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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 439-451).

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1970. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

The interpretation and performance of literature is a theatre art in which literary texts are transformed into staged productions. Novelists, poets, playwrights, and essayists use the symbols of written language to create an imagined world for their readers; interpretative performers present their audiences with this world through symbols of both speech and movement. Hence the interpretation and performance of literature incorporates a wide range of literary and performance theory. Unfortunately, little is known about how literary texts can be communicated through symbolic movement. The purpose of this study, then, is to propose principles of stylized movement which would be useful to the interpretative performer of literature. To develop these principles, Martha Graham's choreographic use of classical tragedy was investigated. Using a decriptive methodology based on Aristotle's elements of tragedy, four of Graham's ballets were analyzed in view of their literary sources: Cave of the Heart from Euripides' Medea, Night Journey from Sophocles' Oedipus the King, Clytemnestra from Aeschylus' The Oresteia, and Cortege of Eagles from Euripides' Hecuba and The Trojan Woman. As a result of this investigation, five principles emerged. Stated as descriptions of Graham's work, the principles are: (1) rhetoric shapes the form, (2) movement vocabularies are created, (3) synecdochical movement is expanded over time, (4) stage properties assume multiple meanings through movement, and (5) costumes expose movement and indicate character. By using these principles as guidelines, the interpretative performer may understand, create, and utilize stylized movement that communicates the ideas, images, and actions inherent in the text being staged.

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".

published_or_final_version / English / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy