A journey in metaxis explores the facilitation of drama workshops using an adaptation of Theatre of the Oppressed, a participatory drama process used with high school students, teachers and others in the community. New possibilities of engagement open up as knowing emerges through a variety o f forms of dramatic action which are simultaneously the medium, subject and re-presentation of research. As a theatre pedagogue I explore how knowing and meaning emerge through theatre and in the interplay between my life and my work. Writing, then reading, narratives of my practice engages me in a conversation that helps me draw attention to my practice. Diverse roles and points of view of the drama facilitator begin to become apparent as these narratives speak through a spiralling process of shared experiences. Commentaries on these experiences lead to discussions of the implications of this inquiry for other forms of reflective leadership practice in drama and in education. Particular attention is placed on the role of the body and mind (bodymind) of facilitator and participants as they journey into an increasing awareness of senses, histories, the landscapes worked in, and the relationships that intertwine through the constant ebb and flow of the drama workshop. Using a framework that parallels the drama workshop I facilitate, I play with forms of texts, languages and styles to enter into the text(ure) of the worlds of facilitation so that we may come face to face with kinaesthetic and discursive experiences remembered and reconsidered. Writing my body into this exploration enables me to become mindfully aware of, and extends and transforms, my practice. I re-awaken the memory of my senses and re-connect with them in the moments of "performing" my teaching. Such poetic and expressive writing enables an evocation of the world of drama. Writing from and through a sensing body means that reflection on practice becomes not merely reporting experiences, but also celebrating and expressing the multi-vocal, multi-layered events that develop drama facilitation skills. Writing, then reading, about this process of coming to know my identity-in-process as a drama facilitator enables the interpretation, interrogation and transformation of how one becomes facilitator, "making the way as we go," (re)writing/performing our presence. / Education, Faculty of / Language and Literacy Education (LLED), Department of / Graduate

This study examined Stanislavski's system as it was explained in his three books, An Actor Prepares, Building A Character, and Creating A Character. The study then examined the applicability of the Stanislavski System to the theaters of Bertolt Brecht and Absurdist theatre as represented by Harold Pinter and Samuel Beckett.

Thesis (MDram (Drama))--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / The general aim of this study was to establish why students at Stellenbosch University embarked on a course in Drama. The initial hypothesis was that students were attracted to the expressive, therapeutic features inherent to this field of study. A questionnaire was designed to test this hypothesis. However, in the early stages of the project, feedback from the Drama students of 2005 and, at a later stage, that of the first-year Drama students of 2006 and 2007 proved the hypothesis to be incorrect. The specific questionnaire that was handed out to students also included questions that would enhance the interest value of the survey, such as: “What question was the most frequently asked by your friends and relatives enquiring about your Drama studies?” Responses to the latter question, amongst others, triggered two other pilot studies. The aforementioned studies were conducted among 110 students from different disciplines on the US (University of Stellenbosch) campus, as well as among 65 respondents in the Stellenbosch area, and focused on perceptions around Drama students and the drama profession as such. The final study contained the following three problem statements: 1. Are there any stereotypical prejudices towards Drama students? If so, who and what is the Drama student in terms of personality type and character traits? 2. Are there any stereotypical prejudices towards this field of study and the professional field? If so, what do the field of study and the professional field constitute within the South African context? 3. Why Drama? or rather, what is the purpose of Drama, and what motivates students at Stellenbosch University (SU) to choose this particular profession, given the current perceptions? The supporting theories and the data, though not wholly significant, indicated that a marked degree of stereotyping existed with regard to Drama students and the profession. These perceptions about the students and the related professions have also been validated by the limited number of existing studies that could be found on this topic. Moreover, feedback from 253 Drama students revealed that they had decided to study Drama for a variety of reasons, and not only because a successful career in this field will inevitably lead to stardom and fame, which is contrary to what people generally tend to believe.

"It is the purpose of this thesis to employ some of the basic methods currently in practice in the teaching of creative dramatics, in a second grade class of the North Texas State University Laboratory School in Denton, Texas, and to record the results."--2.

Educational Studies / D. Ed. (Comparative Education)

Educational Studies / D. Ed. (Comparative Education)