Browsing by Subject "Musical theatre"
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Item Broadway Junior : musical theatre for youth performers(2016-05) Streeter, Joshua Rashon; Schroeder-Arce, Roxanne; Wolf, StacyThis MFA thesis identifies the junior musical as an umbrella term for commercial American musical theatre adapted for youth performers and explores the value of these adaptations in schools. Interviews and survey responses comprise this qualitative study that examines interest in and opportunities created by Broadway Jr., a specific musical theatre program for middle school students. Through an analysis of current practices and statistics in performance and education, this thesis positions the Broadway Jr. program as an educational theatre model that flexibly responds to the needs of the particular schools and communities it serves. Findings invite practitioners and scholars to consider what comprises quality musical theatre education for young people in schools in the twenty-first century.Item The Dead painter's son(2010-05) Gross, William Franklin, 1983-; Grantham, Donald, 1947-; Pinkston, Russell; Pennycook, Bruce; Reynolds, Clark W.; O'Hare, ThomasThe dead painter's son is a two-act musical for the stage. Set in Atlantic City, New Jersey in the early 1940s, the story concerns an acclaimed magician's descent into insanity. The music mostly exhibits the styles of popular song and swing, while some sections employ polytonality and free atonality. What makes the musical unique is its blending of comedy with horror, as well as its complete authorship by one person; the book and lyrics are written by the composer.Item Healthy belting for the classically trained singer(2020-05-06) Bassig, Samantha Serrano; Olivieri, Guido, 1966-; Wiley, Darlene; Small, David; Nix, John; Lewis, Hannah; Rowley, RickThis treatise explores the history of belting, the differences in types of belting, belting registers, exploring a methodology of healthy, and stylistically correct belt. The ability to sing musical theatre style has become high in demand from both Broadway and Opera companies. About more than half of Young Artist Programs, pay to sings, and apprenticeships put on at least one musical theater show a season. Those on the audition panel now ask in the audition requirements for at least one musical theatre piece to perform for them. Having the knowledge of how to properly belt will help the performer have more opportunities than other singers who only know how to sing bel canto style. This treatise will include a new methodology that will address a belting technique through the lens of a classically trained singer and how to transfer elements from bel canto technique into a belting technique. The questions that will be addressed in this treatise are as follows: 1. What quality and stylistic elements does belting require? 2. What is the difference between the contemporary commercial music methodology (CCM) and musical theatre methodology on belting? 3. Why is it important to learn how to belt as a classical singer? The author will answer these questions by providing information from sources of both professional teachers in the classical singer industry as well as professional teachers in the musical theater industry. Proper vocal exercises with detailed instructions are also provided to help the classically trained singer navigate their voice in belting. The relevance of this topic is very strong right now, this is a need that people are trying to educate themselves by watching Youtube tutorials, reading inaccurate literature on belting, and trying to do it on their own with no proper knowledge on the subject. If belting improperly, a singer is susceptible to injuring their voice. It is time to break the myths and cautions on belting and make it known that there is a healthy and stylistically appropriate way to belt.Item "Listen to the stories, hear it in the songs" : musical theatre as queer historiography(2010-05) Dvoskin, Michelle Gail; Canning, Charlotte, 1964-; Wolf, Stacy Ellen; Dolan, Jill; Kackman, Michael; Kearney, Mary; Paredez, DeborahThis dissertation takes musical theatre seriously as a historiographic practice, and considers six musicals that take the past as their subject matter in order to interrogate how these works craft their historical narratives. While there have been studies of historical drama and performance, musicals have generally been left out of that conversation, despite (or perhaps because of) their immense popularity. This project argues that not only can musicals “do” history, they offer an excellent genre for theorizing what I call “queer historiography.” While sexuality remains one category of analysis, I use “queer” to signify opposition, not simply to heterosexuality, but to heteronormativity, and normativity more broadly. Musicals’ queer historiography, then, is a way of engaging past events that challenges normativity in form as well as content; a way of productively challenging not only what we think we know about the past, but how we come to know it. Each chapter uses a different theoretical lens to guide close readings of a pair of thematically linked musicals. The first chapter considers 1776 (1969) and Assassins (1991, 2004) as challenges to official narratives of United States history. My primary lens in this chapter is form, as I analyze how musicals’ structures influence their queer historiographic potential. Chapter 2 examines two musicals that offer histories of U.S. popular culture, Gypsy (1959) and Hairspray (2002), considering how the placement of divas at the center of each show enables a historiography that is feminist as well as queer, challenging ideas about gender and sexuality while making women central to the histories they represent. In the third chapter I look to two musicals, Falsettos (1992) and Elegies: A Song Cycle (2003), which present histories of trauma while featuring overtly gay, lesbian, and queer characters. I use these two texts to theorize how musicals might not simply present history as it “really” was, but also as it might have been, thereby offering what Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick terms a “reparative reading” of history. In examining each of my six case studies, I analyze specific performances as well as written texts whenever possible.Item The sound ascending(2011-05) Brown, David Asher; Welcher, Dan; Rowley, RickThe sound ascending is a musical theater work for two actors, four singers and piano. This project was a collaboration with playwright, Jason Tremblay. The story is a loose adaptation of Orpheus descending, by Tennessee Williams. Displaced from the rural, American South, most of our story takes place in Mazer, Afghanistan. Jason and I attempted to create an untraditional model. The work lies somewhere between a musical, oratorio and a song cycle. We both walked away with mixed feelings about the success of the work, following a preliminary premiere. I believe that the work is successful in its drama and storytelling. But in such a confined presentation, the work needs more diversity of material and character strength. Although complete for now, Jason and I plan on revising The sound ascending in the coming year. Most significantly, this project has been a learning experience. We both take away valuable lessons about writing and collaboration.