From Politics to “Popular”: Commercialization of Broadway Musicals and How It Affects the Public Sphere

Theaters have been used for centuries as places where people can critically discuss the nature of their lives, but a recent rise in mega musicals that focus on spectacle degrades the purposes of theatre. To ensure theatre’s place in the present and future public sphere, an examination of current theatrical production must occur. In this project I discuss how the commercialization of theatre is detrimental to the public sphere by using the musical Wicked as an example. I compare the musical to its supposed source material, Gregory Maguire’s Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, to show how musicals are adapted to entertain mainstream audiences. To understand why commercialization is debasing theatre’s position, I use public sphere theory along with theories of spectacle to explain theatre’s past and present situation in the public sphere. I perform a content analysis of the musical Wicked’s characters, plot, and theme in comparison to the same elements in the novel. These differences support the claim that musicals are not critical pieces of drama in comparison to other forms of media. The results support the claim that musicals do not contribute as much to the realm of critical and rational debate as straight plays do. This is due to the general nature of the musical: structure, characters, and themes are reused, and as a result there are limited alternative viewpoints. This trend is also due to the ridiculous amount of spectacle in musicals, which often outweighs the plot, characters, and themes. When spectacle overcomes character and plot, there is less room for critical discussion of any kind since the production focuses on entertainment rather than informing. Wicked’s abundant use of elements from The Wizard of Oz movie from 1939 illustrates how musical creators manipulate an audience to increase ticket sales. The rise of the mega musical in American culture has led to a deterioration of theatre within the public sphere. Mass audiences have been trained to enjoy these musicals and to expect certain structural elements, such as heterosexual romances and characters that break out into song and dance. The audiences involved in the musical theatre world have become disconnected and lazy, disregarding rich thematic story elements in exchange for more spectacle. Broadway musicals are becoming larger and therefore need more money to be produced. This means less money for critically engaging pieces of theatre to be produced on a nationallyrecognized venue. This small-scale public sphere issue may be reflective of a larger commercialized culture in which spectacle overcomes substance

An Analysis of Factors Contributing to Anxiety in Athletic Performance

The purpose of this synthesis was to first investigate factors associated with cognitive and somatic anxiety among athletes. Secondly, this synthesis aimed to investigate the relationship between cognitive and somatic anxiety and athletic performance. An exhaustive review of the literature yielded ten studies that were relevant to this review. Six studies examined self-confidence in relationship to anxiety; two studies examined anxiety in relationship to age and experience; two studies examined anxiety in relationship to incentives; one study examined the effects of coaching style on anxiety; and one study examined anxiety in the presence of an audience. The relationships between self-confidence and performance show a positive linear trend and the relationship between somatic anxiety and performance show a curvilinear trend. Further research is needed in order to determine if anxiety can be a positive thing for some athletes. Additional research is also needed to exam continuing changes in athlete anxiety and how they can control this anxiety to improve their performance

The Potential of Polysemy in Video Games: A Case Study of Elden Ring

Researchers have defined polysemy as a concept used to describe a word that can carry multiple different meanings depending on the context in which it is being used. This concept has also been applied to media in the way that film producers employ it within trailers and teasers, letting viewers interpret what is to come, in order to drive excitement and anticipation. In this paper, I explore the potential for polysemy within video games by taking a look into the 2022 game of the year, Elden Ring because it employs several different endings, leaving people with different interpretations of its story. I conducted my research via an online survey gathering participants by convenience sampling. Research findings suggest that polysemy is a concept that not only changes the scope of video games, but drastically improves the quality of a game. Future game developers should look to implement polysemy within future video game titles

A study of the messianic concepts in the apocrypha and pseudepigrapha

https://place.asburyseminary.edu/ecommonsatsdissertations/2055/thumbnail.jp

Fire-induced Carbon Emissions and Regrowth Uptake in Western U.S. Forests: Documenting Variation Across Forest Types, Fire Severity, and Climate Regions

The forest area in the western United States that burns annually is increasing with warmer temperatures, more frequent droughts, and higher fuel densities. Studies that examine fire effects for regional carbon balances have tended to either focus on individual fires as examples or adopt generalizations without considering how forest type, fire severity, and regional climate influence carbon legacies. This study provides a more detailed characterization of fire effects and quantifies the full carbon impacts in relation to direct emissions, slow release of fire-killed biomass, and net carbon uptake from forest regrowth. We find important variations in fire-induced mortality and combustion across carbon pools (leaf, live wood, dead wood, litter, and duff) and across low- to high-severity classes. This corresponds to fire-induced direct emissions from 1984 to 2008 averaging 4 TgC/yr and biomass killed averaging 10.5 TgC/yr, with average burn area of 2723 sq km/yr across the western United States. These direct emission and biomass killed rates were 1.4 and 3.7 times higher, respectively, for high-severity fires than those for low-severity fires. The results show that forest regrowth varies greatly by forest type and with severity and that these factors impose a sustained carbon uptake legacy. The western U.S. fires between 1984 and 2008 imposed a net source of 12.3 TgC/yr in 2008, accounting for both direct fire emissions (9.5 TgC/yr) and heterotrophic decomposition of fire-killed biomass (6.1 TgC yr1) as well as contemporary regrowth sinks (3.3 TgC/yr). A sizeable trend exists toward increasing emissions as a larger area burns annually