Mull Theatre is a professional touring theatre company based on a small island off the west coast of Scotland. In 2008 the company relocated from a small converted cow byre which seated 42 people to a new purpose-built venue –Druimfin - on a different part of the island. The move was made possible through a grant from the Scottish Arts Council in 2006, which was awarded on the expectation that the new building would be a ‘production centre’ as opposed to a theatre. That is to say the emphasis in the design of the new space was to be placed on the production rather than the reception of the theatrical event. This stands in contrast to the expectation of many theatre attendees that the new space would continue as it had been – as a place to go and see a theatre production - but that it would do so out of a much larger, more comfortable and better equipped venue. Building Theatres/Theatre Buildings stems from a three year Collaborative Doctoral Award between Mull Theatre and the University of Glasgow, which was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). Using the partnership that emerged from this award, the thesis explores what was potentially lost and gained in the move in order to draw conclusions about the wider relationship between spaces of performance and the creation of theatrical meaning in relation to small and medium scale touring theatre. It also uses the company’s dual identity as a touring company with its own permanent building to extend the discussion and to examine the wide range of venues which currently form the rural touring circuit in Scotland. By bringing together primary fieldwork from a pivotal moment in the company’s identity alongside current dialogues regarding theatre space and touring theatre, this research provides new knowledge about this often overlooked theatre company, its buildings and its role within contemporary Scottish theatre and small scale rural touring.

The aim of this research is to explore the space between drama education and dramatherapy as practised in the UK and find a way of describing it. I begin by looking at five areas relevant to both professions: theatre and anthropology, theatre and therapy, the history of dramatherapy, drama education and story followed by an explanation of my methodology. Through two case studies I use the dramatic art form of drama to explore the spaces between these two professions in order to open up a debate around the shared spaces which exist between them. I use the same dramatic activities, exercises and materials as a starting point in two different school environments. In school ‘A’ I practised as a drama teacher; in School ‘B’ I practised as a dramatherapist. I then explore the spaces in which drama and dramatherapy exist and consider the space that exists between them through four conceptual lenses: context, discourse, art form and liminal space. This study shows that the space between the two professions is shifting and nebulous and that it is not an either/or scenario. It will also highlight the historical connections between the two professions and acknowledge that a greater dialogue is required in order for each profession to benefit from the other.

Hyogen (expression) education, which I received at elementary school and later university, has been one of major drama activities in the Japanese field of drama in schools. It originates in the Taisho Liberal Education Movement (the first progressive education movement in Japan) in the 1920s and 1930s and has been strengthened by Creative Drama in the U.S.A. and Drama-in-Education in England. Similarly to Winifred Ward (1930), Peter Slade (1954) and Brian Way (1967), specialists of hyogen education, such as Akira Okada (1985), believe that drama contributes to the development of a whole person, self-expression and individuality. However, I will argue that a concept of whole person has been re-conceptualised as a result of the emergence of new generations of drama teachers, and consequently hyogen education has become a limited dramatic method and has failed to achieve the development of a whole person. Therefore, in my PhD thesis, I reconsider hyogen education, or drama for a whole person, through the following three questions: 1. What different positions of drama are there in the Japanese field of drama in schools? (And how have they been genetically and historically constructed?) 2. How, and for what purposes do Japanese drama teachers use drama in their classrooms today? 3. How has the philosophy of education developed in the field of education? Each of the questions uses hyogen education as a starting point, while exploring the field from a different angle. Hopefully, this will provide Japanese drama teachers with three different, theoretical frameworks to look at the field objectively and understand issues and problems within it. This study adopts bricolage (Kincheloe & Berry, 2004) and cross-cultural comparison (Ember & Ember, 1998) as main research methods, and explores each of the three questions with additional research methods. Above all, with Pierre Bourdieu's (1993) theory of field, the study emphases that there is the field called 'drama in schools' and it is influenced by wider fields (the field of theatre and the field of education), especially the field of power (politics).

My thesis explores how a translated author on the periphery of the host culture’s translated repertoire can be at once subversive and innovative on the colonial scene, using as an example the case of Sean O’Casey in colonial Korea. It explores the importation of Irish drama in modern Korean theatre during the colonial period and examines the appropriations of O’Casey’s plays by a central Korean playwright, Yu Chi-jin, in creating his own plays. Under Japanese colonial rule in the early twentieth century, intellectuals perceived the supreme task for the Korean people to be the recovery of national sovereignty and independence. The modern Korean theatre movement which rose among Korean intellectuals and dramatists during the colonial period was to play a major part in this task. The ultimate goal of this movement was to establish a modern national theatre promoting Korean culture and educating the people, thereby recovering national independence. As their modernised dramatic polysystem was still "young", Korean intellectuals and dramatists who were involved in the theatre movement had to borrow dramatic models from other countries. One of the models they chose was Irish playwrights, especially those who were involved in the Irish dramatic movement. They published or staged the works of W.B. Yeats, Lord Dunsany [Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett], Augusta Gregory, J.M. Synge, St. J. Ervine, T.C. Murray and Sean O'Casey. Although O'Casey was considered an important dramatist in the Irish dramatic movement, he was a playwright on the periphery in the list of translated Irish dramatists in Korea due to the colonisers’ censorship. However, he remained as a subversive and innovative playwright on the colonial scene by virtue of being appropriated by Yu Chi-jin who used O’Casey’s plays as models when creating his own works. In discussing the subject matter of my thesis, I use Even Zohar’s polysystems theory as a starting point in looking at ideological issues surrounding translation and extend the discussion to offer a postcolonial perspective. While most translation in a colonial context was considered as "an expression of the cultural power of the colonisers," my thesis shifts the focus to translation as an expression of the cultural power of the colonised. I explore how the colonised uses another colonised culture to subvert the colonisers’ power.

This study examines the ways in which ensemble theatre making can contribute to citizenship education. A range of political theories construct the framework for democratic politics and active citizenship which, in turn, become the pedagogical basis for the ensemble model of theatre learning. Outstanding political theories, such as Castoriadis’ theory of the imaginary institution of society and Habermas’ model for communicative action, structure a theoretical basis which constitutes an ideal definition for democratic politics and active citizenship. This framework becomes the pedagogic ground of ensemble theatre that constitutes a collective process of theatre making and, therefore, aims to function as a democratic learning experience in the art of theatre. In this context, a research praxis that combines methodological elements from action research and case study is conducted in two high-schools of Athens and examines students’ perceptions of politics, while at the same time explores their responses to an artistic, learning experience that interacts with their own initiatives, group decisions, and socio-artistic actions. Following this methodological route that integrates both an interventionist and an interpretive interest, the fieldwork is developed as a dialogic action between the ideal conception of ensemble theatre making and the real conditions that are encountered in the educational contexts. In this context, the analysis and the interpretation of the data provides information about the ways in young people perceive arts and politics, the ways in which they experience and develop collectiveness and active participation as well as the ways in which these perceptions determine their citizenship skills. Finally, the impact of ensemble theatre process is examined in relation to the above mentioned perceptions and conditions of political socialisation.

Amongst the rich variety of metaphors used to describe the process of transferring texts from one language into another, the parallels between translating and the acting process enjoy a prominent place. This thesis examines the arguments of both translation scholars and practitioners who highlight a need for translators to be able to function as actors do, particularly when translating for the stage, or to have at least an understanding of how actors work. By comparing and contrasting the creative process involved in translation, particularly drama translation, with that fostered by a particular method of drama training, namely that developed by Konstantin Stanislavsky, it is the purpose of this thesis not only to explore whether and how an awareness of the ways actors work could be of benefit to the translator, but also to examine the implications of thinking of the Translator as Actor. This thesis will initially offer an overview and contextualisation of the Stanislavskian approach to acting (Chapter I) and of existing approaches to drama translation (Chapter II). It will seek to examine the core aspects of the Stanislavskian approach to preparing for a performance (Chapters III-VI), and will explore areas of similarity and difference between this and the work of translation. In the final chapter (Conclusions), an attempt will be made to evaluate the extent to which the work of drama translators may be informed by the practices of Stanislavskian actors, as well as the validity of thinking of the Translator as Actor.

The purpose of this thesis is to give a description of the main features of the carnival in Rome over a period of time from the late seventeenth century to the late nineteenth century, the last two hundred years of its effective existence. To appreciate the form of the festival over this period, which in its essential characteristics remained basically unchanged, something must be said about the earlier centuries, where there were notable differences and emphases. The final form of the carnival was established in the second half of the seventeenth century. Given the time-scale and the number of factors involved, a thematic rather than a chronological sequence has been followed in order to establish in which ways the earlier carnival differed from the later. Chapter One is devoted to the earlier years. There is a serious lack of documentation for the Middle Ages and Renaissance periods, especially in relation to the enjoyment of the ordinary people. Most refernces to the occasion tend to concentrate on the more aristocratic manifestations, or on the official and more organized events. In the Middle Ages and for much of the sixteenth century the carnival held a position of importance in the civic calendar of Rome, in the form of the Games of Agone and Testaccio. They were organized by the S.P.Q.R., the city magistrates and the `Rioni'. With the progressive establishment of Papal power from the mid fifteenth century, and the choice of the via Lata for the main events, the importance of the people's games declined (the games of Testaccio dying out some time in the early seventeenth century) and this reflected the gradual decline of the people's power. With the increasing power of the Papacy and the new Papal aristocracy in the seventeenth century, a process of control, reform and refinement of the carnival took place - political control, moral reform under the impetus of the Counter-Reformation, the regulating of the carnival to remove the violence and disorders of earlier years, a refining of the features of the carnival which removed some of the crudeness and vulgarity. These moves concerned particularly the carnival of the people, of which only glimpses are recorded; the years after the mid sixteenth century are those in which the Church and the cultural elite distanced themselves from the popular culture which had been shared by all in the Renaissance period - and the carnival was the prime example of this culture. Annual edicts dictated the rules to be observed in the conduct of carnival; initially extremely severe, they were softened somewhat in the course of the seventeenth century, particularly in relation to the participation of women in the celebrations. This chapter ends with a look at the innovations of Paul II, who gave the carnival its essential form and duration in 1466, by his move to the Corso (via Lata), his introduction of the classical `Trionfo', which was in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries a celebration of the city and the Pope, and in the seventeenth century of the aristocracy. Some reference will be made to the most popular masks seen in the seventeenth century carnival. The chapter ends with a look at the races, increased in number and in variety by Paul II. For most of this period the horse-race was only one of a number of races; only in the second half of the seventeenth century did it become the sole kind. Chapter Two covers the period up to 1789; a period of relative stability, free from political tension and troubles. The form of the carnival was now virtually complete - only the `Moccoli' ceremony of the last evening had still to be added. This chapter gives a description of the various features of the carnival which remains generally valid for later periods, though more details and more emphasis will be noted on certain points in later chapters. The focus was now firmly on the Corso, by this time the venue for all the main events of the carnival - the public events. The games of Agone and Testaccio were over, and the other locations which had been occasionally used no longer figured in the celebrations. The aristocratic domination of the occasion had declined considerably; the focus was on the people and their pleasure, the aristocracy preferring, as Goethe indicated, to mix with the crowd on the street. Foreigners were an increasing presence, but had not yet begun to take such an enthusiastic part in the proceedings as they did later. A description of individual features will be given, the masks, some indication of the scenes played out on the Corso, the confetti battles (with a look at the projectiles used in earlier periods), the `moccoli' evening, the races ( the one area where the aristocracy maintained control for the greater part of the century). Chapter Three covers the period between 1789 and 1815 - a period of upheaval, with the arrival of revolution in the city. The political dimension was brought into the carnival, the element of conflict absent for so many years. With war in Europe the numbers of foreigners visiting the city diminished considerably; there is much less information available from foreign observers for this period. The political tension, already apparent even before the arrival of the French in 1798, came to the surface at various moments, most notably in the remarkable example of passive resistance to the French command which took place in the carnival of 1809. The French, in 1798-99, made an unsuccessful attempt to reform and renew the carnival, to turn it into a `f^ete réolutionnaire' (`la Festa Saturnale'); but very soon things were back to normal - or almost, since the `moccoli' ceremony banned in 1790, was not resumed till 1811. The traditional masks, some of which had been outlawed, were back in those closing years of the period. There was a further increase in the freedom allowed to women, and the mask of the peasant girl, or `Ciociara' was becoming the most popular female costume. Chapter Four continues the story up to 1848. With the end of hostilities and the Restoration of Papal government foreigners flocked back to Rome, and began to play a more active role, in the masked ball, private or public, but also on the Corso - particularly in the confetti battles, where their participation was so violent that they often offended the Romans. The freedom of the young women was even more noticeable in these years. The quality of the horses presented for the races had deteriorated. The familiar masks were very much in evidence, but there was an increase of more primitive and grotesque ones - animals, giants, physical deformities. There is more evidence of little scenes played out on, and off, the Corso, and praise of the skill of the Romans in comic improvisation. There were, however, numerous foreign observers who denied the ability of the Romans to `support' character, and who preferred the masked ball, their concept of masking - based on historical, artistic, literary models. Such masks began to appear on the Corso, too. This chapter ends with a look at the political situation after 1830. Even before this year some of the more sensitive foreign observers had sensed an unease and a tension under the light-heartedness of the affair, indications that perhaps some of the inhabitants of Rome had not welcomed the Pope back so whole-heartedly. The carnival of 1831, in the middle of the rebellion in the Papal States, brought this to the surface

This thesis provides new and alternative readings of women’s opportunities for agency in sixteenth and early seventeenth century society, and of the ways in which this was represented in plays and masques of the time. The relationship between history and theatre is a two-way process. In light of this, the depiction of proactive female characters in public plays is examined alongside the appearance of proactive women in society and on stage in Jacobean court masques, through the different but complementary lenses of marriage and female alliances. After the Introduction (Chapter One), Part One (Chapters Two and Three) looks at female agency in marriage and the ways in which this was depicted in drama, from the perspective of two neglected social practices, spousals and wife sales. The spousal law offered women as well as men an opportunity to regulate their marriage without recourse to the church or parents and is a common, but under-studied, plot in Renaissance drama. Three of the most interesting and complex uses appear in George Chapman’s The Gentlemen Usher (1602-4), John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi (1612-14) and Thomas Middleton’s The Widow (c. 1616). The spousal plot provides an alternative angle for the playwrights to explore and endorse female characters’ decision to rebel against male family members and marry men of their choice. Part Two (Chapters Four, Five and Six) analyses the opportunities for female agency at the Jacobean court from the perspective of female homosocial bonding, looking at Anna of Denmark (Queen consort of James I), her court women, and the masques in which they danced. Anna’s women were, like the Queen, trying to control their lives. Chapter Four shows that the Queen’s retinue provided a separate space for these women to gather, interact and create alliances and further, that this mutual support facilitated their agency at the Jacobean court, agency which often involved opposing the king.

The aim of this thesis is to bring a new critical perspective to the English domestic plays of George Bernard Shaw by analysing them in the light of Shaw's treatment of parent-child relationships. A domestic play is one in which the plot or problem centres around a family and in which the setting is that family's permanent or temporary home. The period 1890 and 1914 has been chosen for three reasons: first, it was during this time that Shaw began and succeeded in his career as a dramatist; secondly, this period saw the growth of the `new drama' movement, which considered a discussion of sociological issues a prerequisite for responsible dramatic literature, and thirdly, changes within the theatre itself, most noticeably Granville Barker's seasons at the Court Theatre (1904-1907) gave Shaw the opportunity to have his work intelligently and artistically presented to a growing audience of literary discrimination and social awareness. Heartbreak House is included in this analysis because although not finished until 1917 it was begun in 1913. The thesis begins with an examination of the influences on Shaw which made the treatment of the parent-child relationship a central theme of his earliest plays. These are (a) Biographical (b) Sociological (c) Theatrical - (i) Nineteenth century Popular Theatre including Melodrama (ii) Ibsenism Section Two describes Shaw's treatment of parents and children in his novels. The aim of this section is to demonstrate that the family relationships that assume major significance in the plays are prefigured in the novels not simply thematically but formally. In Section Three the English domestic plays are placed in four categories under the schematic headings which sometimes overlap: (a) Single Parents, Widowers' Houses, The Philanderer, Man and Superman, Pygmalion, Heartbreak House (b) The Return of the Absent Parent, Mrs Warren's Profession, You Never Can Tell, Major Barbara (c) Substitute Parents, You Never Can Tell, Candida, Man and Superman, Pygmalion, Heartbreak House (d) Happy Families, Getting Married, Misalliance, Fanny's First Play, The conclusion is that Shaw, in expressing his opinions on the relationships of children and their parents in the English domestic plays as well as in his other writings, was challenging the conventions of conventional middle-class society while at the same time expressing, perhaps compulsively, his personal quest for his own `true' parents.

Drama as education is a relatively young concern, which has been primarily occupied with developing a strong tradition of practice. As a result it has suffered from a dearth of theoretical and critical engagement. This situation has led to the existence of a range of unquestioned beliefs and practices that underpin much of the governance, traditions, knowledge and operation of drama in educational settings. The thesis examines the existence and location of the community of drama as education, reviews the discourse of the community, and seeks to understand previous attempts at demythologising. This thesis proposes a critical understanding of the idea of myth in order that it can be used in a positive and beneficial manner. Utilising a post-modern critical research methodology, it constructs a bricolage of theoretical perspectives that collectively are used to locate, identify and interrogate areas of myth. A new typography of myth reveals four dominant areas of operation, and examines the manner in which myths impact upon the educational and cultural institutions in which they occur. The forces that conceive of, operate and perpetuate myth are understood to be language, power and ideology. These elements operate in conjunction with each other, with human agency at the helm. The thesis is in nine chapters. Chapter 1 sets the scene and introduces the range of the research. It is followed by Chapter 2 which seeks to put in place a range of theoretical perspectives upon which the methodology is constructed. Chapter 3 provides further theoretical insight into the location of the research, and Chapter 4 constructs a critical mythic bricolage, defines its usage, and proposes a contemporary typology of myth. Chapter 5 identifies the ‘Point of Entry Text’ – the primary school drama curriculum in the Republic of Ireland, and deals with the category of governing myths. Chapter 6 is concerned with traditional myths, Chapter 7 examines epistemological myths, and Chapter 8 teases out operational myths. Finally, Chapter 9 looks to the future of myth after demythologising, and seeks to begin engaging with the inevitable process of remythologising.