Keywords

Theatre, Performance, Rehearsal, Acting, Directing, Collaboration

Abstract

In our postmodern society, there is a natural urge to want to decentralize the metanarratives that make up the standards and structures of defined aesthetics within the theatre landscape. This urge poses a potential threat to the authenticity of the dramatic context, encouraging performers to create narratives outside of the text. This led me to investigate how theatre artists can strike a balance between creative exploration and authenticity of context, of form and freedom. In seeking a way to engage with the effects of postmodernism in the theatre, I follow Hans-Theis Lehmann’s Postdramatic Theatre to a dead end and must embrace the philosophy of Sankofa to retrace my own artistic lineage and find a process within myself. Through TheatreUCF’s production of Metamorphoses (Fall 2023), I evaluate the benefits of a horizontal hierarchy in a rehearsal process and connect to the visceral nature of water as a means to think about fluidity. I then look to my experiences in The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (Spring 2023) as an actor and assistant director to expose the problem with neglecting context for creative exploration and experiment with a day of change, using my position of power to uplift the ensemble. Taking the importance of context and change and adopting the elements of fluidity, I apply my own recontextualized process to Orlando Shakespeare Theater’s Bare Bard production of Henry VI Part II (Spring 2025) to demonstrate the possibility of striking a balance between creative exploration and authenticity of context in a theatrical process.

Completion Date

2025

Semester

Spring

Committee Chair

Listengarten, Julia

Degree

Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.)

College

College of Arts and Humanities

Department

Theatre

Identifier

DP0029400

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

Campus Location

Orlando (Main) Campus

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