Theatre electronic theses and dissertations (MU)
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The items in this collection are the theses and dissertations written by students of the Department of Theatre. Some items may be viewed only by members of the University of Missouri System and/or University of Missouri-Columbia. Click on one of the browse buttons above for a complete listing of the works.
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Item Rehearsing revolution : an auto/ethnographic mapping of feminist theatre making in the pandemic(s)(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2025) Lynch, Kasey Eileen; Carver, M. HeatherOver the last five years, I have been exploring my embodied experience of becoming a feminist director in the academy. I began directing fully-staged theatrical works amidst the height of the COVID-19 pandemic with a digital production of Charlotte's Web in the Summer of 2020. From that experience, and from continuing to create in-person theatre with the residue of COVID-19 and the continued pandemics of violence, discrimination, and environmental crises in the U.S. and beyond, I began researching and enacting feminist care practices in rehearsals. I specifically dissect my processes of directing Charlotte's Web, The Wolves, and American Girl(s). Through this auto/ethnographic body mapping project I attempt to answer the following questions: How did I become a feminist director in the academy during COVID-19? How does the feminist director embody "care" in the current political moment? I reveal how enacting feminist care theory in academic rehearsals, specifically through the practices of casting understudies, body mapping, and modeling the artist↔citizen, creates socially aware artists who understand that all bodies are valuable, bodies carry various cultural scripts and traumas that inevitably enter the rehearsal room, and bodies creating at the theater are at all times implicated in the political world. The project concludes with a Sara Ahmed style "Feminist Killjoy Thriving Kit" for theatre makers invested in creating art that enacts a caring politic in a care-less world.Item Black men on stage : an autoethnographic exploration of meaning making in solo performance(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2025) Riley, Brandon Vincent; Carver, Heather; Gray, LesThe purpose of this study was to explore an autoethnographic investigation into the lived experiences and meaning-making processes of Black men in solo theatrical performance. By centering my own narrative as a Black man in theatre performance and as a scholar, the study weaves personal history, cultural critique, autobiographical performance and performance analysis to examine how solo performance serves as a space for identity construction, as well as creating agency for its practitioners. This research was guided by the central question of how does a Black man in theatre performance mean for the Black man performer? Through embodied research methods I explore the intersections of race, the Black male body, and artistic expression, by highlighting how Black men performers navigate projections, stereotypes, and reclaim agency, while engaging in performances in the theatrical space. Ultimately, the dissertation contributes to the fields of autoethnography and performance scholarship by demonstrating the transformative potential of solo work for Black men in theatre performance negotiating their place in both artistic and societal landscapes.Item Black men on stage : an autoethnographic exploration of meaning making in solo performance(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2025) Riley, Brandon Vincent; Carver, Heather; Gray, LesThe purpose of this study was to explore an autoethnographic investigation into the lived experiences and meaning-making processes of Black men in solo theatrical performance. By centering my own narrative as a Black man in theatre performance and as a scholar, the study weaves personal history, cultural critique, autobiographical performance and performance analysis to examine how solo performance serves as a space for identity construction, as well as creating agency for its practitioners. This research was guided by the central question of how does a Black man in theatre performance mean for the Black man performer? Through embodied research methods I explore the intersections of race, the Black male body, and artistic expression, by highlighting how Black men performers navigate projections, stereotypes, and reclaim agency, while engaging in performances in the theatrical space. Ultimately, the dissertation contributes to the fields of autoethnography and performance scholarship by demonstrating the transformative potential of solo work for Black men in theatre performance negotiating their place in both artistic and societal landscapes.Item Oral histories of the Ter Kwagh-hir : exploring the role of the Ter Kwagh-hir within Kwagh-hir troupes of Benue State, Nigeria.(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2025) Curry, Irene Gasarah; Syler, ClaireThis dissertation follows the story of the Ter Kwagh-hir, a performance role within the Tiv performance form of Kwagh-hir in Benue State, Nigeria. Drawing upon personal experiences and encounters of masquerades in my early childhood, this dissertation explores the complexity and nuances of the Kwagh-hir performance, focusing primarily on the practices of the Ter Kwagh-hir. Structurally, Chapter 1 introduces me--the author, who is a member of the Tiv tribe and a theatre maker who has practiced theatre in both Nigeria and the U.S. This chapter also introduces Kwagh-hir and outlines the methodology of oral history--offering some preliminary information to guide understanding of this dissertation. Chapter 2 presents a brief history of Nigeria and Nigerian theatre history, situating Kwagh-hir as a performance form within this history. Chapter 3 discusses oral history as the method used in data collection of oral history interviews. Chapter 4 presents the translated and edited oral history interviews. Finally, Chapter 5 analyzes the oral history interviews and discusses implications, including drawing parallels between the Ter Kwagh-hir role and the role of the dramaturg in U.S. theatre practice.Item Uganda's social theatre from 1962-1985(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2024) Nalubowa, Aidah; Crespy, DavidUganda's Social Theatre from 1962-1985. Politics and theatre in Uganda have always moved in tandem, and thus politics has provided the lens through which studies of the development and trends in theatre have been framed. Scholars and critics of Ugandan theatre have used political events and changes in government to interrogate Ugandan plays. Major points include colonial and post-colonial drama especially the regimes of Idi Amin and Milton Obote I & II, and the period after Obote II's overthrow in 1985. However, if we move beyond this political framework of theatrical events, political themes, or political readings of plays, we notice that theatre and performance in Uganda has always been social, too. Theatre paid attention to people's social lives, it took from and reflected the social existence and carried with it social elements in theme and structure, storytelling, and in production. I argue that despite its obviously tight ties to politics, theatre in Uganda has always remained social -- engaging popular ideas, borrowing, and producing cultural trends, as well as relying on collective beliefs and memory of ordinary people, dramatizing domestic situations, and seeking to sway social behavior. The goal of this research is to generate and produce new cultural knowledge that is not entirely divorced from politics, but goes beyond that singular interpretation and investigates how other socio-economic dynamics influenced and were influenced by the theatre of the time. This research starts with the work Wycliffe Kiyingi and examines the themes of his work, his process, his audiences, and the spaces it was made. I further interrogate the conditions that facilitated Kiyingi's illustrious career and other artists that practiced social theatre. A close study of Wycliffe Kiyingi's successful productions during a time where theatre and cultural production were at war with the government reveals an unexamined focus on a social theatre, taking from and reflecting ordinary lives beside or despite of the politics of the time. This research provides a critical study of Kiyingi's and other dramatists' works seeking to understand its nature, then provides an overview of the elements of social theatre that set it apart from other identified forms in theme, structure, storytelling, language, staging, audiences, and other such defining factors.