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The thesis is a record of the writing and rehearsal process which led to the British premiere of the full length Canadian play, Danceland, at The Old Red Lion Theatre, London, in November of 1994. The first chapter is a discussion of the dramatic theories and historical research which informed the initial creative writing process. The second chapter is the final draft of the play itself. The third chapter is a record of the rehearsal and production process, as well as an overview of the major dramaturgical problems which the actors, director and designers encountered during rehearsals of the play. A full cast and crew list and the reviews from the British press are contained in the appendices. The playwright's "experiment" which sits at the heart of this production record is that Aristotle's idea of "place" is essential to the creation of an indigenous, Canadian dramatic literature. The writing process, however, is only the beginning of the translation of drama from the page to the stage; and it is this final, rehearsal and production process which demands that all dramatic theory be placed within the context of believable characterization and dramatic action. / Arts, Faculty of / Theatre and Film, Department of / Graduate

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

After the change of their country’s political and international statuses, post-colonial and respectively post-communist individuals and collectives develop feelings of alienation and estrangement that do not involve physical dislocation. Eventually, they start imagining their national community as a collective of individuals who share this state. Paraphrasing Benedict Anderson’s definition of the nation as an “imagined community,” this study identifies this process as “imagined exile,” an act that temporarily compensates for the absence of a metanarrative of the nation during the post-colonial and post-communist transitions. This dissertation analyzes and compares ten English Canadian and Romanian plays, written between 1976 and 2004, and argues that they function as expressions and agents of post-colonial and respectively post-communist imagined exile, helping their readers and audiences overcome the identity crisis and regain the feeling of belonging to a national community. Chapter 1 explores the development of major theoretical concepts, such as nation, national identity, national identity crisis, post-colonialism, and post-communism. Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 analyze dramatic rewritings of historical events, in “1837: The Farmers’ Revolt” by the theatre Passe Muraille with Rick Salutin as dramaturge, and “A Cold” by Marin Sorescu, and of past political leaders, in “Sir John, Eh!” by Jim Garrard and “A Day from the Life of Nicolae Ceausescu” by Denis Dinulescu. Chapter 4 examines the expression of the individual and collective identity crises in “Sled” by Judith Thompson and “The Future Is Rubbish” by Vlad Zografi. Chapter 5 explores the treatment of physical and cultural borders and borderlands in Kelly Rebar’s “Bordertown Café”, Guillermo Verdecchia’s “Fronteras Americanas”, Petre Barbu’s “God Bless America”, and Saviana Stanescu’s “Waxing West”. The concluding chapter briefly discusses the concept of imagined exile in relation to other investigations of post-colonial and post-communist dramas and reviews some of the latest perspectives of national identity, reassessing this study from a diachronic perspective.

Les années cinquante ont vu l'apparition d'un «théâtre d'avant-garde» en France, sous la plume d'auteurs tels que Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco, Jean Genet et Arthur Adamov. Au Québec, le même phénomène s'est produit, mais l'étiquette officielle de «théâtre de l'absurde québécois» n'a pas encore été prêtée à un corpus défini de pièces de théâtre. Cette étude, dans un premier temps, effectue un repérage des caractéristiques intrinsèques aux oeuvres du théâtre de l'absurde français, plus précisément celles des quatre auteurs mentionnes ci-dessus, a l'aide d'ouvrages théoriques reconnus (notamment The Theatre of the Absurd de Martin Esslin, Histoire du «nouveau théâtre» de Geneviève Serreau, Le Théâtre du nouveau langage de Gilbert Tarrab et Le théâtre de dérision d'Emmanuel Jacquart). Les chapitres subséquents sont consacrés a 1'analyse des oeuvres dramatiques québécoises Les Insolites de Jacques Languirand et La répétition de Dominic Champagne, afin de vérifier l'occurence des mêmes traits, particuliers au théâtre de dérision, et de montrer l'existence réelle de ce type de théâtre au Québec.

This study explores performance elements in Quebec folk culture events in the context of evaluating the resources needed to construct studies in québécois theatre history for Anglophone students. Using the metaphor of history as a map that charts the landscape of the past and needs many layers of information to do so effectively, resources dealing with Quebec theatre history in English and in French are surveyed and underdeveloped areas are marked for future research. To deal with the unusual circumstance of a very low incidence of theatre practice in Quebec from 1606 until late in the 1800's, juxtaposed against the vibrant and international developments in the last 50 years, three instances of Quebec folk culture are investigated for their performance elements. That research is structured in accordance with the guidelines and definitions in Living Folklore (Sims & Stevens, 2005). Performance elements revealed through the study include full body synchronized movements, mask and costume, improvisation, role-playing, choral work and monologues. The relationship of these events to present-day québécois theatre is analyzed.

After the change of their country’s political and international statuses, post-colonial and respectively post-communist individuals and collectives develop feelings of alienation and estrangement that do not involve physical dislocation. Eventually, they start imagining their national community as a collective of individuals who share this state. Paraphrasing Benedict Anderson’s definition of the nation as an “imagined community,” this study identifies this process as “imagined exile,” an act that temporarily compensates for the absence of a metanarrative of the nation during the post-colonial and post-communist transitions. This dissertation analyzes and compares ten English Canadian and Romanian plays, written between 1976 and 2004, and argues that they function as expressions and agents of post-colonial and respectively post-communist imagined exile, helping their readers and audiences overcome the identity crisis and regain the feeling of belonging to a national community. Chapter 1 explores the development of major theoretical concepts, such as nation, national identity, national identity crisis, post-colonialism, and post-communism. Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 analyze dramatic rewritings of historical events, in “1837: The Farmers’ Revolt” by the theatre Passe Muraille with Rick Salutin as dramaturge, and “A Cold” by Marin Sorescu, and of past political leaders, in “Sir John, Eh!” by Jim Garrard and “A Day from the Life of Nicolae Ceausescu” by Denis Dinulescu. Chapter 4 examines the expression of the individual and collective identity crises in “Sled” by Judith Thompson and “The Future Is Rubbish” by Vlad Zografi. Chapter 5 explores the treatment of physical and cultural borders and borderlands in Kelly Rebar’s “Bordertown Café”, Guillermo Verdecchia’s “Fronteras Americanas”, Petre Barbu’s “God Bless America”, and Saviana Stanescu’s “Waxing West”. The concluding chapter briefly discusses the concept of imagined exile in relation to other investigations of post-colonial and post-communist dramas and reviews some of the latest perspectives of national identity, reassessing this study from a diachronic perspective.