Department of Theatre Arts
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Browsing Department of Theatre Arts by Author "Denman, Stan."
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Item From Christmas lights to candlelight : a director's approach to Alfred Uhry's The Last Night of Ballyhoo.(2022-05-02) Olson, Emily N., 1985-; Denman, Stan.In 1996 playwright Alfred Uhry was commissioned to write a play for the Cultural Olympiad in honor of the upcoming Summer Olympic Games that were to be held in his hometown of Atlanta, Georgia. The resulting play, The Last Night of Ballyhoo, is the story of a Southern Jewish family in Atlanta in 1939 grappling with their own opposing and overlapping social, cultural, and familial identities. It is Uhry’s second play in a series of works that would come to be known as his “Atlanta Trilogy,” which explores the complex cultural identity of Jews in the American South in the mid-twentieth century. In September of 2021, The Last Night of Ballyhoo was produced on the Baylor University Theatre stage. This thesis examines the directorial process of that production from research on the life and works of playwright Alfred Uhry and a directorial script analysis through the development of the director’s artistic concept, the collaborative design and rehearsal processes to the final performances.Item Unpacking the individual : a director's approach to Ionesco's Rhinoceros.(2020-04-30) Kennedy, Chad Landon, 1980-; Denman, Stan.In 1959, French-Romanian playwright Eugene Ionesco debuted his play, Rhinoceros, and the theatergoing world was captivated by the curious image of people turning into pachyderms. This fable about herd mentality and being comfortable in one’s own skin is continually timely, as humans and rhinos often pit people against the pack. While critics have pointed to historic inspirations for the script for years, the play is more effective as an individual exploration of what it means to be human. Like much of Ionesco’s work, it reveals a strong concern for individualism and upholding human dignity. This thesis examines the production process that brought Rhinoceros to the Baylor University stage in December 2019 for a weeklong run. It explores the playwright’s life and work, as well as historical productions of the play, before turning attention to the directorial analysis of the script. Directing concepts and production designs are then outlined to trace the development of the play from rehearsals through performances to highlight lessons learned throughout the collaborative process.