This project is an examination in playwriting with the end product being a two act play entitled Guns and Death. It includes a study of dialogue and its relationship with body language. The setting for the play presented an additional challenge to overcome and learn from; i.e., the dreaded confined space, generally avoided in theatre because it limits animation and action, and tends to bore the audience for want of more visual variety. This element presented the perfect platform to experiment with word phrases and body language. After doing the research I decided to accomplish my goal of creating visual imagery through words, by using the premise of Antonin Artaud's Theatre of Cruelty which postulates that, "The viewer's senses should be bombarded." This is taken to mean that the senses should be bombarded with reality, or a possible reality in the case of this play, should the death penalty continue to progress along its present course, and the gun control argument continues to stagnate. The dialogue is harsh to strengthen the body language and visual imagery and written to produce particular body movements that will validate the words spoken.

Please note: creative writing theses are permanently embargoed in OpenBU. No public access is forecasted for these. To request private access, please click on the lock icon and filled out the appropriate web form. / Playwriting / 2999-01-01T00:00:00Z

This thesis details the development of Savage Daughter, a full-length play performed over Zoom on March 18th, 2021. Savage Daughter tells the story of queer and BIPOC (Black and Indigenous People of Color) characters who fight for their right to exist in a world controlled by white, cisgender, Christian males. Centering on themes of midwifery, witch trials, and queerness, my play follows Constance’s journey of empowerment. Chapter one provides background information about witchcraft, midwifery, setting, and character development. Chapter two outlines my writing process and the first two workshop readings of the script. Chapter three describes the pre-production which includes casting, design meetings, meetings with the director, and rehearsals. Chapter four analyzes the production and future considerations. Finally, chapter five outlines my experience in the program and my growth as a playwright.

This thesis examines the process of bringing Small Box with a Revolver from pre-writing to production at Southern Illinois University in March 2021, and my own growth in that process. I drew inspiration from the general societal behavior during the pandemic and other crises of 2020, as well as absurdist plays like Ionesco’s Rhinoceros and Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. The play was written to my stylistic preference of writing dark comedies about social issues.Chapter One examines where I began and how I developed the plot, characters and stylistic choices. Chapter Two examines the writing process, including initial peer and faculty feedback to the script. Chapter Three looks at the unique pre-production process in trying to bring Small Box with a Revolver to the stage, virtually. Chapter Four details the production itself, what I learned, and what further work I would like to do on the script. Chapter Five details my evaluation of my process throughout the MFA program as a playwright and professional, as well as my final considerations. Also included, is the production script.

As a teacher of high school theatre, I aspire to create powerful and thought-provoking theatre with my students. For my thesis, I adapted George Eliot's classic novel Silas Marner into a one-act play. I researched the novel and the necessary aspects of writing a one-act play. I explored the overriding themes in the novel. I researched and applied the techniques, skills and literary mechanics necessary to construct a one-act play. I recorded the creative process with my students as we, the director and actors, produced this original one-act for public performances. I reflected on this thesis journey and objectively critiqued the entire learning experience. I wrote the adaptation in a one-act form to also allow my student to compete with the original theatrical piece in our District V Thespian Festival. The four highest scoring one-acts in the competition advanced to the Florida State Thespian Festival in Tampa, March 2020. Silas Marner was one of the highest scoring one-acts and will compete on March 19, 2020 at the Florida State Thespian Festival. This is a great honor for a high school Thespian Troupe and offers a wonderful, professional experience for the students. The story of Silas Marner was told in its entirety. My students presented the completed one-act in two public performances, and I reflected on this creative process. I directed my high school actors and they created the characters and developed the plot of my original one-act.

This thesis documents the play development process of When Coquis Sing, an original play for young people that introduces the death of a parent on stage. Through the analysis of research from leading child psychologists and practical instruction from the Dougy Center, the National Center for grieving children and their families, this research defines important terms and demystifies language surrounding death to aid caregivers in having clear and concise conversations with children about death. The purpose of this document is to counter the American cultural perception of death as a taboo topic for children. Hosting open conversations about death leads to healthier child development, which can help children cope with the loss that everyone will inevitably face in life. Theatre has been proven to work as a catalyst for conversations and create empathy for young audiences. Themes of death can be seen in all forms of storytelling for children , but this study implores the use of theatre to not only reflect experiences of grieving children on stage, but also create preemptive dialogue on the topic, so when tragedy strikes, children can have a tangible example to point back to. The arguments in this document thwart misconceptions of using Piaget's stages of cognitive development and Kubler-Ross's five stages of grief as measurements of how all human beings should grieve. Instead of placing grieving children in stages and age groups that exclude important variables, this study focuses on the individual stories that are shared through reflective journals on the investigator's experiences and conversations as a grief facilitator, tutor, and artist in the field of Theatre for Young Audiences. The original play, When Coquis Sing, has been designed to induce conversations on death through the telling of a young protagonist's story of loss, grief, and victory.

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Becoming Number Six is an original dramatic work: Stephanie Dylar is disturbed when two shadowy figures claiming to be intelligence agents appear on her doorstep. The agents, Lovelace and Babbage, represent a government branch known as The Division, and inform her that her son Jeremy may be involved in illegal computer activity. When Jeremy subsequently goes missing, Stephanie turns to her friend Julia for help, and is confronted with the realities of constant surveillance as Julia brings the hacking group Incognito into the mix.

<i>The old neighborhood just ain't the same – The Band</i>

A typical door has three parts: the pin, the knuckles, and the leaves. The two leaves touch the surface: one for the door, one for the frame. The knuckle's where the leaves meet in the middle. It lets the door move once the pin's slid in, to hold the thing in place. The leaves are also known as wings. When a door is closed, the wings touch, pressed perfectly together: door to hinge to frame. The knuckles are hidden on the inside, then. From the outside, you might think the door is floating. To open the door, you first need a body. The identical wings will part. The door will retreat to clear a space. Then, through the frame, our bodies might move.