This study analyses the role of the family as a metaphorical, thematic and structural device within the field of recent Australian drama. The family, as presented by Australian dramatists, is fragmented and incoherent. The impossibility to forge coherence is linked directly to the circumstances of contemporary Australia’s genesis as a colonial and postcolonial society, and the subsequent encouragement of a monolithic national culture through the conscious and unconscious suppression of alternative voices and histories. As a site of hierarchical power, the family supplies a convenient trope for the justification of particular paradigms of cultural dominance. At the same time, however, family is also a potent source of identity, and therefore becomes an important site of cultural recuperation as well. Consequently, it is a central assumption of this thesis that the familial context, as deployed by Australian dramatists, is both ambivalent and politically freighted. Performance plays a critical role in ‘liberating’ occluded and pathologised subjectivities from ideological exile and challenging embedded power structures. By its very nature, performance resists conscription into the totalising project that aims to validate the dominant culture’s hegemonic position. By embodying and reclaiming experience, all performance becomes political to some extent, and therefore intrinsically subversive; the resultant enactment of alternative histories not only serves to interrogate the hegemonic culture, but also empowers those ‘communities of silence’ rendered powerless under its discursive weight. The notion of family carries with it numerous attendant images including those of ‘home’ and ‘the child’. The fragmentary nature of the Australian dramatic family both complicates, and is complicated by, notions of home. So too do issues of familial succession and national capital surface to problematise concepts of childhood and establish it as a site of deep social and cultural anxiety. While this study is primarily concerned with the broader topic of family in recent Australian drama, it is the recurring figure of the child as the focus of the family, along with connected concepts of home and nation – family’s discursive parallel – that ultimately provides this study’s unifying thrust. This study covers the approximate period from 1975 to 2005, from the commencement of what is often termed the ‘New Wave’ of Australian drama, when smaller local companies and emerging dramatists began to gain an artistic credibility and popularity that would influence the conception and reception of subsequent drama. Some twenty-three works are considered in depth in this study, spread across four specific foci that contextualise the family thematic: ‘big house’ drama, which encompasses plays by Alex Buzo, Louis Nowra, Stephen Sewell and Beatrix Christian; Aboriginal theatre, which includes works by Robert Merritt, Jack Davis, Jane Harrison, Wesley Enoch and Deborah Mailman, and Scott Rankin and Leah Purcell; the drama of abject and appropriated youth, which examines selected works by Matt Cameron, Alison Lyssa, Michael Gow and Nick Enright; and the theatre of the displaced, which focuses on plays by Tes Lyssiotis, Ben Ellis and Christine Evans, as well as ‘autobiographical’ stories written and performed by Dina Panozzo and Anna Yen and ‘verbatim’ pieces dramatised by the activist theatre companies Sidetrack and version 1.0. The works considered in this study therefore represent a range of performance styles, forms and methodologies, in keeping with the overall dramatic tenor of the period.

One of the largest goals for any non-profit organization is to continually retain donors and increase fundraising on a yearly basis. Fundraisers and auctions have been reliable methods for financial stability, but as more nonprofit organizations look to a shrinking pool of donors, non-profits must change the way they ask for support. To stand out in a competitive market, theatre practitioners have the opportunity to create content that connects donors to non-profits through theatrical means. As a new performing arts hire for a non-profit, Seacrest Country Day School, our artistic team was approached by the school development team to find new ways to increase donations for their annual fundraising event. To accomplish this goal, our artistic staff developed a theatrical performance whose leading purpose was to raise funds for this non-profit organization. Inspired by the research in Curtains? The Future of the Arts In America by Michael M. Kaiser and The Art of Play by Gary Izzo, the objective was to create an interactive theatrical piece that not only provided entertainment and kept audiences engaged artistically, but simultaneously gathered donations to help provide financial support for our non-profit. This thesis is based on the creation and execution of the flagship production. The discoveries found during the reflection of this process have led to a working model which can be applied to future productions of Audience Participatory Theatre for Non-profit Fundraising

This thesis explores theatrical intimacy choreography and coordination during current significant social shifts. Covid restrictions, keen awareness of "correctness", and a desire to "do better" have allowed protective practices like theatrical intimacy to become not only generally accepted but expected in rehearsal spaces. Using techniques such as consent-based spaces, actor disclosures, and common language acquired through training with Chelsea Pace and Laura Rikard, the founders of Theatrical Intimacy Education (TIE), I explore choreographing close relationship moments through high school productions of Jane Eyre and Footloose presented in 2021-22 at Lake Highland Preparatory in Orlando and with older BFA/MFA student actors in Indecent, Welcome to the Moon, and First Date at the University of Central Florida (UCF). Within these different spaces, questions arose that guided my investigations and process. When is the practice an appropriate tool for establishing personal boundaries and preferences? Moving across the age groups, how does or how should the process change? How can prescribed techniques be modified to assist student actors in storytelling when the technique appears to fall short? How can the practice of theatrical intimacy be adapted to the social distancing and masking requirements caused by Covid? And finally, how does one maneuver within the boundaries established by those creating new standards and popular practices such as "Theatrical Intimacy"? During my process, I rely on training sessions with TIE and on Chelsea Pace's Staging Sex. To assist in storytelling and establish actor process, I adapt methods from Actioning and How to Do It by Nick Moseley. As I reflect upon the spaces we create and the work we do in them, I investigate various publications that include the thoughts of Elise Ahenkorah, Holly Derr, Beth Strano, Keith Morant, Michael Roth, and Nina Power. In searching how we might live in those spaces peaceably and productively, I explore adrienne maree brown's We Will Not Cancel Us, And Other Dreams of Transformative Justice."

What does it look like to have youth embody activism through theatre, and how do they take what they learned through theatre and implement it in their everyday lives? Many enter the field of Theatre for Young Audiences because they believe young people (that is, youth that are 18 and younger) have the power to change the world. While the Theatre for Young Audiences field often produces plays that teach young people about the power of change, it is also important to consider how we center and amplify youth voices in the conversations about societal change. As a teaching artist and director of youth theatre, I have led two projects meant to teach young people about how they can create social change and to give them the tools to hone their own activist voices. In the first project, I directed Guns in Dragonland, a ten-minute play written by a youth playwright, with youth actors, that addressed gun violence; in the second project, I taught playwriting in school residencies to high school drama students with the intention of the students producing ten-minute plays about social change. This thesis explores these two projects compared to similar programs that explore gender and racial injustice through theatre with young people. I then ask the following questions: How much focus should be given to the process and the product? What is the role of the adult in a space of theatre for social change? What is the scope of theatre for social change that I am teaching, and how do I navigate student wellness throughout the process? This thesis will gather the best practices for teaching artist pedagogy as it applies to creating theatre for social change with young people.

This thesis seeks to establish core design elements for use by theme park designers to complement the guidelines established by Ledbetter and his colleagues for theme parks. Building upon Rose Biggin's "strands of enquiry" for examining immersive theatre, the suggested core design elements for immersive theme park queues serve as guidance to craft queues where audiences can actively engage with the queue's storyworld and narrative. Implementation of the core design elements alongside the already established queue design guidelines should assist designers in crafting queues that minimize discomfort and maximize narrative immersion. Theme parks offer location-based narrative landscapes, often contributing to transmedia storytelling across a wide variety of media, especially those based in film and television. In this capacity, "immersive lands" and their attractions serve as "diegetic worlds" where guests enter into a physical manifestation of fiction. These lands and attractions increasingly embrace forms of interactivity including digital and video game interfaces. The queue experience of Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance serves as a case study to examine contemporary queue design choices and further develop the design elements. Established as a canon theme park experience in a wider transmedia narrative, it also serves as a lens through which to see the core design elements in action along with forecasting future queue design considerations across a spectrum of scalability.

This thesis project explores the application of Universal Design principles to the development of purpose-built rest and play spaces within United States theme parks that provide places of refuge for children with autism and their families. The goal is to offer ideas on how to create spaces where families and individuals can take a break from the over-stimulation of the traditional theme park environment in an area that has been specifically designed with their sensory needs in mind. Though the target demographic for these spaces is children with autism and their families, the ideas offered to create space will not be limited: these spaces will be available to all theme park visitors, providing a space for young children to play, parents to relax, nurse or feed infants, and adults to recharge throughout the day. The overall design of the space will be informed by Universal Design concepts that promote widespread use by individuals of varying needs, utilizing materials, colors, construction methods and flexibility of use to ensure that the space is as accessible as possible for a diverse user group.

The purpose of this thesis is to explore a new type of ride design which integrates one or more transitions between formats. Theme Park visitors have come to expect a certain type of immersive experience from attractions. Most rides in the parks are very predictable such as roller coasters which offer loops, drops, speed and quick turns, while dark rides offer a slower pace with the attention on storytelling. The solution to this situation is to combine two ride systems or more into a single ride. The ride system for my attraction begins with a free-floating boat ride navigating its way down a peaceful river. When it reaches the waterfall, the boat is guided onto a motion platform which lifts it up to the top of the waterfall. It slowly glides through a Torii Gate, past a Powerful Dragon and to the Guests surprise transforms into a roller coaster for a dynamic finish. The results of this type of ride design conclude that transitions between formats gives Guests not only a storytelling dark ride experience, but also an unexpected thrilling surprise in the form of a roller coaster ending. It would provide an increased level of entertainment and a memorable experience for park Guests.

¿Dónde están los Latinos? As a Latina theatre practitioner born and raised in Venezuela now studying Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA) in the United States, I perceive a generalization and oversimplification of Latin American culture or culturally specific pieces across available TYA dramatic literature and other forms of children's entertainment, with Mexican culture as a monolith for all Hispanics and Latin Americans. My thesis asks: What tropes exist within the representation of Latin American cultures? What might those tropes offer about authentic representation, and opportunities for broadened representation, within the field of TYA? My research pulls from two formative experiences in my development as a TYA practitioner: serving as a co-playwright and the director of the new musical Sombra del Sol, and the release and success of Disney's animated film Encanto. I couple my analysis of these new works with the investigation of twenty plays within the United States' TYA canon by Hispanic authors such as Karen Zacarías, José Cruz González, José Casas, as well as non-Hispanic playwrights including Roxanne Schroeder-Arce, Lisa Loomer, and Gabriel Jason Dean. By examining these works, I identify five tropes present in media about/for Latin Americans: Location Tropes, Celebrations, Ethereality, Spontaneous Bilingualism, and Character Tropes. These trope help to articulate the need for richer cultural specificity and diversity of content in Latino/a TYA literature, while guiding my self-reflection as an artist and audience member in response to Sombra del Sol and Encanto.

This project is about my directing a Readers Theatre play about the Civil Rights Movement. It covers the period from 1619 to the present. The script is written by Professor Bobby Funk of the Theatre and Dance Department of ETSU. I have only been in several plays and that as an actor. This will be first my first experience as a director. As this is my first time, I will endeavor to relate an exact as possible account of this experience. I will in my first chapter tell you about the play, the characters, and my research in preparing for the project. I have kept a journal of the things that occurred during the audition process and rehearsals. Finally, I will report on the culmination of all these steps, what worked and what did not.

The theatrical scenic design process does not end at a picture on paper or with the presentation of a scale model. The design must be translated to the stage. There are a myriad of questions to be answered and decisions regarding construction style, process, material choices, structure, safety, etc. that must be made in order to fully realize the design. In a common, contemporary American production hierarchy, the person that is most often responsible for this translation process is the technical director. Often, the technical director is stereotyped as solely a craftsman or a technician following a set of pre-established directions and not as an artist in his own right. Even I, as a technical director, am guilty of promoting this stereotype for the majority of my theatrical career. However, through reflection on my professional experiences in combination with my education and research over the last two and a half years, I began to recognize the art inherent in the field of technical direction. I have gained a greater appreciation for and understanding of the importance of the artistic contributions made by every participant in a theatrical production. The practice and research based journey chronicled in this document serves to move beyond stereotypes and expose the technical director as a conscientious, collaborative theatre maker and artist.