MUSICAL THEATRE HANDBOOK FOR THE ACTOR By Maggie Elizabeth Marlin, MFA A Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts at Virginia Commonwealth University. Virginia Commonwealth University, 2009 Major Director: David S. Leong Chairman, Department of Theatre Musical Theatre is a performance style deeply woven into the fabric of the American theatre. We live in time and social climate where over half of the productions open on Broadway right now are musicals. If actor training institutions profess a mission to prepare their students for a career in the entertainment industry, why are so many components of an actor’s skill set left to the side and considered peripheral? One can make the argument that their actor training program is exclusively for the theatre, and even more specifically for straight plays for the theatre. Of course, what your career preparation institution chooses to target is your prerogative and as long as that is clear to the incoming students who wish to specialize only in that one faction of the artist’s opportunities for work then my argument is moot. However, if you believe that actor training has a duty to prepare actors to work in an ever changing and transforming field and to be competitive in meeting the demands of various media, among many other areas of focus you should consider preparing your students to develop their craft for musical theatre as legitimately as you would for a classical or contemporary straight play. In this thesis I propose an approach to creating a role for musical theatre using as an example my character development technique for the role of Sally Bowles from a recent production of Cabaret. My desire is to illustrate a seamless continuation of the actor’s craft to meet the additional requirements of skills necessary to perform in a musical. Rather than signifying a separate style of acting for musical theatre which is identified as being altogether different and often dismissed as inferior to the craft of acting in a straight play, I hope to challenge the reader to consider a new perspective in which the foundation of musical theatre performance is built on the fundamentals of acting in a straight play.

Denna uppsats syftar till att undersöka hur man kan analysera och tolka två av Bruce Springsteens låttexter, för att visa på hur lämpliga de kan vara som underlag för att i undervisning beröra de viktiga livs- och identitetsfrågor som nämns i styrdokumenten för högstadiet. Frihet kan anses vara en särskilt viktig livsfråga och därför undersöks skildringen av frihet i låttexterna närmare. Dessutom undersöks hur genus, klass och ålder skildras i relation till makt. Låttexterna som analyseras är ”The River” och ”Land of Hope and Dreams”. Analysen visar att ”The River” skildrar en mörk, nostalgisk bild av hur dystert livet kan bli som konsekvens av ett för tidigt frihetsberövande. Den belyser hur faktorer så som klass, ålder, kön och etnicitet samverkar och tillsammans påverkar människors livsöden, samt hur de livsödena i sin tur hör ihop med frihetsbegreppet. I ”Land of Hope and Dreams” skildras istället en ljusare, mer positiv och hoppfull bild av Amerika, livet, himlen eller vad man än väljer att tolka låten som en symbol för. Låten skildrar en framtidstro, optimism och tanke om solidaritet, medmänsklighet och jämställdhet som alla lärare borde sträva efter att förse sina elever med. I ”Land of Hope and Dreams” skildras de fördelar som frihet innebär på ett positivt sätt, medan de nackdelar som en brist på frihet innebär skildras på ett mer negativt sätt i ”The River”. Utifrån analysen av de båda låttexterna kan man dra slutsatsen att de visar hur frihet är av ytterst stor betydelse för samhället i stort och människan som enskild individ, samt att de även berör många andra viktiga livs- och identitetsfrågor, vilket gör dem användbara i undervisningssituationer. / This essay aims to examine and show how two of Bruce Springsteen’s songs could be analyzed and how useful they could be in teaching situations, to touch upon some of the important questions that are mentioned in the curriculum. The main focus of the analysis in the essay is questions regarding life and identity. Freedom could be considered an especially important question and the depiction of the concept is therefore analyzed closely. Furthermore, the depictions of gender, class and age are analyzed in relation to power. The songs that are analyzed are “The River” and “Land of Hope and Dreams”. The analysis shows that “The River” depicts a nostalgic image of how dark life can become as a consequence of loosing freedom at an early stage in life. It illustrates how concepts such as class, gender and ethnicity affect the destiny of life, as well as how that destiny is affected by the concept of freedom. “Land of Hope and Dreams” depicts a more positive and hopeful image of America, life, heaven or whatever one chooses to interpret the song as a symbol for. The song depicts a belief in the future, optimism and idea about solidarity and equality that all teachers should aim to pass on to their students. “Land of Hope and Dreams” depicts the advantages of freedom in a positive way, while the disadvantages of freedom are depicted in a more negative way in “The River”. Based on the analysis, one can conclude that the songs illustrate how freedom is of outmost importance to society and to individuals, and that they touch upon many other important questions about life and identity, which makes them appropriate to use in teaching situations.

No description available.

The Rufous-naped lark Mirafra africana complex consists of 22 subspecies spread across the African continent. Several of the subspecies have recently been suggested to potentially be treated as separate species. In this study a comparative analysis was done on the song from seven of the subspecies: M. a. africana, M. a. athi, M. a. grisescens, M. a. kabalii, M. a. nyikae, M. a. transvaalensis and M. a. tropicalis. The results showed that M. a. athi, M. a. kabalii and M. a. nyikae are all very divergent from each other as well as from the other four subspecies. In contrast, M. a. tropicalis, M. a. grisescens, M. a. africana and M. a. transvaalensis are not clearly separable from each other. Based on the results, I suggest that M. a. athi, M. a. kabalii and M. a. nyikae can be classified as separate species, with M. a. africana, M. a. tropicalis, M. a grisescens and M. a. transvaalensis forming a fourth species (M. africana sensu stricto). Finally, I conclude that this study shows that more studies need to be done on the subspecies of the Mirafra africana complex.

No description available.