A Directorial Experience: Noises Off

Over the years I have been exposed to hundreds of shows, some excellent and other\u27s not quite as good. Few shows that I have read, seen, or been involved with seem to have the appeal to both audiences and theatre groups as that of Michael Frayn\u27s modem farce Noises Off. There are several strong reasons for its appeal. One of the primary reasons for the play\u27s popularity is that it is a reaction against modem theatre\u27s tendency toward preaching at the audience. Contemporary plays tend to teach morality; and while modern playwrights do occasionally use comedy as a vehicle to highlight societal ills, humor usually is achieved through intellectual dramatic dialogue. Noises Off does not fall into this trap. Frayn is not trying to change the world; rather he is giving it a light slap on the wrist. This play was written simply to entertain, using physical comedy instead of cerebral comedy. This play appeals not only to the audience who view it but also to the theatre department which presents it. The primary reason for this is the :immense and varied challenges this show offers. One of the first challenges within the collective element of working with others will be the auditions. The director must find a cast which is not only talented, but which can also work well together in the short time allotted for rehearsal. Again, because of the limited rehearsal period, more obstacles will have to be overcome. The director will be called upon to use her leadership, listening, and problem solving abilities. The most important aspect of Noises Off is the physical comedy. Ordinarily, blocking supports the dramatic action. In the case of this play the blocking becomes the dramatic action. Finally, working with the technical crew on a production which demands two full sets in a small physical environment will provide further challenges. The reason many theatre departments select this show is that everyone in both the cast and crew will learn more about their craft and their abilities. All the roles are equal, which makes the play an ensemble piece, and every technical department (i.e. costumes, lighting, carpentry) will be facing different challenges that will be new and exciting. The sheer entertainment value of this show has been proven time and time again. The original Broadway production proved this by surviving an incredible 553 performance run (Sheward 285). If done well both the audience and the crew/ cast will enjoy the experience. The show is refreshing, the characters interesting, the dialogue witty, and the laughs (hopefully) nonstop. This director hopes to rise to the occasion. This thesis will support all of the above statements in the five chapters. Chapter One will be an investigation of farce from a historical view and will examine its influences on modern theatre farce. Chapter Two will detail a brief history of playwright Michael Frayn: his distinctive style, how his other works compare to this one, how Noises Off has been received and/ or changed since its inception, and Frayn\u27s critical writings on modern theatre. The play analysis outlined in Francis Hodge\u27s textbook Play Directing is covered in Chapter Three. The forth chapter will consist of the rehearsal log kept during that particular stage of the creative process. Lastly the appendices will include all other applicable material (i.e. a copy of the program, surveys of the cast, crew, and audience, production photos, a ground plan, a copy of the survey the cast and crew filled out, and anything else deemed suitable)

Detection of Potential Transit Signals in Sixteen Quarters of Kepler Mission Data

We present the results of a search for potential transit signals in four years of photometry data acquired by the Kepler Mission. The targets of the search include 111,800 stars which were observed for the entire interval and 85,522 stars which were observed for a subset of the interval. We found that 9,743 targets contained at least one signal consistent with the signature of a transiting or eclipsing object, where the criteria for detection are periodicity of the detected transits, adequate signal-to-noise ratio, and acceptance by a number of tests which reject false positive detections. When targets that had produced a signal were searched repeatedly, an additional 6,542 signals were detected on 3,223 target stars, for a total of 16,285 potential detections. Comparison of the set of detected signals with a set of known and vetted transit events in the Kepler field of view shows that the recovery rate for these signals is 96.9%. The ensemble properties of the detected signals are reviewed.Comment: Accepted by ApJ Supplemen

Planetary Candidates Observed by Kepler V: Planet Sample from Q1-Q12 (36 Months)

The Kepler mission discovered 2842 exoplanet candidates with 2 years of data. We provide updates to the Kepler planet candidate sample based upon 3 years (Q1-Q12) of data. Through a series of tests to exclude false-positives, primarily caused by eclipsing binary stars and instrumental systematics, 855 additional planetary candidates have been discovered, bringing the total number known to 3697. We provide revised transit parameters and accompanying posterior distributions based on a Markov Chain Monte Carlo algorithm for the cumulative catalogue of Kepler Objects of Interest. There are now 130 candidates in the cumulative catalogue that receive less than twice the flux the Earth receives and more than 1100 have a radius less than 1.5 Rearth. There are now a dozen candidates meeting both criteria, roughly doubling the number of candidate Earth analogs. A majority of planetary candidates have a high probability of being bonafide planets, however, there are populations of likely false-positives. We discuss and suggest additional cuts that can be easily applied to the catalogue to produce a set of planetary candidates with good fidelity. The full catalogue is publicly available at the NASA Exoplanet Archive.Comment: Accepted for publication, ApJ

Planetary Candidates Observed by Kepler. VIII. A Fully Automated Catalog With Measured Completeness and Reliability Based on Data Release 25

We present the Kepler Object of Interest (KOI) catalog of transiting exoplanets based on searching four years of Kepler time series photometry (Data Release 25, Q1-Q17). The catalog contains 8054 KOIs of which 4034 are planet candidates with periods between 0.25 and 632 days. Of these candidates, 219 are new and include two in multi-planet systems (KOI-82.06 and KOI-2926.05), and ten high-reliability, terrestrial-size, habitable zone candidates. This catalog was created using a tool called the Robovetter which automatically vets the DR25 Threshold Crossing Events (TCEs, Twicken et al. 2016). The Robovetter also vetted simulated data sets and measured how well it was able to separate TCEs caused by noise from those caused by low signal-to-noise transits. We discusses the Robovetter and the metrics it uses to sort TCEs. For orbital periods less than 100 days the Robovetter completeness (the fraction of simulated transits that are determined to be planet candidates) across all observed stars is greater than 85%. For the same period range, the catalog reliability (the fraction of candidates that are not due to instrumental or stellar noise) is greater than 98%. However, for low signal-to-noise candidates between 200 and 500 days around FGK dwarf stars, the Robovetter is 76.7% complete and the catalog is 50.5% reliable. The KOI catalog, the transit fits and all of the simulated data used to characterize this catalog are available at the NASA Exoplanet Archive.Comment: 61 pages, 23 Figures, 9 Tables, Accepted to The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Serie

Discovery and Rossiter-McLaughlin Effect of Exoplanet Kepler-8b

We report the discovery and the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect of Kepler-8b, a transiting planet identified by the NASA Kepler Mission. Kepler photometry and Keck-HIRES radial velocities yield the radius and mass of the planet around this F8IV subgiant host star. The planet has a radius RP = 1.419 RJ and a mass, MP = 0.60 MJ, yielding a density of 0.26 g cm^-3, among the lowest density planets known. The orbital period is P = 3.523 days and orbital semima jor axis is 0.0483+0.0006/-0.0012 AU. The star has a large rotational v sin i of 10.5 +/- 0.7 km s^-1 and is relatively faint (V = 13.89 mag), both properties deleterious to precise Doppler measurements. The velocities are indeed noisy, with scatter of 30 m s^-1, but exhibit a period and phase consistent with the planet implied by the photometry. We securely detect the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect, confirming the planet's existence and establishing its orbit as prograde. We measure an inclination between the projected planetary orbital axis and the projected stellar rotation axis of lambda = -26.9 +/- 4.6 deg, indicating a moderate inclination of the planetary orbit. Rossiter-McLaughlin measurements of a large sample of transiting planets from Kepler will provide a statistically robust measure of the true distribution of spin-orbit orientations for hot jupiters in general.Comment: 26 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables; In preparation for submission to the Astrophysical Journa