Master of Arts, University of Akron, 2008, Theatre Arts-Arts Administration

The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) presents both visual arts exhibitions and performing arts events. This thesis recorded data over a three year period of time, May 2002 through April 2005, related to performing arts events, including: the amount of publicity that each received; the weather on the date of show and the season in which each took place; and census information related to the block group from which each patron who attended hailed. The relationship(s) among these factors reveal several items specific to MASS MoCA's performing arts attendance, mostly importantly how media exposure for a particular event affects ticket sales and revenue. In addition, several other factors are discussed: the effect ticket prices have on attendance; whether poor weather conditions drive down sales and/or limit attendance and revenue, particularly from non-immediate areas; the effect that season has on sales and income; and how patron income influences buying habits.

Committee: Durand Pope (Advisor) Subjects: Economic Theory; Fine Arts; Management; Museums

Master of Arts, University of Akron, 2014, Theatre Arts-Arts Administration

This thesis examined new media technology strategies for developing audience awareness and participation in the performing arts through a case study on GroundWorks DanceTheater (GWDT), a nonprofit dance organization based in Cleveland, Ohio. The purpose of this research was to explore if and how applying advances in new media technology strategies could broaden audience awareness and participation through an existing new media engagement project. The effectiveness of this project was assessed through internal evaluations from the organization and also through collected assessments from project participants. How these strategies may serve as effective tactics to strengthening or promoting the audience development future for this Cleveland-based performing arts organization and similar non-profits is ultimately discussed.

Committee: Neil Sapienza Mr. (Advisor); Elisa Gargarella Dr. (Committee Member); Beth Rutkowski Ms. (Committee Member) Subjects: Arts Management; Dance; Demographics; Marketing

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2024, Leadership and Change

Anne Frank is linked to her contemporaries in about 80% of 18 English-language published and produced plays. The remaining plays pair Frank and African American icons Harriet Tubman, Emmett Till, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Research on dramatic literature with Frank as a character, the writing of plays linking her with African American personages, or history, analysis, or comparison of the process of multiple plays about Frank does not exist. A few articles extant compare the Goodrich and Hackett play with the Kesselman rewrite, a dissertation on five plays about Frank (those five plays are in the 80% mentioned earlier). The central question of this dissertation is why the playwrights of Harriet and Anne: An Original Narrative, Janet Langhart Cohen's Anne & Emmett: A One-Act Play, and Letters from Anne and Martin unite Anne Frank and African American historical figures. What were the playwrights' intentions with this linkage, and how were they fulfilled? This dissertation intends to fill this research gap in theatre history. The playwrights were interviewed using a prepared questionnaire completed by mail, email, telephone, or Zoom to discover the reason(s) for writing the three works. The writers answered using their preferred methods, and results were compiled within the work's question/answer format. Articles and the playwrights' websites were mined for additional historical data about the works and writers. The research found the plays to be works of remembrance/cultural trauma written by playwrights who shared seminal experiences regarding Anne Frank and the African American icons. The writers were driven by intense feelings of social justice, inspiring their creative works. These playwrights used Anne Frank, Harriet Tubman, Emmett Till, and Martin Luther King Jr. to communicate their thematic messages of social justice. They urged their audiences to keep these icons' history from repeating itself and honor those entities. This dissertation is available in open (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Carol Barriett PhD (Committee Chair); Betty Overton-Adkins PhD (Committee Member); Loree Miltich PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: African Americans; American Literature; Fine Arts; Holocaust Studies; Literature; Minority and Ethnic Groups; Performing Arts; Theater; Theater History; Theater Studies

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2022, Arts Policy and Administration

This research aims to elevate dancers' perspectives of the operational dynamics within a major U.S. ballet company to better understand their working relationship to the Dual Executive Leadership (DEL) team and their role as critical contributors to the development of an arts organization and broader arts policy. Examining the case of Miami City Ballet, this study gathers feedback from dancers on how they interact with the company's DEL team, comprised of the Artistic and Executive Directors, and how these interactions impact their work. The central questions ask how ballet dancers perceive dynamics of communication, trust, value, and respect in their working relationship with company leadership. Using narrative inquiry as methodology, dancers were asked to share their stories of interactions with the DEL team through a survey and interviews. Twelve (12) dancers completed the survey, and of those, five (5) agreed to participate in a follow-up semi-structured interview. Findings suggest opportunities for improving communication practices to foster more connection between dancers and leadership, for developing a work culture that invites feedback and is based on mutual trust, and for reconsidering how dancers are valued as key contributors to decision-making spaces. These findings add an important new perspective to research on leadership and organizational studies in ballet and the arts more broadly.

Committee: Tiffany Bourgeois (Committee Member); Rachel Skaggs (Advisor) Subjects: Arts Management; Dance; Labor Relations; Management; Organization Theory

Master of Fine Arts, The Ohio State University, 2016, Theatre

Abstract For the completion of my Master of Fine Arts degree in Costume Design, I designed the costumes for the theatrical production of The Coast of Illyria by Dorothy Parker and Ross Evans, adapted by Jennifer Schlueter and Cece Bellomy. The production was performed in April 2016 in the Thurber Theatre in the Drake Performance and Event Center and was directed by Shilarna Stokes. The play is set in the early 1800s and uses historical literary figures such as Charles Lamb, Mary Lamb, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge as some of the characters. Due to the nature of the play, I researched the time period as well as the people present as characters in order to give an accurate representation. Because these are not contemporary figures, it is still vital to give the audience a believable image of these well-known British Romantic writers. While some audience members might be familiar with these writers and some might not, I strove to provide a snapshot of each character to enhance the audience's knowledge. Another challenge that was presented by this play is showing the mental, physical, and emotional decline of Charles Lamb, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Mary Lamb. This change occurs between Acts Two and Three, giving the actors a limited amount of time to make a complete physical change. I worked with the director to use the costumes and makeup to develop the look of a person in a declining state. All of the elements together informed the design of my costumes to create a cohesive, time-period conscious design, while staying true to the nature of the characters.

Committee: Kristine Kearney (Advisor); Jennifer Schlueter (Committee Member); Shilarna Stokes (Committee Member); Mary Tarantino (Committee Member) Subjects: British and Irish Literature; Design; Fine Arts; Literature; Performing Arts; Theater; Theater Studies

Bachelor of Arts (BA), Ohio University, 2016, Music

Pianists, particularly collegiate and professional pianists, often suffer from debilitating playing-related injuries. Poor playing technique, including inefficient ergonomics, has frequently been forwarded as a cause of these injuries, though the literature lacks epidemiological studies to confirm this causative agent. Arts medicine literature and most piano pedagogy methods suggest that a bench height that produces a forearm horizontal to the floor is the preferable bench height. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the effect of bench height variation, and its resulting effect on forearm position, on pianists' muscle activation during three specific playing activities. This was undertaken with the clinical goal of determining whether bench height variations, which affect the relative position of the forearm to the floor, impact the playing mechanism. The specific research questions were [1] Which position of the forearm minimizes muscle activation while playing? And [2] Do pianists identify that position as their optimal playing position?

Committee: Jeff Russell (Advisor) Subjects: Medicine; Music; Music Education; Pedagogy; Performing Arts

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2011, Leadership and Change

This is a theoretical dissertation, creating a beginning understanding of dance leadership. The subject is absent from both the dance and the leadership literature; therefore the concepts have been developed from the experiences of practice and integrated with concepts from those of outside disciplines through the process of reflective synthesis. In order to create this beginning understanding, dance leadership is established herein in its own domain, separate from both dance and leadership. It is a form of informal leadership—that is, not conferred by title or position within an organization—specifically leading in place, practiced by individual or groups of dancers with the goal of furthering dance. It occurs in the space of dance leadership, different from the artist/s work in dance; and involves stepping forward into a space which recognizes an obligation to dance. As leadership in place, it carries no expectation of a permanent change in role; it is not tied to a title or an organization. Dance has been established herein as an intrinsic human activity; therefore dance leadership activities may be expected to ease/further the human condition, but the direction of the activity is toward furthering dance. Dancers function as leaders by virtue of the knowledge and skills they hold as dancers; their leadership is tied inextricably to their practice and is rooted in the fact of their being artists. Dance leadership is practiced at least in the forms of dancing, speaking, and writing; there may be other forms as well. The establishment of the domain of dance leadership proposes a number of emergent issues to be addressed by dance leaders, as well as issues of concern for dance, leadership, and other academic disciplines. The electronic version of this dissertation is at OhioLink ETD Center, www.ohiolink.edu/etd. This pdf is accompanied by two mp4 files.

Committee: Carolyn Kenny PhD (Committee Chair); Philomena Essed PhD (Committee Member); Larry Lavender PhD (Committee Member); Celeste Snowber PhD (Other) Subjects: Dance; Performing Arts

Master of Arts, University of Akron, 2010, Theatre Arts

Objectives- The primary goals of this thesis was to illustrate, through the production of the theatrical production, Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters, that a theatrical production may be used to provide integration opportunities for other areas of the high school curriculum and the staff and students of the high school. The theatrical production and the academic integration were completed at Jackson High School in Massillon, Ohio during the 2008-2009 academic year. In addition, the other goals of the project were to illustrate how the choice of a theatrical production may assist in improving the overall quality of the Theatre program in a school district, thus making it more accessible, appealing, and ultimately, educational to a larger population of students. Methods- Integration of Theatre was accomplished through study of all academic areas of the Ohio State Academic Standards and using Theatre to accomplish those standards in several different content areas. Theatre may also be used as a means of preparation or review for standardized tests, such as the OGT in English and Social Studies areas. Additionally, involving staff offered the opportunity for them to collaborate with the Theatre teacher and create multi-faceted learning opportunities. Development of the Theatre program involved collaboration with students, staff, and parents. This made the Theatrical Production connect to a larger audience. Results- Teachers want to collaborate but often do not due to time conflicts and budgetary constraints. Overall staff members enjoyed the integration and wanted to do for future theatrical productions. The teachers were willing to assist in making the production a success by offering their talents and the talents of their students. The number of students who participated in the theatrical production was exceeding larger than any previous school year. Conclusions- Theatre productions are designed to teach. They should be used to reach a larger number of (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: James Slowiak Mr. (Advisor) Subjects: American Literature; Art Education; Curricula; Education; Fine Arts; Language Arts; Teaching; Theater

Master of Arts, University of Akron, 2009, Theatre Arts-Arts Administration

Arts organizations have experienced significant changes in the behaviors of their audiences and the market in recent years due to circumstances such as the decrease of leisure time, the growth in the number of non-profit arts organizations, and the development of the technology. As a result, arts organizations are facing greater competition to attract patrons. This situation is most obvious in big cities with numerous arts organizations and with relatively educated and mature audiences.When organizations recognize the changes, they investigate their situations to identify specific challenges. Often, they are faced with developing new or altered programming that better meets the changing needs and tastes of the audience. This procedure is called product differentiation. It is a commonly employed method to maintain current position in the market or to develop a position in an existing mature market. The goal of this study is to understand a theory of product differentiation and learn how arts organizations utilize the theory with an analysis on the case of VIVA! & Gala Around Town Series of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland in Ohio has been a city with a long history of supporting the arts. In this competitive arts market, the Series has been successful in attracting audiences even when faced with the challenge of losing the use of its venue while the museum was under renovation and expansion. The case study of VIVA! & Gala Around Town Series will provide a good example of product differentiation, mainly in programming choices.

Committee: Neil Sapienza B. (Advisor) Subjects: Marketing

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2025, Leadership and Change

Arena Stage was founded in 1950 in Washington, DC, by Zelda Fichandler, Tom Fichandler, and Edward Mangum. Today, Arena Stage serves a diverse annual audience of more than 300,000 people. It is the largest theater company dedicated to American plays and playwrights in the country. This study presents a single intrinsic historical case study of Arena Stage to examine the internal organizational structure and leadership dynamics that guided the theater through seven decades of turbulent American history. Arena Stage has provided world-class programming while the nation was grappling with the Vietnam War (1950–1975), Brown v. Board of Education (1954), political assassinations (e.g., John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and Robert Kennedy, 1963–1968), the World Trade Center terrorist attack (2001), the election of the first Black president (2008), subsequent elections bombarded with election deniers and acts of insurrection (2021), the impeachment trials of sitting presidents Bill Clinton (1998) and Donald Trump (2019 and 2021), and the global COVID-19 pandemic that closed all theaters from 2020 to 2023. That Arena Stage survived is not in question; this dissertation aims to determine how it survived while many theaters were forced to close. Assumptions about Arena Stage's success include strong leadership, artistic vision, community involvement, physical expansion, and awards received. Perhaps a combination of these factors creates success. This study sought evidence of success factors, termed as touchpoints. Are some factors necessary, while others are not? The results can provide an argument for what works, depending on similar demographics. This is important when understanding theaters' impact on social, political, cultural, and economic concerns. When nonprofit arts and culture organizations generate $151 billion annually in economic activity, it is worth noting how this happens. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA: Antioch University Repository (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Harriet Schwartz PhD (Committee Chair); Fayth Parks PhD (Committee Member); Sandie Turner PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Performing Arts; Theater History; Theater Studies

Bachelor of Arts (BA), Ohio University, 2025, Music

The Covid-19 pandemic has significantly impacted the world of performing arts, bringing challenges and disruptions to the lives of musicians and other artists. This thesis delves into the world of performance anxiety post-pandemic, aiming to understand both the positive and negative effects of the crisis on performing artists, with a particular focus on musicians. Through a combination of literature review and in-person interviews, the research explores the multifaceted impacts of the pandemic on performers' mental and physical health, their experiences with remote learning, social and financial challenges, and the development of performance anxiety. The methodology involves conducting in-depth interviews with three individuals involved in performing arts, analyzing their insights, and comparing them with existing literature to draw meaningful conclusions. The findings reveal the complexities of navigating the performing arts landscape during and after the pandemic, highlighting themes of resilience, adaptation, and personal growth during adversity. Ultimately, this thesis highlights the importance of supporting performing artists as they continue to overcome the lasting effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, fostering a resilient and inclusive artistic community.

Committee: Garrett Field (Advisor) Subjects: Music

Bachelor of Music, Capital University, 2022, Music

Theatre is an art form with the capacity to enact real change in our communities. Because of the wide array of topics theatre explores, it can help us to hold up a mirror to real life, critique and comment on proceedings within it, hold space for human emotion and therefore catharsis, and get viewers invested in a good story. This begs a responsibility for theatrical professionals to tie in aspects of community outreach to create a more enriching show, and harness the true power of this art form. In this project, I will be producing and directing Indecent, as well as creating opportunities for community outreach through talkbacks, service projects, and campus engagement opportunities. I will be creating a directorial concept, choosing actors, designing a rehearsal plan, finding costumes, set design elements, lighting, sound, and anything else needed to produce the show, all while organizing the opportunities for community engagement, complementary to the show's themes of LGBTQ+ rights and the history of Yiddish theatre. I have received permission also to conduct interviews and surveys of audience members directly after the show as well as check-ins to measure how the themes resonated with them, and later, how they have noticed them appear in their lives since, or any changes they have made. In the final paper in the execution semester, I will then explore these effects through the findings of this production and outreach components to demonstrate that theatre has the ability, and therefore responsibility to benefit others.

Committee: Joshua Borths (Advisor); Jens Hemmingsen (Advisor); Chad Payton (Advisor) Subjects: Art Criticism; Art Education; Art History; Arts Management; Behavioral Psychology; Communication; Curricula; Curriculum Development; Dance; Demographics; Design; East European Studies; Education; Education Philosophy; Educational Evaluation; Educational Psychology; Educational Sociology; Educational Theory; Ethics; European History; European Studies; Fine Arts; Folklore; Foreign Language; Gender; Gender Studies; Higher Education; Higher Education Administration; History; Holocaust Studies; Industrial Arts Education; Intellectual Property; Judaic Studies; Marketing; Minority and Ethnic Groups; Modern History; Modern Literature; Music; Music Education; Performing Arts; Personal Relationships; Social Research; Social Work; Teacher Education; Teaching; Theater; Theater History; Theater Studies; Theology; Womens Studies

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2021, Arts Administration, Education and Policy

This dissertation research concerns the secrets behind the longevity of International Performing Arts Festivals (IPAFs), a popular cultural policy instrument. Highlighting the interaction between festivals and their changing festival environment, festival legitimacy bears conceptual advantages to investigate IPAF management and adaptation over their long-term development. This research thus investigates festival resilience, conceptualized as the dynamics of IPAFs to maintain long-term operation in response to both gradual and sudden changes in the festival environment. Specifically, this study scrutinizes how IPAFs maintained resilience by adjusting festival legitimacy to a mixture of challenges from important stakeholders. The conceptual framework for the investigation of IPAF resilience through legitimacy is developed via a grounded approach, to identify major festival legitimacy sources and criteria, as well as key concepts and perspectives mediating IPAF legitimacy and resilience dynamics. Based on this framework, an embedded case study of China Shanghai International Arts Festival (CSIAF) is given in-depth investigation, particularly the dynamics of CSIAF resilience through legitimacy in the 2010s. Given the pragmatic consideration of data collection approaches, semi-structured interviews with important CSIAF stakeholders and an online CSIAF perception survey were conducted, alongside archival data, policy documents, media reports, and festival programs. By cross-examining three other IPAFs with CSIAF resilience, this research discovers the relationship between festival legitimacy maintenance and IPAFs resilience. The in-depth case study of CSIAF resilience uncovered two trends that the festival applied to sustain its long-term operation. CSIAF strategically programmed the core artistic programs to gain more legitimacy to the city branding and urban regeneration agendas in Shanghai, as well as to international performing arts trends. It continued to pro (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Margaret Wyszomirski (Advisor); Shoshanah Goldberg-Miller (Advisor); Richard Fletcher (Committee Member); Edward Malecki (Committee Member) Subjects: Arts Management; Organization Theory; Organizational Behavior; Performing Arts; Public Administration; Public Policy; Sustainability

Doctor of Education (EdD), Ohio University, 2015, Educational Administration (Education)

This dissertation examined the state of senior high school (SHS) music and dance education in the context of a growing economy and current socio-cultural transitions in Ghana. The research analyzed the experience of educational administrators, teachers, and students. Educational administrators included professionals at educational organizations and institutions, government officials, and professors at universities in Ghana. Teachers and students were primarily from five SHSs, across varying socioeconomic strata in the Ashanti Region, the Central Region, and the Greater Accra Region. The study employed ethnographic and multiple case study approaches. The research incorporated the data collection techniques of archival document review, focus group, interview, observation, and participant observation. Four interrelated theoretical perspectives informed the research: interdisciplinary African arts theory, leadership and organizational theory, post-colonial theory, and qualitative educational methods' perspectives. The incorporation of multiple theoretical frameworks allowed for diverse perspectives on education to be acknowledged. The dissertation consists of five chapters, which include an introduction, literature review, methodology, presentation of findings, and analysis. The major findings of this study are organized into five thematic categories that examine: (a) the significance of music and dance education in Ghanaian SHSs, (b) the challenges of music and dance education in Ghanaian SHSs, (c) the influence of Ghanaian economic development on music and dance education in SHSs, (d) the role of educational administrators, teachers, and students in decision-making regarding music and dance education in Ghanaian SHSs, and (e) Ghanaians' vision of the future of music and dance education in SHSs and the recommendations offered by study participants.

Committee: William Larson Dr. (Committee Chair) Subjects: African Studies; Dance; Education Policy; Educational Leadership; Music Education

Master of Gerontological Studies, Miami University, 2014, Gerontology

Recent studies show that one-fourth of the population over the age of 65 volunteered in at least one organization in 2013. Previous research suggests that volunteering benefits the elderly population physically and mentally. However, there is a lack of research on volunteer transitioning. This is a qualitative study exploring the attitude of volunteer managers toward transitioning older volunteers in theaters and performing arts settings. Eight open-ended, semi-structured phone interviews were conducted with 12 theater volunteer managers in the United States. Telephone interviews were audio-recorded and lasted 30 to 45 minutes. The result shows that transitioning is a process that requires mutual decisions between the manager and the older volunteer. Transitioning involves changing the volunteer's position or terminating the volunteer's role depending on situation. The transitioning model proposed in this paper may be useful for other organizations that depend on older volunteers.

Committee: Kate de Medeiros (Committee Chair); Suzanne Kunkel (Committee Member); Robert Applebaum (Committee Member) Subjects: Aging

MARCH, University of Cincinnati, 2008, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning : Architecture (Master of)

Art in the age of digital reproduction thrives as a commodity. Freed from its place of origin and consolidated into data, art can be endlessly replayed anywhere, anytime, in an unchanging, reliable form. As a result, one's ability to distinguish authentic art from its representation is becoming more ambiguous and considerably less crucial while the performing arts, one of few art forms that cannot be reproduced or commoditized, is not surprisingly experiencing a crisis of identity. Competing for entertainment dollars, the nature of live performance is now being questioned. Is the live art form becoming irrelevant? Should live performance be spliced with digital media to capture it as data, thus modernizing and validating it? In response to these questions, two current attitudes behind the design of live event space can be observed. The first adopts a purist's stance in perceiving the legacy of the live event to survive only if it stands firmly in opposition to forces of mediation, envisioning live event space as a container for the illusion of spectacle. The other perceives an inevitable demise of live performance in technology's wake and chooses a proactive position, envisioning live event space as a container for a layered, complex multimedia performance. Finding these responses, which either wholly reject or subsume forces of mediation, to be inadequate, this project argues for a third approach that is commensurate to live performance's immediate, unmediated tradition, while at the same time eager to incorporate current technologies as not a mediating force (or conversely a generator of meaningas- spectacle) but rather a necessary tool for event execution. In the design of a performing arts center in the mountains of Boulder County, Colorado, this thesis proposes that the design methodology for live event space should arise out of a sensibility for the immediate, contextual character of live performance that views the building an extension of, rather than a conta (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Michael McInturf (Committee Chair); Tom Bible (Committee Co-Chair) Subjects: Architecture

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2011, Music

This study contributes to understanding diaspora and its music cultures by examining the Korean genre of p'ungmul as a particular site of continuous and dynamic cultural socio-political exchange between the homeland and the host society. As practiced in Los Angeles and New York City, this genre of percussion music and dance is shaped by Korean cultural politics, intellectual ideologies and institutions as p'ungmul practitioners in the United States seek performance aesthetics that fit into new performance contexts. This project first describes these contexts by tracing the history of Korean emigration to the United States and identifying the characteristics of immigrant communities in Los Angeles and New York City. While the p'ungmul troupes developed by Korean political refugees, who arrived during the 1980s, show the influence of the minjung cultural movement in Korea, cultural politics of the Korean government also played an important role in stimulating Korean American performers to learn traditional Korean performing arts by sending troupes to the United States. The dissertation then analyzes the various methods by which p'ungmul is transmitted in the United States, including the different methods of teaching and learning p'ungmul—writing verbalizations of instrumental sounds on paper, score, CD/DVD, and audio/video files found on the internet—and the cognitive consequences of those methods. The ways in which immigrants teach and learn p'ungmul have brought standardization to performance practices and enabled Korean American p'ungmul practitioners to learn performance styles currently popular in Korea. This project shows the culture of p'ungmul in the United States to be highly flexible, as Korean American performers utilize different performance instrumentation, repertoire, and aesthetics depending on different audiences, performance venues, aims, and performance contexts. Depending on where they are performing or for whom, they alternate between highly virtuo (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Udo Will (Advisor); Danielle Fosler-Lussier (Committee Member); Chan E. Park (Committee Member) Subjects: Music

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2010, Speech Pathology and Audiology

The purpose of this study was to gather normative data of vocal usage in college professors of vocal music, theater, and instrumental music during 5 work days over the course of 3 weeks using the Ambulatory Phonation Monitor (APM). Three participants were included in this case study, two females and one male. Duration, phonation time, percent phonation, fundamental frequency, intensity, cycle dose, and distance dose were collected each work day and for one teaching session per work day, if applicable. Results indicated that the average work day of all participants was 7 hours and 40 seconds. All participants were within normal limits for age and gender in regards to all vocal parameters measured. Participants had a misconception of how much they phonated throughout the day, which is clinically relevant in detection and treatment.

Committee: Barbara Weinrich PhD (Committee Chair); Susan Baker Brehm PhD (Committee Member); Wendy LeBorgne PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Speech Therapy

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2005, Theatre and Film

In his relatively short career, Drew Hayden Taylor has amassed a significant level of popular and critical success, becoming the most widely produced Native playwright in the world. Despite nearly twenty years of successful works for the theatre, little extended academic discussion has emerged to contextualize Taylor's work and career. This dissertation addresses this gap by focusing on Drew Hayden Taylor as a writer whose theatrical work strives to bridge the distance between Natives and Non-Natives. Taylor does so in part by humorously demystifying the perceptions of Native people. Taylor's approaches to humor and demystification reflect his own approaches to cultural identity and his expressions of that identity. Initially this dissertation will focus briefly upon historical elements which served to silence Native peoples while initiating and enforcing the gap of misunderstanding between Natives and non-Natives. Following this discussion, this dissertation examines significant moments which have shaped the re-emergence of the Native voice and encouraged the formation of the Contemporary Native Theatre in Canada. Finally, this dissertation will analyze Taylor's methodology of humorous demystification of Native peoples and stories on the stage. Of primary focus in this discussion is Taylor's use of a distinctly Native aesthetic as a means of constructing his works for the theatre, despite surface appearances of primarily western influence. To provide evidence of this Native aesthetic, Taylor's work and aesthetic goals, as expressed by Taylor, will be explored critically: First through a post-colonial critical framework and then through a Native-centered critical structure. Following these discussions, this study will focus on a textual analysis of several of Taylor's works for the theatre. These analyses demonstrate the manner in which Taylor actively works to demystify perceptions of Natives by utilizing Native sensibilities of humor, character, story, and setting (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Ronald Shields (Advisor) Subjects: Theater