This project is the culmination of my capstone, a work of documentary theater called Eldest Daughter Elegy. Half fiction, and half fact, I embarked upon interviewing eldest daughters in an effort to understand my own family, my own sisters, and the relationships I construct. While my interest was originally autobiographical, after over a year of interviewing, writing, and ultimately producing this play, the story turned into something made of a quilt of different stories, none of which are my own. It became a smorgasbord of summer camp, family complexity, and the righteous indignation and profound excitement of childhood. As I looked ahead to the production of this script, I knew that I had an intended and desired effect: to fight back against the loneliness that so many eldest daughters spoke to. Much of theater is made in a relative void, in which collaborators offer opinions, but audiences leave without sharing their opinions with the creators, instead talking amongst themselves, or not at all. With the production of Eldest Daughter Elegy, I employed a phenomenologically based follow-up approach to survey audience members, referencing moments in the script that I thought might be impactful and asking for their undiluted opinions. Through this practice, I hoped to be able to understand how my intentions “landed” on audience members, and further explore the story that was ultimately told onstage, not made up of just my goals but of the actors’ performances, work by designers, and the audience members' own minds and feelings. This presentation will track my impetus for the creation of Eldest Daughter Elegy, the process of writing/producing it, all the way to audience reception. In this way, I hope to offer an example of work created for audience members (eldest daughters) by eldest daughters, gauging what the impact really might be.

For my Capstone Project, I initially considered crafting a 20-minute monologue reflecting on my journey as a non-traditional undergraduate student at UW. My experiences, ranging from humorous misunderstandings with faculty members to instances of mistaken identity at school events, offered a rich tapestry of anecdotes. However, as I delved deeper into my narrative, I realized that my story echoed the archetypal "Hero's Journey" found in both mythological tales and contemporary dramas like "The Matrix," "The Hunger Games," and the "Harry Potter" series. Motivated by this insight, I expanded my project to encompass broader themes, weaving together elements of my cultural heritage with universal motifs. After extensive research, I discovered the perfect vehicle for my vision: the Turkish myth of "Wild Dumrul." This ancient tale follows the exploits of a young wild man who imposes tolls on travelers crossing a dry riverbed until a transformative encounter with death alters his fate. My Capstone Project will take the form of a dramatic production enhanced by traditional folk dance and music. Alongside a captivating solo folk dance performance, I will provide a brief exposition on the myth's resonance with Greek mythology, particularly the parallels with the story of Alcestis. I am thrilled to collaborate with a diverse ensemble of nearly 20 individuals, including members of the Turkish community, the Seattle theater scene, and talented actors from UW's School of Drama. Together, we aim to bring "Wild Dumrul" to life on stage, inviting audiences to embark on a journey of discovery and reflection. I am deeply excited and honored to spearhead this ambitious endeavor, and I look forward to sharing the magic of "Wild Dumrul" with our community.

Amidst the Black Spring of 2020, I found much of my exposure to and understanding of Black interiority and experience, Black history, institutional racism, police brutality, and other topics at hand to be coming from the young, Black, femme content creators I encountered on TikTok rather than my public-school education. Meeting at the intersection of Black and performance studies, communication, education, and sociology, this research seeks to answer the questions of how social media, specifically TikTok, serves as a site of informal education and how the digital performances of young, Black, femme content creators serve to shape this education. To address these questions, I examined the TikTok profiles of five content creators fitting the above qualifications with follower counts in the millions and varying niches across a three-month period. Attending to these archives through the lenses of norms and aesthetics, I’ve come to find that, among other observations, young, Black, femme content creators are educating the general public both intentionally and unintentionally on a plethora of topics, but consistently with a significant emphasis placed on joy. In a political landscape where Black history and truth are under attacked within the traditional education system, we must begin to recognize and create space for the immense value of informal education that occurs outside of the classroom and the performances that make it possible.