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archives@tulane.edu / 1 / Samantha Johnson

This thesis examines the representation of the Polytechnique massacre in Canadian theatre. Utilizing a corpus of four Canadian plays, this study analyzes how trauma, feminism and commemoration intertwine in theatrical representations of this event. The findings demonstrate that the ways in which we represent the Polytechnique massacre are not neutral. They underscore our understandings and our beliefs relative to this event. In particular, this study demonstrates that in these plays, male characters talk more often and for longer than female characters. In addition, it analyzes how the recurrent topic of the “crisis of masculinity” is portrayed within this corpus. This study aims to participate in the constant reinterpretation of history, in order to question the narratives that have been passed down to us about the Polytechnique Massacre. / Graduate

This project is situated in Olievenhoutbosch - a still-developing community - within a new urban design framework called the Olievenhoutbosch Osmosis Framework, which is a student project criticizing the original Olievenhoutbosch Ministerial Housing Estate Framework of July 2005. The framework addresses the issues related to connectivity in the area, and the design intervention attempts to address this issue on a human scale, on various experiential levels. The dissertation explores the use of multi-functional theatre spaces with varying degrees of interaction and levels of activity. The primary generators for this design intervention has been its urban connectivity, location, the specific site, human movement, and human activities related to the site and the programme of the intervention. In view of the context, the programme, the design intent of the framework, and the location in the framework, the design intervention will create spaces both in and around the structure in which various activities can take place, through the interplay between different tectonic elements. / Dissertation MArch(Prof)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Architecture / MArch(Prof) / Unrestricted

Boston University. University Professors Program Senior theses.

This research project is an interdisciplinary investigation of the memory of the 1904-1908 Namibian genocide through its performance representation(s). It lies at the intersection of performance, memory and genocide studies. The research considers the role of performance in remembering, memorialising, commemorating, contesting, transmitting and sustaining the memory of the genocide across time and place. The project frames performance as a media through which history is narrated by positioning performance as a complex interlocutor of the past in the present. This claim is premised on the assumption that the past is not simply given in memory ‘but it must be articulated to become memory’ (Huyssen, 1995:3). The research considers commemoration events and processes as fruitful performance nodes to uncover the past as well as the politics of the present. It makes the case that while the Namibian genocide has so far been denied official or state acknowledgement, it is chiefly through the medium of performance that the genocide memory is remembered, contested and performed. The project offers a variety of perspectives on the relationship between genocide violence, memory and space by focusing on what is remembered, how it is remembered and by paying attention to when it is remembered. The research contributes to an understanding and reconstruction of memory and performance of the Namibian genocide on two fronts. Firstly, as a cultural phenomenon and secondly, as a form of elegy and memorial in contemporary times. These insights contribute to the emerging body of scholarly work on performance and the cultural memory of the Namibian genocide. The project also charts avenues of inquiry in the production and transmission of memory across time and generations, within and beyond Namibian national borders. It pays close attention to performance’s contribution to the formation of cultural memory by exploring the conditions and factors that make remembering in common possible such as language, images, rituals, commemoration practices, exhibitions, theatre and sites of memories. Through examining the specific role of performance as a medium of cultural memory of the Namibian genocide the study considers ‘memory as performing history’ (Shuttleworth et al., 2000:8). The research interrogates how contemporary artistic performance representations and interpretations from within and outside of Namibia inform the way societal history and the present are presented and remembered. Performance becomes an aperture to investigate the enduring contemporary role of the memory of the Namibian genocide as well as its simultaneous reconfiguration. This enables the project to investigate how memories circulate across time and place - transnationally and across generations. This cross-border and transgenerational reflection is essential to understanding how the Namibian genocide has and is articulated, circulated, structured and remembered through performance in the postcolony.

The starting point of this research study began with a broad and unwieldly question - what would Zimbabwe look like if colonisation didn’t happen? This question arose with regard to the launch of the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act (IEEA) in 2007 and is focused of on building an understanding of notions of indigeneity in Zimbabwe through an inquiry of indigenousness and indigenisation. The methodological approach is designed as an interdisciplinary and experimental research inquiry that processes these debates and proposes an expansion of the probabilities of notions of indigeneity within the range of existing socio-political, economic and historical analyses of indigenousness and indigenisation in Zimbabwe. This exploration begins with a broad historical, anthropological and etymological survey of the term 'indigenous’ that is interwoven with a contextual account of Zimbabwe and its socio-political lifespan. The primary site of investigation is the independence-day ceremony that took place at the National Sports Stadium in Harare, Zimbabwe on the 18th of April 2017. This focus is motivated by two distinctive elements at this event - a banner that declares 'ZIMBABWE WILL NEVER BE A COLONY AGAIN’ and a fragment from the president’s speech that asserts, 'we can now call ourselves full masters of our destiny’ (Mugabe 2017). This event stands as a crucial node for the debates and questions this research aims to pose regarding notions of indigenisation, indigenousness and registers of indigeneity. Political and socio-economic analyses of this annual ritual tower above the lacuna of analysis of its performance logics. This performance-specific inquiry aims to contribute new meanings and complexity around the event. The information generated from this reading is further processed through the mechanisms of speculative research as a way to think beyond the dilemmas and paradoxes that emerge from the historical, anthropological and performance analyses of this event. The penultimate chapter of this dissertation suggests a conceptual rehearsal of the findings generated through an expanded understanding of queer theory. The final articulation of 2 this research investigation extends the experimental approach, presenting a set of visual, aural and sculptural elements as the conclusion. The dissertation offers alternate readings of notions of homogeneity and singularity. It is also constituted as a way to understand the probability of building new knowledges through lateral and rhizomic processes as a journey that gathers and synthesizes from across a number of disciplines. The contention of this thesis, then, is to suggest an expansion of the notion of indigeneity towards the possibility of polygeneity, a notion that aims to align with the conceptual constructs of cosmopolitanism (Appiah 2006, Kleingeld and Brown 2014), which engage arguments for expanded understandings of contemporary identity formation. Embodied in this suggestion of polygeneity lies the potential to revive notions of dynamism and creativity that have been dormant since the onset of European colonisation in Zimbabwe. In the wake of the 'new dawn’ in Zimbabwe, in this moment of growing debates for alternatives, the thesis finds its impulse in the imperative for radical and creative shifts in consciousness to activate new ideas, new readings, and new knowledges.

This dissertation is concerned with developing the South African youth's active participation in formal politics. Spoken word poetry as an applied drama and theatre medium is of particular interest to this study and it argues that the art form can be used as a means of youth development in the area of formal politics. To illustrate its argument, the dissertation discusses how a programme of spoken word poetry was used to address the issue of youth formal political participation and developed a group of young people's enthusiasm to participate in formal national decision-making processes. The programme, titled Raising Participation, was conducted with the support of Africa Unite, a non-profit organisation in Cape Town that offered their school club members as participants in the programme. The workshops targeted young people who would be eligible to vote in South Africa's next general elections, set to take place in 2024. Chapter 2 discusses spoken word poetry as an applied drama and theatre medium and identifies the connections which make spoken word poetry an appropriate art form to use as an applied drama and theatre approach. Chapter 3 discusses the programme of activities, the theoretical framework that informed its design and the methods of data collection and analysis which were used. It also discusses Africa Unite and the partnership between the organisation and the programme. Chapter 4 discusses the findings of the programme and its successes and limitations, concluding the dissertation.

Dance-based physical theatre as a sub-strand of Physical Theatre, is positioned as a continuum of dance. Dance-based physical theatre performers are encouraged to embrace their personal uniqueness and previous dance training, when creating and expressing movement. The intended meaning embedded in dance-based physical theatre is often misunderstood or not grasped by audience members. This study incorporates emotion into a dance-based physical theatre performance to determine whether audience members are able to perceive the emotions as intended by the choreographer and portrayed by the performer. The thesis statement of this study is that both the meaning as well as the intent of a physical theatre performance can be enhanced through the incorporation and deliberate application of emotion. The investigative question of this study is: How does an audience perceive and distinguish the intended emotions in a dance-based physical theatre performance? The aim of this study is to determine whether a South African audience can perceive the intended emotions portrayed in a dance-based physical theatre performance. This study suggests that there are two primary scholarly discourses relating to how human beings perceive emotions in themselves and in others. One discourse regards emotion as humanly congruent, suggesting that humans are able to express and perceive emotions such as fear, anger, disgust, happiness, sadness and surprise, regardless of cultural and personal differences (Roether et al. 2009:1); the second discourse regards emotion as personally unique, suggesting that cultural differences, as well as personal circumstances and unique bodily and facial features play a role in how emotion is expressed and perceived (Masuda et al. 2008:378). These two discourses on emotion are considered throughout the study. It is further suggested that emotion is perceived through ‘four domains’ namely: facial expressions; body attitude and orientation; breathing patterns; as well as voice and sounds that are produced. This study draws on qualitative, quantitative and practice-based research approaches in order to answer the investigative question. Elements of accepted scholarly approaches, such as: Effector Patterns (EP) drawing on the work of Bloch (2015) and Bond (2017); Laban Movement Studies (LMS) drawing from the Effort Elements and Factors, as well as the Shape category (Wahl 2019; Bradley 2009); and Lessac Kinesensics (LK) drawing from the body NRG’s (Lessac 2019; Lessac & Kinghorn 2014) are integrated to formulate ‘three strategies’ to facilitate the embodiment of three emotions: anger, fear and disgust. These three emotions are portrayed randomly throughout the dance-based physical theatre performance choreographed specifically for this study. Combining the two opposed discourses concerning emotion turned out to be valuable. This study concludes that emotion in performance comprises both humanly congruent and personally unique aspects. A significant number of audience members perceived emotion through both a humanly congruent and a personally unique lens. The audience recognised the different emotions portrayed in the performance. The final conclusion of this study was based on the analysis of the raw data collected by the Mobile Application that was specifically designed for this study. It was deduced from the analysed data that 51% of the audience members perceived more than 50% of the emotions that were portrayed in the performance. The conclusion my thus be drawn that emotion is both humanly congruent and personally unique, and that the intent of a dance-based physical theatre performance can possibly be enhanced by embracing and applying emotion. / Dissertation (MA Drama)--University of Pretoria, 2020. / Drama / MA (Drama) / Unrestricted

This thesis examines the process of bringing Small Box with a Revolver from pre-writing to production at Southern Illinois University in March 2021, and my own growth in that process. I drew inspiration from the general societal behavior during the pandemic and other crises of 2020, as well as absurdist plays like Ionesco’s Rhinoceros and Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. The play was written to my stylistic preference of writing dark comedies about social issues.Chapter One examines where I began and how I developed the plot, characters and stylistic choices. Chapter Two examines the writing process, including initial peer and faculty feedback to the script. Chapter Three looks at the unique pre-production process in trying to bring Small Box with a Revolver to the stage, virtually. Chapter Four details the production itself, what I learned, and what further work I would like to do on the script. Chapter Five details my evaluation of my process throughout the MFA program as a playwright and professional, as well as my final considerations. Also included, is the production script.