As a performer, I am still challenged with thoughts of anxiety, fear, and premeditated responses. This anxiety often prevents me from exploring choices in the rehearsal room and impedes my character's given circumstances during a performance. It has become imperative for me to explore a new way to approach a role psychologically, emotionally, and physically. I hope to eliminate the persistent problem that occurs in my process; the common gap between mind and body that prevents me from creating a dynamic, holistic performance. This document will examine two vital stages of the development and application of my new process. As I create the roles of Jessie in Lynn Nottage's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Sweat and Lucetta in Aphra Behn's Restoration comedy, The Rover, I will experiment with various techniques that promote mindfulness and awareness. The second stage will solidify the process through the creation of self-recorded monologues.

Empathy is often heralded as a vital part of the theatrical experience. Generally understood as the experience of feeling what another person is feeling, it is believed to help actors create more honest performances and to help audiences better understand viewpoints different from their own. These empathic experiences are complicated, however, when applied to stories about characters who commit unforgivably evil acts and may lead people to feel manipulated into justifying or sharing the immoral beliefs of these characters. This thesis argues that for theatre practitioners telling stories about morally reprehensible characters, compassion, involving feelings of care and concern for another person and a desire for their well-being, is a more useful goal. Using the research of Paul Bloom and Tania Singer as well as the theoretical writings of Michael Chekhov and others, the author details several techniques in the fields of playwriting, acting, and dramaturgy to help tailor theatrical works to elicit compassionate reactions instead of empathic ones. Through compassion, theatre practitioners will be better equipped to use theatre to affect positive social change in their communities.

Actors are frequently required to be emotionally available on the spot, in situations ranging from an early morning acting class, to filming a scene well past midnight after a full day on set. In theatre, there is the expectation to deliver the right emotion every performance, and in film, when the camera and crew are ready, the actor is expected to produce the emotion at that moment. This demand to give emotionally compelling performances can cause an actor to stress under the pressure to deliver. Acting for stage and film have similarities and differences, and an actor needs to learn how to adjust for the emotional nuances of each. This thesis explores an actresses' practice-as-research experience with emotional availability on various films (independent and student feature, short, and industrial films), and an outdoor amphitheater production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. The techniques used, and each situation's circumstances, are analyzed to find what helped or hindered access to emotional availability. With what is learned from this practice-as-research, the actress decides the next steps in her journey to increase her emotional availability.

As theatre graduates walk across the stage and receive their diplomas, the message they hold close to their hearts is "Go forth and act." The next day, week, or month the question becomes very clear, "HOW?" This thesis focuses on a practical problem facing theatre graduates whose goals are pursuing the field of acting professionally. Theatre students are given the basic tools for honing their skills but are unequipped to create a viable, sustainable career in the field. The objectives in this paper are to outline problems actors encounter when attempting to build a career and offer practical advice for starting, building, and maintaining a career in the performing arts. The methodology I used was primarily qualitative. The examples and data were collected primarily through personal experience. In addition, I gathered advice and personal examples from professionals who have been faced with the daunting task of pursuing a career in theatre and the solutions they offer when navigating the field. This methodology was the best choice in light of the fact that those faced with the uncertainty of how to begin and maintain a career know best the problems young actors will face. Practical suggestions do not come in the form of numbers. This paper reveals the problems faced with this difficult task and gives actors the tools necessary to pursue a career as well as adjust to the ever-changing requirements of a theatre career. Actors may then use this advice as it applies to their individual careers. Using the tools given during academic training, the actor must build the foundation and structure of a career, and then begin marketing that career. The primary focus of the foundation in this thesis is creating a strong audition package. Through my research, the problems involved in creating this package were delineated and practical solutions were offered. The structure of the career focused primarily on the rehearsal and performance process. Emphasis was placed on not only performance excellence, but the communication skills and etiquette needed to build a reputation in the theatre community. Finally, marketing the career gives practical advice for demo reels, headshots, resumes, websites, and financial concerns. No path to an acting career is the same for every actor. Success can never be guaranteed, but a viable, sustainable career in theatre is possible. Actors need to understand the problems they will face, and this thesis gives practical approaches to be used to overcome the many obstacles they face.

In the fall of 2020, I began one of my most demanding graduate career courses, Audition Techniques. We explored Michael Shurtleff's book, Auditions, to learn about his auditioning techniques. I found early on in this journey that I lacked a consistent approach to auditions. This thesis represents the process of auditioning and will serve as a tool for actors transitioning from the educational theater, seeking to improve confidence in auditioning. In a regional theater audition for the Orlando Shakes, I will evaluate my ability to apply techniques learned in educational theater training, such as Shurtleff's 12 guideposts and ways to approach Shakespeare's text. I will document my audition process for the open call and callbacks of A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Orlando Shakespeare Theatre. I am searching for ways to personalize my characters by implementing Shurtleff's 12 guideposts and techniques to approach Shakespeare, such as paraphrasing, defining, scanning, playing actions, and grammatical breath. This study concluded that the method mentioned above empowered me as an actor and strengthened the way I prepared for auditions.

Actors have ingrained vocal, physical, and mental habits they unknowingly use on stage in the form of physical movements, vocalization, and character choices which can inadvertently communicate information to the audience. Rarely, however, are actors asked to play themselves and if their own habits are unconsciously being merged with their intentional character choices, then the audience's perception of the actor's portrayal may be shaped by unintentional behavior. "The Actor and the Iceberg" will be a synthesis of awareness building and control techniques for the mind and body, specifically: meditation, mindfulness, the Feldenkrais Method, and the Alexander Technique. The goal of combining these techniques is that they will enable the actor to gain awareness and control of their habits, thus providing them the ability to create a character with inherently genuine choices unblemished by actor tendencies. These ideas will be incorporated through the portrayals of Don Pedro and Wilmore in The Rover. The success of the process will be measured by a biweekly self-examination of habit recognition and control coinciding with a bi weekly examination via movement professor and stage combat instructor.

This thesis is an exploration of best practices in regards to creating a safe space within the theatre for artists to feel comfortable creating without risk to their emotional or physical safety. These safe spaces are particularly needed around shows which call for onstage racial violence or racist language. Methodology for these best practices includes theatrical intimacy, safe space creation as utilized by various advocacy groups, Theatre of the Oppressed, and drama therapy. In addition to these best practices that apply to the entire production, ideas for individual practice are explored. As a case study, Theatre UCF's production of Sweat by Lynn Nottage is examined; the successes and areas for potential growth within the work to create a safe space.

An experience, early in my life, at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center opened my eyes to the transformative power of Theatre - it would shape my ambitions for performance, inform the choices I made about my acting career, and impel my passions. That single moment had a profound and lasting effect on my soul, one that would ultimately point me to the purpose of "me;" but what exactly was it? What transaction occurred between the performers on stage, and myself, and others in attendance that evening? My life as an actor has been an incredible journey of growth. Over forty-six U.S. states, and abroad, I have performed in Broadway musicals, stage plays, concerts, recordings, cabarets, as part of political campaigns and sporting events, and in universities, schools, and churches. Acting has fundamentally changed the way I see people, and challenges the way I learn, express and see myself. As my imagination, creativity, and craft has grown, I remain profoundly impacted by my experience in Tampa, and I have often wondered exactly what happened that evening? Did it have anything to do with the synesthetic elements of the performance – the lights, sounds, or scenery? Was it specifically the music, the voices, the amazing singers? Perhaps it was the daring acting and story. Did it depend on particular foreknowledge or familiarity of skill, or craft? Was it something that happened by chance, or by design? Was it because of me? Or did it, somehow, override everything I was at the time? Was it something intangible that is present at some, or all, theatrical events that enlivened the experience? This paper seeks to provide answers to some of these questions. My process in seeking answers will be to chronicle my own life experience as a person/artist. Having begun a script a couple of years ago, I decided to return to solo performance as a means to help me determine what made the experience I related so memorable. The attempt is to write and perform a solo performance piece that chronicles the foundation of this incredible journey of growth, while shedding light on the initial Tampa experience. My intention is to gain an understanding about something I believe contributes to "theatrical spirituality." I believe that the unique blending of the script and the interpretation of these words through acting can impart life. The combined force of the power of story and the spoken word can cause something tangible, something good, meaningful and of intrinsic worth to happen in an individual or audience as a result of a performance. It is my belief that the formation, articulation and expression of that understanding represents, in part, my acting philosophy – what I do and why I do it. In a broader and more important sense, however, it also represents my understanding of who I am and why I am.

A man in the preparatory phase for parenthood with his first child can go through a lot of extreme emotional highs and lows, depending upon the man's economic, relationship, and physical status, as well as community pressures and support. In preparation to portray an array of prenatal fathers in a showcase of scenes, I have read an assortment of plays and scholarly sources. In reading a large sample of prenatal plays, I have extracted several possible emotional changes within a man's psyche. I also analyzed the social rationale behind these changes through the writings of sociologists and other scholarly sources. In addition to this research, I was going through my journey toward parenthood at the initiation of this research, as my child was born half way into the project. With the exploration of theatrical literature and sociological research paired with my personal experience of going through the prenatal phase, I have documented the changes a man may experience in his emotional growth. This time is full of differing anxieties that spring from the anticipation of change, while a man is preparing for parenthood. Through the medium of a showcase of theatrical scenes that are representations of the prenatal father, I explore the emotional journeys of several of these men and document my findings. As actors in theatre, we use the emotional life of characters to enlighten our choices in actions and tactics. These tactics are in service to the selfish goals we have as characters. The emotions the character has may act as either a driving force or an obstacle in obtaining our goals. When exploring the emotions of a pre-paternal man, one must consider all the variables in the creation of these emotions. In this project, I extract the emotions that a prenatal father may be vulnerable to and document for personal use as an actor presenting pre-paternal characters.

Contemporary models of educational and commercial theatres espouse the belief that theatre is the true collaborative art form: one in which artists of different talents, training programs, and experiences can come together to briefly create something more significant than themselves. However, as the theatre has moved into the twenty-first century, the ensemble nature that is so unique to theatrical performance is frequently abandoned for a streamlined top-down structure of theatre making, one in which monetary, scheduling, and efficiency concerns inhibit the true creation of an ensemble. For multi-faceted theatre artists who have interest and talents in more than one field of the theatre, the current reigning structure of theatrical creation can seem restrictive, even reductive to their creative potentials. In this thesis, I explore a revived form of theatrical creation centered around the concept of the total ensemble artist, or the modern-day equivalent to the Renaissance man, an artist and student of many different passions. By developing a model of theatrical creation that allows and encourages an actor's agency in the creative process, I hope to show that the ensemble approach to theatre making, in which actors must work together to create and support a production in intimate and challenging ways, is beneficial and necessary to both theatre artists and the audiences that come to view theatrical productions. Rather than being limited to the confines of the categorized and structured model of commercial theatre, these artists will be able to work together to create individualized, meaningful stories on stage that allow the theatre to remain influential, relevant, and representational of our collective experiences.