arts, history, and even health. This thesis develops best practices for creating effective audience engagement with young people in theatre in the form of Field Trip Plus at Orlando Repertory Theatre, an enrichment program linking professional season productions to pre- and post-show workshops. It explores the following questions: What is audience engagement, and what are the benefits of audience engagement practices on retention and meaning-making? What is the history of audience engagement in Theatre for Young Audiences, and what are some examples of TYA companies intentionally engaging young people before and after performances? It focuses specifically on the development of Theatre-In-Education in the United Kingdom as an example of integrated drama and education practice which is supported by the pedagogy of Lev Vygotsky, Dorothy Heathcote, and Augusto Boal. It considers how the work of these theorists can also be applied to Field Trip Plus. This thesis is the personal exploration of a teaching artist practicing engagement strategies within Orlando Repertory Theatre, an established Theatre for Young Audiences, that will help young people make connections between state education standards and the play, cultivate their curiosity for learning through the arts, and become life-long active audience members.

Living with Marie is a project aiming to adapt dramatherapy techniques so that they are better suited to the creation of theatre in an attempt to educate audiences of the struggles some individuals cope with while living with mental illness. By using the practices implemented by dramatherapists Sue Jennings, John Casson, R. M. Simon, and Phil Jones, the evolution of my play Living with Marie can be seen as first originating in imagery before progressing to text and finally, performable art. This venture, inspired by my own psychotic struggle, gives audiences a glimpse into the clandestine existence of a nameless Young Woman and her mêlée with a schizophrenic embodiment of her mental disorders named Marie.