Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2007, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects:

Bachelor of Arts (BA), Ohio University, 2023, Theater

My goal with my adaptation, Mountain Girl, is to explore the rich history of gender and sexuality of Golden Age Spain, the idea of queerness as a performance, and the consequences of queerness in a world that rejects those that stray from the status quo. In this paper, I will share my research and explore issues of gender of sexuality in the Spanish Golden Age society and theater that provide necessary context for my adaptation. I will describe my translation and adaptation process and detail my directing choices in pre-production, during rehearsals, and during performance.

Committee: Matthew Cornish (Advisor); Shockley Traub (Advisor) Subjects: Foreign Language; Theater

Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA), Ohio University, 2023, Theater

In this thesis, I investigate the life of seventeenth century author Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and explore how I adapted her life and famous play, The Convent of Pleasure, into an original one-act play, titled Maggie's Convent. I follow my entire process from researching her life to writing the script and, finally, directing and performing in a fully staged production at Ohio University in March 2023. I have included the production program, photos and the entirety of the Maggie's Convent script.

Committee: Merri Biechler (Advisor); Matthew Cornish (Committee Chair) Subjects: Performing Arts; Theater; Theater History; Theater Studies

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 1965, English

Committee: Charles R. Boughton (Advisor) Subjects: Literature

Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, Cleveland State University, 2022, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences

Frankie and Drew are two friends, living mundane lives, which are abruptly interrupted by the appearance of the past. A mysterious girl appears in the dumpster outside of Frankie's apartment, and the two form a friendship. It becomes increasingly clear that this girl is not all that she seems. Frankie will be forced to remember a painful memory, and the tragedy that she witnessed and felt responsible for. While at the same time, Drew visits the mother who abandoned him in the hospital. Frankie and Drew are both on a healing journey, that is both painful and necessary, and support one another along the way.

Committee: Mike Geither (Advisor); Hilary Plum (Committee Member); David Giffels (Committee Member) Subjects: American Literature; Fine Arts; Language Arts

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2022, Interdisciplinary Arts (Fine Arts)

This dissertation examines the radically collaborative playwriting techniques of Suzan-Lori Parks, Paula Vogel, and Jackie Sibblies Drury through a lens of feminist theatre theory in order to articulate how these playwrights' narrative techniques influenced the process of developing my full-length one-act feminist narrative response to Maria Irene Fornes's Mud (1983)—titled To Be a Starfish. This document offers analytical reflection to the ways in which these playwrights embrace a spirit of creative, collaborative storytelling and, thereby, create equalizing acts of radical collaboration that make space for feminist contemplation and how they influenced my creative process. I ask: How do I, as a playwright, walk the line between the occasionally reductive act of creating women-identifying characters in my plays and the philosophical act of investigating theatrically what it means to be a woman? Is it not possible to achieve both without sacrificing one to the other? Is it not possible to find a way to create layered, messy women characters that reflect individual struggles while simultaneously representing women's shared experiences of oppression in order to resist the oppressive patriarchal systems of American theater and the systemic sexism affecting women in our country?

Committee: William Condee (Advisor); Merri Biechler (Committee Member); Judith Grant (Committee Member); Erin Schlumpf (Committee Member) Subjects: Theater

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2019, Theatre

The Harlem Renaissance and New Negro Movement is a well-documented period in which artistic output by the black community in Harlem, New York, and beyond, surged. On the heels of Reconstruction, a generation of black artists and intellectuals—often the first in their families born after the thirteenth amendment—spearheaded the movement. Using art as a means by which to comprehend and to reclaim aspects of their identity which had been stolen during the Middle Passage, these artists were also living in a time marked by the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan and segregation. It stands to reason, then, that the work that has survived from this period is often rife with political and personal motivations. Male figureheads of the movement are often remembered for their divisive debate as to whether or not black art should be politically charged. The public debates between men like W. E. B. Du Bois and Alain Locke often overshadow the actual artistic outputs, many of which are relegated to relative obscurity. Black female artists in particular are overshadowed by their male peers despite their significant interventions. Two pioneers of this period, Georgia Douglas Johnson (1880-1966) and Eulalie Spence (1894-1981), will be the subject of my thesis. Both artists, whose work is in close conversation, were innovators in their field. In this thesis I will argue that black women like Johnson and Spence were true innovators during the Harlem Renaissance/New Negro Movement despite the fact that men like Locke and Du Bois are often seen as its figureheads. Johnson and Spence are salient examples for two key reasons. First, their work represents a false dichotomy—art vs. propaganda—which I will endeavor to refute. Second, their work, despite its differences, engages with many of the same themes related to feminism and intersectionality. While there has been an influx of research into the lives and work of such women as Johnson and Spence in recent years, my aim is to furthe (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Jennifer Schlueter (Advisor); Beth Kattelman (Committee Member) Subjects: African American Studies; African Americans; Gender Studies; History; Theater; Theater History; Womens Studies

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2015, Theatre

This is a creative thesis in playwriting. By re-examining works by well-known, abled-bodied playwrights such Tennessee Williams, this thesis inspects how people with disabilities (PWDs) have been portrayed on stage throughout theatre history. This thesis exposes the negative image of PWDs on stage, while arguing that the reasoning for these negative representations is due to the lack of education about PWDs. Demanding that a new representation be made, the purpose of this thesis is to encourage new playwrights to break the cycle and end the negative images of PWDs on stage. Using my own play, Puzzles, which focuses on Autism, this thesis shows how a play can be used as an educational tool to break stereotypes and create a work of art where PWDs are not portrayed as villains.

Committee: Paul Bryant-Jackson (Advisor); Ann Elizabeth Armstrong (Committee Member); Kathy McMahon-Klosterman (Committee Member) Subjects: Theater

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2015, Leadership and Change

This study addresses the research question “How Do I Inspire Personal and Social Change Through My Theater Practice?” I implement the theory and practice of H.E.A.T., a fusion theater system, combining use of theater arts as healing practice, educational asset, activist tool, and an art form. I research different ways that theater can affect change, focusing specifically on the use of history in performance. I dramatically interpret a period of history where performance and poetry contributed to change. I utilize qualitative methods including performance ethnography, auto ethnography, arts-based research, and historical research. I describe the fieldwork in conflict zones in the Middle East, which led to the scripting of a full-length play, and the presentation of the play, which included discussion groups and audience participation through post-show events. The dissertation is a bricolage, combining scholarly chapters, performative writing, and scripted theater. The work explores ways of employing theater as a change agent by using history as an inspiration. In the city of Cordoba, Spain, in the 10th and 11th century Muslims and Jews lived in a state of relative peace. Looking at medieval Cordoba I explore the Judeo-Arabic poetry of the time, asking: Can what happened in Cordoba be a model for performance and peacebuilding? Based on historical research, the Judeo-Arabic poetry of ancient Al-Andalusia, and the theory of performative peacebuilding, the dramatically scripted section of the dissertation will take place in two realms: Present-day conflict zones in the Middle East; and medieval Cordoba where two ancient characters convey a story of coexistence through poetic expression. In three decades of working as a theater artist, I have come to believe that my work must be dedicated to facilitating change. The sacred and ancient art of theater needs to be meaningful to 21st-century life so that we can use it to awaken, heal, educate and repair the world. This disser (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Carolyn Kenny Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Elizabeth Holloway Ph.D. (Committee Member); D. Soyini Madison Ph.D. (Committee Member); Dara Culhane Ph.D. (Committee Member); Magdelena Kazubowski-Houston Ph.D. (Other) Subjects: Aesthetics; Islamic Studies; Judaic Studies; Medieval History; Medieval Literature; Middle Eastern History; Middle Eastern Literature; Middle Eastern Studies; Performing Arts; Psychology; Psychotherapy; Theater; Theater Studies

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2007, Theatre

The critical side of this creative thesis has at its core the developmental process of my full length play “The Rise and Fall of Voivode Peter Earring According To The Stories and Journals of His Companion, Franco Sivori”. The play was written after extensive research done in the summer of 2006 in Romania and Hungary. The writing proved to be an exercise of will and skill, and I can only hope to provide the reader with an insightful image over the whole creative process. To that extent, I have divided the critical paper into three chapters (historical background, sources of inspiration and dramaturgical analysis/choices) each independent yet all interconnected to serve a better understanding of the body of work. Finally the Conclusion is meant to provide the reader with an insight over the future of this play.

Committee: Howard Blanning (Advisor) Subjects: Theater

Master of Arts in English, Cleveland State University, 2010, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences

DEE struggles to uphold her political ideals in the face of her very proper mother, THERESA, and her long-time, over-achieving friend, LEENA. She makes stands that shock and antagonize both women, including becoming a case worker for bad neighborhoods, and having lesbian romantic relationships rather than heterosexual ones. Her friend GABRIEL, a cynical gay man, is her one ally in these choices. When DEE falls in love with a man, however, these relationships are inverted, and GABRIEL feels betrayed by her cavalier attitude towards sexual orientation. GABRIEL stops speaking to DEE, and DEE and ALLEN get married. When ALLEN dies, DEE is left isolated, to explore the natures of friendship and loss.

Committee: Michael Geither MFA (Committee Chair); Michael Dumanis Ph.D (Committee Member); James Marino Ph.D (Committee Member) Subjects: American Literature; English literature; Fine Arts; Personal Relationships; Theater

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

In the process of choosing this project, I looked to connect as many of my personal interests as possible. The project needed to investigate an aspect of theatre, but given the various directions that the project could go, my interest in history and historical dramas was one avenue that I particularly wanted to explore. With this in mind, I found inspiration in the stories from a production of Edgar Lee Masters' Spoon River Anthology that I recently directed. My connection to Dr. David Bush, the foremost expert on the history and excavation of Johnson's Island and the Johnson's Island Civil War Prisoner Depot, solidified my intentions. I decided to write a play based on the history, prisoner diaries and correspondence related to the Johnson's Island Civil War Prisoner Depot. My interest in theatre is more than that of theatre as entertainment. I believe theatre also has the power to persuade, enlighten and even educate. The process through which theatre goes gives it the opportunity to reach, individually, all persons involved in the process, from the writing of the script to the actors, directors and audience. Unlike the sterile pages of a history book, the collaborative process of theatre can breathe new life into an historical event. Not only are the facts of history presented, but also the perspectives of the playwright, the director, and the actors. Finally, the spectators interpret the presentation of the drama and take from it their own understanding of history. The inclusiveness of the art form makes it an excellent and proven vehicle for historical drama.

Committee: James Slowiak (Advisor) Subjects: Fine Arts; History; Theater