Browsing by Subject "Acting -- Study and teaching"
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Item An Actor's Preparation for the role of Satin in Maxim Gorky's The lower depths(Texas Tech University, 1975-05) Hickman, Robert HudsonNot Available.Item An actress' approach to the role of Hesther Salomon in Peter Shaffer's Equus(Texas Tech University, 1995-08) Bryson, HeatherThe primary goal of the Dance and Theatre Department at Texas Tech University is to prepare its students for a professional or academic career in theatre. The department offers several courses in acting, directing, design, and management for both undergraduate and graduate students. The Master of Fine Arts program allows students to focus on an area of study they wish to pursue. This program requires that a thesis be presented within the candidate's primary area of study. Some studies represent directing projects, some stage management projects, and some involve design projects such as lighting, costumes, or sets. Because this candidate's track in the Master of Fine Arts program is acting, a project concerning the development of a character is appropriate. The purpose of this thesis is to demonstrate a theoretical and practical knowledge of performance. This candidate elected to prove her competence in the performance area of acting by performing the role of Hesther Salomon in the Texas Tech Theatre production of Peter Shaffer's Eguus, as directed by Dr. Richard Weaver. The problem of this study is to provide an account of the actress' approach to the analysis and performance of the role. Special attention will be given to the entire process, and any problems that occured during the experience will be addressed and examined. Research will be conducted addressing the playwright, an analysis of the play, and a study of the character. Also, exploration will be made into how an actor is to approach a role and build a character.Item Conquering performance problems involving a historical figure in a vintage musical: Annie Oakley in Annie get your gun(Texas Tech University, 1989-05) Davis, Debora FayNot availableItem Ensemble: a process of actor training(Texas Tech University, 1981-05) Phaneuf, Cynthia Lynn MelbyNot availableItem Examining the role of observer and participant: an actor's approach to Louise in Arthur Miller's After the fall(Texas Tech University, 2001-08) Howard, Tiffany MurphyNot availableItem Imaginary forces: creating character for the stage(Texas Tech University, 1996-08) Simone, Edward J.The problem addressed in Imaginary Forces: Creating Character for the Stage is an especially challenging one. Stage acting as a distinct art form is being compromised by a generation of acting students and younger actors who know little or no theatre, but who take most of their exposure to acting from television and film. The cult of the personality actor or star in those media, substandard literacy among college students and the subsequent unfamiliarity with stage literature and the humanities in general, and a diminishing number of theatrical venues have combined to place solid American stage acting at great risk.Item Mime as an actor training technique: a professional problem(Texas Tech University, 1991-05) Davis, Debora FayIn the area of actor training, young actors rarely receive carefully concentrated emphasis on the physical aspects of their acting curriculum. Many young actors receive little or no movement training at all. Most actor training is concentrated in the areas of "Method" acting, with an emphasis on the psychological scope of acting. Movement classes usually take the form of "styles" classes which develop limited movement skills utilized in particular periods and/or genres. Dance classes are often required to help actors in the areas of jazz, ballet, tap, and modern dancing to facilitate actors cast in musical productions. The area of actor training that is most commonly overlooked is the overall cultivation of bodily expression and control. Such an awareness of the method of communication through the body is addressed and developed by training in the discipline known as mime. This study was executed in a four-month class taught at Texas Tech University. The class provided seven students with basic mime skills aimed at enhancing their own personal acting skills through very disciplined and highly technical instruction. The class culminated in an interdisciplinary performance combining music, art, and mime. The goals of this study were to: (1) develop awareness of self through refined physicalization, (2) sharpen the ability to express ideas through movement, (3) cultivate better silent communication on stage, (4) increase confidence through better physical flexibility and the ability to adapt to different physical styles, and (5) help the actor to be more creative in the physical nuances involved in the creation of a character. This study provided already consummate actors with a basis for further exploration in the area of corporal discipline and flexibility. This area of work expanded their current skills and abilities to allow them to develop fully realized characterizations from the standpoint of both the "physical" and the "mental," and all the subtleties inherent in both. The class was successful in all of its objectives, and the performances displayed this success for an audience to see the development of the individuals involved.Item Principles of truthful acting: a theoretical discourse on Sanford Meisner's practice(Texas Tech University, 1999-05) Stinespring, Louise MalloryThe focus of this dissertation is the exploration of one acting teacher's methodology. This teacher, Sanford Meisner, has been well-known for years among professional theatre circles, and more recently, since his death on February 2,1997, the wider academic theatre community is becoming aware of his contribution to the field of actor education. As one of his former students I can only look back with amazement at the genius which informs this approach to acting. History will be more than kind to this twentieth-century actor and acting teacher who bequeathed his generation and subsequent generations a body of work already recognized by many as perhaps the single most important contribution to the actor's art. For more than fifty years Sanford Meisner sat behind a desk in his classroom at The Neighborhood Playhouse in Manhattan committing himself to the painstaking work of engaging his students in the technical training of the craft of acting.Item The use of masks in the rehearsal process: a professional problem(Texas Tech University, 1996-12) Potts, Katherine E.The theory developed by this study, although certainly involving the actor, is written primarily for the director. The director is the driving force of the production. It is he who molds the rehearsal process, makes decisions about how time is utilized and synthesizes all of the production elements into a cohesive whole. In order to accomplish this, directors must develop a variety of strategies or methods. This study will provide a variation on traditional directing techiHques by using the mask as an impetus for gesture, movement and emotional intensification in the rehearsal process. A fresh directorial approach is needed in order to utilize the mask in the rehearsal process. Dean and Carra in their book Fundamentals of Stage Directing hst composition, picturization, movement, rhythm and pantomimic dramatization as the director's media. All of these elements are extemal, cogrûtive functions on the part of the director. Ironically, Dean and Carra, and most writers on directing, list the physical expression of the actor last. Since the extemal life of the character, the gestural world, is the last to be perfected, it is not surprising that it is often the least developed part of the performance.