This thesis seeks to offer a preliminary evaluation of the efficacy of popular theatre forms for the benefit of the contemporary director of didactic performance. Chapter One provides a rationale for the study by outlining the history of popular theatre forms in twentieth-century practices, focusing specifically on those that aimed to be didactic. The chapter then addresses the state of didactic performance at the present time and questions whether the right cultural conditions currently exist to reinvigorate didactic drama with popular theatre forms. The chapter concludes with an outline of my methodology for the development of three research projects designed to analyse the efficacy of popular forms. Chapters Two, Three and Four discuss the development of the research projects specifically. In these chapters I discuss how performers were trained in the popular forms, the development of the performance texts, and, crucially, how the forms were used in performance. The conclusion to each chapter addresses the audiences’ reception to the performances. Chapter Five collates the findings from the research through practice projects and seeks to offer advice to directors of contemporary didactic performance on how popular theatre forms can be used to entertain and educate audiences about issues of concern. This thesis is accompanied by four DVDs, which feature short films of performer training workshops and the research projects. The reader will be directed to the DVDs at specific moments throughout the thesis.

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To shift the emphasis with regards to what is important in education, beyond achievement tests, it would be helpful to consider other possibilities for engaging students. Popular theatre as form of popular education is explored as an option for providing this better way in. I considered both critical and feminist pedagogies while being guided by the following questions: What are the possibilities and limitations of a popular theatre project implemented within an alternative school context? Why should we make space for such processes in schools? Through a participatory study using popular theatre within an alternative program for young mothers and pregnant teens, ethnodramatic scenes are presented, depicting themes that arose within the program. There were successes and failures; however, what was most notable were the constraints of the school system that may not allow for such processes to exist within current educational structures. Suggestions for future projects are proposed.

The GeriActors and Friends is a company of intergenerational actors that is directed by Professor David Barnet of the University of Alberta. The GeriActors was a senior’s theatre group creating original theatre since 2001 in Edmonton. The GeriActors and Friends was created as a result of Barnet’s course Intergenerational Theatre 407/507, first offered in the fall 2006. The company is made up of two groups: university students and senior citizens. This thesis is an exploratory analysis of the GeriActors and Friends’ 2006/07 and 2007/08 seasons. Using these seasons as a case study, the theories of specific cultural theorists are used to analyze play and playfulness as it exists in the rehearsals and performances of the company. The analysis of playfulness is presented using autoethnographic research techniques that analyze the personal history of the researcher and a variety of qualitative methods which consider the two seasons of the community-based theatre company

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A pocket of HIV infection has grown to epidemic proportions in a mostly Aboriginal1 community in Northern Alberta. At the start of the research my assumptions were that Aboriginal2 sexuality is affected by political, historical, cultural, psychological, and social factors that underpin the social determinants of health. STI/HIV is a symptom of the marginalized status of Aboriginal peoples who experienced historical trauma due to colonization. As an insider researcher, using an exploratory design I addressed the following questions: 1) is popular theatre a culturally appropriate medium for introducing information to increase knowledge of STI/HIV in an Aboriginal audience? 2) Is popular theatre an effective way to encourage audience members to express their attitudes, knowledge, and behaviours related to sexual health? 3) How are popular theatre and action research methodologically and conceptually appropriate for preventing STI/HIV? 4) How do the influence of elders and a popular theatre practitioner affect the intervention? 5) Can the use of action research and popular theatre influence the attitudes, knowledge, and behaviours to promote healthy sexual choices? 6) Is narrative analysis a good way for Aboriginal people to tell their stories or have their stories told? Completing this exploratory research was financially possible through the Aboriginal Health Strategy. The funds enabled me to recruit a popular theatre practitioner, a group of young Indigenous community members and supportive elders to answer my research questions. The data was obtained through one-to-one interviews, journals, talking circles, and field notes of the community-based theatre and action research process. Due to a lack of time in the field, narrative analysis was not used. Instead I introduced Grandmother Spider and developed a dream catcher that I refer to as the Indigenous Iterative Webbed Circle to analyze the real and fictional stories that led to the community performance of My Peoples Blood. The methods are appropriate and effective if the principles of Community Based Participatory Research and action research are followed by all group members involved in this popular theatre project.

Scholarly research on comical popular theatre is rare in the Swedish context even though the genre has attracted large audiences throughout the 20th century. Nils Poppe is one of the greatest Swedish actors in the comical genre and he is famous for his playful acting style. With my Master’s dissertation I aim to shed some light on both the genre and this great actor. Another aim of this Master’s dissertation is to gain understanding of what causes the audience’s laughter experiencing Nils Poppe’s comical acting. To understand the audience response to the comical acting I need to study the communication between the actor and the beholders.   In doing this I use Bert O. States phenomenological approach, in which he divides the communication into three modes in which the beholder experiences the action. In each of these modes I then use complementary concepts and theories to analyze the audience’s laughter. My analysis starts with the Representational mode in which the focus is on the fiction of the play. Using semiotics, I discuss Poppe’s characters as a stock character related to the Commedia dell’arte character Harlequin and other clown characters, which are imbedded in the audience’s memory. With examples from a play I show why the audience laugh in different scenes.  In the next chapter, I analyze the Self-expressive mode in which the artist at stage is in focus. While experiencing the fiction of the play the audience simultaneously experiences the reality on stage. The actor is present and Poppe’s real face, body and voice is affecting the audience’s response. The final mode is the Collaborative mode in which the collaboration between the actor and beholder is analyzed. The direction of the play and how Poppe interacts with the audience is increasing the impression of presence among the audience. In his acting, Poppe breaks the theatrical conventions of the separation between fiction and reality, and in improvisations, he challenges both the audience and fellow actor’s notion of theatre. The result of the study implies that some laughter can’t be explained just by studying each of these modes separately. When the character leaves the fictional play and acts within the audience reality, or when the actor on stage is understood as part of the fiction an incongruity is created that tends to make the audience laugh.

This diploma thesis deals with Portuguese theatre at the epoch of Salazar's regime, at the period of military dictatorship. It focuses on the 40s to 60s of the 20th century in Portugal. The first part of the thesis deals with theatre which was used as a propagandism instrument, so called 'Popular Theatre', and with its function, repertoire and inventors. On the contrary, the second part is dedicated to the antidirectorial theatre, with an emphasis on the two most important playwrights Bernardo Santareno and Luíse de Sttau Monteiro. It reflects their activity in connection to the period. The thesis strives to describe Portuguese theatre development during this politically extremely complicated period. Key words: Portuguese theatre, António de Oliveira Salazar, censorship, Popular Theatre, engagé art, Bernardo Santareno, Luís de Sttau Monteiro

Neste trabalho abordamos fundamentalmente o modo como se materializam na textualidade do teatro cômico e popular portenho do começo do século XX os discursos sobre a imigração, concentrando-nos em como aparece a imagem estereotipada do imigrante italiano num gênero específico: o sainete. Compreendemos a produção desse estereótipo como vinculada ao processo político que durante o século XIX, no espaço do que é hoje a Argentina, antecipou e constituiu a imigração como necessária, com base na consigna \"gobernar es poblar\" dentro de um projeto liberal. Uma vez que a imigração italiana representou a maior parcela dos contingentes que chegavam a esse espaço, o gênero teatral do qual nos ocupamos mobiliza uma série de sentidos vinculados ao que entendemos, nesse complexo processo de incentivo à imigração, como fruto da confrontação entre a antecipação que a \"imaginou\" e o reconhecimento da heterogeneidade que a constituía, o que resultou em uma inversão dos sentidos inicialmente projetados. Considerando o texto teatral como parte de uma prática complexa e maior que se vincula ao funcionamento de uma memória discursiva e às relações de poder que atravessam suas condições de produção, nos concentramos em destacar um aspecto especialmente relevante nesse sentido: o sainete busca o entretenimento e o riso, por parte do espectador. Em nossa dissertação, a pesquisa se textualiza em três capítulos: no primeiro abrimos uma possível trilha para adentrarmos em regiões da memória discursiva, sempre frondosa e intrincada, que nos permita compreender a já referida antecipação sobre a imigração que aconteceria a partir da segunda metade do século XIX; no capítulo 2, colocamos em relação importantes considerações de estudiosos do teatro que tratam, desde o período colonial, das filiações dessa prática com o discurso dominante, o que permite observar a inserção do teatro em um processo de interpelação maior. No terceiro e último capítulo, nos concentramos na análise de um recorte das obras de Alberto Novión, autor que possui uma vasta obra popular ligada ao teatro e da qual tomamos quatro sainetes: Don Chicho (1933), La chusma (1913), La familia de don Giacumín (1923) e La caravana (1915). A abordagem, realizada após a introdução de uma série de reflexões acerca do estereótipo, nos permite interpretar os principais traços de seu funcionamento com relação ao imigrante italiano bem como detectar a materialização de (outros) sentidos, constitutivos do complexo processo discursivo que leva à fixidez e ao excesso. / In this work, we discuss mainly the discourses about immigration in the texts of the comic and popular porteño theatre of the beginning of the 20th century, focusing on how the stereotypical image of the Italian immigrant appears in a specific genre: the sainete. We understand the production of this stereotype as linked to the political process in the territory of what is now Argentina during the 19th century, which anticipated and modelled the immigration as to meet its needs, based on the slogan \"gobernar es poblar\", within the framework a liberal project. Once the Italian immigration represented the largest share of the contingent of immigrants who came to this territory, the theater genre we address unfolds a number of meanings related to what we understand in this complex process of encouraging immigration as a result of the confrontation between the anticipated \"imagined\" immigrant population and the recognition of the heterogeneity that constituted it, resulting in an inversion of the meanings initially designed. Considering the dramatic work as part of a wider and more complex practice linked to a discursive memory and the power relations that traverse its conditions of production, we focus on highlighting an aspect that is especially relevant in this sense: the sainete aims the entertainment and laughter of the audience. In our dissertation, the research is presented in three chapters: in the first chapter, we open a possible path to visit regions of discursive memory, always vast and intricate, which allows us to understand the anticipation of the \"imagined\" immigration that would take place from the second half of the 19th century onwards; ; in Chapter 2, we contrast important considerations of theater scholars who, since the colonial period, deal with the affiliations of this practice with the dominant discourse, which allows us to observe the insertion of the theatre in a process of greater interpellation. In the third and final chapter, we focus on the analysis of a clipping of the works of Alberto Novión, author who has a vast popular work related to the theatre and from which we take four sainetes: Don Chicho (1933), La chusma (1913), La familia de don Giacumín (1923) and La caravana (1915). The approach, taken after the introduction of a series of considerations about the \"stereotype\", allows us to interpret the main features of this operation with respect to the Italian immigrant as well as to detect the materialization of the (other) meanings, constitutive of the complex process of discourse that leads to immutability and to exaggeration.