Theatre Arts Theses and Dissertations
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Browsing Theatre Arts Theses and Dissertations by Author "May, Theresa"
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Item Open Access A Fundamental Disagreement: Ongoing Discussions Concerning the Adaptation of Augusto Boal’s Practices(University of Oregon, 2021-09-13) Evans, Joshua; May, TheresaAfter Augusto Boal passed away in 2009, a significant dispute developed within the Theatre of the Oppressed community concerning whether his methods should be reimagined to combat structural oppression more effectively. There are some theatre practitioners, most notably Marc Weinblatt and Cheryl Harrison, who have advocated for recalibrating Theatre of the Oppressed for privileged participants to help them recognize their role in continuing oppression. However, there are others, like Dr. Tania S. Cañas, who contend that this goes against the liberationist attitude at the heart of Boal’s theatrical praxis. Accordingly, this thesis will contextualize this argument by analyzing these authors’ texts and situating them within the movement's larger discourse. Specifically, it considers their articles in relationship to Boal’s original writings and the work of other leading artists. In doing so, this discourse strives to elucidate how the theatre praxis's ongoing reconceptualization has been integral for facilitating political and social activism.Item Open Access A Home You Can’t Live in: Performances of the Black Body and Domestic Space in Contemporary Drama(University of Oregon, 2015-08-18) Gray, Leslie; May, TheresaTheatre is often an invitation to enter the black home subject to its violations and crisis; this thesis repositions the black home and body in contemporary American and British theatre as constructed by the narratives and transgressions of the moment they are in. I examine Suzan-Lori Parks’ In the Blood, Katori Hall’s The Mountaintop and Sabrina Mahfouz’s Chef as sites of memory, nostalgia, and trauma where what is considered “home” resists the safety of concrete walls and a white picket fence. Instead, I argue the playwrights suggest, with their black female protagonists, that home transcends the material. Parks, Hall, and Mahfouz each meditate on what it means for black women to dwell in unsafe places, the home you don’t want to return to. This is significant in that it encourages a respect for the lived experiences and cultural knowledge acquired in autonomous homes and bodies of black women whose narratives have often been made invisible.Item Open Access Amas Repertory Theatre: Passing as Black While Becoming White(University of Oregon, 2014-09-29) Sidden, Jean; May, TheresaAmas Repertory Theatre was founded in 1969 by Rosetta LeNoire, an African American actress who pursued a mission of developing original musicals while practicing interracial casting. The company's most successful show was Bubbling Brown Sugar (1975). Throughout Amas's history LeNoire's complicated perspective on what constituted discrimination sometimes caused her casting choices to be questioned. LeNoire believed in a colorblind theatre and society, however, as the decades passed, her colorblind perspective was challenged by neo-conservative philosophy which states that in a colorblind society no particular group should receive any more privilege than another. This definition of colorblind is used to justify conservative efforts to eliminate affirmative action and undermine race conscious legislation. In the late 1990s, at her retirement, LeNoire, who always believed that color did not matter, turned her theatre over to white leadership, who still operate Amas today. At that point, Amas changed from a company that had, from its founding, been considered to be a black theatre to one that is now white. As the history of Amas unfolds, my study examines the complex politics surrounding the concept of colorblindness. Efforts by Actors' Equity to promote interracial or, as it is often called, nontraditional casting are also investigated as well as the conservative backlash against race conscious policies, particularly during and after the administration of Ronald Reagan. In the present day Amas practices a multicultural mission, however, as my dissertation examines the company's programming decisions as well as its perspective on race, Amas is revealed to be an example of how white operated theatres, even if unintentionally, through the agency of white power and privilege, are affected by the same institutional racism that permeates American society. My dissertation then challenges Amas and other theatres to take responsibility for staying fully aware of the racially charged issues and tensions that exist in America today. When theatre professionals seek out and are committed to engaging in open dialogue on race they are in a stronger position to make knowledgeable decisions regarding the representation of race on stage.Item Open Access The Experience of Place in Performance: A Survey of Site-Specific Theatre(University of Oregon, 2014-09-29) Rorem, Jacob; May, TheresaFor practitioners and scholars of site-specific theatre, attempts to understand the relationship between a site and performance have often focused on performance. The many ways a site can inform and enhance the audience's experience of performance has been thoroughly explored, but what about the reverse? How can performance facilitate an experience of place and inform audiences about the value and potential of the places around us? I contend that site-specific performance which privileges place--including its varied histories and meanings--can foster a more thorough consideration of the places we inhabit and equip us to make better decisions about them. This thesis uses three case studies to explore the experience of place in performance and its potential implications. My case studies are Rob Ashford and Kenneth Branagh's production of Macbeth at the 2013 Manchester International Festival, We Players of San Francisco, and PlaceBase Productions of Minneapolis.Item Open Access Presenting Oregon: Formative Forces of the Oregon Unit of the Federal Theatre Project(University of Oregon, 2013-10-03) Morris, Damond; May, TheresaDuring the Great Depression President Roosevelt's New Deal brought relief to Americans through the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The Federal Theatre Project (FTP) was formed in 1935 under the WPA to lift spirits, educate, entertain, and put unemployed theatre artists to work. The FTP was national in scope, but administered at the state level. In the State of Oregon, former Portland Civic Theatre director, Bess Whitcomb, pulled together theatre professionals qualified for work relief to form the Oregon Unit. Ironically, the first productions of the Oregon Unit were not examples of Whitcomb's legitimate theatre work with the Portland Civic, but an expedient recouping of older forms. Vaudevillians were the first unemployed actors hired by the Oregon Unit because they qualified for relief and were ready to place their talents in front of an audience. This study historicizes the productions of the Oregon Unit of the Federal Theatre Project from 1936 to 1939 and examines the way its leadership negotiated with three forces existing in Portland and the Pacific Northwest. The forces include: the tradition of vaudeville, made up of unemployed professionals; the Little Theatre movement, through Bess Whitcomb's relationship with the Portland Civic Theatre; and finally, the government, at the state and federal level, which used the Oregon Unit as a mechanism of propaganda, to produce regionally based theatre which promoted the agenda of the New Deal while representing Oregon to Oregonians. Whitcomb negotiated through these forces to create a wildly popular vaudeville-based performance group. The vaudeville nature of the troupe conflicted with a need on the part of the FTP nationally to present "legitimate" scripted performances. The need to produce legitimate theatre brought Whitcomb to transform the Oregon Unit and start a "rehabilitation" program for the vaudevillians, effectively purging the vaudeville performance style. The legitimate mission placed Whitcomb in the middle of negotiations to create a WPA Art Center in Portland. This study places Whitcomb's negotiation in context of the Great Depression, and calls for a re-centering of her position as a theatrical pioneer in Portland, Oregon.Item Open Access Representation of Land and the Female Body in Polish Dramatic Literature(University of Oregon, 2024-03-25) Dulba-Barnett , Anna; May, TheresaIn this dissertation, I map how the authors of canonical Polish dramas from Romanticism to the present construct and solidify the ideals of womanhood and its connection to land and nature. I analyze how the use of the female body as a metaphor or personification of the nation-state, commonly used since the early eighteenth century in Polish art and literature, has created silence around the actual experiences of Polish women, who have suffered gendered violence during moments of turmoil in Polish history. I also expose how theatre has been participating in interweaving the national narratives with Catholic mythoi. These narratives have participated in creating and maintaining a national identity and have soften fueled the Polish will to fight against foreign aggressors. However, in times of Polish independence and national freedom these narratives have often served to define what belonging to a national community of Polish people means and therefore have enabled exclusion of various people who do not fit neatly into these narratives’ narrowly defined boundaries. My study exposes this narrative underpinning much of the current regressive political rhetoric in Poland. By examining this collective Polish imaginary, I call attention to the ways that contemporary Polish theatre-makers are attempting to subvert these old narratives.Item Open Access Roots in the Earth and a Flag in my Hand: Rural Gender Identity in American Musical Theatre(University of Oregon, 2016-10-27) Cuskey, Lusie; May, TheresaThe integrated musical is a vehicle for the creation and communication of a national identity, created through the use of coded performances of gender and, at times, rural settings conceptualized as essentially “American.” There is, however, little research about the ways in which gender operates in rural settings in musical theatre, or the ways in which rural gender identities are utilized to communicate nationalist ideologies. This thesis seeks to address this gap in research by examining three contemporary American musicals – Carrie, Violet, and The Spitfire Grill – in light of both American musical theatre conventions surrounding gender performance and contemporary theory around gender, rurality, and intersectional rural gender identities. This thesis ultimately suggests that an approach to rural gender in musical theatre grounded in a specific physical and cultural moment and location is best equipped to both honor the narratives of rural communities and propagate appropriately complex narratives of national identity.Item Open Access Sojourn Theatre Company: A Case Study in Community-Based Theatre(University of Oregon, 2012) Madzik, Christine; Madzik, Christine; May, TheresaThis thesis examines contemporary community-based theatre processes and efficacy through a case study of Sojourn Theatre Company. Chapter II overviews Sojourn's production history and explores the company's style. Chapter III discusses the theatre-making process, from project conceptualization to performance. Chapter IV examines approaches for assessing Sojourn's efficacy. The research was based on company interviews, primary observation, archive materials, and audience reviews. The results of the study indicate that Sojourn relies heavily on audience engagement and community participation to assess its work. In addition, both a production's purpose and its target audience play a large role in determining efficacy.Item Open Access The Latinx Theatre Commons: Feminist Decolonization in the Early Years of a Movement to Transform the Narrative of the American Theatre(University of Oregon, 2020-02-27) Sanchez Saltveit, Olga; May, TheresaThe Latinx Theatre Commons (LTC) emerged in 2012 in response and resistance to years of misrepresentation and erasure of Latinx artistic work and presence by the American theatre field in practice and in scholarship. This dissertation is the first comprehensive chronicle and study of the LTC, reviewing the movement’s methods, manifestations, and implications through interviews with key participants and my own reflections as a founding Steering Committee member, balanced against theories of Latinx feminisms, the Commons, and Latin American decolonization. My research spans the early years of the movement, from the impetus that generated the meeting of the “DC-8” in May 2012, the formation of its first Steering Committee (comprised of Latinx theatre makers, scholars, and advocates from all over the US) in the summer of 2012; through the launch of the LTC’s digital and social media presences; the 2013 Boston Convening; the 2014 Encuentro and the 2018 Encuentro de las Américas; the 2015 and 2018 Carnavals; the El Fuego initiative (2016-19); the Dallas, Seattle, New York City, and Miami Regional Convenings (2015-19); the Maria Irene Fornés Institute Symposium (2018); and the TYA Sin Fronteras Festival and Conference (2019). A review of the mid-twentieth century’s Teatro Nacional de Aztlán (TENAZ) and the rise of Latinx feminisms in Chapters II and III provide the foundations for the story of the LTC that is described in Chapter IV. In Chapter V, the movement’s activities and methods are investigated through the multiple lenses of Latinx feminisms, commons and decolonization theories. Intersectional, non-hierarchical, and radically inclusive Latinx feminist priorities align with commons ideologies, which champion community consensus when determining the care and application of mutually shared resources. This fundamentally anti-capitalist approach reinforces the work of decolonization, the intentional transformation of the way social, political, and economic processes are viewed and implemented. These three ideological frameworks at work within the LTC are mutually supportive and, interwoven, they sustain the LTC’s mission, to transform the narrative of the American theatre, with integrity. Chapter VI concludes with the greater implications and questions about the LTC’s work as a model for social justice and revolution.Item Open Access Traversing the Rift: Cultivating Climate Change Literacy Through Theatrical Performance(University of Oregon, 2019-04-30) Borowicz, Lydia; May, TheresaClimate change is a persistent and growing threat to the well-being of both humans and nonhuman species, and little action has been taken to halt it. It is imperative the public gains a sufficient level of climate change literacy to be able to take action to mitigate climate change. Theatrical performance offers audiences diverse ways to engage with climate change through both improving scientific understanding and connecting with climate change’s effects through live, embodied performance. Employing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s tenets of climate literacy, I examine how climate change plays (specifically Steve Waters’ The Contingency Plan, Chantal Bilodeau’s Sila, Duncan Macmillan and Chris Rapley’s 2071, and E.M. Lewis’s Magellanica) can cultivate improved climate change literacy in audiences. Halting climate change will require not just climate science knowledge but a shift in values toward an ecologically sustainable future, and theatre offers vital space and tools for reimagining that future.Item Open Access Two Sides of Intelligibility: The Practice and Perception of Performed Accents Onstage(University of Oregon, 2022-02-18) Kress, Ellen; May, TheresaThe profession of voice and dialect is built upon the premise of maximum understanding for the audiences attending theatre. This maximum understanding, or intelligibility, has historically driven the practice and continues to shape the profession today. Intelligibility has been used as an objective measure for countless performers throughout the history of performance. However, intelligibility may not be an objective threshold of listening, but a socially constructed term used for both the practice and perception of voices onstage. The work of this dissertation unpacks the idea of audience intelligibility from two perspectives—a critical examination of the relatively short history of the profession of voice and dialect in English-speaking countries, and an empirical investigation into the audience’s role in building intelligibility for actors. Intellgibility is in fact susceptible to social structures and individual’s preconceived normative ideas towards language.Analysis in the history of voice and dialect reveals two recurring goals throughout the past two centuries. One goal of the practice was to eliminate any non-standard language usage in actors and students, to eliminate and traces of linguistic lived experiences for students onstage. The second goal is to replace these non-standard language varieties with sanitized or stereotyped versions of acceptable language varieties, appearing as either a general standardized accent, or stereotypical versions of foreign or regional dialects. The main results of the series of linguistic experiments appear in three main themes. The first main theme is the context of language (e.g., listening to a performance) will necessarily change how listeners perceive language. The second theme is that there are multiple ways to achieve maximum constructed intelligibility, which makes way for more diverse voices in performance. The third theme uncovers the ambiguous relationship between authenticity, imitation, and stereotype, which leads to bigger questions of the role authenticity continues to play in performance. I then offer modifications to a profession by taking seriously the notion of intelligibility as a socially constructed judgment that has a real-world effect on perception. The findings from the history and the experiments contribute to my position about the state of contemporary voice and dialect practices. I use the findings from the body of this dissertation to grapple with my own position as a white theatre maker and advocate for practices that respect the linguistic autonomy of students and actors while honoring the needs of theatrical production.