Writing
Praise from experts:
“Dramatism and Musical Theater: Experiments in Rhetorical Performance is an innovative, insightful, and informed approach to the practice of performance.” -Jeff Green, Professor and Department Chair, Theatre, Communication, and Media Arts, Georgia Southern University.
“Kimberly Eckel Beasley and James P. Beasley deliver rivetingly insightful approaches to Burkean Dramatism as a heuristic for creating and sustaining effective rhetorical performances. When seen as acts through the pentad, we are better able to explore motivation and situatedness from within scenes of our performances…” - Dr. Bonnie Lenore Kyburz, Independent Scholar and author of Cruel Auteurism: Affective Digital Meditations Toward Film-Compositions.
Dramatism and Musical Theater: Experiments in Rhetorical Performance is an innovative workbook for both students and teachers in advanced communication performance. Meeting at the nexus of English composition, advanced rhetoric, theater, music, and drama, this book utilizes Kenneth Burke's method of dramatism to discover the motives inherent in performance practices, whether they be in the classroom or on the stage. In this book Kimberly Eckel Beasley and James P. Beasley take the five corners of the dramatistic pentad (act, scene, agent, agency, and purpose) and demonstrate their utilization in performance analysis. The authors then correlate those performance practices with the production of five contemporary musicals: Little Women, Aida, Street Scene, Into the Woods, and Children of Eden in order to emphasize the use of the dramatistic pentad in character, scene, and staging direction. By doing so, the book highlights dramatism as a performance practice necessary for effective participation in artistic communities.
Performing
Recording
Her Debussy is intoxicating while her performances of the Tchaikovsky and Strauss are searing and dramatic.
William Thomas Walker reviews Fashion Sense: Songs in Recital for cvnc.org
“Beasley's selections reflect considerable intelligence and taste. Her mastery of four languages and vocal technique are consistently evident. Her care for words is reflected in her application of her palette of tone color and carefully shaded dynamics.”
— William Thomas Walker reviews Fashion Sense: Songs in Recital for cvnc.org
