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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.

This thesis proposes to apply Queer theory as the framework for examining Michel Marc Bouchard's play Les Feluettes. This study is built around two methodological axes, one being the analysis of dialogue; the second, the application of Queer theory. Dialogue and staging are scrutinized in an effort to discover the Queer. The links between sex, power, language and knowledge will be specifically studied. The intention is to show how their relationship, based on opposition, can be modified by a subversive discourse. By way of introduction, a brief discussion of Queer theory will be presented to familiarize the reader with its origins, sources of inspiration and strategies of deconstruction. The first chapter will focus on the homosexual's interior monologue. Chapter two will focus on the homosexual's dialogue with other homosexuals. The third, and final chapter, will round out the analysis by studying the dialogue between the homosexual and heterosexuals. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Playwright, Sarah Kane emerged as a new voice in British writing in the early 1990s. Her work, recognized most notably for its shocking content, was the source of media hype, and rendered her work, with that of her peers, as In-Yer-Face Theatre. This dissertation analyses the use of shock in Kane‟s work, with particular reference to her first and last plays: Blasted and 4.48 Psychosis. I discuss the shock elements employed by Kane in these texts and consider the reasons behind their use, particularly Kane‟s break with realism and subversion of form. My research draws upon social constructionist thought as a strand of the larger discourses of postmodernism, in particular those which inform the existence of war, violence and trauma. Focusing too, on the work of theatre practitioners such as Antonin Artaud, whose „Theatre of Cruelty‟ is reminiscent of Kane‟s own theatre. I discuss the origin of In-Yer-Face Theatre as well as its forerunners by examining Post-War British Theatre from the 1940‟s, especially those plays that have resonated on a provocative level. My research also explores the social and political factors influencing theatre over the decades and in relation to Kane, particularly the Thatcher government of the 1980s. I argue that the social and political climate of the 1980s and 1990s played a direct role in the formation of Kane‟s theatre and examine Kane‟s work and its reception in relation to other playwrights of the time. I have deliberately chosen to locate my research in terms of British theatre. / Thesis (M.A. (Drama and Performance Studies)) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2008.

The aim of this thesis is to give an account of the position taken by certain women dramatists in the context of both box-office success and theatre criticism in Brazil in the latter half of the twentieth century in order to provide a panoramic view of the way the Brazilian theater canon reacts to the work of women authors, by either incorporating it or not, according to political and social circumstances. It is hoped then that a more comprehensive vision of these dramatists will result than that of the traditional academic criticism which either elevates by acceptance or dismisses by ignoring or playing down their work. The production of three dramatists will be analysed here, namely, those plays by Leilah Assuncao, Maria Adelaide Amaral and Isis Baiao which fall into the period 1969--1999, and which exemplify two key tendencies in the Brazilian theatre of the last thirty years. These tendencies are: first, the attempt to widen the traditional horizon of politicized theatre by adding to its socio-political concerns a focus on the individual and his/her particular agenda, and, secondly, the break with any specifically aesthetic or conceptual format on stage in a blurring of the legacies of tradition and the vanguard, in which a "hybridism" of form and language is particularly noticeable in the privileging of a kind of writing that is not bound by formal limits. Such an analysis has made it possible to highlight how determined types of reaction may be altered along the time when different interpretive parameters are used by the critical community and by the public. While a certain sympathy is shown here for the feminist reading of the ideological bases of the literary canon, this is done not only to corroborate the masculine bent of such a canon to the exclusion of the Other, but also to prove that the criteria regulating excellence are products of a specific ideology which changes according to its sociohistorical context. The ultimate goal here is, thus, to make

With the publication of her novel, My Brilliant Career, in 1901, Miles Franklin became the darling of the Sydney literati. Great things were expected of the little girl from the bush. But five years later, nothing had eventuated; her talent, Miles thought, was barely recognised in Australia. In the hope of gaining greater writing opportunities, she shipped to Chicago where she became involved in social reform. It was hard work and ill paid, and though she bewailed the fact that it sapped her writing energy, she nonetheless felt a commitment to the cause such that she remained for almost a decade. In her spare time, though, she continued to write -- and not just prose. More and more she wrote for the theatre, attempting to push into a world of which she had always dreamed. Blessed with a beautiful singing voice, she had long desired to be on the stage. This was impossible, though; her voice, she believed, had been ruined by bad training in her youth. To write for the stage, then, though a poor substitute, was at least in the field of her original ideal. Miles' plays, though, are not remembered today, and are little thought of in scholarship, are considered, in fact, to have failed. This gives the false impression that they were always little thought of. Her correspondence, however, reveals that at least five of the plays were produced, indicating a certain level of success. Miles Franklin's theatrical work, then, is surely worthy of further examination. This thesis looks at five of the plays in the light of Miles' life and in the light of the society in which she found herself. In turn, it uses the plays to reveal something of the nature of the playwright herself and to show that Miles Franklin's theatrical writing did not fail as once thought. In addition, it provides a complete bibliography of the plays (inclusive of locations), lists the duplications as they appear under alternate titles and provides synopses of a large number. This will make up for a gap in Miles Franklin scholarship and will facilitate other scholars in accessing the plays. This thesis, then, is an introduction to a new facet of Miles Franklin scholarship.

Orientador(a): Wagner Francisco Araujo Cintra / Banca: Agnaldo Valente Germano da Silva / Banca: Dalmir Rogério Pereira / Banca: Mario Ferreira Piragibe / Banca: Vinicius Torres Machado / Resumo: A presente pesquisa se estrutura por dois eixos principais. O primeiro se orienta pela análise dos processos de transformações das dramaturgias da Companhia Philippe Genty, especialmente a partir da década de 1980. Esse momento foi marcado por mudanças nos processos criativos do grupo, desencadeadas com a inserção do humano na cena como parceiro de jogo do inanimado; com a investigação do corpo, do movimento e de suportes expressivos como o papel e o plástico; com a ressignificação artística de ideias psicanalíticas, possibilitando à Genty desenvolver dramaturgias fincadas na memória, no sonho e nas suas experiências de vida; além do desenvolvimento de novas técnicas cênicas e de novas relações de Philippe Genty e Mary Underwood com as suas criações. O segundo eixo se norteia pelas mudanças acarretadas, a partir de então, na poética da Companhia, que passou a se orientar, cada vez mais, pelos jogos de ilusões capazes de tornar visivelmente possíveis situações insólitas, e pelas dicotomias que nascem do encontro entre o humano e o inumano. O teatro gentyniano desenvolveu-se na direção de um teatro de constantes metamorfoses visuais, que desafia as convenções espaciais, gravitacionais e volumétricas e que amiudadamente coloca o espectador diante de encadeamentos de imagens incomuns e impossíveis / Resume: La présente recherche est structurée en deux axes principaux. Le premier s'oriente sur l'analyse des processus de transformations des dramaturgies de la Compagnie Philippe Genty, particulièrement à partir de la décennie de 1980. Ce moment a été marqué par des changements dans les processus créatifs du groupe, déclenchés par l'insertion de l'humain dans la scène en tant que partenaire de jeu de l'inanimé; avec l'étude du corps, du mouvement et des supports expressifs tels que le papier et le plastique; avec la re-signification artistique des idées psychanalytiques, permettant à Genty de développer des dramaturgies ancrées sur la mémoire, sur le rêve et dans leurs expériences de vie; ainsi que le développement de nouvelles techniques scéniques et de nouvelles relations entre Philippe Genty et Mary Underwood et leurs créations. Le deuxième axe est guidé par les changements apportés, de partir de là, à la poétique de la Compagnie, qui s'est de plus en plus orientée vers les jeux d'illusions capables de rendre visible ment possibles des situations inhabituelles, et par les dichotomies qui naissent de la rencontre entre l'humain et l'inhumain. Le théâtre gentynien a muté vers un théâtre de métamorphoses visuelles constantes, qui défie les conventions spatiales, gravitati onnelles et volumétriques et qui place largement le spectateur devant des fils d'images inhabituelles et impossibles / Doutor

In 1961 Martin Esslin created the term 'Theatre of the Absurd' as a working hypothesis, a device with which to make fundamental traits present in the plays of a number of France-based dramatists accessible to discussion by tracing the features they had in common. Despite the popularity of Esslin's study, there has been no comparable discussion of England-based absurdism. An explanation for this lack of critical attention may be found in the dogged insistence amongst scholars that there are only two absurd playwrights in the English theatre before 1967. My first aim in this thesis is to redress the imbalance in critical literature, to demonstrate that there existed in England, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, an indigenous expression of absurdism far broader and significantly more complex than that which has been recognised by theatrical reviewers during the past thirty years. Having identified an indigenous absurdism, I go on to challenge the generalisations and over-simplifications surrounding the English 'absurd', which are a product of its critical marginalisation and neglect. I discuss the complexities of the evolution of the English 'absurd', and the ramifications of its development, paying due regard to the theatrical, historical and social factors which shaped its early growth. The playwrights who represent the genre are examined in tum, and attention is devoted to the details of the development of an absurd dynamic within their works. The study falls into three parts. Part I attempts to explain why the English 'absurd' had such a limited impact within its own country up until the late 1960s. It is revealed that many of the writers of the English 'absurd' were incapable of divorcing their plays from the social-orientated drama which dominated English theatre in the late 1950s. The cross-fertilization of an overtly social theatre and absurdism resulted in an expression of the genre which was modified and, to an extent, compromised by its adherence to external, political realities. The focus shifts, in the second part, to accommodate those neglected writers of the English 'absurd' who managed to avoid such compromises and who created a more abstract theatre, the aesthetic and epistemological intentions of which resemble those of the French absurd. Part III explains why, despite the relative obscurity of the English 'absurd', a fragmented absurdism managed to be absorbed into the permanent vocabulary of dramatic expression in England in the 1960s. This final section examines the works of a number of non-absurd writers who took on isolated absurd devices as part of an experiment with the parameters of drama, thereby bringing those techniques into mainstream theatre.