Under construction : acting, creativity, collaboration, and SITI company.

This dissertation is a case study of New York’s Saratoga International Training Institute (known as SITI Company), one of the most innovative American theatre companies of the last twenty-five years. Research for this study was based in part on the author’s experience with the work of SITI throughout those years, including participation in intensive training with the company and observations of rehearsal and performance of the 2014 world premiere production of Steel Hammer at the Humana Festival of New American Plays, at Actors Theatre of Louisville. SITI Company is defined by their dedication to actor training, and to a democratic structure of collaboration in which actors, directors, playwrights, and designers are all full collaborators in the creative work of the company. While SITI is known for its postmodern productions of devised theatre, the company’s development of three unique training methods – Suzuki, Viewpoints, and Composition –is the most significant element of their artistic legacy. Taught and practiced in combination, these methods give the actor new ways to approach theatrical embodiment by developing skills based on kinesthetic response, stage presence, and creative collaboration. This approach to making theatre frees actors from the emotional and psychologically-based practices of American Method training, and grounds them in a physical presence that transcends genre and style. The work of SITI Company serves as an ideal platform for considering the work of the actor within the larger framework of creativity theory research, which sometimes emphasizes the concept of “new-ness,” raising questions about the value of the creative contributions of artists who “interpret” rather than “invent,” such as orchestral musicians, ballet dancers, and actors. New research in collaborative creativity broadens our understanding of the work of actors, who always work in collaboration, including taking part in the creative relationship between the actor and the audience. This dissertation uses the intersection of creativity theory, performance theory, sports theory, the dynamics of creative collaboration, and the training methods of SITI Company as a means of analyzing the experience of “flow,” wherein self-consciousness falls away, perceptions of time disappear, and actions seem to happen without effort. The conditions for finding flow are based in skills that can be learned and implemented by the actor in training, rehearsal, and performance

A Documentation and Analysis of Surdna Arts Teachers Fellowship Program (SATF): The First Decade 2000-2010

Based on documents, interviews, and site visits, reviews the design and impact of a program to boost teaching and learning quality at public arts high schools by supporting teachers' artistic and professional development. Lists issues for consideration

Tradition meets Technohlogy: Integrating Japanese Noh & New Technology in Shakespeare’s Macbeth

This paper addresses technical and aesthetic problems encountered in adapting Shakespeare’s Macbeth to the noh stage, used for the six hundred year-old dance-drama form. In July, 2009 the Noho Theatre Group created a dancing Witch and Ghost for 'Sleep no More, Lady Macbeth’s Nightmare' by integrating motion-capture technology to create 3D computer graphic animations set to automatic choreography, which were then projected on a screen. 'Sleep no More', performed bilingually in English and Japanese, by noh and kyogen actors with modern actors and dancers, was given a public rehearsal July 17th at the Oe Noh Theatre, Kyoto. This paper examines the problems in screen placement, interaction of performers with technology, as well as performer’s reflections and audience reception

Anniversary Dance Concert

Playbill from University of Hawaii theatrical or dance productions

Indigenous Cosmopolitanisms of Music in Sámi Theatre

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