Theater
Reviving Ghanaian Theatre: Theatre in Ghana - Development, Methods and Resources
Emelia Asiedu ('11); Mentor: Arthur Horowitz
Abstract: My research focused on Ghanaian
theatre, which dates back to pre-colonial times and
gained more popularity during and after
colonization. It was a form of entertainment for
the locals and involved performances that
satirically addressed societal issues. The art form,
though present in the rural areas of Ghana, started
to lose its popularity with the emergence of film,
which is more convenient for performers and
could reach a much larger amount of people. Thus
came the slow but steady decline of Ghanaian
cultural elements portrayed in performance and a
tendency towards Western ideas. Ghanaian theatre
is in a state where it must try to balance local
culture and relevant societal issues with acquired
foreign ideas and create an appealing mix of the
two in order to spark the interest of the audience. I
plan to expand on my research for my Senior
Thesis Project.
Funding provided by The Faucett Family
Foundation, Curtain Raisers Fund
Juxtaposing Justice: Performance Studies in the Memorial of the Rwandan Genocide and Oscar Grant III
Arielle Brown ('11); Masharika Theatre*; Erik
Ehn†; Mentor: Arthur Horowitz
*Interdisciplinary Genocide Studies Center, Rwanda;
†Theatre Dept, Brown University, Providence, RI
Abstract: This research explores the complexities
of justice after the Rwandan- Tutsi Genocide. I
researched how Rwanda has worked collectively
to maintain healing approaches to finding
communal justice for the victims and perpetrators
of the genocide. My interdisciplinary research
included listening to personal testimonies,
witnessing memorial cites, review of Rwanda’s
prison and judicial systems and the application of
my research into a playback performance at the
Centre by Centre Theatre festival in Kigali,
Rwanda. Rwanda serves as a spring board from
which we might question how justice plays out on
a larger intersectional world stage. This inquiry
led me to collect testimonies from the family of
Oscar Grant III, who was killed by a Bart Police
officer on New Years of 2009. The culmination of
this research is a work-in-progress performance
piece that explores how Justice for Oscar Grant
and in Rwanda might be served through personal,
communal and national memory.
Funding provided by The Faucett Family Foundation
The Human Scale: Autheticity through Artifice
Samuel Gold ('11); Mentor: Thomas Leabhart
Abstract: In creating Corporeal Mime, Etienne
Decroux sought to turn the human body into a
musical instrument, creating individual notes by
breaking the body down into precise articulations.
When taken alone, these individual movements
might appear to objectify the performer by turning
the body into precise machinery of power— an
image complementary to the archetypal modernist
aesthetic of automata and mechanical mass
production. Yet, this initial impression runs
contrary to the ultimate aspirations of the form. As
one of Decroux’ first students, Jean-Louis
Barrault, writes, “There should be, deep in every
actor, an element of the robot. The function of art
is to lead this robot toward the natural.” Working
as Thomas Leabhart’s assistant, I explored the
artistic and pedagogical methods through which
we may attempt to set these initially contradictory
qualities into a performative dialogue, as well as
the rich history of aesthetic and performance
theory in which they reside.
Funding provided by The Faucett Family Foundation
Writing Mime
John Maidman ('11); Mentor: Thomas Leabhart
Abstract: A while back I performed with other
Pomona students in a mime play on campus.
Afterwards when my friends were congratulating
me, one said, "It was really good! What did it
mean?" I said something plausible sounding. But
his question stuck with me, or rather the problem
it posed. I don't think that mime is an inaccessible
medium. I find that some ideas are even clearer
when we show them with our bodies than when
they are described with words. But sometimes in
the hunt to find the abstract beauty of a particular
movement, its essential meaning is lost. Through a
summer of studying mime and considering how
one can write a comprehensible mime play, I've
tried through both spoken words and movement,
to explore an idea that is as deep as itself and as
meaningful as one makes it: the frustration and
clumsy difficulty of reading a newspaper.
Funding provided by The Paul K. Richter and
Evalyn E. Cook Richter Award