Theatre, Dance & Performance Studies
Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2229
Effective July 1, 2010, the former departments of Dance and Theatre were combined to form the School of Theatre, Dance & Performance Studies.
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Item LUCID DREAMS: AN EXPLORATION IN IMMERSIVE INTERACTIVE STORYTELLING WITH AUGMENTED REALITY(2024) Lazar, Rashonda; Kachman, Misha; Theatre; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The following thesis examines my design process and discoveries while investigating one way live performance and immersive storytelling can act as a form of augmented reality, and explores whether incorporating traditional forms of augmented reality is one way to enhance a performance and builds on the narrative agency audiences experience in immersive theater. The production opened on April 8th, 2024, in the Herman Maril Gallery at the Parren J. Mitchell Art and Sociology Building at the University of Maryland.Item TONIGHT WE MAY WIN: CHALLENGING THE UNIVERSAL IN QUEER EMBODIMENT AND PERFORMANCE(2024) Steinberg, Rebecca Anne; Keefe, Maura; Dance; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)I sit in this chair how I always do, snug to the left side. I feel the warm hum of my laptop resting on my thighs. I feel the external rotation of my hips that allows my legs to casually cross with my feet cradled by the ottoman. I feel the spiral of my spine supporting a slightly forward head that looks down at the computer screen as I simultaneously sense the weight of chronic pain pooling heavy in my tired bones. I come to write words on this page through a commitment to embodiment as a state of profound possibility. As dance scholar Susan Foster suggests in her essay Choreographing History, “I am a body writing, I am a bodily writing.” I write through, with, and from embodiment. I define embodiment as a state where one has a heightened consciousness of their sensorium through acknowledged sensation. This state of awareness through sensation grounds the “self” in the body. Through this lens, embodiment is a mobilization that has the power to redefine how queerness is enacted and perceived through the medium of live performance. My dance thesis work, Tonight, we, may win, wields the social commentary of this position of audience privilege as farce. In this work, the dancers engage in what I’ve named “performing performativity.” Performing performativity makes transparent the exchange of currency between audience member and performer. Performing performativity functions in Tonight, we, may win as both a lens through which to view the performance and a performative state the dancers enact. The performers and the choreographer together have the power to enact possibility through this viable exchange. The potential of this enacted possibility is extensive, complex, nuanced, and political. It is an exchange that requires a book of its own to justly unpack. Although this is not the space for that unpacking, this is a space where I utilize my thesis choreography as a primary example where the power of possibility through embodiment is examined thoroughly through various theoretical lenses and multiple works of performance art. The epicenter of this physical and theoretical research revolves around the development and execution my thesis choreography, Tonight, we, may win, performed February 16-18, 2024 at University of Maryland, College Park. The enacted examples of a body first politic are constructed in this research through the vehicle of my choreographic work. I enact a body first politic in my work and I use the following chapters to bring in the choreographic voices of both my own work and dance makers and performers who succeed in challenging the impositions of the cisheteropartriarchy through queer embodiment. In the first chapter I provide an introduction the theoretical and chorographic groundwork of this world through the lens of queer embodied subjecthood. In Chapter 2, I use a solo work I created in 2022, titled Soft Caution, to activate choreography as feminist knowledge production through movement analysis and feminist theory. In the third chapter, I evoke failure as both a queer action and choreographic tool and argue for queerness as a technology in live performance. I bring in the choreographic works of Age & Beauty: Part 3 by Miguel Gutierrez and Black Hole by Shamel Pitts as examples of live performances that make queerness as a technology visibly tangible. In Chapter 4, I closely analyze the lyrics of “I Don’t Care Much” from the musical Cabaret through black feminism, performance studies, queer studies, and beyond to dissect the thin façade of queer apathy in its application to performance, queerness, communal grief, and more. In the final chapter, I excavate both the process and the product of my thesis choreography Tonight, we, may win. Through movement analysis and rehearsal reflections I endeavor to add depth and dimension to the ephemeral world created and left on stage during my thesis concert. This research privileges embodiment, communal care, and queerness through the vehicle of live performance to argue for the enactment of inclusive and equitable futures on the stage and beyond.Item Mi Vida, in Rhythm: Resistance and Integration of an Afro- Honduran Immigrant in The United States Through Tap Dance(2024) Lanza Ruiz, Gerson Noé; Portier, Kendra; Dance; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This article focuses on Mi Vida, in Rhythm, which premiered on October 12, 2023, at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. This performance is an autobiographical account of my experience immigrating from Honduras to the United States. At the heart of this production lies the art of storytelling, brough to life through the combination of live music, dance and spoken word. The performance draws heavily from the experiences of Afro-descendant peoples in Central America and the United States. It is steeped in the cultural traditions of the Garifuna, an afro-indigenous people of Honduras, incorporating their language, dance forms of resistance, and everyday choreography. The performance aims to capture the evolution of communication tactics, identity, and coping mechanisms of Afro Latinoe/xs as we navigate the challenges of realizing the American dream.What follows are brief personal accounts that serve as guide to essential artistic discoveries that sparked my curiosity. These curiosities eventually mold my artistry in percussive dance, particularly tap dance. With that, I formally analyze specific segments in Mi Vida, in Rhythm, that serve as reservoir of knowledge for movement and sound exploration. Ultimately my scholarly research dwells in three different topics; First the term Blackness as descriptive of one's ethnicity, race, or both, and the movement practices unique to their demographic and diasporic thread. Second, the understanding of historic privileging of Eurocentric perspectives within higher education. Third, the necessity to highlight Afro-Latinoe/ experiences and dance forms within dance curriculum. The article concludes by highlighting my contributions as an artist, instructor, and creative collaborator steeped in the artistry of bodily percussion practices and the intersectionality of Black cultural terrain and immigration paranoia.Item ALTERNATIVE CHOREOGRAPHIES: IMMERSIVE PERFORMANCE AS A DECOLONIAL PEDAGOGICAL AND PERFORMANCE PRACTICE(2024) Padilla Garcia, Javier Ignacio; Fang, Adriane; Dance; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The research unfolds through a multidisciplinary lens, weaving together theoretical analysis, artistic creation, pedagogical exploration and performative interventions. Through “el bodegon de la bruja”, an interdisciplinary immersive dance theater performance, this thesis aims to explore alternative ways of understanding, learning, and expressing that are rooted in decolonial principles. The performance engages with diverse mediums and techniques to construct immersive environments that prompt participants to critically reflect on colonial histories and power structures. Through a series of performative acts and pedagogical interventions, the thesis seeks to demonstrate how immersive performance can serve as a conduit for decolonial praxis. The outcomes contribute to an evolving discourse on the potential of artistic and educational practices to actively dismantle colonial legacies. This work not only envisions alternative narratives but actively engages participants in co-creating knowledge, fostering a sense of empowerment, agency, and a deeper understanding of decolonialized perspectives.Item Decadence, Decay and Divine Retribution: Reframing Don Giovanni Through Costume Design(2024) Janney, Rebecca Anne; Huang, Helen; Theatre; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This document describes the process of concepting, designing, and realizing the costume design for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Lorenzo da Ponte’s opera, Don Giovanni. This iteration of the opera centered the principal women Donna Anna, Donna Elvira, and Zerlina in their quest for retribution against Don Giovanni for his sexual abuse of them. The production uses the 1780s as a period touchstone but manipulated modern asymmetry and Baroque color to create the dramatic world of the show. This thesis contains a record of the entire design process from early concept to completed production. This includes research, renderings, fitting photos, production photos, and paperwork. The show was produced by the Maryland Opera Studio between April 14th to April 23rd, 2023. This production was conducted by Craig Kier, directed by Corinne Hayes, scenic designed by Brandon Roak, lighting designed by Heather Reynolds, and costume designed by Becca Janney.Item CREATIVE SYSTEM INTEGRATION: BUILDING TOOLS FOR COLLABORATIVE WORKFLOW IN LIVE PERFORMANCE(2023) Williams, Mark; Mezzocchi, Jared M; Theatre; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Creative System Integration is the process of assembling systems of technology for design that supports the creative needs of a performance. In these writings, I document and reflect on the steps my collaborators and I took in two productions, “DanceXDance” and “The Late Wedding”. I examine the processes and performance objectives of these two shows with attention to how technology and the medium of media was utilized, and the advantages or limitations it presented. I explore how new technology can be leveraged to create new collaborative workspaces, new methodologies, subvert expectations about media, and improve creative agency, all while meeting the unique narrative and mediaturgical needs of each production.Item LAST DANCE, LOST DANCE: STRATEGIZING INDETERMINACY TOWARD LIVE AND EMERGENT CHOREOGRAPHIES(2023) Villanueva, Carlo Antonio Ortega; Keefe, Maura; Dance; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Last Dance, Lost Dance is a 30-minute interdisciplinary performance piece that explores the concept of indeterminacy in performance. Indeterminacy—the phenomenon of a performer making decisions during performance—is a reifying analytical perspective from which dance improvisation can be seen, applied, and understood. Instinctively directed and choreographed by Carlo Antonio Ortega Villanueva, Last Dance, Lost Dance resists the fixity of choreographic form in pursuit of relational, responsive collaborations in performance strategy and (interdisciplinarily) with theater design. To do so, Last Dance, Lost Dance reschedules choreography to include the moment of performance, through the use of improvisational strategies; and reconfigures choreography to include the design and movement of mise en scène. As a result, Last Dance, Lost Dance commands the full apparatus of the theater despite its imposed rubrics for form, beauty, and aesthetic; and its choreography emerges in real time, authored live by its performers. These experimental modes of choreography ask and dance the question: “What is the relationship between form and possibility?” This document, “Last Dance, Lost Dance: Strategizing Indeterminacy Toward Live and Emergent Choreographies,” supports and contextualizes Last Dance, Lost Dance with discussions of dance and the archive, Asian American postmodern performance, and photographic and narrative documentation of the creative research, development, and critical reflections of Last Dance, Lost Dance; it is accompanied by an archival video of the performance.Item BLACK IS HOLY: A WORD(2023) Ward, Cyrah Louise; Davis, Crystal U; Dance; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)BLACK IS HOLY: A WORD is a 30-minute multimodal performative meditation birthed at the crossroads of spirituality and sensuality. Migrating the audience through jazz worlds saturated with ancestral choreographies, storytelling, and spoken words, BLACK IS HOLY: A WORD acts as a divine medium converging the past and the present. Carefully informed by embodied practices within the Hoodoo spiritual system, BLACK IS HOLY: A WORD submerges viewers into a Black cultural landscape where the sacred and secular collide. BLACK IS HOLY: A WORD directed by Cyrah L. Ward premiered as an installation on Monday, November 14, 2022, and an embodied performance on Thursday, November 17, 2022. The installation designed by Cyrah L. Ward in collaboration with scenic designer Sarah Beth Hall features a series of found sacred objects, original digital art collages, and poetry. The embodied performance of BLACK IS HOLY: A WORD features choreography by Cyrah L. Ward in collaboration with Ronya-Lee Anderson, scenic design by Sarah Beth Hall, audio engineering by Cyrah L. Ward, sound design by Veronica J. Lancaster, lighting design by Luis Garcia, costume design by Ashlynne Ludwig, projection design by Deja Collins, and stage managing by Safiya Muthaliff. This document serves as a written performance that creatively travels readers through the energetic, spiritual, compositional, and choreographic development of BLACK IS HOLY: A WORD.Item The Performance of Remastery in Theatre and Media(2023) Miller, Alexander Williams; Harding, James M; Theatre; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Within the field of mediatized performance, there are many terms that rely upon the “re-” prefix. Terms like remediation and remix have been utilized for the last two decades in discussions of how digital media has affected our perceptions of live performance. This dissertation analyzes the potential of a third “re-:” remastering. Remastering refers to the act of “touching up” older mediums, mostly vinyl discs and reels of film, digitizing the media they contain while improving the overall quality of sounds and/or images. With this sort of digital augmentation affecting the audience reception of media, the question emerges: how can we think of the remastering process as performative?This project centers on the notion that performance studies provide an excellent template to begin to answer the questions that arise surrounding remastering. It explores technical acts of remastering through the lens of performance and performativity to develop a working theory of remastery. This theory draws upon and expands previous conversations surrounding both digital media and performance. Starting with a discussion of the technical requirements that go into remastering in general, I develop a working understanding and theory of remastery. This theory centers remastery as a performative action that can shed light on the power dynamics that underpin our cultural interest in obsolescence, nostalgia, and technology. In discussing this theory of remastery, four case studies of remastered media are analyzed, each providing a different facet of my theory. The first is The Rise and Fall of Paramount Records: a remastered collection of work from a defunct inter-war recording company that produced a wide variety of African American Artists and performers. The second is the various remastered versions of Star Wars and their effect on the prospects of authenticity and alteration within remastering. The third is Warcraft III: Reforged, a remastered videogame from 2020 that was met with critical and commercial failure. The fourth is Elements of Oz by The Builders Association, a live production of multimedia theatre that demonstrates the usefulness of remastery as a theoretical concept to bridge the gap between performance and technology.Item RADICAL INTERLOCUTORS, ENTER STAGE LEFT: HERBERT MARCUSE, PETER WEISS, REVOLUTIONARY DIALOGUE IN THEORY AND PRACTICE(2022) Monday, John Francis; Harding, James; Theatre; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This thesis explores the parallels between philosopher Herbert Marcuse’s efforts in Eros and Civilization (1955) to wed the ideas of Marx and Freud on the one hand, and the debate between Marquis de Sade and Jean-Paul Marat that playwright Peter Weiss stages, on the other, in his play The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade (1963). Marcuse’s innovations bled into the world of Weiss who, despite his own assertions to the contrary, I will argue, wrote a play that owes a great debt to the debates of his time as well as to critical theory. What is at stake in the fictional dialogues set forth by Marcuse and Weiss, as I will contend in this thesis, are basic questions about the role of fictional debate in revolutionary praxis. What work is done by polarizing or marrying two schools of thought? What is the role of the author synthesizing or bifurcating a dialectic in an era of social upheaval? These questions frame my individual consideration of Marcuse’s Eros and Civilization and equally my consideration of Weiss’s Marat / Sade. But the larger goal of setting the work of Marcuse in dialogue with that of Weiss is to consider the role of art in theoretical thinking and vice versa. Utilizing two prominent figureheads of the Left cultural moment of the 60s, this thesis argues that confrontation itself is a productive endeavor and that the two contexts dialectically bleed into one another. The worth of this project is thus to capture a specific scene of theoretical and artistic thought in the late 1950s and early 1960s, which are interconnected.