Tag: Performing arts

Arranging and Transcribing: More than Just the Notes

Presenter(s): Derek White − Music Education

Faculty Mentor(s): Michael Grose, Eric Wiltshire

Oral Session 3C

Research Area: Performing Arts

Writing music is a complex process. A composer has to create melody, harmony, and rhythm to convey their artistic message. Many people think that once the notes of the song are written down, the music is finished. However, there is so much more to creating music. I will be speaking about the aspects of writing music that do not get mentioned as often: arranging and orchestration. I will discuss my creative process and how composers and arrangers utilize the science of sound to create meaningful aural experiences for their audience.

Documentary and Verbatim Drama: The Practice and Performance of Responsible Non-fiction Theater

Presenter(s): Kelsey Tidball − Journalism

Faculty Mentor(s): Michael Najjar

Poster 115

Research Area: Performing Arts

Journalism and theater are often considered separate entities with separate goals. One is traditionally non-fiction, while the other is traditionally imaginative and fictional. But what happens when the lines between these two art forms are blurred? Documentary and Verbatim Theater is a genre of theater that combines journalism and theater and works to incite social change, encourage community healing, and engage public empathy and awareness. Documentary and Verbatim Theater artists gather information from news articles, paper trails, interviews and public knowledge to tell stories about real people, places and events. They work like investigative journalists, compiling all of this found information and crafting characters, stories, and dialogue that often become full-fledged dramatic plays based on significant or traumatic events. In my research, I discuss the recent surge in popularity of Documentary and Verbatim Theater, looking at successful productions, discussing effective and ineffective techniques, and researching theater artists who have become known for their documentary work. I look at the space where journalism and theater intersect, and I discuss the ethical, social, and political value of creating and performing Non-fiction Theater. I argue that, while Documentary and Verbatim Theater offers unique challenges for the playwright and performers, its social and political significance makes it a worthwhile pursuit, and, in addition to my more traditional research, I am also crafting my own piece of Documentary and Verbatim Theater about young women who have studied abroad.

Translating The Work Of Carl Sagan Into Song

Presenter(s): Guthrie Stafford − Philosophy

Faculty Mentor(s): Barbra Mossberg

Creative Work Session 3

Research Area: Science, Philosophy, Performing Arts

Our tiny blue-green jewel of a planet may not be much in the unimaginable vastness of space, but if it matters to us then we’d better show it. At least that’s what Carl Sagan had in mind when he petitioned for the Voyager space probe to turn around and take one final photo of our planet before it left the solar system, traveling on into the dark, never to return. This picture shows the Earth, the totality of our history and the history of life itself, as a single, pale blue pixel suspended like a mote of dust in a sunbeam. For Sagan, this image underscored the painful absurdity of our treatment of each other and of our only home. In translating his words on the subject into song, my hope is to bring this message to my own generation. Our parents set out to save the world and somewhere along the way got distracted by mortgage payments. It now falls on us to sidestep tribalism and partisan myopia, and we are already struggling under the weight of this responsibility. We must step back, way back, and see the world as it really is. No one is coming to save us from ourselves. There’s nowhere we can run to if things don’t work out. We have only one chance, one planet, one home. It is a herculean task. That is why I’ve tried to convey its urgency in one of the most powerful ways I know how: song.

Dance and Camera

Presenter(s): Denae Brocksmith − Dance

Faculty Mentor(s): Shannon Mockli

Creative Work Session 4

Research Area: Performing arts, Film/Media

Funding: UROP Mini-grant

Screendance is an emergent medium that is the marriage between the arts of choreography and film. With support from a UROP mini-grant, I was able to attend a workshop presented by renown filmmaker and composer Thierry de Mey in Salt Lake City. The workshop focused on how the processes of capturing movement and editing film can add to the artistic process of choreography. With this fresh knowledge, I began creating a screendance with a local production team headed by Jake Reynolds of Reyn Photography and FPW Media. For this project, beyond the workshop, the research is in the practice and process. I have investigated what it is to create a film from a choreographic perspective, and the relationships between choreographer, camera man, director, sound engineer, editor, music composer, dancer, and costume designer/coordinator. Within the practice of choreographing and creating a screendance, I’ve created a piece with a subject that explores theories of how we accept our inevitable end, death. The research on this subject matter stems from being reawakened to these concepts and theories as dear elderly loved ones come near the end of their lives. For me, this project is not only practical research, but personal exploration as well.