Date of Defense

12-10-2015

Date of Graduation

12-2015

Department

Theatre

First Advisor

Joan Herrington

Second Advisor

Jay Berkow

Third Advisor

Mark Liermann

Abstract

On November 13th, 2015, I will be participating in my last mainstage performance at Western Michigan University. To say I’m excited to be finishing my college career as John Jasper in The Mystery of Edwin Drood, would be an absolute understatement. Over the course of the past three and a half years, I have had the rare privilege to split my time evenly between performing plays and musicals, which does not always happen for Music Theatre Performance majors. The ability to work with new directors on a variety of different styles of plays and musicals has given me the opportunity to hone in on what builds a great performance from myself as an actor. That being said, when I say “great performance,” I can only reflect on my own comfortability and understanding of a role and the show, as well as my own opinion of the way I execute said role for an audience. Within this thesis, I will be providing a detailed analysis which goes above and beyond in presenting the successes and challenges of putting together and performing a leading role for a professional caliber musical production. I will provide in-depth research and methodology in creating my own simplified version of one of the most complex characters I’ve ever had the opportunity to play.

Access Setting

Honors Thesis-Open Access

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