Date of Award
Spring 2018
Document Type
Honors Thesis
Department/Major
Theatre Arts
First Advisor
Dr. Raimondo Genna
Second Advisor
Chaya Gordon-Bland
Third Advisor
Stephen Miller
Keywords
Moment Work, Theatre, Theater, Devising, Directing, Art, Communication
Abstract
Theatre Beyond Words is an exploration of how the Moment Work devising method may be utilized as an artistic tool to communicate ideas beyond the capacity of spoken text. In 1991 Moisés Kaufman and partner Jeffery LaHoste founded Tectonic Theater Project so they and their company members could explore the avant-garde theatre that fascinated them. Moment Work was born from the fusion of Mary Overlie’s View Points and Moisés Kaufman’s own explorative exercises with Tectonic Theater Project. My work is a hands-on investigation of the creative power of this technique through my application of Moment Work to the direction of my own emotionally charged project: Joseph Wallace’s Hush Little Celia Don’t Say a Word, produced by the University of South Dakota Student Theatre Cooperative. Through the production process, I explore how the Moment Work language of theatrical elements lends itself to deeper, more precise analysis in the creation process and how Moment Work cultivates the invention of forms capable of adequately expressing content that is difficult to communicate verbally.
Recommended Citation
Stacks, Lauren Danielle, "Theatre Beyond Words" (2018). Honors Thesis. 30.
https://red.library.usd.edu/honors-thesis/30