Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references. / This thesis is the enquiry of a Director of text-based work in search of a more heightened physical texture in staging written text. Inspired by Jacques Lecoq’s use of the idea of the Poetic Body, this enquiry is the Director’s attempt to discover what this ‘Poetic Body’ might mean, and how imagining the Poetic Body and the country/landscape/territories this body might inhabit or occupy, can be useful to the Director in preparing a rehearsal process, and in the ultimate staging of the text for performance.

This paper is an explication of my thesis production House of Shadows, which was presented in November 2004 towards the fulfilment of the degree of Master of Arts in Theatre and Performance (Theatre Making) at the University of Cape Town. The explication focuses largely on the structural and conceptual processes in the creation of a new musical. As a theatre-maker, my research was driven by a need to {re)consider the musical as a compelling art form. The first chapter considers the contemporary South African theatrical landscape, creating the context in which House of Shadows was created. I have also discussed aspects of the play that make it distinctively South African, despite the American roots of the musical as a popular form of theatre. In the second chapter, House of Shadows is examined within the context of the (contemporary) musical play. The aspects of the musical play that found expression in the text and performance of House of Shadows are given individual attention. These include: the book, the score, the design and the direction. A significant focus is placed on the way these individual elements are integrated to form a unified and unique whole. The third chapter proposes a conceptual framework for reading musicals by examining the validity of the musical as festive theatre. The four key structural elements - display, contest, celebration and ceremony - and the objectivecommunal renewal - of festive theatre are discussed in the context of House of Shadows. This chapter concludes with an opinion of using this framework for analysing musical texts and performances.

This paper investigates different ways of writing as creative invention for the writer/director/deviser. Three forms of writing are examined: the playwright as author of the dramatic text, the devising group as author of the dramatic and/or performance text, and the director as author of the mise en scene. In the first chapter the playwright as author is examined in relation to a historical view of the dramatic text. My own background as a playwright is treated in the context of the challenge to the written text experienced by contemporary playwrights as visual and physical elements of performance gain increasing importance. In the second chapter the devising group is addressed as author of the dramatic and/or performance text. Potential benefits of improvisation and devising are explored, as well as drawbacks of the devising process when compared to the process of writing a dramatic text as a playwright. In chapter three the director is scrutinised as the author of the mise en scene. The director's choice of a sign system and different methods of writing the performance text are weighed in view of their efficacy in creating a performance code that is readable by an audience. In the conclusion the three types of writing are evaluated, and the benefits and challenges of devising the dramatic and/or performance text are weighed; the devising process is regarded as an augmentation of a traditional writing process.

Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 39-41). / This explication focuses on the use of memory from the personal archive as it has been implemented in the process and conception of my thesis production: Vessel: images of life more/less lived. In the introduction I explain that it was a training opportunity with Deborah Hay in 2005 in Scotland that incited this study. It was during this time that I came to realise the value of working with the body as a cellular entity and that the information housed within it can be accessed and used, both artistically as well as personally.

Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 43-44). / My project proceeds from the question: What might an African Dream Play be for the 21 st Century? Or how might dreams be used to generate content and presentational form as well as to influence the way in which the audience experience or participate in the performance event? My interest in the African Dream Play lies in a belief that it might provide a means of reconstructing the spirit of ubuntu through theatre. It seeks - both in process and presentation - to include in this reconstruction, that which is popularly known as moral regeneration - which I see rather as spiritual regeneration. My contention is that we, and particularly young people, are living in a social and spiritual crisis and the African Dream Play attempts a trans formative intervention within the dynamic fabric of the contemporary urban 'village'-a space of many cultures, languages, ideologies and levels of economic status. This explication sets my practical research and the production Isivuno Sama Phupha in particular, in a theoretical framework and performance historical context. It draws on the theories of Victor Turner, specifically his concepts 'liminality' and 'communitas' and his idea of the social drama. It then traces the evolution of my theatrical research: first through an interest in cultural and religious practices prevalent in the townships around Cape Town and how they might be used to generate material for the theatre and an aesthetics of presentation that could stimulate the communitas experience for both the performers and the audience; then, on to dreams and how they might provide the stimulus for my envisaged theatre by utilizing an experience of their essential liminality.

Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 34-37). / This explication is an investigation into comedy as a medium for constructing strategic subjectivities and the potential holds for diffusing experiences of difference in contemporary South African contexts. Our culture is on that encounters difference and often experiences these moments as threatening. Comedy creates the opportunity for engagement with other subjective experiences, however, this potential is in my opinion, mostly wasted and performances tend instead to support the dominant social discourse. By examining the nature of subjectivity and identity within a postmodern, technologically connected culture, the active agency of the audience is kindled by the performer. The strategies of this encounter are discussed in relation to Lawrence Mintz's theories of the licensed spokesperson and the negative exemplar.

Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 60-63). / My research has been preoccupied with the playing of memory with reference to narratives of loss. This loss has been represented by a loss of language, place and family, resulting in the playing of unnerving memory fragments. The primary driving force of this loss has been the notion of a disrupted or uprooted childhood. The subject of this enquiry is black girlhood; in particular, the relationships between black girls/women. Consequently a large part of 'piecing together a girlhood' involves engaging with what Quashie (2004) calls the 'girlfriend aesthetic'. Quashie's 'girlfriend aesthetic' offers a methodology for re-membering by providing a reflective surface; you see in the experience of the girlfriend other something that triggers or incites your own memory that aids you in working towards completion of self. This explication traces my interest in this subject matter as a direct result of feeling that black girlhood as a topic is under-represented, explores my development of a viable creative methodology for this kind of work, interrogates the meaning of 'site' in this context, maps out the origin of nostalgia and how it affects the afficted in relation to lost 'site', unpacks the girlfriend aesthetic as a practice and reveals how the nostalgic searcher's obsession with the irrecoverability of the past manifests in corporeal ways. Whether or not completion of self is possible, what is discovered is theatre's ability to aid in coping with a feeling of placelessness or atopia. Although nostalgia may indicate a fixation with the past, it can be a valuable and restorative way of emancipating oneself from it.

This study is an exploration of the articulation of my artistic voice or performance signature. It employs two methodologies, autoethnography and Practice as Research to investigate the practice of my artistic creations as a solo dance-maker. It utilises concepts such as the Batammaliba’s anatomical and metaphorical approach to architecture, Sankofa and decoloniality to frame the investigation. My first solo work, Satisfaction Index, is a point of departure for this analysis. The study then proceeds to engage with works created during the pursuit of this master’s degree over the past two years. In the discovery of my work, DNA and ritual feature to further construct the artistic voice or performance signature that I seek for the articulation of my rebranding as a soloist.

Self/Scape is an autoethnographic sonic exploration of searching, belonging, and praying through sound as well as exploring the socio-cultural conditions and the lived experiences of a globalized Latino. Following the framework of Practice as Research (PaR), Miguel has been creating and theorizing about and through this piece during his two-year degree. This piece is the culmination of Miguel’s research at UCT in which a theatrical production is transformed into a curated space that is made to coexist with(in) a digital soundscape. That is to say that this piece has been created to be experienced through the use of headphones and QR codes. Each QR code will be specifically placed in relation to the content of the code which documents the journey of self-discovery through a multitude of spaces around the world from Los Angeles to Cape Town.

Includes bibliographical references / This doctoral project investigates the use of theatre practice to engage across the'victim'/'perpetrator' binary in the Kashmir valley; a binary that is framed in this project as a tripartite division between Civil Society, Militants/Ex-Militants, and the Indian Armed Forces. Using Primo Levi's (1988) concept of "grey zones" to investigate how narratives from these spaces might be given theatrical form, this thesis utilised six concepts to frame the aesthetic, pedagogic, and ethical principles of a practice-based-research undertaking: Immersive Theatre, Documentary Theatre, devised theatre workshops, affect, situational ethics, and performance auto-ethnography. With one Kashmiri theatre company operating as my central collaborator, the first two phases consisted of devised theatre workshops and performances with Civil Society and Ex-Militants in Kashmir. Exploring instances from these projects through thick description, critical analyses, and auto-ethnographic writing, the grey zones of Civil Society in Kashmir are situated as being within acts of aggression that occur between civilians who are differently privileged, while it is Ex-militants who are discovered as occupying a liminal space when studying narratives of militancy in the region. By contrasting these two phases of practice-based research with the third phase of 'failed' attempts to engage with the Indian Armed Forces, this thesis postulates that the grey zones within the experience of government soldiers might only be accessed by making theatre with cadets at military academies. By drawing out the parallels and disjunctures between the manifestations of the three phases of theatre practice, this project offers outcomes that contribute to scholarship around theatrical interventions in times and places of war. The concluding outcomes are framed by one question: if an outside theatre maker were to create one performance piece that contains cross-community narratives from Kashmir, what ethical, pedagogical, and aesthetic considerations might arise as a result. Amongst the strategies that are put forward to answer this question, there are three outcomes that are particularly significant: a re-articulation of grey zones as existing both between and within each of the three groups; the proposal of a process-based spectatorship when utilising novelty in form and content; a re-framing of the discussion around affect and effect by considering artists' intention and spectators' response vis-à-vis a theatrical creation.