Browsing by Subject "Actors"

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5

Bourbon reform and buen gusto at Mexico City's Royal Theater
(2011-05) Zakaib, Susan Blue; Deans-Smith, Susan, 1953-; Twinam, Ann
During 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.
Saagar Shaikh Interview
(2022-08-10) Institute for Diversity & Civic Life; Department of Religious Studies
This interview is with Saagar Shaikh, an actor living in Los Angeles, CA. Saagar talks about growing up as a Pakistani Muslim in Alief and San Antonio and describes the differences between those communities during his childhood. He describes his career path, including his decision to become an actor and the ups and downs of finding his place in the industry. Saagar goes on to talk about his recent role as Aamir Khan in Disney’s Ms. Marvel series. He shares about a day in the life, favorite scenes and memories, and what the role means to him.
Search & destroy : thesis film
(2022-12-02) Rosales, Alexander Michael; McCreery, Cindy; Raval, PJ; Berg, Charles E
Search & Destroy is an adventurous and tender coming of age short film that follows RAFAEL and his neighborhood squad members–CLAW and DONNIE–on the first day of summer. For the last 7 years, they have honored their first day of summer with an annual swim at the neighborhood pool (The Streak). But this year, Wes, the eldest squad member who is off to high school in the fall, is accused of ditching them. Despite Claw's assertive plea to go on without Wes, Rafael takes the boys on a search in the neighborhood, and risks crossing paths with the high school baseball team who they are also running from. This project is a thesis film for the M.F.A. program in Film & Media Production at The University of Texas at Austin, a highly selective graduate program that brings together talented storytellers from all over the world. Search & Destroy is also produced by Prelude Films. Partnering with an established production company was an intentional endeavor aimed to bridge the gap of student filmmaking and processes standardized at the industry level.
Stage fright : exploring performance anxiety in an MFA professional acting program
(2013-05) Reese, Christopher Jermaine; Christian, Pamela
Although 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.
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, George
In 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.