This thesis presents a spectrum of different practices, with many different ways of thinking about the application of theatre with problem drug users. It starts from the question of how applied theatre might assist problem drug users to socially reintegrate, and moves on to ask further questions with regard to its potential to promote personal change and contribute to the participants' social acceptance. The two research questions that have driven my enquiry are: to what degree can participation in applied theatre assist problem drug users towards their social reintegration? And: how does the implementation of applied theatre with this specific client group inform us about its potential to promote personal change? By using evidence from theatre projects carried out in England and Greece, this thesis attempts to illustrate how different forms of theatre can be implemented with the aim of supporting the individual's journey to recovery and reintegration. This thesis is divided in three thematic units: community; creativity; and hope. Each unit explores the potentially powerful relationship between the dramatisation of stories of recovery and their presentation to a public audience. By positioning the outcomes of the research in relation to the debates around current drug policies and applied theatre's potential to act as a transformative agent, this thesis sets out to explore factors by which participation in applied theatre has the potential to have an impact on problem drug users by operating as an 'alternative substance'. In particular, it seeks to examine the possibility of applied theatre operating as an alternative form of 'escapism' from the participants' current community (community of exclusion), thus functioning as a motivational force towards their social reintegration. It will suggest that applied theatre has the power to promote personal change by regenerating the individuals' social and creative components and by awakening their desire for affiliation and belonging.

This thesis explores the ways in which applied theatre practitioners and companies evaluate their practice that contributes to improved health outcomes for prisoners in the UK. By examining the discourses around evaluation, and specifically how and what influences these, this thesis aims to offer a deeper understanding of the approaches used to evaluate applied theatre work and the wider socio-political influence on the evaluation of applied theatre practice. This research is driven by a personal desire to understand the contributions and effectiveness of applied theatre in prisons and how understanding around effectiveness between practitioners from the arts, health and criminal justice sector can be enhanced. The research questions that drive this enquiry are threefold: how is applied theatre planned and implemented in prisons when it contributes to improved health outcomes for prisoners; how and to what extent are theatre companies influenced by national policy in the arts, health, and the criminal justice sector when they evaluate their practice; and what approaches and methods do applied theatre companies use to evaluate their interventions in prisons and how do they communicate these to others. The ontological and epistemological positions held in this study stem from a critical realist position. Adopting a Critical Discourse Analysis approach offered by Norman Fairclough, and supplementing this with Michel Foucault's work and philosophy around power/knowledge, allowed for the exploration of broader discourses and concepts. Focussing on work carried out in prisons by five theatre companies in the UK during the New Labour government period 1997-2010, this thesis charts the impact of policy on evaluation, and critically discusses and examines how evaluation is reported through their evaluation reports and in interviews with company staff. I present the analysis and discussion in successive detail using Fairclough's approach that focuses on the identification of discourses at the macro, meso and micro level. Through the metaphor of the prison bar, I shed light on the macro policy level evaluation discourses that restrict the work of applied theatre practitioners through the explicit drive for measurement, evidence and proving worth (discourses that create a bar for applied theatre practitioners). At the meso practice level I examine these discourses through the notion of power/knowledge and authority, present in the evaluation documents produced by these companies and outline how companies uphold policy directives and maintain the status quo whilst simultaneously questioning the dominant discourse of what counts as evidence (discourses that push at the bars that policy has created); and finally, at the micro level I explore the discourses expressed by applied theatre practitioners, outlining their rejection of the positivist dominated evaluation policy discourse and the approaches that can demonstrate the outcomes of their work (discourses that set the bar for future practice). I conclude this thesis with a summary of these discourses, demonstrating how an understanding of these may assist in the future evaluation of practice, as well as collaborative work that aims to improve the health and wellbeing of prisoners.

My premise in this dissertation is that the tradition of independent theatre for young audiences created in Córdoba, Argentina is a worthy community of practice for Applied Theatre study. To provide the much needed documentation of and exposure to this community of practice, and to defend the hypothesis that this community of theatre practice represents a valuable contribution to the Applied Theatre canon, this research project focuses on the following questions: What are the key characteristics of independent theatre for young audiences practice in Córdoba, Argentina between 2001 and 2016? What are the recurring themes and ideas emerging from this community of practice and in circulation among its artists? How are these characteristics, themes and ideas similar to and different from the overall community of independent theatre practice in Córdoba, Argentina during the same period? / Graduate

The thesis and the two films form a practice PhD in drama exploring ethnofiction - an experimental ethnographic filmmaking approach pioneered by visual anthropologist Jean Rouch. In the mid-1950's Rouch started to experiment with fiction and 'projective improvisation' in ethnographic films such as Jaguar (1957-1967), Moi, unnoir (1957) and La pyramide humaine (1959). Film critics would call these films 'ethnofictions'. After agreeing a story outline, the camera simply follows the subjects' improvisations of their own, and others', lived experiences. The aim is to show aspects of ethnographic research otherwise hard to represent. A key question of the doctoral research has been whether a nuanced understanding of foreign cultures can be created and mediated by combining ethnographic research methods with the processes of dramatic work. Even though Rouch made ethnofictions as part of his ethnographic research, he infused the genre with elements of surrealism and poetry, and often opposed anyone trying to establish theories about his films. Defying Rouch's view on this matter, this thesis explores ethnofiction as an ethnographic filmmaking method by drawing on the experiences from fieldwork and filmmaking among transgendered Brazilians living in São Paulo. The fieldwork resulted in a feature-length ethnofiction and an ethnographic documentary short: Transfiction focuses on identity and discrimination in the daily lives of Brazilian travestis and transsexuals. Informed by transgendered artists, prostitutes, healthworkers and political activists, Fabia Mirassos projected her life through the role of Meg, a transsexual hairdresser confronting intolerance and re-living memories of abuse. Savana 'Bibi' Meirelles plays Zilda who makes her living as one of the many transgendered sex workers in São Paulo, as she struggles to find her way out of prostitution. Drama Queens is an ethnographic documentary short and contains four scenes from the over 200 hours of rushes that were recorded during the fieldwork. The scenes are from São Paulo's annual Pride Parade and present Bibi, Fabia and Phedra who were the main informants of the research conducted at the theatre Os Satyros in central São Paulo.

Concerns about safe driving practices in individuals with dementia often fall to caregivers, who are frequently faced with the difficult task of initiating the conversation about driving and driving cessation with their loved ones, a topic that can be a very emotional and sensitive for older adults. Several print-based resources are currently available to caregivers, however, emerging research suggests that disseminating information through a medium that depicts the complexities involved in decision-making about driving, such as applied theatre, may be more effective than these traditional print-based methods. Currently, there are no resource guides available for caregivers that incorporate applied theatre into their dissemination methods. In light of this research, this dissertation followed the principles of Knowledge Translation to work closely with caregivers to develop (Study 1) and evaluate (Study 2) a toolkit centered around an applied-theatre production called No Particular Place to Go. In Study 1, the comments and suggestions obtained from focus groups and individual interviews with 17 (eight informal and nine formal) dementia caregivers were incorporated into a toolkit called Down the Road, which consists of the play, No Particular Place to Go (in DVD-format), an accompanying viewer guidebook, and supplemental information cards. In Study 2, using a pre-post design, a total of 70 general caregivers (31 informal and 39 formal), including dementia caregivers, evaluated Down the Road by completing the Driving-Related Self-Efficacy Questionnaire (DRSEQ) and a User Satisfaction survey. Both informal and formal caregivers’ self-efficacy around various topics related to older driver safety increased after reviewing Down the Road. Additionally, caregivers favourably received the toolkit. This work moved beyond information gathering by incorporating the expressed needs of caregivers to translate knowledge into an effective, research-based toolkit that can provide caregivers with an interactive resource for use individually or in facilitated groups. / Graduate / 0621

This thesis is written from a practitioner-researcher perspective and explores leadership within Learning Disability Theatres, focussing on a series of moments captured within the education and outreach programme of DIY Theatre Company, Salford, UK. The researcher presents a dialogical view of research within which knowledge-production is viewed as dynamic and processual rather than mobilised by the search for a single truth or one prescriptive method of working. Emerging from research undertaken as political activity the thesis engages with, and attempts to disrupt, dominant, normative agendas of power and knowledge which limit our notions of leadership and result in people with learning disabilities all too often being viewed as too disabled to carry out leadership roles. The thesis highlights the challenges and potential for research undertaken collaboratively with disabled co-leaders to be viewed through frameworks of Applied Theatre, Critical Disability Studies and Critical Leadership Studies and articulates a methodology-in-the-making with the potential to inform future research, practice and policy within all three disciplines. Methods include observations, arts-based Inclusive Research and interviews. Descriptions of moments of practice, written from a phenomenological perspective, offer insights into the highly relational nature of leadership practice in Learning Disability Theatres. The researcher suggests it is in such moments of practice, only visible and present in the making that new ways of thinking about and carrying out leadership in participatory theatre can be located. A critical and relational perspective opens up alternative ways of negotiating and describing leadership by and with performers and theatre-makers with learning disabilities. The term workshop-in-the-making has been coined to introduce a view of the drama workshop as an extension of improvised artistic practice within which improvisers work with light structuring, are heedful, generous, able to accept offers and to respond in the moment. Development and research of dialogical leadership are political acts which challenge normative, ableist perspectives and offer significant opportunities for development of practice, research and policy within and beyond Learning Disability Theatres. This thesis does not seek to define a single model of leadership, but highlights the value of a relational perspective in exploring the nuances, shifts and complexities of roles within leadership-in-the-making and, as a result, reveals the rich range of leadership practices often masked by more hierarchical approaches.

This research is a qualitative, autoethnographic study of antifragility in fragile spaces. It was written using data from Applied Theatre workshops, rehearsals and exercises; as well as questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and open discussions in focus groups with at-risk learners from Quintile 1-3 high schools, their educators, senior management staff, parents, caregivers and peers. Methodologically, social constructionism functioned as the schematic map that positioned the writing/writer between the self and others, and provided the philosophical scaffolding necessary to elucidate data analysis and interpretation. Institutional theory and organisational culture centered the analytical framework once thematic analysis had been conducted across the data sets. This reflexive, feminist paper exhumes and explores fragile spaces in Western Cape Quintile 1-3 schools, using drama and conscious, performed acts of vulnerability (on and off stage) as a means of activating antifragility in the performer and the observer. The data collection took place in the Western Cape in South Africa, and specifically refers to learners and their networks and blended learning ecosystems in that context. Noted conversants include Brown, Taleb and Butler. The findings of this study include a shift in how we define “success” in a fragile environment and an acknowledgment of antifragility as a strategy that is always in motion. Static achievement and a singular definition of learner excellence are shown to be the undesirable opposite of iterative antifragility and adaptive, holistic executive function and socio-cultural competence; and learner wholeness (as experienced and embodied by the learner themselves) is referred to as “flourishing”.

No description available.

The purpose of this action-research study is to explore a new pedagogical tool for myself as a teaching artist: Applied Design. My ideas around Applied Design are rooted in the field of Creative Drama, and grew out of a desire to explore theatrical design in the same process-centered way that Creative Drama explores informal and improvisational drama techniques. To this end, I attempt to determine how the use of Applied Design affects both student engagement and student understanding when applied as an interdisciplinary tool to Language Arts curriculum. For the purposes of this study, I introduced Applied Design as a discovery teaching methodology through a one-week Language Arts unit in a local fourth grade classroom. I collected data from the students, their classroom teacher and myself through questionnaires, written work and personal observation. As I examined the data, I discovered positive relationships between Applied Design and both student engagement and student understanding. Students responded to the discovery teaching methods enthusiastically, and embraced each design project with a dedication that appeared to inspire students to push through difficult moments in effort to complete each given task. Although the length of the study and amount of data generated limited my ability to draw widespread conclusions, the evidence suggests that further study in the applications of Applied Design is merited. This study also begins to discuss what such future study might look like, in effort to push the exploration of Applied Design forward. Ultimately, this action research study reinforced my conviction that process-centered theatrical design can serve as a useful tool for myself as a teaching artist, and inspired me to move forward in my understanding and exploration of its applications.

In 2004, a Tsunami had devastating effects on the province of Tamil Nadu, India. In the community’s re-building process, many elders were forced to live in areas of the coastal region referred to as “Grannie Dumps,” because their homes were destroyed. With the monetary help of HelpAge International and the guidance of Michael Etherton, these elders are now part of an active, healthy community named Tamaraikulam Elders Village (TEV) that wants to tell its story. In March 2008, Michael Etherton attended a Workshop/Performance of GeriActors & Friends (G&F), an intergenerational theatre company from Edmonton, AB. I was G&F’s Assistant Director. After this, Etherton connected me with HelpAge India and TEV, realizing that the methods used with G&F would benefit TEV. Starting in January 2013 and completing in June 2015, under my direction, the University of Victoria’s Theatre Department assisted TEV in creating intergenerational theatre performance with various young people’s charity groups throughout the Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry region. The dissertation is structured as a reflective practitioner case study and is split into two sections. The first section of my work will communicate to the reader the events of the case study in India. The latter half of this work will be a collection of exegesis chapters reflecting upon the salient issues for the field of applied theatre research and practice which my research project brings up and how my reflections will affect my future practice while providing suggestions for how they could impact the entire field of applied theatre. / Graduate / gus@uvic.ca