This thesis describes the directing of Joe Orton's What the Butler Saw for the 1976 North Texas State University Summer Repertory Theatre Company. Chapter I examines the problem of play choice and provides an analysis of the play selected. Chapter II describes the production situation at North Texas, the preparation of the playscript, the casting and staffing decisions, the technical direction, the rehearsal process, and the front of house activities. Chapter III is the production book itself, it includes the playscript, the blocking, and the light and sound cues. Chapter IV summarizes the project and offers recommendations as a guide to future graduate directors.

This thesis is an evaluation of the acting career of Tallulah Bankhead with some analysis of the roles she played.

The purpose of this project was to create an original production scheme which will prove acceptable to the American audience. The production of Don Pasquale adhered to the following guidelines: (1) the production was adapted in terms of the American audience for which it was being performed, it was sung in English and all allusions to the opera's European origin were either omitted or altered to conform to the American stylization, (2) the adaptation of the opera centered around an American historical perspective, a point in American history with which the audience could nostalgically identify.

The problem with which this study is concerned is that of critically analyzing and producing the musical comedy The Apple Tree. The study attempts to adapt some of the major unifying elements of this production and, in addition, unite the show through the use of color. The study also attempts to update the production through an extension of symbolism based on the style of Peter Max; to produce a major musical comedy in a stylized and symbolic style, and to show how a stylized and symbolic method of production can be used to achieve simplicity and unity within the confines of a limited budget.