Dramahttp://hdl.handle.net/10211.3/2145612024-03-28T14:32:25Z2024-03-28T14:32:25ZAn assessment of contemporary comic performances onlineRoslund, Christopher Jameshttp://hdl.handle.net/10211.3/1328122020-01-22T23:54:46Z2014-01-01T00:00:00ZAn assessment of contemporary comic performances online
Roslund, Christopher James
An Assessment o f Contemporary Comic Performances Online surveys current online entertainment such as podcasts, videos, text-based comedy such as Twitter, and picture memes, and attempts to see how they fit into comic theories of the past by authors such Plato, Aristotle, Sigmund Freud, and Henri Bergson. Their theories add a deeper and scholarly understanding into the psychological and philosophical make up of comedy and laughter which is then transferred into a better understanding of modem online comedy. Online examples which are studied include Funny or Die, a website that contains original comedic videos by the site's creators that provide satirical views of current issues including politics, race relations, and ecological issues, but also allow the public to post videos of their own on the site. Another example is Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, an online webseries originated by comedian Jerry Seinfeld, in which he discusses the subject of comedy with other comedians. And the final online example is Louis C.K.'s Live at the Beacon Theatre, an experimental comedy special which he released to be viewed online only. By analyzing these comedic examples in a theoretical and historical context, I show why they are contemporary, relevant, and important in the scope of comedy.
2014-01-01T00:00:00ZZora Neale Hurston : Harlem Renaissance playwrightLee, Amanda Janehttp://hdl.handle.net/10211.3/1326862020-01-23T00:21:05Z2014-01-01T00:00:00ZZora Neale Hurston : Harlem Renaissance playwright
Lee, Amanda Jane
This thesis focuses on the 1997 discovery of Harlem Renaissance author Zora Neale
Hurston’s previously unknown play manuscripts—“The Copyright Deposit Plays”—in an
effort to broaden the range of academic study on Hurston as an African-American female
playwright of the 1920s and 30s. The analysis attempts to understand how Hurston
translated the oral history of rural African Americans into her brand of folk plays. This
thesis also explores how Hurston’s plays promote a distinctive and innovative theatrical
portrait of the emerging new African-American persona of the Harlem Renaissance era,
breaking free from the denigrating, and still lingering, minstrelsy stereotypes. The
examination revolves around plays and skits routinely overlooked for academic critique
and theatrical production: Meet the Mama (1925); four skits from the Fast and Furious
revue: Forty Yards, Lawing and Jawing, Poker!, and Woofing (1931); and Spunk (1935).
2014-01-01T00:00:00ZThe Detroit arts and crafts theater, 1916-1919Shacket, Devin Karahttp://hdl.handle.net/10211.3/1279762020-01-23T00:14:09Z2012-01-01T00:00:00ZThe Detroit arts and crafts theater, 1916-1919
Shacket, Devin Kara
This thesis contains a detailed history of the Detroit Arts and Crafts Theater, which was
in operation from 1916-1919 in Detroit, Michigan. The years of the theater’s life are
few; however, this thesis covers a much greater span of time. Investigated herein are the
origins of the Arts and Crafts Movement, the origins of the Little Theater Movements,
and a segmented history of Detroit’s industrial success at the turn of the twentieth
century. These historical milestones, and the people associated with them, have made up a large part of my research due to the fact that at a rare moment in history they intersected, and their intersection spawned the Detroit Arts and Crafts Theater. While in operation the Detroit Arts and Crafts Theater, an outgrowth of the Detroit Arts and Crafts Society, became, under the direction of Samuel J. Hume, the most important little theater in the entire country and, arguably, the world. Hume resigned in early 1919, leaving the theater director-less, and the members of the Arts and Crafts Society closed the theater. This thesis sheds light on one of the few golden ages in theater history, and, hopefully, offers modem day theater practitioners insight into the craft of theater making. If nothing else, my goal was to awaken the memory of the forgotten Detroit Arts and Crafts Theater, one of the most innovative, unique institutions in the history of the theater or otherwise.
2012-01-01T00:00:00ZThe reception of Adolphe Appia's Tristan und Isolde at La Scala (1923)Cattani, Alessandrahttp://hdl.handle.net/10211.3/1265682020-10-28T17:38:55Z2012-01-01T00:00:00ZThe reception of Adolphe Appia's Tristan und Isolde at La Scala (1923)
Cattani, Alessandra
This thesis explores factors at work in the critical failure of Adolphe Appia's staging of Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde at Milan's Teatro alia Scala in 1923, under the baton of Arturo Toscanini. The research views the historical and sociopolitical context of Appia’s
appearance on the Italian stage through contemporary aesthetic concerns. Its aim is to situate the critics' reaction to Tristan within the larger landscape of the Italian response to
modernism and the ongoing intellectual project of restoration of order and tradition. In
particular, my analysis brings into focus the debate on the reform of theatre, the elitist
character of La Scala, ongoing changes to working and artistic practices under Toscanini’s
guidance, and the misoneism and affinity for theatricalism that characterized the Italian
theatre world at that time. The research is based on Italian press reviews, Appia's writings,
extant production materials, and other primary sources, in addition to the literature on
Appia, Wagner, and Toscanini.
2012-01-01T00:00:00Z