A Tempest in the Halls: Intersections of Social Justice, Student Collaboration, and Devised Theatre

An increasing disconnection exists between students and schooling as these formal institutions continue to prioritize high-stakes testing and quantitative measures over the specific needs of individual learners. Drama attempts to interrogate spaces in all echelons of social and economic standing and seeks to bring together dichotomous perspectives in the spirit of irreverent collaboration. The narrowing of creative, synthesis, higher-order cognition in courses meant to be free-thinking and expressive signals a dangerous turn towards even more sterile subject matter in education. This qualitative study examined social justice in drama spaces by investigating student development and process in collaborative playwriting, as well as teacher/researcher’s bias concerning the specialness of aesthetic arts classes and aesthetic arts students. The data sources for the study involved student interviews and focus groups, observations, student reflections and biographies, and student-created dramatic pieces. This data was peer reviewed and member checked, as well as crystallized – an advanced form of triangulation – to increase accuracy. Four findings were discovered from the data analysis and reflection: (1) student collaboration and group dynamics require further investigation on basic levels for effective classroom use; (2) intuitive leaps between learning concepts and creating connections across diverse perspectives are problematic for even AP and Honors students as educational expectations have become rigidly standardized and extrinsically motivated; (3) student challenges concerning creativity and imagination are illustrated by a lack of ownership, a forfeit of agency, and an easily discouraged learning mindset; and (4) Drama spaces must be continually questioned and interrogated for social justice practices as cultural, racial, and class (SES) divides exist within them, but are not openly discussed. Recommendations for teachers of all subjects include direct instruction with formal and informal collaborative projects, as well as continued development of creative and imaginative skill sets that may address decreases in ownership and learning agency. Further research in high school theatre arts is needed to construct a stronger literature base that speaks to the complexities of course curriculum and the complicated relationships between students, teachers, and dramatic learning spaces

Finding Poetry in Nature

Finding poetry in nature is a project about cultivating receptivity and curiosity to the experiences of the natural world. It is about using language imaginatively to deepen a responsiveness and respectfulness towards nature. The project is allied with movements in Environmental Education and Language Arts Education that address sense of place and place-based education. My discoveries take the form of a literature review, a set of facilitation techniques, and samples of my own nature writing. An exploration of a sense of place is enriched by actively integrating four different perceptual paths. Attentiveness to sensory and imaginative impressions as well as emotional and intellectual responses deepen a responsiveness to the natural world. Touching on these four paths allows nature writers and other observe is of nature to be guided to meaningful discoveries and new perceptual terrain. Facilitation techniques from contemplative practices can help awaken reverence and sense of wonder and techniques from the expressive arts and other therapies can help tune sensory awareness, prompt curiosity, and free creativity. I experiment with these techniques in my own writing practice and share the results

The Tempest defending Prospera : the ideation of spiritual lineage and practice in performance for an Afro-Haitian American actor.

Imagine: William Shakespeare’s final hero, Prospero and all of his beautiful and majestic White, Italian maleness played by an Afro-Haitian American actress. Something changes. No longer does the audience see a traditional view of the character onstage. The audience sees a woman of African descent delivering lines written for a man of European descent. They may or may not question what they are seeing: certainly, I the actor, must. My Blackness brings an ancestral line to the production that makes a variety of traditional African religions part of Prospera’s spiritual lineage. My Blackness and gender also imbue Prospera with a cultural and ancestral world view that presents dynamic possibilities for interpretation of the character. These opportunities for diversity shaped the magic, redemption of and the spiritual practices of the Prospera I performed. My spiritual practices have influenced and been influenced by my journey as a theatre artist. The magic of theatre, the craft of acting and the pursuit of its mastery has broadened my knowledge and understanding of my spiritual lineage. This thesis will examine the ideas presented in the previous statement in the framework of theatre as a spiritual practice and its potential as a healing art. In Chapters 1 and 2 of this thesis I will chronicle my discovery of and development in this medium before I entered the MFA in Theatre Performance and Graduate Certificate in African American Theatre programs at the University of Louisville. In Chapter 3 I will chronicle how my classroom experiences aided in my spiritual and artistic growth. In Chapter 4 I will explore how the practice of Tai Chi and Qi Gong influenced my artistic and spiritual development. In Chapter 5, I will discuss my spiritual and artistic experiences of selected rehearsal and production processes I participated in while a student in the program. In Chapter 6, I will explore the spiritual lineage and practice I imagined for Prospera with emphasis on the questions I have raised in the introductory statement. In Chapter 7, I will discuss the preparation, rehearsal and performance processes of my thesis role as Prospera in The Tempest. Finally, in Chapter 8, I will present my conclusions regarding the questions stated in the above introduction

A vision of this island : the prospero figure in post-World War II cinema

William Shakespeare\u27s The Tempest is a work which has intrigued and enchanted both directors and audiences throughout its nearly 400-year history. The text\u27s appeal has been particularly strong for filmmakers in the latter twentieth century, as several cinematic versions of the film have appeared since World War n. This project examines these films, considering in particular the presentation and depiction of Prospero in each, through an examination of these films\u27 narratives and film styles. The magical appeal of Shakespeare\u27s play has been evident through the number of diverse adaptations and appropriations of it in the last fifty years, as this romance has been brought to the screen multiple times. The Tempest combines its magical spectacle with a human tale of forgiveness, and filmmakers have seized upon the play\u27s strengths as inspiration for their films. This play has been transformed into different genres, and this project will trace the evolution of the Prospero figure throughout these transformations. This project will examine the presentation of Shakespeare\u27s magus in a variety of productions, including spinoffs of the play. The focus of this thesis will be five major films: Yellow Sky (1948), Forbidden Planet (1956), The Tempest (1979), Tempest (1982), and Prospero\u27s Books (1991)

TYA AND EDUCATIONAL OUTREACH IN HIGHER EDUCATION: AN ASSET TO UNDERGRADUATES AND THEIR COMMUNITY

Undergraduate students pursuing a career in theatre are at the beginning of their life-long training and understanding and appreciation for the art. Performing in a Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA) touring production alongside the responsibility of crafting educational outreach opportunities provides the students with a unique chance to comprehend the art they have chosen to devote their lives to. This paper details the value of offering a course I crafted entitled “TYA Educational Outreach”, for both the undergraduates enrolled and the community they would be reaching. While undergraduates develop an understanding of the impact theatre can have on an individual and how to share the art form with others, children in the community are exposed to live theatre and the social, emotional, and academic benefits that accompany it. The course curriculum will introduce students to the genre of TYA, educational outreach, and arts integration with their respective advantages. The course, taken in conjunction with a Rehearsal and Production credit, entails rehearsing and performing a one-hour adaptation of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest to local middle and high schools. On top of that students will be responsible for generating an accompanying study guide and workshop lesson plan, which they will lead in classrooms following the performance

The Theatre That Will Be: \u27Devised Theatre\u27 Methodologies and Aesthetics in Training and Practice

This thesis details my process of teaching Devising Theatre, a course of my own design, in Spring of 2005 and Fall of 2005. I address my curricular development from semester to semester (readings, assignments, assessments) as well as the students\u27 responses to the material. Additionally, I discuss my reasons for teaching the course and the place that alternative theatre can and should have in theatre training programs and in the realization of feminist pedagogy

Aerial arial : a lesson in strength and stamina.

This thesis serves to argue the importance of skills related to strength and stamina in the field of theatre performance, particularly in regards to engaging young audiences by applying physical spectacle to classical theatre works. This thesis explores the physical theatre theories of Tadashi Suzuki, Mary Overlie, Rudolf Laban, and the theatrical style of Commedia dell’Arte as applied to my role as Ariel in The Tempest. It also reflects on the use of aerial silks in the same Shakespearean production, serving to prove that the skills required for such a strenuous physical activity are useful for actors as they attempt to both create an engaging visual experience for the audience, while also serving the text and making it easier to understand. The application of aerial acrobatics to a Shakespearean production required extensive training and preparation, and also proved difficult in the rehearsal process. Even so, the preparation required proved to be necessary and rewarding for a final product that engaged, entertained, and clarified otherwise difficult language for the audience. The strength and stamina, as well as the focus required for such a performance, has served as an excellent standard going forward for the dedication, energy and specificity required as I create interesting characters on unrelated projects and productions

Boom

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2000.Includes bibliographical references (leaf 33).This thesis is about my relationship to technology through the medium of my body. By implication it is about how our culture and society view and interact with technology's various manifestations. I use my voice as the medium of this exploration. Boom is a sound and video insertion embodying and re-presenting my vocal arguments and mergings with the machines of a cement pour at the Big Dig in Boston in the spring of the year 2000. Boom offers noise, physical auditive immersion, and hopefully a provocative and meaningful perspective on relating with machines. It creates temptations and in draughts of air around the metaphysical ideas it conjures with the humor and poetry of anarchy. By merging and falling out, struggling and capturing, losing and regaining, the machines and I are negotiating our relationship, our take on each other, our roles, our positions relative to each other. Each machine becomes an extension of my body, as I am resonating within its cavities and it is resonating within me. There is a constant arbitration of who is driving whom, my voice driving the machine's motor and/or the machine's vibrations moving my body, feelings, and perceptions of self within space. As I follow a machine's vibratory lead, try to keep up, to match, to catch, through matching vocalizations, I access previously unacknowledged places within myself. Something like the mantras of other cultures - magical brutal mysterious consonance expressed in broad daylight. Communication occurs through the correspondence of internal and external vibrations. Emanating and absorbing. The tones have an acupunctural precision, able to vibrate certain organs, interstitial tissues, cells, thereby accessing the body's warehouses. The performances of myself with the construction machines in the city throw new perspectives on how we conceive of not only the gigantic machines in our environments, but of other elements of technology as well, such as the intimate integration with small electronic devices being cultivated everywhere within our reach.by Kelly E. Dobson.S.M

Bloody Thoughts: Violence and Wit in Shakespeare\u27s The Tempest

In this Honors thesis, I examine the roles of wit and violence in Shakespeare\u27s The Tempest, exploring my original suspicion that the play is a pacifist work. Noticing references to bloody thoughts in both Hamlet and The Tempest, I hypothesized that while Shakespeare resolves his tragedies using violence, he resolves his comedies using wit, making the two foil plot devices. I discovered that the plot is not propelled by either violence or wit on their own, but by Prospero\u27s cunning. Rejecting the conventional reading of Prospero as a sorcerer, I read Prospero as a Machiavellian figure. I examine how The Tempest points to the violent capabilities of language, and demonstrate how the play, although it does not feature onstage killing, is no less violent than Hamlet

A choreographer's refection on the dramaturgical process of creating "My Tempest"

"My Tempest" is a character-based evening-length choreography inspired by the main images and characters of Shakespeare's "The Tempest." It was performed March 12-14th, 2014, at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center in partial fulfillment of the M.F.A degree in Dance through University of Maryland's School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies. The choreography and spoken word is a commentary on the role of subjectivity and the crisis of Otherness in our contemporary world; highly intertwining sets, props, music, costumes and sound designs contribute to the aesthetic discourse. Guided by the application of dramaturgy to choreography, and a search for intersections between dance and theatre, this paper details the research and creative investigations that occurred during the process of creating "My Tempest." The paper aims to contribute a better understanding of the potential dramaturgy has on dance and how it can support choreographers and dancers during the creative process