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 presents a visual design exploration of video game storytelling in physical themed environments, specifically, theme parks. The theme park industry has only recently begun to tap into the video game market, with seasonal attractions and events in parks, and the first fully video game dedicated land, Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios Japan. As theme park companies further seek out the most popular and profitable video game Intellectual Properties (IP), it will be imperative to create the most authentic video game experiences possible. The guest experience will hinge upon the successful adaptation of gameplay; creating the story around each individual as if they are the main character or party. This is a key concept that has yet to be achieved in any video game theme park attraction. The research and development in this thesis present design solutions to combat the limitations of existing video game experiences in theme parks. The new theme park model proposed provides an immersive guest experience that puts each guest or group at the center of a game's story and propels them through space via innovations in operations and interactives, creating a unique experience for all. This general model can then be overlayed with any video game IP, to be utilized in any park, by any company, to varying degrees of scale and complexity.

This thesis summarizes available literature about the individual requirements and specific design attributes needed to understand, apply, develop, and design a themed hotel with an emphasis in accessibility and inclusivity. This thesis contains a visual project and design guide that focuses on creating a themed space that offers modern means of accessibility for mobility aids, or for those who are deaf, hard of hearing, blind, or partially sighted. The guide summarizes literature on existing codes and explores other resources to adapt them to create an inclusive narrative environment. The visual project applies the material found in the guide and produces a themed hotel concept that explores an intentionally seamless design. The presentation of the themed design enhances and enforces the goals of the project and includes plans and renderings for the lobby/guest services, standard room, hallways, and pool.

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.

While theme park parades have developed with technology and guest demands, there is an opportunity to continue innovating the medium with additional guest interactivity. This thesis tracks experiential comparatives that provide iterative components to be utilized for a new theme park parade concept; parade "show stops" that allow for guests to approach the parade floats up-close, participatory entertainment offerings with live actor-driven branching narratives, roleplay and gameplay-driven interactive experiences, and theme park parades that follow a direct linear narrative. What follows is a theme park parade design concept, accompanied by a production and operational plan, that combines the existing spectacle of these productions with: guest-driven storytelling alongside parade performers; guest agency through active design decision making; and technology-driven interactives that drive guest repeatability. The intent of this thesis is to provide a template for realized designs to be implemented in theme parks, including application of intellectual property, an effervescent element in the success of modern-day theme park parades.

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.

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.

Every enchanted Fall season, a segment of the public flocks to a multitude of haunted Halloween attractions across the U.S., to experience fear as a form of amusement and entertainment. Psychologists continue to research the physiological and cognitive behaviors that are associated with fear and the "fight or flight" responses that are triggered when individuals are engaged in a heighten sense of danger. However, as guests traverse through these haunted attraction experiences, it's commonplace for guests to enter into these typical modes of "fight or flight" behaviors very quickly. Once this response kicks in, the guests' instinct is to scramble through each haunt scene as quickly as possible, in order to return to safety, thus rushing through and fleeing the experience. The most standard blueprint for these types of themed attractions, are typically in the form of a maze-like walkthrough floorplan. These designs and layouts, however, have become excessively routine and exceptionally predictable to guests, thus setting up a preconceived expectation of the experience to come. This enables guests to preemptively know how or what to expect and are likely able to predict typical scares in the attraction. This study will work to examine and explore a haunted attraction design that incorporates themed haunted attraction experiences in a series of singular rooms, as compared to the traditional walkthrough haunted maze layouts. This proposed design concept will also work to incorporate various ways of guest engagement, increased attraction intensity, and deeper depths of immersion by combining advancing methods of Promenade Theatre & Breaking the Fourth Wall with guests.

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.