Master of Arts, University of Akron, 2023, Theatre Arts-Arts Administration

Choreography is the creator's intellectual property and, therefore, ought to be treated as such. However, legal protection can be granted only if the Copyright Office deems this work worthy of protection. This research aims to examine the laws concerning claiming ownership of choreographic works through copyright protection. The objective of this review is to provide a timeline of showing when the concept of copyrighting choreography began to where it stands today. A legal analysis is conducted to determine whether the current system of copyright protection can be applied to choreographic works; and, therefore, how it affects enforcement. Case examples of choreographic infringement, ownership loss, and successful enforcement will be reviewed.

Committee: Arnold Tunstall (Committee Chair); Jodi Kearns (Committee Member); Colleen Barnes (Committee Member) Subjects: Dance

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2021, Theatre

Early nineteenth-century mixed-Black Americans were made complicit in the propaganda of both pro-slavery and abolitionist messaging, at times upheld as model minorities for their contributions to the Southern slave-owning plantation economy, while other times depicted in heart-breaking abolitionist narratives about the evils of slavery, and the often-deadly identity crises these “tragic” people were subjected to. The reality of mixed-Black existence was far less dramatic than the lives of the characters in texts such as Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852), or Dion Boucicaut's The Octoroon (1859); what was revealed to contemporary white audiences was a desire to sympathize with the Other who occupied the closest proximity to whiteness. Thus, the trope of the “tragic mulatto/a” became a vehicle for propagandizing the moral “goodness” of white society and its positive, Christian, “civilizing” influence on the Black and/or indigenous Other. This Practice-as-Research dissertation examines the manner in which miscegenation between Black and white Americans has been feared, fetishized, and resurrected in popular historical narratives over the past two centuries. Living between races, conceived out of wedlock and often as a result of sexual assault, the “tragic mulatta” is often depicted as a pitiable creature, beautiful, yet doomed by her sundry origins. Unable to claim full membership in neither racial group, she lacked both the honored status offered to white wives and mothers in traditional society, and any form of social protection against sexual exploitation. This project contains four chapters which detail the people, places, and creative work that informed my Practice-as-Research play, Blood, Earth, Water.

Committee: Jennifer Schlueter Dr. (Committee Chair); Beth Kattelman Dr. (Committee Member); Nadine George-Graves Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: African Americans; American History; American Literature; Black History; Black Studies; Gender Studies; History; Museum Studies; Performing Arts; Theater; Theater History; Theater Studies