1,720,961 research outputs found
“Lean in, Engage, and Maybe Die”: A Critical Analysis of the Haunting World of Horror Theatre
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/63172c79-ad68-4768-8b16-f7145d4ca8e5/thumb/128.jpgThis thesis explores the world of horror theatre. Horror as a genre is meant to provoke fear and terror within those who engage with it. Horror theatre more specifically engages with this ideology through exposing an actual audience to terrors before their very eyes. This thesis digs into this form proposing a definition of the genre, exploring the history of the genre, and unpacking how the genre works in a theatrical setting. To assist my research on this subject, I directed Francesca Paznoikas’ play The Wild Boar of Chernobyl as a part of the Reed College Theatre Department’s 2023 season. This thesis features a close analysis of this text, describing how the play fits within the canon of horror theatre. Additionally, my final chapter talks about the production and rehearsal process. This thesis attempts to draw attention to this form as an avenue of valid social commentary
The Language of Tom Stoppard's Arcadia, Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love a Spoonful of Jam
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/acdb5015-a09b-4461-a3a3-390205004091/thumb/128.jpgThis thesis examines Tom Stoppard’s 1993 play Arcadia through the lens of its language. I analyze various dramaturgical and rhetorical tools Stoppard uses to engage the audience, and I argue that Stoppard’s wordplay, and the other dramaturgical devices that Stoppard uses such as comic misunderstanding and verbal sparring, serve not just to entertain, but also to demonstrate the potency of language itself. Arcadia explores a number of scientific and philosophical themes, juxtaposing the order, linearity and logic of Newtonian physics with the patterns of order and disorder described by chaos theory and the irregularities found in the natural world. Other key themes woven into the play include the passage of time, the human search for meaning, the dichotomous nature of art and science, the heat death of the universe, and the forces of attraction, both physical and romantic. In this thesis, I argue that another key theme of the play is the power and limitations of language as a tool for exploration and understanding of the human experience; that what Stoppard accomplishes in Arcadia is also a thesis on language itself, and the power of words in human interaction
A Case for Tragedy in Contemporary Trans Theatre
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/36c4eee2-7bbd-4afa-bad5-e16dbc32060c/thumb/128.jpgHow can contemporary queer tragic theatre exist in a state that is fresh, potent, or even popular? This thesis answers this question with a survey of theorists and critics, an examination of what has made past attempts at tragic yet politically poignant queer performance art successful, and close readings of three plays: The Normal Heart (1985) by AIDS activist Larry Kramer, and American Girl (2023) and No More Candy (2024) by Portland-based trans playwright Mikki Gillette. I was fortunate enough to interview Gillette herself for this project, and this thesis incorporates our conversation. I believe Gillete’s plays hold considerable potential to identify how queerphobia affects their relevant demographics and provide insight into what to do about it. My intention is to demonstrate this potential within these works to provide a template for how tragic trans theatre can not just survive the current political landscape but fight to change it
Physical Theatre as an Approach to Staging Gender
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/745a10dc-bddd-4f4a-9256-00c9791422f2/thumb/128.jpgThis thesis explores physical theatre training methods as tools to construct performances of gender. By situating three main physical theatre methods historically and theatrically, this document then employs two case studies of performed gender: Portland Experimental Theatre Ensemble’s January 2020 production Beckett Women, and a week-long physical theatre workshop at Reed College in January 2020. Through these examples, I show that physical theatre methods provide one particularly resonant means for composing performances of gender
Approaching the Absurd: A Physical Theatre-Based Acting Methodology for Theatre of the Absurd
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/5592fa94-e727-4d55-8450-cec31b512fcc/thumb/128.jpgThis thesis explores the theatrical periodization of the Theatre of the Absurd and attempts to establish the foundation for a Physical Theatre-based acting methodology for approaching works within that genre. Theatre of the Absurd is a post-World War II genre of plays written by a collection of playwrights identified by theatre historian Martin Esslin, which share structural and thematic characteristics. This thesis argues that contemporary dominant acting methodologies, those of Konstantin Stanislavski and Bertolt Brecht, have severe limitations when used to approach the Absurd, and suggests a Physical Theatre-based acting methodology for actors approaching roles within Theatre of the Absurd. This thesis is grounded in an analysis of Physical Theatre practitioners and their techniques in relation to Theatre of the Absurd, and my implementation of those techniques in the role of Bérenger in Eugène Ionesco's Theatre of the Absurd play Rhinoceros
The Familiar in a New Way: A Study of Adaptation
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/b9e5d914-3845-414a-8c61-72f7cd3c20ea/thumb/128.jpgThis thesis is about what adaptation in the theatre is and how it works. In Chapter One, I explore the different types of adaptation and the leading theorists in the adaptation studies field. In Chapter Two, I use two case studies of theatrical-literature adaptations, Trifles/ “A Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell and Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen adapted by Kate Hamill, to analyze different parts of the adaptation process. Specifically, I highlight what needs to change to accommodate a new medium and what each medium can offer to a story. In Chapter Three, I analyze the process of adaptation by adapting a short story into a play and explore how the process works in practice versus in theory. I have found that the adaptation studies field could benefit from the use of theatre theory
Rehearsing Reality: An Investigation into Split Discs, Cell Migration, and the Power of Forum Theatre
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/14727b8a-4530-4a02-8bf9-e9844a5abd20/thumb/128.jpgThis thesis explores using Forum Theatre, an audience participation-based theatrical form developed by Brazilian theatre-maker and activist Augusto Boal, to support science participation and explores the protein Sperm Antigen with Calponin Homology Coiled Coil Domain 1 Like (SPECC1L) and its impact on cell migration and association with craniofacial disorder development. I hypothesize that SPECC1L regulates cell migration through its association with Non-Muscle Myosin II (NM-II) and focal adhesion disassembly, and that Forum Theatre can be an effective tool for the presentation of and participation in science research. In this thesis, I present an introduction to the history and practice of applied theatre, the molecular background of cell migration, and finally analyze the methods and results of the laboratory research in both theatre and biology labs. The biology wet lab research explores the Drosophila melanogaster SPECC1L ortholog, Split Discs (Spds) using a relatively novel technique, the cell exclusion zone assay, to investigate cellular migration and discover the protein’s effect on cell motility. The theatre lab research involves performances of Rehearsing Reality: Forum Theatre for Science Accessibility, a Forum Theatre production that I devised with an ensemble of interdisciplinary students and directed. The biology results do not find a statistically significant difference in cell migration speed between wild type (WT) and Split Discs depleted cells, but they do support the broader use of the cell exclusion zone assay to explore cell migration. The combined theatre and biology methods illuminate Forum Theatre’s power for promoting social change through science participation
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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