The role of a costume designer in a theatrical production is influential in creating character, time, and space. Costumes are the way in which a costume designer expresses a character’s personality, emotions, social status, and other personal idiosyncrasies. The job of a costume designer is to know how a character’s identity influences how they dress themselves. As a character develops throughout the performance, so must their clothing. Costumes show how a character ages, transforms, or regresses over the arc of a production. Not only do costumes show character details, they help clue the audience into time of day, season of the year, and whether the scene takes place indoors or out of doors. Costume designers draw inspiration from period images, paintings, writings, artwork, and fashion. A costume designer understands how small details within clothing can assist an audience’s understanding of character, time, and space. This thesis portfolio includes images and descriptions of my costume designs at the University of Iowa. This portfolio contains both realized productions and renderings from class work to show the evolution of my design work over the course of my Master of Fine Arts education. The entire breadth of my thesis portfolio can be found at the link: http://ir.uiowa.edu/theatre_d_folio/.

We are currently living in a society in which interactivity is at an all-time low. People are glued to their cell phones, tablets and computers, preferring to communicate with pixels and images than other human beings. It often leads to one feeling alone, even amongst a sea of people. This is also true outside of interpersonal relationships. There is a growing lack of engagement in narrative and the design of that narrative. We see Rocky: The Musical, Amelie: The Musical and Shrek: The Musical. There are playwrights re-hashing the living room drama over and over again, afraid to venture into new material, becoming obsessed with perfecting an unattainable formula. In a constant cycle of re-hashing previously successful franchises and tropes into different mediums, designers lose the opportunity to grow. However, with the rise of smash hits like Hamilton, Dear Evan Hansen and Then She Fell, designers find a place to dazzle spectators with raw, enthralling artwork that creates a sense new audiences are missing more than anything: Wonder. To continue the creation of relevant, diverse and genre-defying theatre, designers must be trained to hold authority over the elements of design. These include the concepts of line, shape, color, texture and scale. A designer must know when to trust their instincts and when to rely on time-proven techniques. A designer cannot be afraid of building something new. In addition to this, a growing emphasis is being placed on a designer’s mastery of multiple disciplines. By having a more-well rounded education, a designer is more of an asset on the team.

This thesis is an examination of autobiographical solo performance. It explores the use of personal trauma and illness in the dramatic form. In addition to investigating how other solo performing artists utilize their medical conditions in their work, this thesis gives some historical context to the author’s own process and development. The thesis culminates in the author’s solo performance script and a desire for its audience to find solace and compassion through the experience of witnessing it being performed.

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A comprehensive portfolio of the MFA Costume Designs of Emily (Ruiz) Bushà.

This is William Miles' Gatrell's relatively short diatribe about the inherent flaws in theatre academia followed by an examination of how fear stifles art. It concludes with a cliffhanger.

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The purpose of this thesis is to make a study of the pioneer theatre in the early days of Kentucky with emphasis laid on theatrical life in Lexington, Frankfort and Louisville. The end of the first half of the nineteenth century marks the approximate close of the period studied. Theatrical activity first thrived in Lexington and Frankfort, but soon Louisville became the most important scene of dramatic performances and more attention is given the latter city in this study. Information concerning dramatic activity in smaller towns is scarce, and it is not likely that there were many performances given in them. As a basis for my bibliography I used Ralph Leslie Rusk’s The Literature of the Middle Western Frontier.