The following thesis draws from a recent production assignment at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C., in which I acted as Associate Fight Director under Broadway Fight Director Rick Sordelet. We worked on three shows in all: William Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew, and Christopher Marlowe's first play, Tamburlaine, and his last, Edward II. By analyzing and assessing the working methods utilized during this production process, I hope to elucidate the most effective elements, and finally synthesize the tenets of my own working method. Structurally, I will recount the experience chronologically, from preproduction to performance, treating the pros and cons in each section of production. As a movement designer, I am interested in choreographic methods that both draw organically from actor's impulses, and integrate acting choices immediately. Too often the acting work is left off until the end; the actors are expected to layer their choices onto a fight that was not choreographed with those choices in mind. Instead, I seek to articulate a working method that allows and guides actors towards physical engagement with specific objectives, and that enables actors to make active choices from the very beginning.

Stories of the Wind is an audiovisual performance exploring various media to tell a story, integrating media at the intersection of visual arts and music, leveraged by technology. Different materials and technologies coexist as pieces of an audiovisual performance, with images, sound objects and interactive works. The production of this work was informed by artistic-scholarship, which involved the combination of aesthetic education and aesthetic experience with research and analysis in the process of artistic and academic creation. This project was meant to be exhibited in the Cube, at the Moss Arts Center, at Virginia Tech. Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, it was not possible to present the project in the space that it was created for, so a video adaptation was made to be submitted for the thesis defense. The video submitted as the thesis project pandemic adaptation can be seen through the following link: https://youtu.be/dH8ce9KO41w / M.F.A. / Stories of the Wind is an audiovisual performance telling a story using visual arts and music. It was created to be performed in the Cube, at the Moss Arts Center, at Virginia Tech. Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, it was not possible to perform the project. A video adaptation was made instead, which can be seen through the following link: https://youtu.be/dH8ce9KO41w