Honors Thesis Performances

Senior theater major Daniel George has been preparing his senior thesis for over a year, receiving some help along the way from advisors and professors to keep him on-task. The senior thesis, for theater majors, is not a lengthy essay, but rather a performance. Although he has only been rehearsing his performance for a week and a half, George “certainly feels the weight of the year-long process.”

George’s thesis performance will feature a “devised theater piece” which means that the “story and characters are created out of a specific kind of physical theatre and the dialogue is [pulled from other works].” George has compiled sections of Shakespeare and Samuel Beckett and merged them into “one cohesive play.” Each character in the play has his or her own unique way of appearing on stage. The goal is to correlate the “physical life” (person on stage) with the text. “It’s an intellectually challenging process, but I find it brings out really beautiful and provocative theatre,” George said.

The creation of the thesis may be a difficult and long task to achieve, but the acting process is what George enjoys the most. He doesn’t feel pressure like one might when being graded on test answers, per se. George explains, “Acting classes are much more about doing the acting work for your own fulfillment. It’s the idea that if you put in the work and go 100 percent with preparing and performing a scene…that in itself is honestly an A grade.”

George plans to pursue a career in acting concentrating on plays written by Ancient Greeks and Shakespeare. George hopes that “many different walks of life see [his honors thesis]. It’s a story of otherness and the journey one goes on that makes them an other in a community,” George said. The thesis performance will be open to the public. Catch the performances on Mar 3 and Mar 4 at 8 p.m. with an additional performance on Mar 5 at 3 p.m.