The subject of theatre is a diverse and flexible subject that requires th$e freedom of expression. This can be engendered in the spatial configuration of its usable spaces. The reinvention of the Drama department inquires into becoming a cultural node within the University by facilitating functional flexible spaces for the rehearsal and performance of theatrical experiences affecting both teh student and the public. / Dissertation (MInt(Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Architecture / unrestricted

The notion of a nascent Arabic public sphere vis-à-vis the region s transnational news networks has been at the centre of much debate. However, this debate is met with little empirical grounding as well as a conceptual limitation to discussing political publics. This thesis seeks to contribute to and inform current debates by means of an empirical exploration of Arabic public spheres across the mediated-political realm of news media as well as the performative-cultural sphere of interactive theatre. The Jordanian parliamentary elections of November 2007 offer a framework for the research which is made up of two case studies. The first case study examines the portrayal and representation of Jordanian citizens in the news coverage of the parliamentary elections. Four transnational broadcasters (al-Jazeera, al-Arabiya, al-Hurra and JTV) were monitored during the lead up to and post the elections (over a month s duration) and different modes of participation were identified in the coverage. The second case study explores the ways in which Jordanian citizens participated in interactive theatre performances about the elections across Jordan. The performances were specifically developed to ellicit responses from audiences in the form of discussion as well as role playing (in which the audiences assume the roles of citizens in a town hall meeting). Results from the two case studies revealed significant differences in the ways in which citizens participated, or were portrayed as participating, across the political and cultural spheres. The transnational media portrayed citizens largely as observers of the political process and, less frequently, as commentators on issues of public concern. The mediated public sphere was also found to be gendered and afforded Jordanian women less presence and access to participate. On the other hand, the cultural public sphere afforded citizens spaces to discuss issues of public concern as well as contest dominant and exclusionary narratives within their societies. Jordanian women were also found to negotiate change through the reinterpretation of the symbolic. These findings demonstrate that confining our understanding of Arabic public spheres to the political-mediated marginalises the diverse ways in which citizens do participate, particularly so in the case of women.

A autora conceitua e sistematiza a metodologia brasileira de sociopsicodrama Teatro de Reprise, criada em 1993 pelo Grupo Reprise, do qual era integrante. Diferencia a prática de seu método inspirador, o Playback Theatre (1975) americano, criado por Jonathan Fox, principalmente pelo acento na grupalidade, apresentando-a como facilitadora/mediadora de interação e aprendizagem para público adulto. Para tanto, define seus fundamentos baseado na abordagem sociopsicodramática de Jacob L. Moreno (1889-1974), na qual há um \"homem moreniano\" aludido, que possui um alto grau de espontaneidade, que cria sempre e que se orienta para a busca de uma utopia de saúde mental e social, que escape da doença social da cristalização e das conservas culturais. O trabalho descreve as inovações práticas e teóricas brasileiras do sociopsicodrama, especialmente quanto às noções de coconsciente, coinconsciente e de campo télico, e mostra as especificidades da modalidade Teatro de Reprise como uma intersecção entre o individual e o coletivo pela ressonância estética de seus ego-atores e ego-músicos. A partir dessa fundamentação, a autora constrói a conceituação e as diversas etapas do Teatro de Reprise, e exemplifica o impacto da transformação/aprendizagem grupal, resultante da utilização do método em organizações, políticas públicas, instituições etc. Além disso, uma intervenção demonstrativa com o uso do Teatro de Reprise e com um grande grupo, no espaço de um centro cultural em São Paulo, é relatada e processada pela leitura do fenômeno, no viés da sociodinâmica grupal. / The author defines and systematizes the Brazilian methodology of socio-psychodrama: Reprise Theatre, created in 1993 by the Reprise Group, of which she was a member. She distinguishes the practice from its motivational method, the American Playback Theatre (1975), created by Jonathan Fox, mainly due to the emphasis on groupality, presenting it as facilitator/mediator of interaction and learning for adult audiences. In order to do so, she defines its foundations based on the sociopsychodramatic approach of Jacob L. Moreno (1889-1974), in which there is a \"Morenian man\" alluded to, who has a high degree of spontaneity, who always creates and who is oriented towards the search for a utopia of mental and social health, who gets away from the social disease of crystallization and from the cultural preserves. This paper describes the Brazilian practical and theoretical innovations on sociopsychodrama, especially regarding the notions of co-conscious and co-unconscious states and of telic field. It shows the particularities of the modality Reprise Theatre as an intersection between the individual and the collective, by the aesthetic resonance of its ego-actors and ego-musicians. From this grounding, the author builds up the concepts and the various stages of the Reprise Theatre and exemplifies the impact of the group transformation/learning, resulting from the use of the method in organizations, public policies, institutions, etc. In addition, a demonstrative intervention with the use of the Reprise Theatre and with a large group in the space of a cultural center in São Paulo is reported and processed by reading the phenomenon, in bias of the group sociodynamics.

A autora conceitua e sistematiza a metodologia brasileira de sociopsicodrama Teatro de Reprise, criada em 1993 pelo Grupo Reprise, do qual era integrante. Diferencia a prática de seu método inspirador, o Playback Theatre (1975) americano, criado por Jonathan Fox, principalmente pelo acento na grupalidade, apresentando-a como facilitadora/mediadora de interação e aprendizagem para público adulto. Para tanto, define seus fundamentos baseado na abordagem sociopsicodramática de Jacob L. Moreno (1889-1974), na qual há um \"homem moreniano\" aludido, que possui um alto grau de espontaneidade, que cria sempre e que se orienta para a busca de uma utopia de saúde mental e social, que escape da doença social da cristalização e das conservas culturais. O trabalho descreve as inovações práticas e teóricas brasileiras do sociopsicodrama, especialmente quanto às noções de coconsciente, coinconsciente e de campo télico, e mostra as especificidades da modalidade Teatro de Reprise como uma intersecção entre o individual e o coletivo pela ressonância estética de seus ego-atores e ego-músicos. A partir dessa fundamentação, a autora constrói a conceituação e as diversas etapas do Teatro de Reprise, e exemplifica o impacto da transformação/aprendizagem grupal, resultante da utilização do método em organizações, políticas públicas, instituições etc. Além disso, uma intervenção demonstrativa com o uso do Teatro de Reprise e com um grande grupo, no espaço de um centro cultural em São Paulo, é relatada e processada pela leitura do fenômeno, no viés da sociodinâmica grupal. / The author defines and systematizes the Brazilian methodology of socio-psychodrama: Reprise Theatre, created in 1993 by the Reprise Group, of which she was a member. She distinguishes the practice from its motivational method, the American Playback Theatre (1975), created by Jonathan Fox, mainly due to the emphasis on groupality, presenting it as facilitator/mediator of interaction and learning for adult audiences. In order to do so, she defines its foundations based on the sociopsychodramatic approach of Jacob L. Moreno (1889-1974), in which there is a \"Morenian man\" alluded to, who has a high degree of spontaneity, who always creates and who is oriented towards the search for a utopia of mental and social health, who gets away from the social disease of crystallization and from the cultural preserves. This paper describes the Brazilian practical and theoretical innovations on sociopsychodrama, especially regarding the notions of co-conscious and co-unconscious states and of telic field. It shows the particularities of the modality Reprise Theatre as an intersection between the individual and the collective, by the aesthetic resonance of its ego-actors and ego-musicians. From this grounding, the author builds up the concepts and the various stages of the Reprise Theatre and exemplifies the impact of the group transformation/learning, resulting from the use of the method in organizations, public policies, institutions, etc. In addition, a demonstrative intervention with the use of the Reprise Theatre and with a large group in the space of a cultural center in São Paulo is reported and processed by reading the phenomenon, in bias of the group sociodynamics.

For my thesis project for the Masters of Fine Art in Film and Digital Media, I designed and produced Evelyn Offscreen, an alternate reality game (ARG) that was facilitated by interactive performance. The goal was to create an interactive experience that allowed several players to collaboratively create story across numerous media within the field of alternate reality gaming. The approach used in Evelyn Offscreen was intended to provide a degree of creative freedom to the players that has not been demonstrated in other ARG experiences and to use digital media to capture information about the relative effectiveness of the different techniques that were employed. During the month of October 2009, Evelyn Offscreen invited players to participate in an overarching story as characters. The game existed simultaneously through several media platforms such as Ning, twitter, and blogger as well as scenes located in Central Florida where players could embody their character in a real world setting. The results revealed insights into techniques for massive collaboration of story and player reactions to this hybrid form of alternate reality gaming and interactive performance.

Creative Project Abstract: The creative project of this thesis is a script prototype for Underland, a crime drama video game and digital playable story that demonstrates writing and design methods for negotiating narrative and player agency. The story is set in October 2006 and players are investigative psychologists given access to a secure police server and tasked with analysing evidence related to two linked murders that have resulted in the arrest of journalist Silvi Moore. The aim is to uncover what happened and why by analysing Silvi’s flat, calendar of events, emails, texts, photos, voicemail, call log, 999 call, a map of the city of Plymouth and a crime scene. It is a combination of story exploration game and digital epistolary fiction that is structured via an authored fabula and dynamic syuzhet and uses the Internal-Exploratory and Internal-Ontological interactive modes to negotiate narrative and player agency. Its use of this structure and these modes shows how playable stories are uniquely positioned to deliver self-directed and empathetic emotional immersion simultaneously. The story is told in a mixture of enacted, embedded, evoked, environmental and epistolary narrative, the combination of which contributes new knowledge on how writers can use mystery, suspense and dramatic irony in playable stories. The interactive script prototype is accessible at underlandgame.com and is a means to represent how the final game is intended to be experienced by players. Thesis Abstract: This thesis considers writing and design methods for playable stories that negotiate narrative and player agency. By approaching the topic through the lens of creative writing practice, it seeks to fill a gap in the literature related to the execution of interactive and narrative devices as a practitioner. Chapter 1 defines the key terms for understanding the field and surveys the academic and theoretical debate to identify the challenges and opportunities for writers and creators. In this it departs from the dominant vision of the future of digital playable stories as the ‘holodeck,’ a simulated reality players can enter and manipulate and that shapes around them as story protagonists. Building on narratological theory it contributes a new term—the dynamic syuzhet—to express an alternate negotiation of narrative and player agency within current technological realities. Three further terms—the authored fabula, fixed syuzhet and improvised fabula—are also contributed as means to compare and contrast the narrative structures and affordances available to writers of live, digital and live-digital hybrid work. Chapter 2 conducts a qualitative analysis of digital, live and live-digital playable stories, released 2010–2016, and combines this with insights gained from primary interviews with their writers and creators to identify the techniques at work and their implications for narrative and player agency. This analysis contributes new knowledge to writing and design approaches in four interactive modes—Internal-Ontological, Internal-Exploratory, External-Ontological and External-Exploratory—that impact on where players are positioned in the work and how the experiential narrative unfolds. Chapter 3 shows how the knowledge developed through academic research informed the creation of a new playable story, Underland; as well as how the creative practice informed the academic research. Underland provides a means to demonstrate how making players protagonists of the experience, rather than of the story, enables the coupling of self-directed and empathetic emotional immersion in a way uniquely available to digital playable stories. It further shows how this negotiation of narrative and player agency can use a combination of enacted, embedded, evoked, environmental and epistolary narrative to employ dramatic irony in a new way. These findings demonstrate ways playable stories can be written and designed to deliver the ‘traditional’ pleasure of narrative and the ‘newer’ pleasure of player agency without sacrificing either.