Responding to and analyzing works of theatre

From my undergraduate experience in a BFA program alongside a BS in Media Studies, I had several opportunities to review theatre pieces with a critical eye to the various aspects of performance (directing, acting, set design).  These skills have continued to be useful, as throughout the course of my doctoral studies, I have been challenged to evaluate theatrical activities occurring in New York City.

52nd Street Project

The first paper that I have chosen to include to demonstrate my analysis of works of theatre is a critical analysis of the 52nd Street Project written for Dr. Philip Taylor’s Applied Theatre II course.  Throughout this course, we were placed in an internship position with an Applied Theatre company in NYC.  I worked with the 52nd Street Project as a director and dramaturge, partnering with a 10 year old playwright and professional actors on the creation of an original play.  For our final paper, we were asked to write about the company that we interned for, utilizing a critical lens.  I chose to examine the way in which the term professional plays into the 52nd Street Project’s creative aesthetic and work with young people.  I feel that it is vital for myself as an Applied Theatre practitioner to be critical of my own, and other’s work.  This is not with the aim of pointing out shortcoming or failures, but rather to build the habit of engaging in critical reflection to constantly improve and learn from whatever we are doing.  This paper demonstrates my critical reflection on the 52nd Street Project as a whole, and ultimately my involvement with them as well.

Hand to God Review

I have included a paper written for Dr. Nancy Smithner’s Physical Theatre Class, which I took during the Fall 2015 Semester.  For this assignment we were challenged to view a piece of theatre in NYC and respond to the way in which physicality was used to communicate with the audience (and the value of the physical theatre within the piece).  I have chosen this paper as a reflection of my abilities because it is the most traditional “theatre critique” that I have been asked to do in my doctoral studies.  It resembles what I might be asked to do, or challenge my own students to do, if I find myself in a more traditional theatre program at the university level.  I chose to critique the Broadway play Hand To God, focusing on the use of puppetry in the piece. One aspect of this assignment that I appreciated and grew from was the challenge to draw out one element of a performance for assessment. When working on my dissertation, I will likely be examining the performances of Ajchowen. This paper served as an exercise in evaluating the physical performance, which may be useful in my future description of Ajchowen’s work.