For my Barrett Creative Project I set out to make an Elizabethan inspired women’s costume and write about my process. Images of the completed costume and process photos are included in the appendix. I researched the differences between my modern day costume construction techniques and those of dressmakers from the original period of the 16th century. An important distinction that I must make is that I set out to create a costume rather than a historical reproduction of a garment. This allows me to have both creative freedom and an ability to take advantage of the technology to which I have access. I will begin by reviewing the steps I took to construct the costume itself. The task began long before I ever sat down to stitch pieces together. Pollatsek writes, “Popular culture tends to show two versions of making clothing: mass - production drudged in sweatshops, or virtually instantaneous bursts of creative magic . . . (making costumes for the stage), most people do not see the planning and time that the transformation of fabric into wearable art entails. Creating costumes actually requires a combination of art, craft, and engineering” (1). I found her statement to ring true, as the completion of this project incorporated not just sewing but historical research, pattern-making, costume design, and project management. The final product of this project is a costume that very closely resembles the initial rendering. Due to the onset of Covid-19, in order to adhere to social distancing practices, I was unable to photograph the finished project on my model. The alterations marked in our final fitting were completed and the costume is made to her latest measurements.

The objective of the study is to examine the factors of a successful diversity program within four companies that attempt to break down the barriers contributing to the lack of diversity within the design and technical field of theatre. Companies in different regions of the United States (West, Midwest, South, and Northeast) were selected and analyzed for their fellowship, apprenticeship, internship, and educational program in order to see why it is successful and how it contributes to diversifying the design and technical field of theatre. The findings of the study provide a guide to the best practices used in establishing a design and production program that can contribute to diversifying the theatre industry.

Forensic science is the application of science to matters of law, especially criminal investigation and procedure.​ ForenSICK Science​, on the other hand, is an educational YouTube channel. It was created in early 2019 after listening to two people on a podcast confidently preach surprisingly inaccurate information about forensic science. My goal in the creation of the channel was to give people the proper information regarding the practice. This goal grew to encompass several different fields including continued education practices, informal and nonformal learning, and combating “science speak.” Using YouTube as a tool in this journey was the first step in combating forensic inaccuracies.

This section acts as a guide for newly established nonprofits in creating a marketing plan. Through extensive research on what strategic marketing looks like in the nonprofit sector, we have developed a guide for nonprofits that are attempting to establish their brand and expand their marketing techniques.

First, we created two separate surveys, taking responses from over 1000 individuals at Arizona State University. These surveys focused on building trust in nonprofits, preferred marketing strategies as a consumer, and general awareness for various social issues that affect local and national nonprofits. Second, we conducted professional interviews with marketing leaders at nonprofits. These ranged from smaller, local nonprofits to nonprofits that operate on a national level. Their missions were all geared toward different causes, meaning they offered a diverse set of skills and advice on nonprofit marketing.

After obtaining this data, we created a guide for nonprofit marketing. Because there is a lack of information available on building marketing techniques in the nonprofit sector, we aimed to create a general guideline that could be applied to a variety of nonprofits and develop their marketing strategy. This includes details on how to create an executive summary, conduct a SWOT analysis, and the different strategies a nonprofit organization should implement.

Further, to test this marketing plan, we partnered with a local nonprofit in Arizona, Million Dollar Teacher Project. Million Dollar Teacher Project is a relatively new nonprofit, and focuses on educational inequality in Arizona. After looking over all our research and the nonprofit marketing guide, we were able to develop a plan for increasing engagement, awareness, and trust for Million Dollar Teacher Project. We pinpointed areas of improvement, such as social media, ambassador programs, email marketing, and follow up strategy.

The nonprofit marketing plan, our survey results, interview transcripts, as well as our marketing plan for Million Dollar Teacher Project can be found below.

The label of “honors student,” and the status it carries, implies exceptional academic ability, maturity, and accomplishment. The notion that “honors” students are more capable than non-honors students dismisses the particular needs of intersecting identities including gender, race, and/or ability. Said differently, the “honors” designation erases identity and difference. For instance, “honors” students who live with mental illness(es) navigate social spaces and physical structures that assert notions of “success” that are informed by conditions that inhibit bodily function, communication, and educational accomplishment as set by capitalist and ableist standards. Moreover, ableist notions of “success” are always inherently racialized and gendered such that “honors” students women of color living with mental illness are forced to navigate racist and gendered overtones informing academic “success.” Focusing on how students think about and embody the labels of “honors” and “mentally ill” provides unique insight on how the systems of higher education are based in ableist ideology. In this Artist Statement, I discuss my performance Crazy/Smart, a performance that features and stages students’ narratives detailing the means by which students navigate ableism as “honors” students. Using embodied knowledge through performance allows students to decenter dominant, institutionalized narratives about ableism and higher education, speaking up to administrators as people of power and redefining personal success. In this Artist Statement, I detail the theory and method framing my performance Crazy/Smart, a performance using “honors” student stories and narratives to highlight and resist ableist ideology informing higher education more generally and “honors” education more specifically. This Statement includes four sections. First, I provide the theoretical framework that outlines ableism as an embodied ideology. Second, I extend my argument and turn to critical pedagogy to suggest a performance means to resist ableist ideology. Third, I describe the specificities informing my performance including the choices I made to stage ableism as an ideological structure organizing higher education. The fourth and final section is the attached Crazy/Smart script.

I created a sketch comedy show called Funny For A Girl, which featured the talents of women in both the film and theatre communities. The show began as a very vague idea, and throughout the year of 2019, the show began to come to life. I immediately brought on a producer, who helped form the crew while I was working on building the cast. The writing process took about four months. There was lots of writing and rewriting, basically up until the end of August, when rehearsals started. Filming began in September, and by the last week of September, we had an entire show ready, consisting of nine sketches and four stand-up acts. The show featured a variety of sketches, including Lesbain Bachelorette and So You Want A Good Yelp Review? (SYWAGYR). The production team and I proposed the show to Binary Theatre Company, which picked it up as the first show of its season. The show ran in the Prism Theatre from October 4th through the 6th.

Funny For A Girl gained quite the following on social media in just a week, and the show was completely sold out before it even opened. I was interviewed by both The State Press and ASU Now, and I’m being considered for a second feature in ASU Now as part of the graduate spotlights. The show was a huge success, and it really helped me narrow down to what it is I want to do with my life.

For my Barrett Thesis Project, I completed a total rewrite of the feature-length screenplay I wrote for my Herberger Senior Project. This process constituted completing a full analysis of my original work with my Thesis Director and Second Reader, discussing character motivation, thematic throughlines, story logic, and realism in dialogue. This initial analysis caused me to almost entirely rewrite the original script, adjusting dialogue, sequences of events, pacing and character work.
The majority of this rewrite was spent on fine-tuning character and motivation, strengthening them in some cases and changing them entirely in others. I really strove to emphasize the relationships they had with each other and how the situations and connections affected the state of mind, therefore leading to the chain of events that happened in the script in a much more natural way. I also worked to emphasize certain story elements that benefited the characters and thematic content, specifically my protagonist’s struggle with schizophrenia. In this draft, I turned that character trait into a visual element, which I believe further heightened the visual and emotional stakes of the story and gave the characters an increased sense of motivation and struggle. In this draft I also worked to break down the stereotype connected with my secondary protagonist, a sex worker. Instead of emphasizing her strength and beauty, as many action films with a strong/sexualized woman in a supporting role do, I adjusted her story arc to break her stereotype (and her character) down throughout the story. I wanted to depict her as a person with flaws that extend beyond her choice of profession, though the latter certainly did not help. I believe that the final product succeeds in both main goals.
While working on this rewrite, I also completed a script edit journal that detailed the significant changes in action, pacing or dialogue I made and what my reasoning was behind them.

Composed by Adele Etheridge Woodson in 2018, Thrive is an original composition for live euphonium and prepared electronic backing track; it was commissioned by David Gonzalez and premiered at the International Women’s Brass Conference at Arizona State University. The musical piece incorporates multiple audio bytes from personal interviews and videos found online, including words said by pop figure icons, Congressmen, and President Donald J. Trump. The goal of Thrive is to creatively highlight the fight for gender equality among a male-dominant, misogynist society. It also serves as a fresh piece of repertoire for the euphonium, which often lacks original compositions by living composers. This paper will discuss Etheridge Woodson’s creative writing process, creation of the backing track, its world premiere, audience reaction, and a personal reflection.

This thesis will take a look into the perspective of graphic designers and the important factors that they feel make a good sports logo. The relationship between sporting logos, their respective fan bases and human society will also be addressed. On the surface, logos may seem like an unimportant aspect of sports and of a team. They have always been a part of the sporting world and can often be an afterthought. Interviews with two graphic designers were conducted for this paper, one who has worked in the sports logos industry for over 25 years creating the identities for close to 100 different teams and the other being the Director of Clubhouse Creative, the design team within the Arizona Diamondbacks organization. Through those two interviews, I have discovered that there is much more to logos than sitting in front of a computer trying to be artistic. Each logo has a story and reason for being designed the way that it is, and I hope to convey that to the reader. In addition to the interviews, I have presented various examples of controversy in sports logos. My research of these controversies will display a wide range of examples from issues involving racism in logos to fan base disapproval. The information presented in this thesis is designed to show the reader why sports logos are important and why they shouldn’t be an afterthought.

For the creative project portion of the Barrett Honors Thesis Requirement, “The Author’s Daughter: A Series Concept and Pilot Pitch” was developed to further explore a television series idea based upon a senior capstone film. The story follows a young Author who, in a future where fictional content is censored and illegal, has the power to create and bring stories to life in another realm, known as the Narrative. What’s more, she can bring these characters and stories to life in Reality, though many dangerous consequences face her because of it.
The creative project explores the concept much more in depth than its capstone counterpart; where as the capstone film serves as a concept, prequel film to the series, for the creative project the pilot script was developed, spanning over twice the length of the first script. What’s more, along with the pilot a pitch bible was developed, outlining series and franchise potential as well as an in-depth look at characters, rules of the world, and formatting styles. Finally along with the written portion came the pitch, where the series was presented to a “buyer” in this case the jury of the defense, and paired with marketing and distribution strategies to help simulate an industry style pitch and packaging demonstration.
The purpose of the honors creative project was to explore the conceptual challenges of world and series creation, as well as the execution of the serialized narrative. What’s more the project’s purpose was to research the execution of selling an idea and the business side of television, specifically in terms of the sales, marketing, and distribution of a series idea.