M. Tech. Drama / Obscenity in the realm of theatre is certainly not new. More recently, an explosion of provocative plays by young British writers, confront the taboo of obscenity, eminently reflected in Sarah Kane's Phaedra's Love. These plays have been aptly dubbed "In Your Face theatre". Grootboom's productions share similarities with these global trends as they are reflexive of this definition in portraying this type of theatre. With the rich history of obscenity in theatre, it should come as no surprise that in reflecting more open current trends, obscenity is perceived as increasingly more tolerable in South African theatre. Grootboom's plays have managed to edge closer to controversy visible in the local furore. The reactions to Grootboom's productions have to do with the fact that full frontal nudity is unacceptable in African culture (except of course during traditional ceremonies and protests). This study seeks to discover why Grootboom's obscene theatre is so popular amongst black South Africans though at odds with their cultural perceptions of respect, relationship boundaries, communal address and personal demeanour rather than exhibitionism. It also seeks to contribute to a clearer understanding of what theatrical content current South African audience prefers.

M. Tech. Entertainment Technology / Adapting popular motion pictures to theatre stage productions has been very popular in recent years. Some of the best examples are the motion picture productions The Lord of the Rings, Billy Elliot and The Colour Purple that were adapted to stage musical productions. This was the case with the original Danish film Festen or The Celebration that was adapted and staged as a theatre play with English text in London in 2004. Pertaining to Festen, the film was originally produced according to the Dogma 95 Principles - a set of principles that were specifically aimed at the film industry and totally differed from any known and applied film practices of the time. The main problem that scenic designers of later stage productions had to deal with when the film was adapted to a stage production was that these principles had a very specific influence on the stage designs for this specific production. For the staging of the play Festen by the Drama Department of Tshwane University in Pretoria the director and the designer not only decided to oppose the Dogma 95 Principles totally, they also decided to design a set in a Film Noir style. They further decided to stage the play with a Caucasian cast using the English text and a black cast using a Zulu text. This resulted in having a major influence on the final outcome of the production. The research question that has to be answered in this research project is "whether it is possible to adapt the design of a very specific type of film production that was originally governed by a set of specific principles for a stage production of the same play".

What the future brings for Hong Kong and its residents had been urgently debated in local and global conversations during the period leading to the 'handover,' or, Hong Kong’s 'return' to China in 1997. My dissertation examines differing attempts by theatre practitioners to respond to these questions in the 1990's, and to inscribe new 'local-ethnographies' through performance life to rearticulate what could be said about the body and how it dwells in the city that is called, 'home.' "Changes: A City in Circulation," the first chapter, considers many differing conceptions of 'time' and 'space' which have affected how dwellers experience, and imagine Hong Kong as their "house" and "home." The second chapter, "His(her)stories: Ethnographies of the House and Body," discusses the excavating and editing of perceptions, experiences and memories for performative projects, and how difficult it has been to create 'local-ethnographies' of what it means to be a dweller in Hong Kong through any single historical interpretation. The third chapter, "Stretching the Limits: Between Bodies and Language" analyzes the instrumentality of the body and voice of performers, and how the body and voice have been key to stories that are told through performance life. "Traces of the Familiar: Between the Public and Private," the fourth chapter, looks at the interrelationship between 'self' and the 'body social,' and explores through what is staged, whether what is 'familiar' as well as 'unfamiliar' have been made 'sharable' as part of the personal stories, use of found objects, and the inhabitation of urban space that are relived and exhibited through performative projects. "Working with Human Material through Performative Work," the fifth chapter, examines the challenges to art being perceived as work, and how what is worked upon through performative laboring has been affected by, but in turn, has the potential to shape the relations of production of its times. As performance life continues to bring together those from disparate parts of the city together at least for a brief moment in time, the sixth chapter, "Dwelling Places: Somewhere Between the 'Outside' and 'Inside,'" is concerned with how my own participating, observing, researching, and writing could also be points of contact, as 'stranger' and 'friend,' 'outsider' and 'insider,' to those met through the borrowed spaces of theatre. My hope is that what is written is not an ending, but a beginning too to more entrances that could be shared, and further conversations that could be held. / Anthropology

Starting from the observation that Deuteronomy commands a tradition of performing the Song of Moses (Deuteronomy 32.1-43), in this dissertation I explore ways in which the performance of the Song contributes to Deuteronomy's educational program through an effect on those who perform the Song. In order to do so, I employ a performance-based approach that stresses the dynamic of re-enactment that operates in traditions of performance; I argue that performers of the Song are to be transformed as they re-enact not only the characters within the Song but also those who came before them in the history of the Song's performance, particularly YHWH and Moses, whom Deuteronomy depicts as that tradition's founders. In support of this thesis, I provide a close reading of the text of the Song (as preserved in Deuteronomy and as informed by Deuteronomy's account of its origins and subsequent history) that examines how the persona of the performer interacts with these re-enacted personas in the moment of performance. I also argue that the various composers of Deuteronomy themselves participated in the tradition of performing the Song, adducing examples from throughout the book in which certain elements originally found in the Song have been adopted, elaborated, acted out, or simply mimicked while being put to another use. / Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations

<p>Border Images and Imaginaries: Spectral Aesthetics and Visual Media of Americanity at the U.S.-Mexico Border, proposes an emerging aesthetic of spectrality in visual media about the U.S.-Mexico border that challenges the power of militarized and racialized visibility. The visual media projects I work with, including cinema, electronic performance art, site specific video installation, and photography generate an aesthetic of spectrality as they try to conjure and express the socially invisible through sensual elements like affect, sound, kinaesthetics, and full embodiment. This aesthetic elicits the perceptions of our other senses beyond only the visual and makes visible the social flesh of the movements and socialities of migration rather than racialized, migrant bodies. The border, I claim, is an important site for understanding the continued deployment of visibility in the neoliberal legacies of what Quijano and Wallerstein call, Americanity, a term denoting the development of the modern capitalist system in the Americas which relied upon the imbricate logics of colonialism, racism, and the deification the modern. Images of spectrality are intermediaries between what Diana Taylor calls, archive and repertoire, being both documents and sites of embodied engagement that produce both certain and uncertain knowledges of race and migration at the border. The visual media projects in my dissertation cultivate spectral aesthetics to theorize an alternative visibility and the changing production of public memory. By making visible the social flesh of heterogeneous encounters with media, spectral aesthetics reforms collective memory making it a process of democratic editorialization that privileges experience as the site of a multivocal history. This project reclaims the image as a terrain for the multitude's inquiry and imagination about the US-Mexico border, and puts the imaginaries generated by these images in dialog with activist projects happening in relation to immigration.</p> / Dissertation

Opera is unique among forms of Western classical music and performing arts in that it has always been a popular and accessible form of “cultured” entertainment. As a city with one of the longest and richest histories of opera performance in Texas, San Antonio provides a significant opportunity to survey the relationship between this popular art form and discourses of identity, power, and difference across ethnic, class, and gender divisions. This paper has two aims. First, it investigates the history of opera reception in San Antonio in order to examine changes in the traditional values of its citizens over the past century, focusing on the influence of ethnic identity among German immigrants. Then, it looks at the scholarship on cultural performance in various contemporary situations analogous to that of San Antonio and constructs five key processes of identification that show how individuals contextualize themselves in shared histories and identities through their participation in cultural performance of opera. / text

The research examined the links between intuition, interest in creative thought and the artistic interests of students. Most literature in the past linked intuition with creativity and artistic aptitude, but the question about the specific influence thereof on choosing an artistic career led to many different perspectives. The influence of thoughts and feelings on intuition was examined, as well as their connection to artistic inspiration. The researcher proposed that these factors provide a basis for an artistic career. Research was done on the links between interest in creative thought, artistic interest and intuition. The difference in correlation between intuition and Fine Arts and Performing Arts was also examined. The literature study focused on Jung's typology of personality, and his descriptions of intuition, feelings, thoughts, creative thoughts, art, artistic interest and inspiration, fine arts and performing arts, and their links with intuition. Quantitative research was done as a once-off cross-sectional design. Eight hundred and sixteen students of the University of Pretoria were included in the quantitative research. Intern Psychologists of Student Support Services evaluated these participants with the Jung Personality Questionnaire (JPQ), the South African Vocational Interest Inventory (SAVII) and the 19-Field Interest lnventory (19-FII). Two-directional frequency analyses were used to determine the links between the results of the intuition factor and the feeling and thought factors of the JPQ. The Spearman correlation coefficients were used as measures of the strength of general relation between the results of the intuition factor of the JPQ and the results of Fine Arts, Performing Arts and Creative Thought of the 19-FII and the A 2 (Creative design) and A 3 (Entertainment) of the SAVII. Variance analyses were used to determine the influence of intuition on interest in Fine Arts and Performing Arts. The responses to interview schedules by participants from two focus groups, namely 5 second year Drama students and 5 Fine Arts students, were analysed in the qualitative research. Most participants from the quantitative study fell within the intuition-feeling category and the percentage of participants in the intuition-feeling category was greater than those in the intuition-thought category. Results were supported by the qualitative study. The conclusion was drawn that intuition is more linked to feeling than is thought. Inspiration for art does develop from feeling, but it will be communicated by thoughts, after interplay between intuition and feeling. The quantitative study confirmed that intuition plays a bigger role than sensation when there is interest in careers requiring creative thought. Interest in creative thought also showed a positive link with interests in fine arts and performing arts. The conclusion was drawn that intuition plays an important role in occupations involving interest in creative thought. However, interest in creative thought is still dependent on feeling for verification in the creative process. The research showed that intuition, a personal life-long passion, or love of art were determining factors when an artistic career choice was made. It was therefore concluded that intuition has a strong relation to artistic interest. It was determined that intuition, as well as factors such as a person's strengths and weaknesses, and knowledge of the requirements and demands of success, work together in shaping an artistic career choice. Intuition showed a tendency for a greater correlation with Fine Arts than with Performing Arts. The research had certain deficiencies, as it was only conducted on university students and it did not make provision for environmental influences. The qualitative research was too structured and the JPQ was not developed initially for quantitative analyses. The examination of interest in creative thought could not provide an explanation of the complete creative process. However, the research was of value to counselling psychologists for making career recommendations, as it provided valuable information in artistic careers. It also created a possible framework for future research on the assessment of artists to assist them in developing and reaching their full potential. / Thesis (M.A. (Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2004.

Alberta's first arts legislation, the Cultural Development Act, was passed in 1946. It was followed by numerous policy initiatives to support the arts, including creation of facilities for training of artists, development of agencies and agreements to deal with arts funding, enactment of regulations to guide arts institutions, and creation of various Departmental structures depending on organizational location of this policy sector. The thesis examines the historical evolution of performing arts policy in Alberta from 1905 to 1997 to identify government activities, shifts in policy-making, and methods of implementation. The study utilizes Paul Sabatier's advocacy coalition approach, which treats public policy as determined by the dynamics of the advocacy coalition within a policy sector and the manner in which external factors and system parameters steer policy development. This study concludes that Alberta performing arts policy has largely developed within the context of meta public policies emphasizing economic development and provincial statebuilding. / iii, 97 leaves : ill. ; 28 cm.

As I have prepared this Commentary, I have come to appreciate the values that exist between the conventions of doctoral research driven by a glimpsed destination and that which brings together previously published works. The particular, and perhaps peculiar, historiographical relationship between the works from 'then' and the Commentary from 'now', turns such research into both a reflection and opportunity to reconsider writing already 'out there'. One cannot re-write the works (although the concept of 're-working' is central to my view of the engaged spectator). But one can reflect on the perspectives that informed each original piece within a body of emerging work. A Commentary, then, becomes not only a process of revelation but also one of acknowledgment of differing circumstances of research, publication and style. The unchangeable outcomes of each published piece are thus seen in a different light, juxtaposition revealing not only advances in one's ideas but also the paradoxes and shifts in thinking that retrospection forces and allows. So a slightly declamatory approach in earlier work evolves into more measured tones, perhaps less shrill. But if we each strive to have our own 'voice', no matter how hard we try for a more mature style some of that driving rawness remains. It is an uncomfortable truth that the shrill, unformed but passionate youth lurks in the shadows. This form of Commentary, then, becomes a revisiting of works and ideas that may have lost some of their currency, or perhaps not (hence my reaching back to both my MA Dissertation and the MiP Report). It becomes an attempt to place each work as part of a series not originally intended as such but in which chosen themes, prejudices and preoccupations play an ever-shaping role. It becomes an attempt to place some posterior coherence, convenient and inconvenient, which emerges from a process of reflection and 'looking again'. It is this mixing and juxtaposition of past work and present position that demands one looks from the side as well as straight on. For this reason I use a relational form of past and present tense as a 'vocal' device to show the ongoing 'live-ness' of the themes and ideas and passions that mark the body of work. The Commentary is therefore exposition and critique, but also an expansion. It is a dynamic process embracing the title of the Commentary itself, becoming subject to inevitable reworking since first being registered. Its preparation has allowed the introduction of current research, new ideas and oblique musings that extend the concerns of the extant works, giving a sense of continuing coherence and possible trajectories. It becomes an attempt to accommodate where I was then with where I am now.

<p>Abstract</p><p>Exploring two main lines of inquiry, this dissertation investigates the style and aesthetic of the music of Joseph Joachim (1831-1907) and its references to composers such as Brahms, Liszt, Schumann, and Beethoven. First, rather than simply accepting the image of Joachim as the great nineteenth-century violinist and collaborator of Johannes Brahms who advocated the "canonization of the music of Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms," I ask who Joachim was in light of his own compositions and literary circle. Especially significant was his "soul mate" Gisela von Arnim (daughter of Bettine von Arnim), from the second generation of two major literary "institutions" - the Grimm brothers and Arnim/Brentano, the Des Knaben Wunderhorn-collectors. Joachim and Gisela's literary role-play throws light on her function as his inspiration and muse. Second, each chapter investigates Joachim's works as "psychological music," the term he himself applied. Given that psychology was not yet an established academic discipline in the 1850s, Joachim's use of "psychological" is all the more intriguing. </p><p>Sources including archival letters, manuscripts, and Joachim's published correspondence, as well as his compositions from (or begun) in the 1850s, reveal that "psychological music" was both a compositional approach and an aesthetic. Extensively using ciphers, anagrams, song quotations, literary titles and allusions, and occasionally melodramatic elements, Joachim's compositional aesthetic conflicted with his "absolute" aesthetic as a violinist in the later 19th century. </p><p>Joachim's relatively strict use of form, his idiosyncratic use of "motivic transformation," and his expressive studies of literary/historical characters in his overtures separated him from Liszt. Furthermore, while Joachim navigated harmony in ways criticized by Louis Spohr and contemporary critics as "ear-tearing harshness" (1852), the composer maintained an almost consistently symmetrical ("four-square") syntax. Joachim's "psychological" aesthetic was typified by idiosyncratic, individual stylistic features like "trapped motives," captured by (sometimes obsessive) repetition, and he applied ciphers much more conspicuously than did Schumann. In the end, Joachim's "psychological music" displays three overarching features: first, extramusical programs from autobiographical and/or literary contexts; second, the implicit or explicit dedication of the works to Gisela von Arnim; and third, supporting correspondence marking the work as an "outlet" for Joachim's self-perceived, psychological inner turmoil.</p> / Dissertation