Browsing by Subject "Actors"
Now showing 1 - 8 of 8
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item Bourbon reform and buen gusto at Mexico City's Royal Theater(2011-05) Zakaib, Susan Blue; Deans-Smith, Susan, 1953-; Twinam, AnnDuring the late eighteenth century, as part of a broader reform initiative commonly referred to as the “Bourbon reforms,” royal officials attempted to transform theatrical productions at Mexico City’s Real Coliseo (Royal Theater). Influenced by new intellectual trends in Spain, especially the neoclassical movement, reformers hoped that theater could serve as a school of virtue, rationality and good citizenship. This essay analyzes the theatrical reform effort, traces its foundations from sixteenth-century Spain to eighteenth-century Mexico, and seeks to explain why the initiative failed to transform either the Coliseo’s shows or its audience’s artistic predilections. It argues that the initiative was unsuccessful for three primary reasons. First, reformers did not have the power to compel impresarios and actors to obey their new regulations, and economic constraints sometimes forced officials to bend their strict aesthetic standards to appease the audience's largely baroque predilections. Second, Mexico City’s diverse and thriving public sphere made imposing a new popular culture profoundly difficult, especially given that reformers’ one-dimensional vision of neoclassicism failed to account for the variety and debate within this movement. Consequently, the theater added fuel to public debate over the definition of buen gusto (good taste), rather than merely instructing passive citizens as reformers had hoped. Finally, widespread public derision of the performing profession meant that many spectators did not take actors seriously as teachers of morality, taste and rationality. Actors’ reputation as immoral lowlifes, which derived in part from late-sixteenth century debates in Spain over morality and illusion in drama, complicated reformers' already difficult project of transforming the theater into a school of sociability and citizenship.Item Ensemble: a process of actor training(Texas Tech University, 1981-05) Phaneuf, Cynthia Lynn MelbyNot 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 Stage fright : exploring performance anxiety in an MFA professional acting program(2013-05) Reese, Christopher Jermaine; Christian, PamelaAlthough the topic is rarely discussed, performance anxiety is a debilitating condition that sometimes even successful actors face. This thesis chronicles my experience dealing with performance anxiety in four productions as an actor in the M.F.A. acting program at The University of Texas at Austin. It includes an overview of research on the topic and calls for additional study from researchers of psychological disorders and practitioners of the acting craft.Item Steele MacKaye: actor training methods(Texas Tech University, 1997-05) Hebert, Donald FrancisIn order to fully understand American actor education before the introduction of twentieth century methods, it is necessary to explore the philosophy and methods of one of the pioneer proponents of that education, Steele MacKaye. Most existing studies on MacKaye center on his roles as manager, playwright and inventor. Of particular note in this material is the body of work dealing with MacKaye's concept and design for the 1893 World's Fair Spectatorium that took place in Chicago, Illinois. The project, though never fiilly realized, was to have a major impact on scenography in this country during the twentieth century.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.Item Too foul and dishonoring to be overlooked : newspaper responses to controversial English stars in the Northeastern United States, 1820-1870(2010-05) Smith, Tamara Leanne; Canning, Charlotte, 1964-; Jones, Joni L.; Wolf, Stacy; Thompson, Shirley E.; Forgie, GeorgeIn the nineteenth century, theatre and newspapers were the dominant expressions of popular culture in the northeastern United States, and together formed a crucial discursive node in the ongoing negotiation of American national identity. Focusing on the five decades between 1820 and 1870, during which touring stars from Great Britain enjoyed their most lucrative years of popularity on United States stages, this dissertation examines three instances in which English performers entered into this nationalizing forum and became flashpoints for journalists seeking to define the nature and bounds of American citizenship and culture. In 1821, Edmund Kean’s refusal to perform in Boston caused a scandal that revealed a widespread fixation among social elites with delineating the ethnic and economic limits of citizenship in a republican nation. In 1849, an ongoing rivalry between the English tragedian William Charles Macready and his American competitor Edwin Forrest culminated in the deadly Astor Place riot. By configuring the actors as champions in a struggle between bourgeois authority and working-class populism, the New York press inserted these local events into international patterns of economic conflict and revolutionary violence. Nearly twenty years later, the arrival of the Lydia Thompson Burlesque Troupe in 1868 drew rhetoric that reflected the popular press’ growing preoccupation with gender, particularly the question of woman suffrage and the preservation of the United States’ international reputation as a powerfully masculine nation in the wake of the Civil War. Three distinct cultural currents pervade each of these case studies: the new nation’s anxieties about its former colonizer’s cultural influence, competing political and cultural ideologies within the United States, and the changing perspectives and agendas of the ascendant popular press. Exploring the points where these forces intersect, this dissertation aims to contribute to an understanding of how popular culture helped shape an emerging sense of American national identity. Ultimately, this dissertation argues that in the mid-nineteenth century northeastern United States, popular theatre, newspapers, and audiences all contributed to a single media formation in which controversial English performers became a rhetorical antipode against which “American” identity could be defined.Item "You need to do your best to say it correct": directing The Laramie Project. with viewpoints(Texas Tech University, 2003-05) Ramón, RickyNot available