The thesis presents a study of three theatres in Camden: the Bedford Theatre, the Open Space Theatre, and the Round House. Each section contains details of the theatres' histories, their managements and their artistic achievements. The amount of detail varies according to the availability of material and in each case the emphasis is different. In all three sections particular periods have been discussed at length because they represent a significant achievement on the part of the management and artistic directors. At all times the author has stressed the importance of the repertoire which each organisation presented and casebook studies of key productions have been written to illustrate the use made of the available stage space.

The thesis is an attempt to show practically and theoretically how digital image synthesis can be used to help create new ways of making meaning by examining some of the methods that lie at the heart of materialist avant-garde arts practice. In the first instance this involves the technique of montage, especially dialectical montage as developed by Eisenstein, Brecht and Godard in which the shock effect is used to overcome conditioned perceptions and create a critical distance. Secondly it is informed by Benjamin's concept of allegory, a method of using montage to assemble historical fragments or emblems to reveal insights into the world of material social relations. The aim of my thesis is to show that transformation rather than montage has now become the primary aesthetic means in digital media and stands with montage in a new perceptual dialectic of shock and fascination. The main practical component of this thesis submission consists of the film LMX Spiral, a digital film making project based on aspects of British social and cultural history from the eighties to the nineties. The film is used as the main means to illustrate various points about the relation between montage and transformation in the context of allegorical film making. LMX Spiral can be described as both a historical thesis and a dialectical special effects film based on the attempts during the eighties to create an economic utopia of enterprise and opportunity, undermined by the likelihood of human corruption and natural catastrophe. It is an allegory about Britain's transition between the enterprise culture of the eighties and the lottery culture of the nineties. The final chapter attempts to expand the application of Benjamin’s concept of allegory as a cultural form to the level of the technical production of digital media. The necessity for software systems to perform efficiently under a number of different requirements leads to a hybridisation of knowledge bases and a fragmentation of theoretical models that might be similar to the emblematisation and montage of cultural icons. This suggests the possibility that scientific and mathematical models could be used allegorically on a variety of different levels but also points to certain limits in the applicability of this concept of allegory.

Albion and Albanius and its composer, Louis Grabu, have been unjustly dismissed by musical scholars. This thesis seeks to redress that injustice. A documentary biography of Grabu is provided, and a discussion of the inception of Albion and Albanius, detailing the role of each of its creators. The opera is subjected to a thorough examination, including a discussion of: 1) the relationship between the 1685 libretto and the 1687 score; 2) its largescale structure and tonal plan; 3) and its vocal and instrumental writing. These studies reveal that Grabu, in composing the music, Dryden, in writing the libretto, and Betterton, in designing staging, drew upon specific models from Lully's Phaêton (1683). Furthermore, it is shown that Grabu drew upon a thorough knowledge of Lully's other operas: not only the general compositional features and structures, but also specific movements. There is, in addition, evidence suggesting that Grabu borrowed musical ideas and techniques from Purcell's Dido and Aeneas. Information regarding the opera's performance is gathered from the score and developed through comparison with contemporary practices. In particular, the similarities between Grabu's score and those of Lully printed by Ballard suggest that Grabu wrote for an ensemble modelled on that of the Paris Opéra. The dance and staging elements of the opera are examined in the light of information about, and illustrations from, English and especially French productions (particularly the drawings of Berain). Grabu's influence on Purcell, and Dioclesian in particular, is demonstrated. The reception history of Albion and Albanius is explored, and the assertion that Grabu was an incompetent composer and the opera an artistic failure is shown to be unfounded. A modern edition of Albion and Albanius with critical commentary is provided.

'Reading Richard Schechner' explores the theatre, theory, and academic leadership of a key figure in American theatre studies, engaging critically with Schechner's contributions, in order to assess their value for future theatre research. Chapter One considers how Schechner's theatre participated in social change and situates Schechner's analogy of theatre to ritual within an avant-garde theatrical tradition. Chapter Two models Schechner's career in terms of a singular performance project which moves from its early focus on theatre production, through performance theory, leading finally to his leadership of Performance Studies as an institutionally validated area. I examine the interplay between Schechner's theatre and his growing interest in anthropology, identifying the ways in which anthropological discourse supported his authority as a theatrical auteur. These chapters include case studies of his productions Dionysus in 69 and The Tooth of Crime. Chapter Three develops the relation between creative authorship and academic authority by introducing two key concepts. Sociologist Pierre Bourdieu's concept of symbolic capital characterises the rewards for successful and authoritative authorship which, I argue, Schechner has pursued. Allegory articulates the historical relation between creative authorship and socially empowered authority. The logic of Schechner's performance paradigm is analysed as an allegorical structure, following Joel Fineman's definition. Chapter Four concentrates on the ways in which, over time, Schechner has repositioned theatre as subordinate to the broad spectrum he defines as performance. I give grounds for rejecting Schechnerian performance as a viable paradigm for theatre's study. Furthermore, I reinterpret it as an enterprising intermedia arts project aiming to disrupt the institution from within. To deauthorise Schechnerian performance in this way is also to reauthorise it, by returning its ostensibly objective structures to their origin in creative acts. To this end, I conclude by sketching a portrait of Richard Schechner as an author of avant-garde theatre and theory.

abstract: Students afflicted with music performance anxiety (MPA) can greatly benefit from guidance and mentorship from a music teacher with whom they have established trust, however there exists a knowledge gap between the development and manifestations of MPA, and how it can be overcome in order to prepare the student for success as a performer. It is my purpose with this guide to inform musicians, including students and teachers, about MPA, common coping methods, and outside resources where pedagogues, students, and even professionals can find further guidance. This document is designed to aid music students and teachers in their individual research on the topic. The first section provides necessary background information on MPA and concepts of gender, identity, and personality. A discussion of the results of an experimental protocol that surveyed double reed musicians about their experiences with performance anxiety comprises the second section. An annotated bibliography, listing other resources including self-help books, personal accounts, and scientific studies, is contained in the final section of this guide. Because of the relative absence of research done on the correlation between MPA and specific identity traits including personality, self-image, and gender, it was necessary to incorporate more generalized sources relating to the topic. The annotations offer a more comprehensive approach to understanding and overcoming MPA. This work is not meant to be all-inclusive; rather, its purpose is to act as a basic guide. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Music 2014

The thesis takes its beginnings from the work of Mario Praz, The Romantic Agony and from Michel Foucault's The History of Sexuality, Vol. 1. Praz has argued that the construction of the 'femme fatale' as a recognizable type is a phenomenon of the late nineteenth century. Foucault proposes that the nineteenth century is characterised not by a repression of sexual discourses but by a multiplication of centres from which such discourses are produced. The thesis places the 'femme fatale' in the socio-historical context of the 90s and searches both for the plurality of discourses mobilised to define her, and for her presence in other non-literary discourses of the period such as those of evolutionary theory, craniology, criminology and imperialist discourses. It locates this figure in a wide range of contexts: late nineteenth-century debates about female sexuality, biological determinism, theories of decadence and degeneration, invasion anxieties and the censorship debate. It juxtaposes two 'popular' novelists (Stoker and Haggard) with two 'major' novelists (Conrad and Hardy) to demonstrate that the particular discourses mobilised to describe the 'femme fatale' are to be found in works of differing literary 'quality' and in different literary genres. Chapter One examines the representation of the female vampires in Bram Stoker's Dracula in the context of Foucauldian theory about the production of sexual discourses in medicine and science in this period. These 'sexualised' women are contagious and must be annihilated. Chapter No explores the conflation of sexual and imperialist discourses in Rider Haggard's adventure fiction, particularly in She and King Solomon's Mines. Ayesha is an invading sexual being and FET- 'death in the flames can be seen as a 'devolution' into a 'monkey woman': an unveiling. This chapter also examines the other female 'missing links' of Haggard's fiction. Chapter Three continues the exploration of sexual and imperialist discourses, here in the early novels of Conrad: Almayer's Folly and An Outcast of the Islands, in particular. It explores the way in which Conrad's native women merge into jungle landscapes and into twilight; they signify the threatening 'otherness' of the jungle and of language. This chapter concludes with an examination of Winnie Verloc of the Secret Agent as female murderess and as 'free woman'. Chapter Four focuses on Hardy's Tess as victim and as murderess. It proposes a reading of Tess of the d'Urbervilles as a response to the enforced censorship of the text (Tess) expressed via the moral censure and execution of Tess. A short theoretical Afterword draws on feminist theory and Derridean analysis of phallocentrism to propose that the 'femme fatale' of this period is a sign signifying a multiple or conflated 'otherness': a multiplicity of cultural anxieties.

Within the frame of an MA, we know from the start that there will be a specific ending; we call it final project, degree project or final presentation and this essay is meant to accompany the journey of the degree project. In my case, I want to mention and reflect upon that for me the MA has been a framework for developing and experiencing different types of projects. So not only the project of presenting work at the end of the final semester but long term projects with a broader sense of choreography. Projects that includes social relations and are community based like P0$$€ dance and reading group a weekly extra-scholarly dance and reading group that shares texts and dance material, in a spontaneous and laid-back way, hosted by a different practitioner each time. The invitation from END FEST where I proposed to do a P0$$€ session in a public swimming pool. The future project of proposing slime workshops at cultural centers and youth-clubs, which comes from the experience and the research on the work that will be presented as the degree project called FIEBRE. These projects are important for me to highlight because the way I work with choreography is not only about creating final products.

Approaches such as arts-based education optimize the goals of inclusive education, an emergent educational philosophy in Canada. However there is tension between this research, current classroom practice, and education policies. This study explores the perceptions of three primary/junior pre-service teachers as they engaged in the implementation of inclusion of students with exceptionalities using an arts-based approach. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with the participants (following Seidman's [2006] method) at three points during their teacher education experiences. Central findings and cross-case analysis focused on their contextual histories, teacher education experiences, and culminating reflections. Childhood events and environments influenced pre-service attitudes, while past engagement in the arts facilitated their implementation of an arts-based approach particularly in the absence of guidance from teacher education courses and their associate teacher. Participants cited academic, social, and personal benefits of implementing inclusion through the arts for students with exceptionalities. Implications for practice are discussed.

<p> This paper reviews current and historical opera marketing practices and analyzes the marketing mix (product, place, promotion, price, and people) of major opera companies in the United States. The purpose of this paper is to determine methods to attract and build sustainable, less homogenous audiences. Surveys were conducted to determine public perceptions about the art form from both opera-goers and non-opera buyers and interviews with leaders within the field of opera marketing revealed current trends. The paper provides insights about changes within the field in recent years and offers suggestions for improvement based on the success of other opera companies and other artistic organizations.</p><p>

This research investigates contemporary South African performance within the context of prominent social and cultural change following the political transition from an apartheid state to democracy. Specifically, it looks at the relationship between a popular comic variety show The Most Amazing Show (TMAS), and aspects of contemporary South African society and culture, particularly relating to prominent efforts to affect post-election transformation of South African society and culture through the construction of a South African 'rainbow nation'. By analysing TMAS in terms of broader historical, performative and discursive contexts, it engages a relational reading of the performance. The study argues that TMAS both challenges and participates in the manner in which rainbow nation discourse constructs South African society and culture. Firstly, it considers the performance's construction of hybrid South African identities, including white Afrikaans, white English and white masculine identities. It argues that these reconstructions undermine the tendency within rainbow nation discourse to construct cultural hybridity in terms of stereotypically distinct identities. Secondly, it considers TMAS' construction of collective experience and social integration, which subvet1s the often glamorised and superficial representations of social healing and integration that are constructed within rainbow nation discourse. The analysis makes prominent reference to the notion of 'liminality' in order to describe the manner in which TMAS constructs significance within the tension that it establishes between oppositional, and often contradictory, positions. Furthermore, it attempts to establish a link between this notion of liminality and no6ons of theatrical syncretism that are prominent in contemporary South African theatre scholarship, and emphasise processes of signification that are constantly shifting and unstable.