My thesis project was to create costume designs for the world premiere of Marqués, directed by Erik Pearson. The play is a modern adaptation of Macbeth, William Shakespeare's seventeenth century tragedy, a classic that has been subject to layers of meaning over time. The story examines violence through the psychotic breakdown of a man consumed by greed and fear. Macbeth’s desire to alter his destiny, prophesized by three witches, leads to the death of his comrades and loved ones. Ultimately, Macbeth’s impulsive actions also lead to his own demise, foreseen by the Witches. The play poses the question: what is real and what is illusion in life? How does an individual maintain sight of their moral compass in the midst of a corrupt and vicious world?

The research process for Marqués required me to examine violence in two foreign settings: Shakespeare’s Macbeth and the Mexican drug cartel. In these dark worlds, I found inspiration for three eternal and wayward characters, which offered me a light to examine the specter of death. In redeveloping Shakespeare’s iconic Witches, I hoped to enchant new audiences with the story, providing space to consider destruction of culture and of mind. My design process for this production became a resource through which to explore and strengthen my own values and identity as an artist. I found recognizing darkness led to more powerful results than what would have been without it.

In this thesis capstone paper, I focus on my costume design process for Las Brujas, the Witches in Marqués. Through historical, cultural, and contemporary research, discussion of the collaborative process, my direct experience interviewing subjects, and interning on a traditional production of Macbeth, I illustrate how I developed dynamic theatrical costume designs for Las Brujas. Satisfying the desires of the director, the design team, the playwrights, the actors, and the audience, I feel my process was successful in establishing an iconic look for Las Brujas that maintains the power of Shakespeare’s Witches while offering a fresh and relevant interpretation.

Trust the Space: How Directors are Affected by Theatrical Spaces and Genres is a perspective on how directors adapt to poor theater and how space, genre, and thematic elements affect the outcome of a theatrical piece. Focusing on The BarnStorm Theater Company, a student-run theater at the base of the University of California Santa Cruz campus, I will explore a series of shows that I have directed, as well as a number of shows that I have produced as Artistic Director over the past year.

ABSTRACT

"Twenty-Four Power Suits" by Ellen Howes

This thesis sets out to illustrate my process as the costume designer for The University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) Theater Arts Department’s production of Congressladies, Mary Kay Gamel’s modern adaptation of Aristophanes’ Ecclesiazusae. In collaborating with the director, the designer must create designs that help connect the characters to the world in which the play takes place, as well as reflect the tone of the performance. This thesis will examine the process by which I achieved the actualization of the director's vision as well as explore the analytical layers beneath my designs. Throughout the chronological process, I will focus on the impact that my designs had in the satirizing of important political issues, the clarification of important plot points, and in paralleling Mary Kay Gamel’s modern adaptation to the original Aristophanic text.

ABSTRACT

DIGITAL ACTING TECHNIQUES DURING THE REHEARSAL PROCESS By Abel Cornejo

Utilizing the play R.U.R by Karel Capek, I propose to explore the use of digital acting techniques during the rehearsal process. Because the use of technology has become common practice for many theater-makers, it stands to reason to apply technology during actor training. I intend to experiment with active learning pedagogy utilizing devices such as smartphones, laptops, and video projectors applied to this one interdisciplinary project.

Thus the two main objectives:

1. To experiment with the use of technology during the rehearsal process.

2. To apply these techniques to a production of 1920’s futuristic play themed with technology in society.

After the completion of this production at UCSC, I believe I have successfully developed a collection of experimental exercises that can be used by educators and directors. This collection requires minimal expense and can be implemented within any theatre-training course. These findings support the use of technology inside actor training and provide an example of a learning environment that brings students to discover and build knowledge for themselves.

ABSTRACT

Brooke Lauren Jennings

Directing Fefu and Her Friends

Directing Fefu and her Friends, by Maria Irene Fornes, as an artist, an educator, and a woman, opens doorways to dynamic design that embodies generous hindsight to the flux of history as fact and myth. As an educator, Maria Irene Fornes brings forth the dramaturgical reinforcing of Emma Fry, Jill Dolan, and many others who preach art as a powerful educational tool for change. As a woman, this play taught me that I am not alone. I am blind, deaf, and afraid, but not alone. Thus, looking to our mother's and grandmother's generations as evidence of how the status quo came to be, this production of Fefu and Her Friends gives young women and men today the tools to fight gender inequality, break antiquated gender myths, and redefine them for a new generation.

Aurora Olmos-Gallo

The Fallout Between Procedure and Practice

The following is a case study in the field of Stage Management. It briefly lays out different approaches to stage managing in the field of theater, while being critically aware that not all procedure prepares a young stage manager for their fieldwork.

The theater as a means of expression can go beyond an aesthetic ideal. It can give agency to those who due to different circumstances have either lost their voices or have remained silent. It has the power to question humanity, to speak of historical processes, and to tell stories of the people that remained marginalized.

This thesis explores how through a staging of my own version, “El Corrido de Pedro Páramo”, a bilingual (“Espanglish ”) adaptation based on the novel Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo, I was able to empower the Latino community at the University of California, Santa Cruz by giving them a voice for their own cultural expression, while bringing together a diverse audience to view this iconic work through the use of a bilingual approach. My adaptation of the text reframes two central characters using a feminist lens, and incorporates the corrido form, a musical device that empowered the female voice. My adaptation reflects both the original identities of Rulfo’s writing, and their transposition through my innovations.