The play One Man's Vision covers the period 1963 to 1966 when Jorn Utzon, the Danish architect of the Sydney Opera House, resided in Sydney until his resignation or dismissal in February 1966. The play draws on the tensions and hostility towards Utzon, which builds in the government of the day, cultural groups, press, and also with some senior architects. Rowdy scenes in the N.S.W. Legislative Assembly paint a broad canvas of construction, funding, and political problems. These further escalate with a change of government. Utzon's daily work features interaction between his assistant, consulting engineers, and Public Works Department inspectors, as pressures develop to overcome operational and financial problems. His forced dismissal, resulting in a public rally and march, puts in doubt the completion of the opera house. The exegesis takes Arthur Miller's argument for the playwright as an interpreter of history as its starting point, in order to examine the issues of balancing history with drama in the writing of my play, One Man's Vision. To bring unity to existing reports and to construct a play capable of holding an audience, a playwright must make many choices shaped by the conventions of the theatre and of the genre of the work being attempted. A historical play based on existing records will also draw on the imagination of the playwright. The playwright, therefore, makes decisions as to the blend of history and imagination which will be used to serve the story and represent ideas and concepts through dialogue. In making these artistic decisions history becomes just one component rather than the predominant one.

Doctor of Philosophy / This thesis presents a systematic investigation of the backstage spaces of theatres in the city of Sydney, Australia, combining the documentation of eight specific theatre buildings with ethnographic accounts of performers’ activities within them. As the title of the thesis suggests, my focus throughout is to better understand the ‘place’ of performers, the ways in which performers inhabit certain physical, social, and imaginative realms. Through this thesis I assess the impact of backstage spaces on performers’ work processes, their performances, and their own understandings of what it is to be a performer. To undertake this assessment I conduct a tripartite survey of the backstage spaces afforded performers, taking into consideration ‘perceived’ space (space as it is empirically measured), ‘conceived’ space (space as it is represented), and ‘lived’ space (space as it is experienced). Approaching this survey via Edward Casey’s understanding of ‘place,’ my analysis is informed by a range of theories, notably, spatial syntax analysis, discourse analysis, and phenomenology. Through this thesis I develop two overarching and interconnected arguments. The first is that theatrical performance is profoundly affected by the features of backstage support spaces and by performers’ backstage practices. Building on this, the second is that a study of backstage spaces offers a particularly apposite approach to further understanding the ‘place’ of theatrical performers. I contend that the backstage spaces performers inhabit can be characterised by their very poverty and that these poor conditions testify to a widespread ignorance and ambivalence on the part of society at large towards performers’ needs. Furthermore, noting the way in which performers valorise their own abilities to compromise and adapt, I argue that backstage areas largely inform performers’ dominant discourses of professionalism and worth. Ultimately, I identify the ‘place’ of the performer as one of flux that necessitates the constant negotiation of significant tensions. [Please note: The photographic documentation and building plans referred to in the text of this thesis are not available online. Please contact the Department of Performance Studies at the University of Sydney or the Sydney eScholarship Repository.]

En presentation av Kungliga Svenska Baletten. Denna ska distribueras till operahus världen över innan ny turné påbörjas. Shanghais operahus var det första som fick den färdiga produkten.Fördjupningen rör olika operahus design och arkitektur ut- och invändigt. Även en del av husens relevanta historia tas upp.

Doctor of Philosophy / This thesis presents a systematic investigation of the backstage spaces of theatres in the city of Sydney, Australia, combining the documentation of eight specific theatre buildings with ethnographic accounts of performers’ activities within them. As the title of the thesis suggests, my focus throughout is to better understand the ‘place’ of performers, the ways in which performers inhabit certain physical, social, and imaginative realms. Through this thesis I assess the impact of backstage spaces on performers’ work processes, their performances, and their own understandings of what it is to be a performer. To undertake this assessment I conduct a tripartite survey of the backstage spaces afforded performers, taking into consideration ‘perceived’ space (space as it is empirically measured), ‘conceived’ space (space as it is represented), and ‘lived’ space (space as it is experienced). Approaching this survey via Edward Casey’s understanding of ‘place,’ my analysis is informed by a range of theories, notably, spatial syntax analysis, discourse analysis, and phenomenology. Through this thesis I develop two overarching and interconnected arguments. The first is that theatrical performance is profoundly affected by the features of backstage support spaces and by performers’ backstage practices. Building on this, the second is that a study of backstage spaces offers a particularly apposite approach to further understanding the ‘place’ of theatrical performers. I contend that the backstage spaces performers inhabit can be characterised by their very poverty and that these poor conditions testify to a widespread ignorance and ambivalence on the part of society at large towards performers’ needs. Furthermore, noting the way in which performers valorise their own abilities to compromise and adapt, I argue that backstage areas largely inform performers’ dominant discourses of professionalism and worth. Ultimately, I identify the ‘place’ of the performer as one of flux that necessitates the constant negotiation of significant tensions. [Please note: The photographic documentation and building plans referred to in the text of this thesis are not available online. Please contact the Department of Performance Studies at the University of Sydney or the Sydney eScholarship Repository.]