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Ballplayer, an Addiction Story: A Production Thesis of a Generated Solo Performance Piece

The thesis assignment was to create a stand-alone solo performance piece of no less than 30 minutes in length. The absence of any further guidelines provided the opportunity to focus on a subject (or subject matter) of my choosing. Researching symptoms and tendencies of addictive personality disorder as a basis for a class-based performance assignment led me to Eric Show, a pitcher who played professional baseball in the 1980s and early 1990s. Erics life was both heartbreaking and compelling. This thesis follows the adaptation of a number of stories and interviews about Show into a performance piece that seeks to bring an audience into the daily struggle of a real-life person while posing questions about what can be done to help people who struggle with addiction. Limiting the characters I would play to a select few who had significant impact on Shows life, rather that portraying Show himself, my goal was to provide many perspectives on one persons battles with addiction. The performance piece incorporates mixed- and multi-media elements into the performance to further the dramatic action while providing a template for narrative by serving as transitional interludes. Focusing on my work as an actor by limiting costume changes or other distinguishing differences between characters, the challenge was to be very attentive to other distinguishing details. The thesis represents the inspiration, research, evolution, and final performance draft of my solo performance script as a foundation for further expansion of the piece into a full-length performance text.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-01262012-143445
Date26 January 2012
CreatorsRhoton, Nickolas Ian
ContributorsJudy, George, Erickson, Nick, Holben, Richard
PublisherLSU
Source SetsLouisiana State University
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
Sourcehttp://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-01262012-143445/
Rightsunrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached herein a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to LSU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below and in appropriate University policies, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report.

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