No abstract available. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2008.

This dissertation analyses the influence theatre space and the dramatic genre have on the design process, by examining three designs of Greg King: Aladdin (2007), a pantomime presented at the Playhouse Drama Theatre, Oleanna (2008) a drama at the Seabrooke's Theatre, and The Wizard of Oz (2008), a musical presented at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre. Through a semiotic analysis of the productions, the scenographic choices of King are interrogated to ascertain the ways theatre space and dramatic genre affected his design choices. The theories around sign systems in the theatre of Keir Elam (1980), Martin Esslin (1987), and Elaine Aston and George Savona (1991) are examined and used to decode King's designs. This dissertation theorises that the theatre space has influenced and continues to influence the decisions and choices of the scenographer, and it is this linkage that informs the discussion around the historical development of the proscenium arch theatre and the scenographer. The case studies offered in this dissertation highlight the challenges involved with the physical limitations of the theatre space, as each venue selected differs in size, shape, and the technical equipment available for the designer. The dramatic text provides the primary basis for both the director and the designer to develop a production concept. However, dramatic texts can be divided into many different genres and the following three genres, namely drama, musical and pantomime, provide the focus for this study. As these three genres have evolved from earlier forms, the historical development of the three genres is examined to ascertain how the genre affects the scenographic process. Atheatre production is the result of a collaboration between many specialists and therefore, the relationship between the designer and other member of the production team is examined. A set design is a visual image of an imagined environment and many designers use symbols, consciously or subconsciously, to communicate their ideas. A theatre production is the result of a collaboration between many specialists and therefore, the relationship between the designer and other member of the production team is examined. A set design is a visual image of an imagined environment and many designers use symbols, consciously or subconsciously, to communicate their ideas. The work of three international designers, Josef Svoboda, Ming Cho Lee and Ralph Koltai is examined further to understand the influence theatre space and the dramatic genre have on the design process. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2012.

Early disability research in the social sciences focused on the individual, or the person with the disability. Only recently has disability research accepted that every family member is affected. The disabled does not suffer the disability alone; the entire family— as well as friends and relatives—suffer ramifications. Parental roles are altered, and grief, anger and guilt often blur the parameters of acceptable parental care. By using disabled family dynamic research in dialog with The Glass Menagerie, A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, and Time for Ben, I argue that the disabled family dynamic is present, accurately portrayed, and significant to these three plays. Not only is the disabled family dynamic accurately portrayed in the plays, each of these plays precedes disability research in the issues that it presents. By examining the characters and issues presented in the plays through a disability research lens, I argue that these playwrights realistically portray the ramifications of the disabled family dynamic.

This study examines the ways in which the photograph is an act of performance. Not only does the photograph serve as a photograph for its audience, the photograph's viewer uses the photograph to perform for his or herself. This relationship between photograph and viewer is most often explored within the family unit. Ritualized family performances are those events where a family narrative is written photographically. This study explores this family dynamic of photography and performance through autobiographic reference to the author's own familial performances when her parents died in 2002 and 2003, respectively. Through the creation and public performance of her narratives surrounding the performances of grief that surrounded her family photographs, the author argues for the public creation of a three-dimensional memory, compared to the two-dimensional memory of the traditional photograph.

This thesis investigates the ways in which Webster’s Duchess of Malfi has been framed and interpreted, selecting various case studies from the four hundred years of the play’s history. It analyses the way in which a number of discourses have been brought to bear upon the play to delimit and shape its meanings, in the absence of a powerful determining author-figure such as Shakespeare. The investigation is organised around three “strands”, or elements which reappear in the commentary on the play. These are “pastness”, the sense that the play is framed as belonging to an earlier era and resistant to being completely interpreted by the later theatrical context being used to reproduce it; “not-Shakespeare”, the way in which Malfi has been set up in opposition to a “Shakespearean” model of dramatic value, or folded into that model; and “the dominance of the Duchess”, the tendency for the central character to act as a focus for the play’s perceived meanings. It identifies and analyses the co-opting of these elements in the service of wildly varying cultural politics throughout the play’s history. Sited within the assumptions and practices of Early Modern performance studies, this thesis constitutes an intervention in the field, demonstrating the possibility of a radically decentred approach. Such an approach is freed from either a reliance on Shakespeare as a prototypical model from which other works are imagined as diverging, or from the progressive narrative of theatre history in which twentieth century scholars “discovered” the true inherent meaning of early modern drama which had been “obscured” by the intervening centuries of theatre practice. It reveals blindspots and weaknesses in the existing Shakespeare-centred conception of the field, and opens up new possibilities for understanding Early Modern drama in historical and contemporary performance.

Yn yr ymchwil hwn ystyrir sut y gall astudiaethau perfformiad gynnig mewnwelediad i sut y mae cymdogaeth y capel Cymraeg - trwy weithredoedd perfformiadol - yn cael ei chreu, ac yn perthnasu at y capel. Trwy gyfuno damcaniaeth perfformiad ac ymarfer yng nghyd-destun y capel Cymraeg, mae’r ymchwil hwn yn gyfraniad gwreiddiol i’r meysydd dan sylw. Defnyddir syniadaeth Diana Taylor o’r archif a’r repertoire er mwyn esbonio bod perfformiad yn fodd dilys o fynegi hunaniaeth a bodolaeth. Trafodir wedyn fod modd cromfachu gweithgarwch perfformiadol er mwyn ei ddadansoddi. Cyfeirir at syniadaeth yr anthropolegydd Victor Turner fod perfformiad, o’i gromfachu, yn cynnig dramâu cymdeithasol (social drama) a fedr ddatgelu rhywfaint am hunaniaeth cymdogaeth. Arddelir methodoleg Ymarfer fel Ymchwil yn rhannol, mewn perthynas a syniadaeth ffenomenolegol, er mwyn trafod gweithgarwch byw repertoire'r capel. Er mwyn gosod sail i hyn, trafodir cyd-destun gweithgarwch perfformiadol y capel drwy edrych ar y berthynas hanesyddol a fodola rhwng y capel Cymraeg, cymdogaeth a pherfformiad, gan ddadlennu fod y berthynas rhwng y rhinweddau hyn wedi bod yn bresennol yn hanesyddol ac yn dylanwadu ar wead y rhinweddau heddiw. Trafodir profiadau o gyd-weithio’n ymarferol gyda thri chapel. Perfformiwyd darn unigol yn edrych ar fy mherthynas at y capel ar ffurf atgofion, wedyn gweithiwyd gyda’r capeli i greu perfformiadau a oedd yn dadlennu eu perthynas hwythau at eu capel. Bwriad y gwaith ymarferol oedd profi’n ymgorfforedig y modd y gall perfformiad glymu pobl at ei gilydd mewn cymdogaeth ac at ofod arbennig. Cyflwynir fel rhan o’r ddoethuriaeth berfformiad unigol i’r arholwyr, a dogfennaeth ar ffurf lluniau anffurfiol o berfformiadau’r capeli (gan gydnabod nad yw’r lluniau hynny, yr archif, yn medru cyfleu anian y gwaith.) Cesglir bod y repertoire yn bwysig er mwyn deall cyd-destun y capel Cymraeg, a bod defnyddio Ymarfer fel Ymchwil wedi caniatáu amlygiad o’r repertoire. Trwy’r ymarfer, gwelwyd bod y capel Cymraeg yn dibynnu ar egni’r gymdogaeth i’w ddiffinio drwy weithredoedd perfformiadol.

Esta tese realiza uma pesquisa bibliográfica acerca das acepções do termo performance e suas possibilidades para pensar o campo da Educação. Problematiza-se a noção de ensino como performance, propondo pensar o professor e o aluno como performers. Busca-se demonstrar a potência de se projetar a escola como entre-lugar, como espaço liminar, como lócus de transformação de práticas escolares em processos de ensino-criação. Aduz-se a possibilidade de recuperação da corporeidade de professores e estudantes. Procura-se relativizar a crise da oposição professor-estudante, reproduzida em nosso sistema educacional, revendo hierarquias e estabelecendo novas bases para se refletir sobre a educação escolarizada. Apresentam-se as noções de professor-performer e estudanteperformer como sujeitos de trabalho colaborativo. A tese propõe diálogo entre a performance e a educação escolarizada, retomando cadernos de notas da pesquisadora, registros em fotografia e vídeo, oriundos de sua atuação como professora de teatro. A pesquisa circunscreve a performance na educação como forma de mobilizar os papéis de professor e aluno hegemonicamente aceitos. / This thesis consists of a literature review focused on the meanings of the term performance and its possibilities to think the field of Education. It discusses the notion of teaching as performance, proposing to consider teachers and students as performers. The aim is to demonstrate the power of designing the school as an inbetween place, a liminal space, a place to turn school practices into teachingcreating processes. We raise the possibility to recover the corporeity of teachers and students. The thesis seeks to relativise the crisis of the teacher-student opposition, reproduced in our educational system, reviewing hierarchies and establishing new bases to reflect on school education. It presents the notions of teacher-performer and student-performer as subjects of collaborative work. The thesis proposes a dialogue between performance and school education, including material from the researcher's notebooks, and photo and video records of her practice as a theatre teacher. The research confines performance to education as a way to mobilise the hegemonically accepted roles of teacher and student.

AN ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION SHENG-TAO FAN, for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in SPEECH COMMUNICATION, presented on APRIL 11, 2013, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE: PERFORMATIVE CORPORATE TRAINING IN TAIWAN MAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. Elyse L. Pineau This dissertation attempts to translate performance concepts and techniques into corporate training models for concretely increasing Taiwanese business competencies. I argue that this performance praxis is especially relevant to Taiwanese business contexts because of our Taoist traditions, which performative corporate training can awaken and activate. The purpose of applying performance praxis in corporate training is not to enhance physical techniques, acting skills, or technical competence, but rather to explore organizational dynamics through embodiment and to enrich management-related knowledge involving leadership, creativity, and team building. In Chapter One, Introduction to Taoism and Taiwanese Corporate Culture, I show that Taiwanese corporate culture is bonded and interdependent with Taoism. In Chapter Two, Performance Pedagogy for Business Contexts, I categorize different forms of performative pedagogies in teaching, learning, and corporate training as well as examining Taiwanese practices of performance pedagogy. Based on my systematic literature review of Western academia and analysis of Taiwanese practices, I create a calligraphic model for developing and analyzing performative corporate training programs within organizational and cultural contexts. This model elaborates three characteristics of the Taiwanese corporate culture (harmony, innovation, and teamwork), three features of Taoism (ecology, creativity, and community-building), and three principles of performance (balance, imagination, and collaboration) for Taiwanese corporate training. In Chapter Three, I present a case study of the STOMP Performative Corporate Training program, led by Smart Orange Training and Consulting. Through thick descriptions from an insider's perspective, I demonstrate that this innovative and successful case advances the trend of management development from experiential learning to performative training. In Chapter Four, I propose a management education course for a university Executive Master of Business Administration program, entitled "Performing Mentor." In addition, I design a corporate training program, entitled "Performing Taiwanese Cultural Festivals" that uses performative pedagogy to awaken innovation, promote harmony, and facilitate teamwork among business participants. In Chapter Five, I synthesize the study and note its limitations and directions for future research. In essence, this dissertation is theorization about performative pedagogy in corporate training with unique Taiwanese practices. It creates interdisciplinary integration, industry/academia collaboration, and cross-cultural understanding.

Audience agency, text-reading practices, and the roles mediated cultural texts play in the lives of readers have long been at the center of enduring debates among Critical, Cultural, Performance, and Rhetorical Studies scholars. One salient ongoing dialogue among scholars and critics questions the degree to which audiences actively participate in the process of making sense of mediated texts. How capable are media consumers of comprehending and responding to texts containing oppressive discourses? If pop culture is vital in shaping what it means to belong to a culture, can politically minded consumption of cultural texts be a tool by which we can resist or subvert dominant ideologies? This study enters into this dialogue through critical engagement with the emergent embodied audiencing practice of movie riffing, which is characterized by performers talking back to a film, or any matter of mediated text, as it is screened, through a series of humorous and/or critical speech acts. Embracing performative riffing as both a text-reading ethic for negotiating ideologically loaded pop culture texts and a space-based return of embodied performance in a social setting typically characterized by stillness and silence, this study explores the present state of riffing and looks to riffing's future by theorizing a movie-riffing ethic that constitutes explicitly political performance. This study is divided into eight chapters. Chapters 1 and 2 consider contemporary and historical anecdotes on audiencing practices to situate riffing within a rich legacy of embodied audiencing, text appropriation, meta-commentary, and ritual performance. Chapter 3 discusses the theoretical implications of riffing by situating riffing in scholarly discussions concerning audience agency in making sense of ideologically loaded pop culture texts; I argue riffing explicates the possibilities and constraints of audience agency, all of which should be recognized if riffing is to become a valuable performance tactic by which consumers of U.S. popular culture might enter into struggle over ideologically loaded cultural texts and reclaim a space for embodied audiencing in the cultural marketplace. Chapters 4 through 6 are dedicated to site- and text-specific inquiries into the current state of performative riffing and embodied audiencing. Chapter 4 chronicles my initial foray into ritual embodied audiencing with an ethnographic account of the 24-hour participatory "bad" movie festival B-Fest. Recounting my experiences of a B-Fest spent riffing alongside a group of enthusiastic B-Fest aficionados, I consider both the shortcomings and potential power of B-Fest riffing as a participatory, embodied audiencing ethic. Chapter 5 continues my exploration into site-specific audiencing rituals and weaves elements of text-specific inquiry, as I examine the popular audiencing ritual of the 2003 film The Room through a lens of Victor Turner's social drama model. I argue The Room's audiencing ritual and its related performances constitute part of a discursive struggle between the film's fanbase and the film's director, Tommy Wiseau, to claim the film's enduring success as a midnight movie phenomenon. In describing ways in which audience members interact with the film and each other during screenings of the film, I explore the implications of tactical in-theater performance in reading pop culture texts. Chapter 6 moves out of the realm of physical theaters and into the world of popular media as I explore today's most famous and influential riffing showcase, Mystery Science Theater 3000, and consider the tactical strengths and weaknesses of its model of movie riffing as a vessel for cultural criticism. I undertake a close textual reading of MST3K's characteristic movie riffing and identify themes that politically minded riffers might utilize to aid their efforts to read and potentially challenge ideologically loaded texts. Yet, recognizing that the discourse of the show at times showcases problematic attitudes that can be read as destructive or offensive in ways that suggest ridiculing a text is not necessarily the same as subverting it, I also consider ways in which MST3K's model of riffing falls short or presents challenges--and, therefore, avenues for innovation and growth--to politically minded riffers. Chapters 7 and 8 reflect on the lessons gleaned in previous chapters to articulate theoretical contributions and future directions for riffing and embodied audiencing practices. Chapter 7 reflects upon the observations and ideas gathered in Chapters 4 through 6 and localizes them in three related contexts--amateur riffing and online communities, mediated activist art, and the political use of humor--which I offer as further illuminating possibilities, challenges, and new directions and paradigms for riffing. Finally, Chapter 8 draws from my observations in Chapters 4 through 7 and discusses future directions that performative riffing and embodied audiencing performances provide as text-based discursive tools for interpreting and critiquing mediated cultural texts and the ideologies and interpretations of reality they convey. I glimpse into the future of riffing and in-theater performance and discuss the possibilities of riffing as a method of political performance by which media consumers can talk back to mediated texts and those texts' ideologies and interpretations of reality.

In this dissertation, I explore the fantasies and paradoxical desires belying spiritual medium performances of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries and new media practices of remediation. Forming the organizing construct of this dissertation, spiritual medium performance gives me a medium to explore fantasy as a means of suspending and manipulating audience belief. Through the use of my performance persona, Lucida Fox, I further connect the spiritual medium’s communication with the dead to the practices of remediation meant to summon the influences of obsolete media. Through Lucida, I remediate the past (Chapter 2), future (Chapter 3), and experiment with several spiritualist techniques in the present (Chapter 4). In the final chapter, I address the implications of this research on current discussions within the field of performance studies and conclude by offering future direction of this research.