This thesis examines the principles and policies underlying the need for transformation within the Playhouse Dance Company (PDC) in Durban and the actualities of implementing these visions and procedures. It is proposed that artistic structures, ideals and processes cannot remain impervious to the climate of change. Alterations in the political arena demand radical permutations within arts councils and their concept of repertoire, educational programmes and training. Transformation is linked to the problem of identity and it is suggested that the company is in the midst of a journey towards "becoming" rather than "being". Chapter One comprises an overview of changing trends in the arts globally and the impact on South Mrican art forms and processes. There is also an examination of the past, the establishment of arts councils and the colonial heritage of the dance companies within these councils. The formative years of the NAP AC Dance Company and the strategies formulated by former artistic directors have, it is suggested, hampered the transformation process. Chapter Two focuses on the PDC's endeavours to transform between the years 1993 and 1997. Lack of funding, conservative public tastes and training processes are. all' issues confronting management, choreographers, educators and performers in attempting to provide a clear direction towards transformation. The company walk a tightrope as they struggle to balance the heritage of their artistic past while giving birth to a new heritage for the future. Chapter Three discusses two areas that reveal measurable attempts at transformation. Hawkins offers re-inventions of the classics which encourages innovation, and Siwela Sonke was conceived to draw on dance forms located in Kwazulu-Natal in the search for a South Mrican dance aesthetic. Chapter Four investigates whether transformative visions are becoming a reality and suggests how the company could extend the process further. This chapter concludes with .. ideas about the nature of culture and how this informs,the exercise of transformation. This thesis proposes that transformation within the PDC is occurring even though it has its shortcomings. The main thrust of the research is to investigate, identifY and document factors that are contributing to current dance trends in Durban.

The aim and scope of my thesis is to examine the process of playwrights directing their own work, using the production of my play Obscura as an example of personal research, as well as examples of other dramatists. I will examine the advantages and disadvantages that playwrights face when directing their own work. I will compare several methods to my own production of Obscura. I wrote the play in the Spring of 2005 which culminated in a reading in April, followed by a workshop production in the Fall of 2005 in the Newdick Theater at Shafer Street Playhouse.

My goal was to successfully appropriate the collaborative ideals of the LAByrinth Theater Company and incorporate them into my directorial process while working on a collegiate production. I gathered a large amount of information from my visit and contact with the LAB and through personal interviews with the Co-Artistic Director and the Developmental Director. I had seen two of their shows and I was familiar with the quality of production that I had to uphold. I played a lead role in Guirgis' Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train and I was familiar with the rhythm, the dialect and the seriocomic matters of the plays. Den of Thieves is Guirgis' first published play. I chose this project for my thesis production because I wanted to work with younger actors on a play that is not produced often. Although the company was not part of the playwriting process, the actors, director, and crew would use the collaborative ideals of the LAByrinth Theater Company to form the production. I was interested in forming a group that was diverse in ethnical background and theatrical capabilities. I wanted to see if this play and the collaborative ideals would be successful with collegiate actors. I wanted to test the material on a collegiate audience. By doing this work I hoped to instill these ideals with members of the company so that they could be positive in their future theatrical communities. I also hoped to inspire interest from the audience in Guirgis' work as well as the LAByrinth Theater Company of New York.

One Script, Two Perspectives: Generation Me and The Staging of Really Really is a reflection on the approach, pre-production, rehearsal and post-production phases of the play, Really Really by Paul Downs Colaizzo, which debuted in the Shafer Street Playhouse on February 20, 2015 on the campus of Virginia Commonwealth University. The cast included Kaelie Ukrop, Adam Valentine, Ethan Malamud, Telos Fuller, Solomon Dixon, Molly Kaufman, and Katie Stoddard. This paper looks at the processes involved with the creation of that piece. Focus is given to the problems and challenges involved with casting, production, rehearsals, post-production and effective directing methods.

La folie dans la dramaturgie québécoise est davantage une métaphore méta-théâtrale qu’une qualité liée à la maladie mentale. Certes, avec la naissance des sciences humaines, les dramaturges occidentaux ont progressivement fait disparaître les personnages iconographiques au profit de patients (Smadja, 2009). Il n’en demeure pas moins que les manifestations contemporaines de ce « type » de personnage ne cessent de se multiplier, particulièrement dans le corpus dramaturgique québécois. En explorant le traitement réservé aux « fous » de ce même corpus, on découvre une série de chantiers exploratoires voués autant à la remise en question de la structure linéaire ou réaliste qu’à la réflexion ontologique. Ces questionnements quant à l’identité du personnage permettent de les cerner en tant que « figures », la conséquence d’une reconceptualisation du personnage théâtral, tributaire, quant à elle, d’un nouvel ordre dramaturgique (Ryngaert, 2008). Qui plus est, ces figures rappellent explicitement – et parfois ironiquement –, par leur lucidité et leur regard philosophique porté sur l’existence humaine, le traitement dramaturgique que Shakespeare réserve à Macbeth, Hamlet et Lear. Cette thèse propose d’étudier trois personnages de la dramaturgie québécoise – soit Mycroft Mixeudeim (La charge de l’orignal épormyable de Claude Gauvreau), Charles Charles (Provincetown Playhouse, juillet 1919, j’avais 19 ans de Normand Chaurette) et Miriam (Ce que nous avons fait de Pascal Brullemans) –, dans le but de dresser un portrait, aussi sommaire soit-il, des multiples déclinaisons de la figure du fou dans le théâtre québécois depuis les années 60. Cette analyse permettra de nuancer le point de vue de Foucault selon lequel la notion de folie s’est normalisée jusqu’à perdre son caractère a priori imagé ou iconographique (Foucault, 1964). Pour ce faire, elle s’articulera autour de grilles esthétiques empruntées à des courants des arts visuels, soit respectivement le romantisme, l’expressionnisme et le déconstructivisme. En repérant les ressemblances et les dissemblances dans le traitement esthétique des trois figures, nous serons en mesure de prouver que la figure du fou dans le théâtre québécois se veut plutôt un creuset pour se questionner sur l’Art, le langage et le théâtre comme moyens de mieux cerner la réalité.

Stockholmsoperan, Stadsgårdkajen, en opera för alla! Koppla samman och tillåta; Mitt huvudkoncept handlar om att skapa kopplingar i staden och locka människor att vistas på platsen, dag som natt, Stockholmsbo som värmlandsbo. Oavsett om du går på opera eller bara tar en kvällspromenad, vill äta en god matbit eller fika på café, ska operan tillgodose alla dessa behov.

Les jeux de hasard furent connus et pratiqués par l’homme depuis les premières civilisations. Mais dès l’Antiquité gréco-romaine, ces jeux se sont attirés les foudres des moralistes, ecclésiastiques, et législateurs, chacun pour ses propres motifs. Des lois sévères furent édictées par les législateurs de l’Antiquité, qui furent par la suite reprises par les canonistes et les juristes de l’Ancien droit, ainsi que par les rédacteurs du Code civil, et ce, dans le but d’éradiquer, ou du moins de cantonner cette pratique ludique. Mais le désir humain de pratiquer ces jeux de hasard fut plus fort que ces lois, et la pratique y a survécu. Au cours du XXe siècle, et alors que certains États de par le monde ont choisi la prohibition absolue, d’autres, comme la France, ont opté pour une autorisation contrôlée sous l’égide de l’État. Ainsi fut créé le triptyque prohibition-exception-monopole, sous lequel le jeu se développa considérablement. Et quand le développement technologique a permis d’offrir les jeux de hasard à travers l’internet, le secteur des jeux d’argent a atteint en France, et de par le monde, des limites jamais connues auparavant au cours de l’histoire. Mais ce développement exceptionnel a amené avec lui des défis nouveaux, notamment au plan financier et sécuritaire, mais aussi au plan européen où le modèle français monopolistique fut critiqué. Pour faire face à ces défis, de nouvelles lois furent promulguées au cours des récentes années. Mais toutes furent en deçà de l’ampleur des défis. La tâche est entamée, mais le gros du travail reste à accomplir. / Games of chance were known and practiced by man since the earliest civilizations. But all the way since the greco-roman antiquity, these games have attracted the ire of moralists, clergymen and legislators, each for their own motives. Strict laws were enacted by the Antiquity legislators, laws that were later upheld by canonists and jurists of the Old law, as well as the civil Code editors, in order to eliminate, or at least confine this recreational practice. But the human desire to enjoy these games of chance was stronger than these laws, and the practice survived. Over the course of the 20th century, and while certain States around the world chose absolute prohibition, others, like France, opted for a controlled authorization under the auspices of the State. Thus was created the prohibition-monopoly-exception triptych, under which gambling grew considerably. And when the technological development allowed games of chance to be provided through the internet, the gambling industry reached in France and around the world, limits never known before in the course of the human history. But this exceptional development has brought new challenges along, mainly in the finance and security areas, but also at the European legal level where the French monopoly model was criticized. To take up these challenges, new laws were enacted in recent years. But all fell short of the challenges scale. The task was initiated, but most of the work remains to be done.

Over the past few decades Classical music, as an established art form, has increasingly struggled world wide as a sustainable industry. The music preferences of the general public have been moving away from the traditional symphonic concerts, and both public and private sponsorships have been diminishing. In South Africa, orchestras moved from fully government subsidised organizations to self-sustaining companies after closure of almost all orchestras in 2000 due to new political leadership and cultural funding redirections. The South African government’s policy on Art and Culture has been completely restructured in the view of the post-apartheid government’s new priorities. The creation of a National Arts Council saw the end of separate provincial art councils and centralized the distribution of private funds. The annual ring-fenced funding for the three orchestras in three different provinces was eventually established. The Department of Arts and Culture realized that funding of all cultural institutions in the country cannot be achieved by government alone and therefore created various companies and trusts, such as National Lottery, to generate additional funding. The private sector is also being encouraged by the ministry to provide assistance and collaborate in supporting of arts and culture. The three full-time orchestras - two established post 2000 - that have persevered in the new conditions and are functioning to this day are KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra, Cape Philharmonic Orchestra and Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra. All three had to adapt to new work loads and undergo a difficult transformation into money-earning business way of conducting their day-to-day operations. New concepts for the running of an orchestra, such as budgeting, advertising, planning, audience creation, outreach education, management reconstruction and fund raising, were slowly taken up and old mentalities associated with how orchestras were previously ran were finally discarded. This dissertation describes the status quo and traces the history of South Africa’s orchestras over the past fifteen years. / Dissertation (MMus)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Music / unrestricted