URCA Grant Recipients Recognized
Four School of Theatre and Dance students were recently recognized at the ECU Undergraduate Research Awards Ceremony for receiving URCA Grants in the 2018-2019 academic year.
Each student presented their ideas and received an Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity Grant for their proposals. Read about the creative and innovative work these School of Theatre and Dance students have been doing below.
Connor Gerney: “Twilight Boy” is an original play that I wrote, directed and produced. It tells the story of the friendship between three sculpting students, Chris, Jennifer and Kyle, and what happens when one of them ends up missing. The storyline follows the questions of what happened to the character of Kyle, as Chris and Jennifer try to figure out the mystery. Through this project, I hope that I gave audiences an opportunity to reflect and to be more understanding of alternative life perspectives. “Twilight Boy” premiered at the Whirligig Stage on February 17, 2019.
Brooke Palmer: Communication, whether it is using ASL or performing on stage, requires expression, attention, focus, and a different kind of listening skill that’s beyond “hearing” words. My goal is to share and demonstrate these similarities among fellow actors with my project while bringing the hearing and deaf communities together to share an evening of theatre, in English and in American Sign Language. For this project, I am writing a show: “The Magic of Winter from Around the World”. It combines three winter fairy tales with themes of selflessness, bravery, and heart that I hope to share with children and families in both the hearing and deaf communities. The show will premiere at the end of this year with performances at the Eastern North Carolina School for the Deaf in Wilson as well as in Greenville. Besides creating a show that everyone can enjoy, my goal is to teach an ensemble of actors how to perform and work together to share these stories in English and ASL. Throughout the rehearsal process and by the end of the project, I hope the cast learn more about a wonderful and unique language. Not only how to sign and support themselves in an ASL conversation, but see how similarities between theatre and ASL may help in their own growth as performers.
Taylor Reed: I have always been interested in the role of the supernatural and the mental, psychological issues in our lives, such as, dementia, lucid dreaming, and sleep paralysis. Thinking about this raised a question of how much of mental health and psychology is influenced by supernatural events. This past summer I traveled to Krosno, Poland on a study abroad trip and witnessed an incredible performance, by professional dancer, Anna Nowicka. She produced an unique piece called “Raw Light Dance” where she manipulated light to generate images and applied movement to build a narrative about light, darkness, and the re-creation of life. It inspired me to further my research through theatre and dance. Currently, I am in Krosno again to continue to research supernatural occurrences throughout history and correlate them with psychology and display my findings through movement and black light theatre techniques. It will include two parts: Part one is for children, which will coincide with a workshop about global legends and stories. Part two will be for more mature audiences, focusing on the psychological aspects of the project.
Maddie Wells: My URCA project consists of a pool conditioning research study. This study will be comprised of three different groups of dancers that will be wearing heart rate monitors during dance technique courses and pool workouts. I will be implementing an aquatic conditioning program that consists of three different types of workouts over the duration of my study. With the data collected from each group, cardiovascular changes will be recorded by the heart rate monitors to show whether or not an aquatic conditioning program is beneficial for dancers.