This thesis examines collaborative intercultural theatre that brings artists from different parts of the world together to create original work. It includes a case-study of the Prague-Toronto-Manitoulin Theatre Project, a theatrical collaboration that took place between 1999 and 2006 and with which I was involved as a performer and facilitator. The thesis considers the case-study within historical context, particularly in relation to the ideas and experiments of influential twentieth-century practitioner-theorists such as Brecht, Artaud, Brook and Schechner. I distinguish between modernist and postmodernist traditions in intercultural theatre discourse by tracing how the latter arose in response to poststructural arguments in cultural theory. In recent decades, theatre practices have accommodated this redirection by being more mindful of politics and ethics. I argue that approaches to research and analysis have lagged behind, and that alternative approaches are needed that are better suited to address contemporary practices and issues. I borrow from critical traditions in Anthropology, Cultural Studies and Education to build up a postmodern ethnographic approach to my case-study of the Prague-Toronto-Manitoulin Theatre Project. At stake in the case-study is the extent to which the additional contextual knowledge available to a postmodern ethnographic approach contributes to theatrical analysis and interpretation. More concerned with the instrumental value of the case-study than its intrinsic properties, I use the data to demonstrate that a postmodern ethnography is well-suited to consider ethics of representation in an intercultural context, that is, what the possibilities and limitations of dialogue across cultural difference may be. This, I argue, is as important as ever in a world in which intercultural encounter is common and cultural performance circulates with increasing fluidity and ease.

This thesis examines collaborative intercultural theatre that brings artists from different parts of the world together to create original work. It includes a case-study of the Prague-Toronto-Manitoulin Theatre Project, a theatrical collaboration that took place between 1999 and 2006 and with which I was involved as a performer and facilitator. The thesis considers the case-study within historical context, particularly in relation to the ideas and experiments of influential twentieth-century practitioner-theorists such as Brecht, Artaud, Brook and Schechner. I distinguish between modernist and postmodernist traditions in intercultural theatre discourse by tracing how the latter arose in response to poststructural arguments in cultural theory. In recent decades, theatre practices have accommodated this redirection by being more mindful of politics and ethics. I argue that approaches to research and analysis have lagged behind, and that alternative approaches are needed that are better suited to address contemporary practices and issues. I borrow from critical traditions in Anthropology, Cultural Studies and Education to build up a postmodern ethnographic approach to my case-study of the Prague-Toronto-Manitoulin Theatre Project. At stake in the case-study is the extent to which the additional contextual knowledge available to a postmodern ethnographic approach contributes to theatrical analysis and interpretation. More concerned with the instrumental value of the case-study than its intrinsic properties, I use the data to demonstrate that a postmodern ethnography is well-suited to consider ethics of representation in an intercultural context, that is, what the possibilities and limitations of dialogue across cultural difference may be. This, I argue, is as important as ever in a world in which intercultural encounter is common and cultural performance circulates with increasing fluidity and ease.

Shakespeare’s Richard III is the most often performed history play within the western dramatic canon, yet at the end of the seventeenth century it was considered virtually unplayable. The extensive textual alteration undertaken by comedian Colley Cibber in 1700 revived interest in the rarely performed play, and actor David Garrick’s adoption of Cibber’s text in 1744 ensured the work’s popular survival. Regular performance and textual revision throughout the eighteenth century positioned Cibber’s adaptation as one of the most well-known works on the London stages, and by the time Henry Irving permanently restored Shakespeare’s text to the popular repertoire in 1877, Cibber’s adaptation had served as a conduit to restoring Richard III from its “virtually unplayable” position to its lost Elizabethan fame. The adaptive development of Richard III from unplayable to indispensable can be tracked dramaturgically, from Shakespeare’s Quarto (1597) and Folio (1623) to Cibber’s version, eighteenth- and nineteenth-century performative adaptations, and twentieth century film realisations. Through parallel-text analysis of the prompt-scripts of some of the most notorious, iconic, and effective adaptations of the play, this study examines in a practical sense the dramaturgical drive present throughout the play’s varied life-span: often changing, but nevertheless a constant product. The negative stigma attached to adaptation – characterised in Cibber’s words as “tampering” – is examined throughout the performative history of Richard III. Chapter one considers theoretical perspectives on adaptation studies, and adopts Gérard Genette’s evocative “transtextuality” discourse to quantify conclusions to emerge from parallel comparison of texts. Chapter two analyses Cibber’s process of “re-visioning” Shakespeare’s play; Chapter three examines the impact of performative adaptation on six different stage editions of Richard III. Chapter four addresses the transitional process of developing a stage-bound text on film through the screenplay format, and Chapter five demonstrates the use of cinematic visualisation on the text. Finally, Chapter six tracks the impact of adaptation on the survival and perpetuation of texts over successive generations and throughout varied cultures and contexts. Through analysis of fourteen different performance editions, prompt-books, film texts, and unpublished manuscripts, this dissertation considers the validity of “tampering” on the adaptive process.

Shakespeare’s Richard III is the most often performed history play within the western dramatic canon, yet at the end of the seventeenth century it was considered virtually unplayable. The extensive textual alteration undertaken by comedian Colley Cibber in 1700 revived interest in the rarely performed play, and actor David Garrick’s adoption of Cibber’s text in 1744 ensured the work’s popular survival. Regular performance and textual revision throughout the eighteenth century positioned Cibber’s adaptation as one of the most well-known works on the London stages, and by the time Henry Irving permanently restored Shakespeare’s text to the popular repertoire in 1877, Cibber’s adaptation had served as a conduit to restoring Richard III from its “virtually unplayable” position to its lost Elizabethan fame. The adaptive development of Richard III from unplayable to indispensable can be tracked dramaturgically, from Shakespeare’s Quarto (1597) and Folio (1623) to Cibber’s version, eighteenth- and nineteenth-century performative adaptations, and twentieth century film realisations. Through parallel-text analysis of the prompt-scripts of some of the most notorious, iconic, and effective adaptations of the play, this study examines in a practical sense the dramaturgical drive present throughout the play’s varied life-span: often changing, but nevertheless a constant product. The negative stigma attached to adaptation – characterised in Cibber’s words as “tampering” – is examined throughout the performative history of Richard III. Chapter one considers theoretical perspectives on adaptation studies, and adopts Gérard Genette’s evocative “transtextuality” discourse to quantify conclusions to emerge from parallel comparison of texts. Chapter two analyses Cibber’s process of “re-visioning” Shakespeare’s play; Chapter three examines the impact of performative adaptation on six different stage editions of Richard III. Chapter four addresses the transitional process of developing a stage-bound text on film through the screenplay format, and Chapter five demonstrates the use of cinematic visualisation on the text. Finally, Chapter six tracks the impact of adaptation on the survival and perpetuation of texts over successive generations and throughout varied cultures and contexts. Through analysis of fourteen different performance editions, prompt-books, film texts, and unpublished manuscripts, this dissertation considers the validity of “tampering” on the adaptive process.

This thesis places a selection of performances that took place in Toronto’s commercial theatres during the eighteen nineties in their historical context in order to consider determinants of meaning that influenced the social practice in one Canadian city - Toronto. These performances are selected to explore a range of performance activity across the decade and include: the debut performance by Canadian violinist Nora Clench at the Academy of Music in 1889; a fund-raising amateur “entertainment” The Marriage Dramas, performed for local adolescents at the Grand Opera House in 1892; The Second Mrs. Tanqueray, an example of the touring legitimate drama, performed by veteran acting couple the Kendals in 1894; another touring performance , in this instance a popular- theatre favorite, True Irish Hearts, by Dan McCarthy at the Toronto Opera House in 1893 and a rare example of Canadian playwriting from the decade, a performance of Catherine Nina Merritt’s United Empire Loyalist history play When George the Third was King in 1897. The analysis of all performances in this dissertation considers a range of determinants of meaning that Toronto audiences may have drawn upon when viewing a given performance and argues that the following constraints not only influenced the construction of a situated identity in Toronto but also suppressed domestic professional theatre production: a) a system of patronage that stigmatized the professional commercial theatre as frivolous or decadent; b) a utilitarian bias that was at odds with the post-materialist sensibilities of newer and more innovative forms of the late nineteenth-century drama; c) an economic and business practice that centralized production outside of the country to assure profit; and perhaps most significantly: d) a cultural hegemony that deemed Canadian drama to be immature and thus deterred works of aesthetic expression. This thesis is further informed by an understanding that history is written under the influence of the author’s own situated set of determinants and its goal in conducting an associative reading of Toronto’s nineties theatre practice is to locate theatre and performance history as part of a struggle among social, economic, cultural and political hierarchies.

This thesis places a selection of performances that took place in Toronto’s commercial theatres during the eighteen nineties in their historical context in order to consider determinants of meaning that influenced the social practice in one Canadian city - Toronto. These performances are selected to explore a range of performance activity across the decade and include: the debut performance by Canadian violinist Nora Clench at the Academy of Music in 1889; a fund-raising amateur “entertainment” The Marriage Dramas, performed for local adolescents at the Grand Opera House in 1892; The Second Mrs. Tanqueray, an example of the touring legitimate drama, performed by veteran acting couple the Kendals in 1894; another touring performance , in this instance a popular- theatre favorite, True Irish Hearts, by Dan McCarthy at the Toronto Opera House in 1893 and a rare example of Canadian playwriting from the decade, a performance of Catherine Nina Merritt’s United Empire Loyalist history play When George the Third was King in 1897. The analysis of all performances in this dissertation considers a range of determinants of meaning that Toronto audiences may have drawn upon when viewing a given performance and argues that the following constraints not only influenced the construction of a situated identity in Toronto but also suppressed domestic professional theatre production: a) a system of patronage that stigmatized the professional commercial theatre as frivolous or decadent; b) a utilitarian bias that was at odds with the post-materialist sensibilities of newer and more innovative forms of the late nineteenth-century drama; c) an economic and business practice that centralized production outside of the country to assure profit; and perhaps most significantly: d) a cultural hegemony that deemed Canadian drama to be immature and thus deterred works of aesthetic expression. This thesis is further informed by an understanding that history is written under the influence of the author’s own situated set of determinants and its goal in conducting an associative reading of Toronto’s nineties theatre practice is to locate theatre and performance history as part of a struggle among social, economic, cultural and political hierarchies.

This study is an investigation of adaptations of the Greek tragic chorus since World War II, including the historical, political, and aesthetic contexts that gave rise to these adaptations. Influenced by recent work in the field of Classical Performance Reception and Linda Hutcheon’s work on adaptation, this thesis is designed not around a set of case studies, but around a variety of research questions, including: the current definition of “the chorus” and how it might include the “one-person chorus”; the techniques of mediation used by modern choruses and how they might relate to techniques of the ancient chorus; the connection between political adaptations and the encouragement of audience “complicity”; and the complexities involved in the production and reception of intercultural choruses. I begin by arguing that although August Wilhelm Schlegel’s conception of the chorus as an “ideal spectator” remains the most persistently popular model of understanding the chorus, it should be replaced with a new model based on the concentric frames of performance described by Susan Bennett. Through the use of this model, the chorus is revealed as a liminal, oscillating figure that mediates the action for the audience, and I argue that these qualities have made the chorus an attractive element of tragedy to modern adapters. In the case studies that are offered throughout, I further develop this model in order to analyze the ways in which modern choruses create relationships with audiences, as well as what political or ideological functions these relationships are intended to serve. The model that I develop encourages an engagement with both the intentions of adapters and the realities of reception, and I therefore explore not only how communication strategies of the chorus are intended to operate, but also the issues these strategies raise and the challenges adapters - and their choruses - encounter.

This study is an investigation of adaptations of the Greek tragic chorus since World War II, including the historical, political, and aesthetic contexts that gave rise to these adaptations. Influenced by recent work in the field of Classical Performance Reception and Linda Hutcheon’s work on adaptation, this thesis is designed not around a set of case studies, but around a variety of research questions, including: the current definition of “the chorus” and how it might include the “one-person chorus”; the techniques of mediation used by modern choruses and how they might relate to techniques of the ancient chorus; the connection between political adaptations and the encouragement of audience “complicity”; and the complexities involved in the production and reception of intercultural choruses. I begin by arguing that although August Wilhelm Schlegel’s conception of the chorus as an “ideal spectator” remains the most persistently popular model of understanding the chorus, it should be replaced with a new model based on the concentric frames of performance described by Susan Bennett. Through the use of this model, the chorus is revealed as a liminal, oscillating figure that mediates the action for the audience, and I argue that these qualities have made the chorus an attractive element of tragedy to modern adapters. In the case studies that are offered throughout, I further develop this model in order to analyze the ways in which modern choruses create relationships with audiences, as well as what political or ideological functions these relationships are intended to serve. The model that I develop encourages an engagement with both the intentions of adapters and the realities of reception, and I therefore explore not only how communication strategies of the chorus are intended to operate, but also the issues these strategies raise and the challenges adapters - and their choruses - encounter.

This thesis presents a critical edition in modern spelling of The London Prodigal, a comedy played by the King's Men and printed in 1605 by Thomas Creede for the publisher Nathaniel Butter. The title-page (photographically reproduced) attributes the play to William Shakespeare. This claim is assessed and judged to be mistaken. Both external and internal evidence have been examined in relation to eight possible authorship candidates; Thomas Dekker emerges as the strongest. The present text of the play is based on the 1605 Quarto. Collation of twelve copies revealed several press variants. The introduction treats the play's publication and stage-history and takes a critical look at its background and sources, plot and structure, setting, characters, style, themes, and role in the development of Elizabethan-Jacobean drama. An attempt is made to determine the date of composition, as well as the author. A short section is devoted to conjecture about the manuscript copy used for the Quarto and to bibliographical deductions about its treatment in the printing-house. A full commentary glosses obscurities and enlarges on the play's literary, social, and historical allusions. There are textual notes on variants, emendations, and lineation. An appendix reproduces the parable of the Prodigal Son from the 1568 Bishops' Bible. / Subscription resource available via Digital Dissertations only.

This study contains a detailed interpretation of the fragmentary play Catharina von Siena by the Sturm-und-Drang (Storm and Stress) poet Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz (1751-1792). Although we have only drafts of this play, the topic, the structure, and the relatively long time Lenz spent on the drama indicate that it was nevertheless an important work. Over three chapters this study approaches the Catharina fragments in various ways, the main focus being on improving our understanding of the text. Before starting on the actual interpretation a few basic questions need to be examined, these relating to the conditions in which the play was created and developed, the choice of subject and themes, the manuscripts and their history, as well as the six editions of Catharina von Siena . For this reason the central interpretative chapter is prefaced by a chapter on the genesis of the play, as well as another chapter on the manuscripts and texts. Since it was not possible to work with original manuscripts, a microfilm and reader print copies of the manuscripts were used. The textual examination was based on the readily available edition by Damm. Where necessary the reading by Titel/Haug and the older text editions by Weinhold, Lewy, Blei and Freye were used to supplement these, and also for the purpose of comparison. A pluralistic methodological approach was applied. A more exact period of time for the creation of Catharina von Siena was defined, information about the way Lenz worked and about his intentions with regard to construction and effect was obtained as well. Through this detailed study of the fragments, correspondence and biographical data, we can establish reasons for the fragmentary character of the play, and are able to ascertain the special nature of the drama. / Subscription resource available via Digital Dissertations only.