Date on Master's Thesis/Doctoral Dissertation

5-2013

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Degree Name

M.F.A.

Department

Theatre Arts

Committee Chair

Steiger, Amy Lynn

Subject

Acting; Fechter, Steven. Artifacts; Fechter, Steven--Characters--Beth

Abstract

This paper examines my inter-theoretical acting process, in which I associate Konstantin Stanislavsky with aesthetic theatre, Augusto Boal with social theatre, and Bertolt Brecht with political theatre. The paper explores my acting process, by which through fusing elements of aesthetic, political, and social theatre, I achieve my goal as a theatre practitioner to change an audience from passive to active. By re-defining my relationship with the audience, I hope to use theatre as a forum to create change within my audiences. Through learning about these different theatre theories and practices in both my undergraduate and graduate study, I was able to pick and choose which elements I wanted to take from each. In my thesis role as Beth in Steven Fechter’s The Artifacts, I found which techniques from these three theorists lent themselves most towards my goal as an actor. Through using elements of aesthetic, social, and political theatre, I achieved the goal in my thesis role of changing the audience’s behavior from passive to active by being engaged in a panel discussion where issues of graduate student mental health, mentoring in academia, and gender roles were discussed.

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